Colorado - fall in love with green skies, rapids and elk urine
Posted on the 18th Mar 2014 in the category travel
The sky is green, thunder's rumbling and forks of lighting are striking both sides of the giant Colorado cavern I'm about to raft down.
Our captain Clint, Chip or whatever his name was, tells us not to worry about the thunder storm as a rubber boat is the last thing lighting would pulverise. I feel a little better when I look at my four rain sodden shipmates and they look as scared as me.
When opting for an outdoor adventure holiday in America I ignored the first bit and concentrated on going back to the good ol' US of A. I'm more of the dawdling wandering type than the sort looking to go on personal achievement goal attaining holidays so I was a bit nervous looking at our itinery which included hiking, off road jeep riding, white water rafting and exploring caves. All of which are just a smigden of what Colorado offers and we were not even in the skiing season which attracts snow lovers from across the world. The awesome Rocky mountains dominate the state and it has everything for the any lover of the outdoors . And it is here where a 21st century bright spark worked out the breathtaking cavern was the place to have one of the world's most nerve gangling leisure ride. With our hearts in our mouths we set off to The Royal Gorge Slingshot. We were winched horizontally up on a piece of elastic 100 feet above the edge of the gorge, pulled back vertically 50ft and then let go. Being shot out 100 metres above one of the deepest caverns on earth will stay with me for a long time. Colorado's big country beauty has taken millions of years to evolve and it make you feel a tad insignificant in mother's nature's grand plan. But for me, what makes America great is Americans. Friendly, generous, funny, religious, big, small, fat and tall they come in all shapes and sizes and every conversation can be a revelation. They may be a bit niave but on the bright side there are now countless American's telling their friends that the Birmingham accent is actually an afrodizyach in England after believing my blarney.
Then after thirty children chased calfs around the arena trying to pull ribbons from their tails it was time for the main event. Three men tried their luck to ride bulls for 15 seconds. Two did well but the third ended up trampled on, the crowd hollered and screamed and everyone went home happy except for the fella being carried into the waiting ambulance around the corner. Another plank of Mid-West American life is country music. In Brum I'm not much of a fan but in The Big Country it made sense. We all sang along to country classics like 'I had a one night stand with my best friend's baby sister' and 'My horse has never done me wrong' as we drove from a picture post card Aspen through the Roaring Fork valley to Denver. Denver has changed a lot since Billy the Kid used to blow people's brains out for fun and has traded in its frontier town rough and tough reputation for a cleanliving entertainment centre that has everything from modern art galleries to some of America's best restaurants. And of course vast shopping malls, a visit to the world's biggest outdoor shop was an all american experience to say the least. Bigger than any ASDA in Birmingham, this place had everything the descerning killer, fisher, hunter, gun fan or crazed Vietnam vet could want under one roof.
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