18 June 2012

Eminence MO 0 miles (TransAm 1,363)

Well, if you can’t beat em, join em.

Despite having gone to college in the Rocky Mountain state, this is the first time ever that Gina has cracked open a can of Coors Light. She doesn’t exactly look the river rat part though, what with her jersey zipped up to nerd height and what I thought to be, at first glance, black sweat pants adorning the rest of her. She claims there’s a swim suit under there somewhere but all I see is burqa. Maybe Gina’s gone Muslim. Then again, is it possible that one could Go Muslim while traveling across the Midwest, the land of Budweiser and BBQ? That’s an awful lot of temptation to deny; seems an unlikely stretch.

Whoever she’s become, it’s clearly the (continuation of) someone having a good time with her fellow TransAmmers. It’s a layover day and having finished her chores upon arrival at her camp cabin yesterday afternoon meant that Gina could play today, for five full hours floating down Jacks Fork River. More scenic and more peaceful, she said. I don’t know about that. I kinda miss the photos of the country cousins. And who wouldn’t want to paddle along to the strains of The Devil Went Down to Georgia. I think she’s being a bit narrow-minded.

As for me, well, there are many exciting things going on here in the Ballard region of the TransBallard. For starters, it’s Monday morning. Does life ever get better than Monday morning? There are emails to sort through, conference calls to attend, projects to manage, studies to configure … an endless, flowing river of day-job tasks. I could go on, but I won’t. Mostly because I don’t want to spread the joy too thin.  Plus, and I don’t want to rub this in either but, it’s Juneuary, that time of year that drives us Seattleites giddy with pleasure, for, as you can see, summer is clearly just around the corner.

Photo courtesy of Komo TV