Just letting you guys and gals know that I will be out of the office from October 13th through November 10th. It is a long time to be out so that's why I'm giving plenty of notice in case anyone has any big questions or anything else they need before I leave. You will still be able to place orders and orders WILL CONTINUE TO SHIP. One of our part timers will be checking emails and shipping orders daily. His name is Calvin and he will be getting orders out as quickly as usual, so the majority of customers will not notice I am gone. If you have any questions about a tracking number or anything else simple he can answer those for you. More technical answers like "will this part fit a 2009 TE 250?" will have to wait until I get back or be asked now. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. In case you are wondering, 7602 is doing just fine. We are experiencing our best year yet and we continue to grow by a good percentage every year since we have opened. In fact we are looking to expand in the coming months. So not to worry, we are doing just fine and we aren't going away anytime soon. The reason for the lengthy time off is that I will be rowing a rubber boat down the Colorado river for 24 days. A group of friends and I will be rafting and kayaking the Grand Canyon. I am really getting excited about the much needed time away. This has been 2 years in the making. My wonderful girlfriend has done so much planning and organizing it is unbelievable. I have merely been a helper as she is the permit holder and is the grand planner of this adventure. Even with just my helper chores I am slightly overwhelmed. Hopefully things go smoothly and no one dies!! Thanks and sorry again if this inconveniences anyone. Clay
I'm back in the shop now. Just letting everyone know in case someone someone needs something from me.
Emailed Clay to tell him personally but I am incredibly pleased with the quality and craftsmanship of my radiator braces and disc guards. Outstanding!
The trip was truly a trip of a lifetime. It will be very hard for another adventure to match this one. Thanks for your business. I hope you enjoy our products.
Thank you for the email. Also thank you for your business. Your second order is going out today so look for it tomorrow or Thursday.
The trip was 24 days of white water rafting down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon. These trips are permitted and permits are chosen via a lottery system. It is not uncommon for people to wait 20 or more years to get this permit. My girlfriend lucked out big time and got a permit on her first attempt! So 2 years in the making, lots of planning and gathering gear and supplies. $$$$$$$ 2 weeks before our trip is set to launch good ol uncle sam decides to shut down indefinitely. 2 years of planning and more than $20,000 goes up in smoke just like that. Luckily the state of Arizona steps up and funds the park for 7 days. This is enough time for us to launch and be on our way before the government can screw it up again. If the US government falls apart we won't know about it for another 3 1/2 weeks. Awesome! So off we go with 24 days worth of food, fuel, supplies and beer. Lots of beer! Our group is made up of 13 people. None of us know everyone in the group, so lots of new friends to be made. Mornings start off with the cooking crew making breakfast and lunch. Everyone eats and packs their lunch for that day. Camp is broken down and packed on the boats. We push off around 9:30 for 10-20 miles of "i hope I don't die today rapids". This is both very nerve racking and fun. A few beers calms the nerves. Everyday we have a view of the world that few will ever get to enjoy. Caves, cliffs, waterfalls, ancient ruins, and wildlife all share a place in the canyon. We typically get to camp around 3-4 and begin to set up the kitchen. A new cooking crew starts dinner and everyone else takes care of their chores for that camp. A game of cornhole, hackysack, or frisbee is going on at almost every camp. More beer gets drank. Dinner is served and we all sit around the camp fire telling stories of how we cheated the grim reaper that day. More beer gets drank while the dishes crew cleans up the mess. Most are in bed by 9. Wake up the next day and repeat. 8 days into our trip we had 2 girls hike out at Phantom Ranch. This is the only place to exchange people so anyone who can't go the whole 24 days can either hike in or out at Phantom Ranch. We all say a sad goodbye to the 2 girls. Our group is beginning to feel like a family now. We shove off to take on the largest rapid of the river so far just a few miles downstream. One of the boats hits a large hole at the bottom of the rapid and all 3 members on board are washed overboard. They all pop up rather quickly and either climb back in their boat or are picked up by other boats. The rest of the day these 3 guys are very quiet. Imagine being held underwater and being tumbled head over heels for 5-10 seconds! The rest of the day goes smoothly and we get to camp just in time to drink more beers. On the 10th day of our trip we are stopping at a small water fall named Elves Chasm. It is one of the more popular stops on the river and for good reason. It is a small waterfall with a pool below and a cliff jump through the falls into this pool. My girlfriend and I take our turn climbing up to the falls and while we are under the waterfall I decide this is a good place to pop the question. I get down on one knee and she says YES! We both jump and are quickly greeted by our crew who were all watching from the pool below. It was an absolutely incredible moment. We all hug and smile for a while before heading back to the boats. Off to our camp for a celebration. We're gonna need some beer. I'm engaged, holy crap! A few days later, we get to the largest and most notorious rapid named Lava. We are all very nervous and excited to tackle this monster. We all make it through without even a single bobble! Sweet! About a half mile below Lava is a camp named Tequila beach. It is tradition to pull over here and drink a little tequila. Lava is the last monster rapid, and if you have made it this far chances are you will make it the rest of the way just fine. We pull over at tequila beach and begin drinking tequila, hugging, telling stories and having a great time. It is also one of my buddies birthday as well as Halloween, so we have lots of extra celebrating to do. It's a miracle anything gets done here. The next morning we are all moving very slowly. Too many beers were drank. The next week and a half or so we see too many more incredible sites to even try to write them all down. Canyons, waterfalls, creeks that run turquoise blue, big horn sheep and the list goes on and on. There are a handfull of large rapids that can still do some serious damage, but we run them all pretty smoothly. I do manage to hit a large hole and my buddy gets pulled out of the front of the boat and tumbled around underwater for a while before coming up on the other side of the boat some 20 yards away! Sorry man. On the last day of our trip we tie all the boats together and party barge down the last 20 miles of our adventure. Yes, beers were drank. We arrive at our last camp and everyone is in a terrible mood. Half of us are mad at something for no good reason and the other half are too sad to be around the group. We all storm off in different directions for about an hour pouting because our tip was over. Finally we all realize that we are mad at the situation and not with each other. Dinner gets made and we have one last meal around the campfire telling stories. The next morning was truly one of the saddest days I have ever experienced. No one wants to tear down camp and unload the boats, but the trucks are coming in a couple of hours so we have to. The last of the beers make this a little better. We load up the trucks and head back to Flagstaff. We unload the trucks and everyone packs their vehicles with their gear. Everyone showers for the first time in almost a month. After only bathing in 50 degree water for the last 3 weeks any hot water feels absolutely scalding! All agree that the hot water in this hotel is wayyy too hot. haha. We head off for one last dinner together. We stroll into a nice brewery/restaurant and order lots of beers and lots of food to go along with it. No one is on cooking or dishes duty tonight and that feels pretty nice. The manager comes along once or twice to request that we keep it down. Remember we have only seen a handfull of other people for the last 24 days and our group almost has it's own language. Mostly shouting and swearing. Other customers begin to ask for another table far away from us and it becomes clear that we should be on our way. The manager suggests a loud and rowdy bar next door where we can be ourselves. A few beers later and the manager here also asks us to terrorize some other establishment. The following morning was full of teary goodbye's and lots of hugs. Our little family is going their separate ways. It is a very sad day and it takes us a long time to push off and head back to our lives. If we had the time and money to turn around and do it all again we would. An absolutely epic time in our lives that we will all never forget.
Truly a trip of a lifetime......Ive bootlegged portions of the colorado in my youth but to run that section is truly special.
