Saturday, July 10, 2004

White Water Rafting

Ame set up a fantastic trip for the three of us- white water rafting in West Virginia's New River. Gorge Map The three-day trip was well paced, with swimming and water trampolenes the first day, 13 miles of light rafting for us beginners on the second day, and 13 more miles of rafting intense rapids on the third day. We camped on site each night.

The rapids have great intimidating names, like "Pinball", "Thread The Needle", and "Meat Grinder", so I was a little concerned about Alex's ability to handle the intense stuff. He fell out of the raft on the first rapid, which added greatly to my concerns. Fortunately, he got the hang of it and stayed in the raft for the majority of the remaining rapids. The main thing was, everybody was safe and we all had a great time.

ACE outfitters does a nice job with the tour. They supplied a lot of excellent food throughout the trip, and their guides all have a sense of humor. Side hikes took us through old coal mining and coking areas, abandoned in a kind of ghost town. Active CSX rails were present on the river, which was an extra bonus for me. Definitely recommended. The trip got the highest praise possible: Alex thanked Ame and me repeatedly.

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Surfin' The Star

I do a daily check for the word 'libertarian' when I visit any newspaper website. I visit the Indianapolis Star site every day. The Star's coverage (shall I say lack of coverage?) of Libertarian candidates has been positively frustrating.

I won't go into the details with links. I will simply advise my fellow Hoosier Libertarians to take a whole week to scan the front pages for political coverage. You will find daily articles on the gubernatorial race. You will find a mention of the Libertarian candidate in stories written by the Associated Press, but when Matthew Tully or Mary Beth Schneider writes one? Nah. Not even the journalistic exercise that reads, "Libertarian candidate Kenn Gividen is also on the November ballot." This latter should always be present.

Please write a nice letter to the Star requesting that they at least throw us the journalistic minimum bone. Thank you.