Floating & Fixing

After yesterday's update Laura and I loaded up the camo boat and headed out for the river to take a float on the Bitterroot and Clark Fork River. It was about a 6 mile float and it took us two hours almost to the minute. The river was rather slow flowing but we still had a few spots where the river took a quick drop through some 'rapids' and once the front of the boat dipped below the water as we manuvered through the rocks and down the river. The boat seems to be quite river ready and it would be easy to take down the river by myself if I had the desire.

The real excitment came about an hour into our float - around 1:30. It seems around 1:00 a lightning strike started a fire on the mountain to the west of us - it was 90 degrees and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Well as we are floating down the river a helicopter comes flying over and lands about a mile downstream of us. Then the helicopter took to the air and started filling a bucket to drop on the fire. About five minutes later the helicopter was back to fill the bucket, this time he flew over us about 300 feet high and disappeared for another five minutes. We floated along in silence for another five minutes and the helicopter returned just around the bend and downstream of us. Now there were 3 firefighters visable along the shore line - evidently they have been dropped off by the helicopter and attached the bucket to the chopper and then stood by on look out for the rest of the flight. We gave a wave to them as we went through one of the best rapids (if you can call them that) of the day and we disappeared around the bend. Suddenly the helicopter came buzzing over the trees and did a hard turn RIGHT over us - the bucket swung over our heads about 50 feet and then the pilot dropped the bucket in the river RIGHT in front of us - well ok, it might have been 100-150 feet downriver. It only took about 3 seconds to fill up and he was lifting up and gone before we were able to get much closer. I wish I would have had my camera handy because it would have made an EXCELLENT picture! It was up close and we had a front row seat to see the action. The next half hour of the float was pretty slow going and we decided to just let the boat go where the river took it and we put the paddles down and enjoyed the rest of the float. It was a great short float for a warm day and hopefully we will be able to take the boat hunting this season.

My boss is gone until Thursday so work is pretty slow right now. We met up this morning to do some rock work at the house we are finishing up and then called it a day at 11:30. I stopped by Wal-Mart on my way home and picked up some supplies to keep me busy for the afternoon while Laura was at work. My first find was a lamp kit to rewire some antique lamps that Laura's grandma gave to us. They are George & Martha Washington Lamps - I know nothing about them other than they were made before the 1940's. Anyway, I picked up a lamp kit and then shortly after that I found a lamp shade on clearance which I thought would go nicely with the lamp - at least for the price, so in the cart it went. As I was making my way around the store I spotted some bike hooks for 47 cents so I dug deep into my pockets to see if I could afford such glamorous items, lucky for me I could afford not one, but TWO of them!

I came home and put the hooks in the garage so we can hang our bikes up and save some room now that the garage is packed full of our landlords boyfriend's stuff. After I took care of that, Laura arrived home and helped me work on one of the lamps. I will get some pictures tomorrow when the light is better - I have a feeling they wouldn't look very good with a camera flash. We got the lamp put together and we are using it tonight - it is a nice addition to the living room and I am looking forward to working on the other two lamps when I get some free time, which might be soon since we might take a day off on Wednesday and work a half day tomorrow.

Finally, I found this link last night and thought I would share it with everyone. It's National Geographic Adventure Towns and it is about Missoula, Montana. It is a neat little page about the town and stuff to do - what I wanted to point out was a paragraph at the bottom of the page regarding the economy of Missoula: Local Economy: Not pretty—Missoula County salaries average $28,185, and it's not unheard of to find Ph.D.'s waiting tables. Schools, hospitals, and the university are the biggest employers; a new DirecTV call center is expected to bring in about 900 jobs. Yes, you read that right it's not unheard of to find a Ph.D. waiting tables at resturants. Huh, that explains everything...

Well I see I have done a lot of typing a not much in the way of pictures so here's a few random pictures.

Laura and Amber geocaching in Minnesota last year while visiting for Nick & Becca Jones' wedding. This was a spooky area just north of Sibley, Iowa - well it was spooky during the night anyway. August 12, 2005

Darrin standing IN the fire pit we had for our fire at Lake McConaughy. This was a good fire! July 2, 2004

Laura and I waiting to get into Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. July 29, 2004

Until again

-=Nolan=-