Jan 28

June First, 2008

Welcome to Connecticut Gary. We enjoyed giving you Florida type weather this week!

Congratulations on your MBA Graduation Anita.

And Congrats to Nathaniel!

How proud you made Bill and Noel to be selected by your classmates and Headmaster to deliver the Commencement Speech.

And Jon has graduated from the Eighth Grade.

Your school will miss participation from you, Megan, Mary and Chuck.

Jon in blue shirt and tie left of the statue.

and from Gary's neighbor Mary's brother Gerry,

All,

I took a whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River while in Vegas. Our group was picked up at various Las Vegas hotels at 4:20 a.m. On the way to the river, we crossed over the Hoover Dam. Due to security reasons and heavy traffic, a bypass road is being built next to the Hoover Dam. We traveled by van to Peach Springs, Arizona where we were loaded onto a worn out school bus for the 1/2 steep grade ride down to the river. In that 1/2 hour, we descended 4000 feet and hit more bumps and rocks then I care to remember (this ride was worse than the rapids). This is one of 2 roads down to the river in a 150+ miles stretch.

We had several 40 hp Yamaha powered rafts in the group. I was in the last raft which was piloted by the senior guide. His name is Gary Gonzales and he is 100% Hualapai Indian. To me, Gary looks a lot like Chuck. The Hualapai tribe was granted the western side of the Grand Canyon as a reservation. They are making the most of this natural resource. They sent one of there tribal leaders to Harvard. She is responsible for increasing the rafting business, building the skywalk and developing ongoing tourist attractions.

We rafted about 40 miles down the river. The first 20 miles had a rapid about each mile which amounted to us running through 20 rapids. The rapids ranged from class 3 to 7 on a 1-10 scale. The water was a very cool 45 degrees F. The guide purposely hit the rapids to bring waves of ice water over us screaming tourists. With the dry air and wind running down the canyon, we dried off in roughly 15 minutes after being fully drenched. It goes to show how quickly a person can dehydrate in this type of environment. After 5 miles, we stopped at a beautiful cavern with running water. Apparently this is a great place to camp overnight for the multi-day trips down the river. At 20 miles we stopped to each lunch and lay on the rocks to warm up. I felt like a reptile! At 40 miles, a group of helicopters came down the canyon floor to pick us up. If we had to hike out, it would have taken 1-3 days. The canyon floor was roughly 4500 feet from the cany on rim. That is deep!

On the trip back, we travel through Joshua Tree forest. The Joshua Tree is a cactus that can live up to 400 years. We also stopped at the Hoover Dam to take in the wonderful views of this engineering marvel.

We arrived in Vegas around 8 p.m. and was a very long day. It was a great trip and I recommend the trip to all of you.

Pete,

You may want to upload some of these pictures to your Best Emails. I will also send you some additional pictures to load up if you wish.

Gerry