Near Death Experience

Wow, it has been almost three months since we posted anything in Kurtz Stories. It's not that nothing has happened but that too much has been going on to have time for posting. Andrew's confirmation and 8th grade graduation, Emily's work camp in Mississippi and Janet and Karl's trip to Morocco are three things we will get to eventually.

But first we want to report on Eric (the younger), Andrew and Karl's near death experience. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but our three-night, four-day rafting trip on the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon in Canyonlands (Utah) National Park was pretty exciting. "Near death experience" was the name (click on the photo to enlarge and see the name stenciled next to Eric) of one of the two rafts that 14 of us were on as we went through some Class 5 rapids that were far more challenging than any others that we have ever experienced.

This trip resulted from Karl innocently attempting to bid up an auction item at a fund-raiser for Andrew's school when the bidding was slow and, much to his surprise, winning the auction at 25% below the list value of the trip. The trip was organized and sponsored by the father of one of Andrew's classmates.

After much hesitation (it has probably been 20 years since Karl slept outdoors on the ground), urging and financial support from Janet, and negotiation with the organizer of the trip to include both Eric and Andrew in the bargain, we decided to do it. And it was well worth it. There was stunning scenery, beautiful and rewarding hikes (see photo), Indian hieroglyphics and remains, great food, the smoldering ramains of a brush fire where we camped one night along with the firefighters who were controlling it, seven gallons (!) of margarita mix consumed (no, we didn't apply it to the brush fire, but the firefighters helped us consume some of it, along with the two-inch thick New York strip steaks we fed them). All of this was capped off by one rip-roaring day of riding rapids in which we rose to the crest of huge waves and plummeted at least 15 feet into their troughs, all the time holding on for dear life and getting totally drenched in cold river water.

We captured some of this in photos posted on the Web. There are no photos, though, of the run through the rapids because everything on the boats that day was strapped down tight, including cameras, and we couldn't do anything with our hands other than clutch fiercely to the lashings of the boats.

Among the 14 people on the trip Andrew at 13 was the youngest. His brother, Eric, at 38 was the next oldest, so Andrew felt a little lonely at times. But in the end, he too said that he would happily do the trip again, if there was someone his own age also along. Any Kurtz family members interested in doing it with us next year?