“Ready to surf? The turbulence sucked and pushed at the same time so we were trapped temporarily facing upriver as the back-wave swirled underneath us, like riding a bucking bronco.”
Durango Day Two: Rafting, Mountain Biking, Rodeos and Bar D Chuck Wagon.
An excerpt from Book Three in “The Knowledge Path Series” dedicated to helping you find the place of your dreams.
Packing the fun into the final day in Durango.
The next morning we walked down two blocks to “Mild to Wild’s” booth off of Main Street to board their bus to the Animas River.
We put in north of town.
Local river guide, Brad, expertly guided us down the “2 and 3” rated rapids.
This wasn’t his only gig.
He guides on several rivers and planned to try it year ’round by getting passage to Australia and New Zealand.
With a mountain man look of black hair and black bushy beard, he memorized and quizzed himself with our names.
What a hustler.
The father of a family with us on our raft sold wave runners.
Brad’s interest perked up.
For the several hours he tried to get samples — shirts, hats, leads of equipment from him.
“I’m planning to get into sales he said.”
Meanwhile, we got into a water fight – fun for us, canned and scripted for them.
We soaked another raft, whose guide was rafting his last trip.
Brad barked the orders.
He caught my attention when he told us he thought we were ready to surf.
So we paddled back upriver to a hole.
The turbulence sucked and pushed at the same time so we were trapped temporarily facing upriver as the back-wave swirled underneath us, like riding a bucking bronco.
What’s the term they kept throwing around – “ducks?”
We, all the rafters, kept our eyes peeled for the ducks – about 20 kayakers, shooting the rapids in and around us with their leader.
One “duck” kayaker dumped upside down and bobbed that way for a while.
We maneuvered over to give him a platform for catching his breath while he righted his vessel and tried 3 or 4 times to get back in.
Making up for early morning and slow train delays the day before, we practically ran to our SUV to head out to Hassle Free bike rentals
We jumped at the chance to enjoy mountain biking adventures near the arena where Fiesta Days brought the rodeo to town.
After biking, we changed and retraced our path back to the Bar D Chuck Wagon for dinner
And the show featuring aging Western singers full of themselves, yet somewhat entertaining.
Steps:
(21) Spend the time to find the best places to live and invest. It will be worth your while. The great thing about living where others spend their vacation is the year round quality-of-life.
(32) Plan extended seasonal vacations during summer and winter months. Group destination locations together in regional trips to explore what several bucket list towns have to offer in the general vicinity – with only a week or two vacation time to spend, we recommend organizing your itinerary by travel regions.