With our bellies full we boarded the busses again at 6:50 and were on our way to whitewater rafting. It was a tiresome bus ride, and most of us nodded off for a bit. In fact, there probably werenít many that noticed the antennas on top of Cheyenne Mountain on our way out of Colorado Springs. Thankfully, though, it wasnít a long ride. We arrived at River Runners Rafting in Canon City at 8:10.

There was plenty of time to get our rafting gear and rafting crews organized before we boarded the outfitterís busses at 9:00. We reached the put-in point at 9:20. At 10:00 we were on the river, having had the usual lecture about rafting safety. Our rafting run was #16: Pinnacle Rock to Parkdale.

Our mostly-adult raft was manned as follows:

We were the terror of the Arkansas River, or at least thatís how we viewed ourselves. All of the guys in Crew 4 except Paul Greenleaf were in the same raft, and we did manage to give them a good splash or two. Of course they reciprocated, but neither crew could match the river when it came to giving a good soaking. In fact, Phil Crichton and Paul Gordaychick figured out pretty quickly why we convinced them to man the bow. They did a pretty good job sucking down river refreshment as we went pitching and rolling through the white water. What a blast!

Our guideís nickname was PJ, and she was a wealth of knowledge about outdoor activities in general and rafting in particular. However, the most memorable thing I learned was that the popular argot for Ibuprofen is I-B-Hurtin! Clearly, she has dealt with the senior set before.

On one of the other adult rafts there was a bit of unfortunate excitement during the river run. Jim Brown and Chris Hughes were suddenly pitched into each other when their raft buckled. Jim, who was behind Chris, got the worst of the interaction and ended up being hauled to a hospital and getting stitches over his eye. He was lucky that his sunglasses didnít cause any damage to his eye, but he looked pretty beat up. Needless to say, the rest of the advisers razzed Chris quite a bit, claiming that he proved that he was harder headed than Jim.

Fortunately, that was the only medical excitement on the water. We reached the take-out point at 11:15, which means that this half-day trip was actually an hour and a half of time on the river. Thatís creative clocking!

After drying out, changing into uniform, and purchasing 8x10 pictures of our whitewater fun, we climbed aboard our touring busses once again at 12:40 PM and headed off to lunch. We arrived at a Burger King in Canon City at 1:00 and caused a real ripple in the fast-food industry. I had a chicken sandwich value meal with 3 cups of Dr. Pepper. The soda machine got a real workout! The term "fast food" actually is open to interpretation, for the "food" was barely edible and it was hardly fast. In fact, we didnít board the busses again until 2:20.

At 3:40 we were entering the Air Force Academy, passing by the Diamond Lil (a B-52 bomber that saw action in the Vietnam War and had the unique distinction of having shot down a Soviet MiG fighter). We got off the busses at the Visitor Center at 3:45 and wandered around the area, including a short walk to the chapel for some Kodak moments. While we were at the Visitor Center I took the opportunity to call home.

The visit was a brief one, for we had a schedule to keep. At 4:55 we were back on the busses and on the road to the Flying-W Ranch. Traffic on I-25 was very heavy (which is a relative term, but for Colorado Springs it was very heavy), so it was 5:30 by the time we reached the Ranch.

We split up and wandered around the tourist trap for a while. At 7:17 one of the singing wranglers explained the procedure that would be followed for dinner, then they began serving at 7:27. Seconds were announced at 8:00. That may not sound like a big deal, but the Flying-W can accommodate 1450 people for dinner, seated at tables of 12. (Our contingent had tables 50-58 and half of 59. Our crew was at table 56.) The menu included barbecue beef (of course) or chicken, baked beans (of course), baked potato, muffins, spice bread, apple sauce, and coffee (or other liquid refreshment for the faint of heart).

The show started at 8:27, one hour after the same singing wrangler told us how to get our vittles, and it was a terrific performance, as usual. Unfortunately, it was over at 9:20. By 9:30 we were on our busses and headed back to the Armory. I did manage to stop by the gate and pick up a CD of the Flying-W Wranglers.