Colorado River Trip.

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Dear Roice, Ben, Paul, Melanie, Sara, and Rob,

cc: file, Mom, Sara and Des, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Eric and Annette Krueger, Diane Cluff, Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, Forest and Amy Warner, Ivan and Chell Warner, and Eric and Renee Miner

Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea, belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail box at any time.

"Well the Colorado River Trip met all of my expectations. It provided the opportunity to go to The St. George Temple, to see Mom and Grandma and Sara and Des, to get my mind of the pain of divorce, to relax, to have the thrill of going down the biggest rapids in the lower 48 states, and to spend some fun time with Roice, Ben, Sarah, and Rob. Thanks for going with me.

For those that were not able to be with us, let me give you a brief travel-log. Rob and I got to Moab via Salt Lake City, Cedar City, St. George, and a night at the Day's Inn in Richfield. We went to church at the Richfield Fourth Ward. It was a special experience for me and Rob tolerated being in the midst of all of these Jazz fans. He was very pleased we were never asked to introduce ourselves as being from Houston (since there were a lot of Memorial Day visitors). It rained pretty hard on us as we drove to Moab. Rob got pretty good at taking geologic photographs out of the car window. There were only three of these photos that did not turn out. I will eventually scan all of the photos and place them at http://www.walden3d.com/w3d/papers/ colorado_river_97 for your review and some projects I have in mind. As we drove into the center of Moab, I said to Rob `Look for a U-Haul Truck' and we both saw one at the same time. There was Roice getting out of the truck. Roice and Ben and Sarah had just arrived via a breakdown in Albequrque and a night with Rob Harris and his parents. We planned to meet at 6:00 at the McDonalds on the north end of town, but there was only one on the south and we met in the middle of town in a parking lot at 4:00. It is fun to have so many coincidences.

We walked down to Subway and I checked out several hotels. They were all full. So I left everyone and went and checked other motels. They were all full. The last motel to the north was a `Super 8' and I got the last room they had. The good part of the story is it had three queen sized beds, and so even though we only had one room to share Sarah had her own bed. The rain had brought all of the Memorial Day campers in from the campgrounds and we, foolishly, did not have a reservation. We drove up to Dead Horse Point, and had some fun taking symbolic pictures of each other taking a picture of each other in the cold and wet. We bought some supplies, including two waterproof pants because of all of the heavy rain, went to a briefing on the trip, and ate dinner downtown. Our waiter was a lot of fun, and it was an evening I will always fondly remember. Rob and I played some neat xylaphones after dinner, but I didn't have $240 to buy one. Everyone else discovered Rob and I snore. However, we all woke up, packed, and were at the meeting spot at 8:00 AM. We parked the rental car and the U-Haul truck in World-Wide River Exploration's compound and took a bus the 25 miles to where we put in the river. Petroglyphs, Anasazi graineries, and a drawing where a shadow shows when to plant and harvest were all part of the first morning. There were 7 other folks and 3 river guides on our 37` long raft. It was a fun group. I had a blast as a geologist taking pictures of all of the geology. I took 7 rolls of 36 exposure film over the three days. We hiked over gap across the neck of a large river meander. Rob didn't want to, but the guides talked him into it. We had first class service for meals and toilet facilities in the rough. Crab dip and shrimp hors d'oeuvres, creamed chicken and vegetables, steak and dutch oven potatoes, and plenty of sandwiches. The morning after our first night on the river, I went for a neat hike to see the rapids. On the way back to camp I came across three deer feeding and just as I zoomed in to take the third picture Ian called breakfast and the little buck looked towards camp and gave me a neat profile picture. The weather was perfect. There was not a drop of rain and it wasn't really very cold.

The rapids were awesome. There was over 70,000 cubic feet per minute going down Cataract Canyon. Hopefully Roice's pictures will capture this part of the trip a little better than I did. The neatest part of the trip for me was the hike up Black Canyon, above where we camped the second night. Beautiful waterfalls and pools across aolean sand dune based rocks were gorgeous beyond belief. I said to Roice, `This is not an accident' and he chuckled about it later. The funniest part of the trip was watching Rob and Roice put steak between their toes and to go toe fishing. As the fish would pull the meat out of their toes they would jump, and wiggle, and squirm. I tried to catch some of the fish with a plastic box to keep four milk cartons in. Didn't work. Sarah was assigned the back seat of the plane for the hundred mile flight back to Moab, and I don't think the bumpy ride was very fun for her. We drove back to Selina together and ate dinner at a Subway in Gunnison. It was a wonderful trip and I wish you all could have been with us. Roice and Ben and Sarah drove to Cedar to spend the night and to pick out some stuff from Grandpa and Grandma's house. Roice drove on to Santa Monica, and Ben and Sarah flew back to Houston from Las Vegas. Rob and I spent the night in Moab, where he got to go to the carnaval for the second time. I got to so through a session Friday morning at the Manti temple. I find such peace in the temple.

As Rob and I drove through Provo, I called Ray Levey at The Bureau of Economic Geology in Austin. I described the river trip, the photos I had taken, and an idea I got on the trip. I said, `Imagine at the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologist) annual convention next year in Salt Lake the following scene: Mike Leavitt, the Governor of Utah, laying back in a chair from the Virtual Environment Technology Laboratory, which is in the shape the human body takes in zero-gravity and which has movement with six degrees of freedom. As he flys down the Colorado River, experiencing the rapids, dozens of others are watching the same scene on a one-wall portable cave that is a 10' x 10' rear projection of stereo images. Then imagine the same trip is repeated with a geologic interpretation of Transgressive Systems Tracts, Maximum Flooding Surfaces, and other stratigraphic interpretations drawn on the images. Then imagine the trip is repeated with synthetic seismic sections made based on the lithologic interpretation of density and velocity contrasts. What a wonderful way to train geoscientists in stratigraphic geology concepts. In fact imagine turning this type of optional river trip into a Nintendo-64 game.' Ray was estatic about the idea, especially since he is moving to Salt Lake City in July to become the Associate Director of the Energy & Geoscience Institute. As I hung up the cell phone, Rob looked at me and said, `Dad, I can't believe you took all of those pictures with the idea of making a game!' Then I called Dr. Ehrlich in Salt Lake and he said he had blocked out the afternoon for me. As I hung up, Rob turned to me and said, `Dad, if your going to make a game you have to have two things: a challenge, and competition.' Then he proceeded to lecture me on the basics of good games. It was absolutely wonderful. I told him how nice it is to have access to such a wonderful product tester. Rob read comics all afternoon, while three of us got to know each other and started making plans for some collaborative projects. Rob and I had a good time visiting the new village up by the `This Is The Place Monument' (I'd encourage everyone to spend a day there when they have time), and caught a flight back to Houston at 8:05, getting back to the house about 1:30 AM. We learned the Jazz beat the Rockets and ended their chances for a third national championship on the plane ride.

I have always thought our family vacations have always been pretty fun. I'm sorry everyone could not be with us this year. I have no idea how I will finance it, but I do intend to provide a trip for anyone in the family who wants to join me to pick up Paul in Novosibirsk a year from this Christmas. Ben and Sarah seemed suprised I was serious about that. I absolutely am, although I do not have any money for anything beyond the very basics right now. But like when I quit my job at Mobil in January of 1980 six months before being vested in the Mobil Savings Plan, moved six of us to Houston at our expense, doubled our house payment, and took a significant cut in pay, I am optimistic about the future. I hope each of you are also."

I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life. If you ever want to download any of these thoughtlets, they are posted at http://www.walden3d.com/hrnmen or you can e-mail me at rnelson@walden3d.com.

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

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Copyright © 1997 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.