Hi-ho hi-ho

We're driving now. I love, love, love Idaho. Save for the first forty minutes of the trip and a jag or two here and there, we meander alongside the river the entire way. It's a scenic son-of-a-gun. It's a long drive on account that i'll be guiding in what was (until a year ago) the largest wilderness area in the lower forty eight. Now the title belongs to Death Valley, California, but it sounds like a bit of a suffering place that could use a title to boost it's poor little (big) Death Valley spirits, so i'll let them have it. we have to drive about 8-9 hours to get from the end of the river trip to get back where we started (only a couple hundred miles as the crow flies). But there's hardly a mile that isn't breathtakingly beautiful. I've done the drive maybe a hundred times now and i never tire of it.

I especially enjoy it with my sister and her girlfriend Tami (which reminds me I still have yet a cast of characters to introduce you to, but in due time, assuming i keep with this still-fairly-daunting blogging endeavor.) but i'll grant you just about any is preferable to the company of a bunch of grubby river guides.

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Well, i guess blogging in the backseat didn't last for long. I ended up driving for most of the trip when my travel buddies decided sobriety was a bit overrated. I still enjoy driving on account that i rarely do it, even with the dog. But the trip was great. I'm back in the Middle of Nowhere, Idaho. We got some stuff at the boat house sorted and the dry food goods packed. (Holy crap, i'm river guiding again!)

I have a swarm of stuff and things i'm eager to share, but i don't have internet where i'm staying, and my computer is running out of juice.

I've already run into old family friends and river buddies. It's a great little town to come back to.

I already spieled the guides i'll be working with on the trip this week. I'm always reluctant for seizure 101 to be the first impression, (i'm not so sure my stellar personality is enough to overcome such an interesting attribute) but the outfitter initiated the conversation and it needed to happen at some point or another, and it turns out i'll be guiding with a cancer survivor who's attaining her masters in special education (there is a god, methinks).

Another shot i snapped along the way. We thought it was smoke at first, but it was just some low-lying clouds. I think it captures my emotions pretty effectively- blue skies, i'm so stoked, but i can't quite shake an ever-present veil of fear clinging to my thoughts like a brisk, grey blanket. I don't know if i have it in me to fail right now. I'm still a little bit brittle. It all seems too good to be true.