Eleven years ago I worked for Hampden/Zimmerman Electric Supply Company as the Manager of Information Technologies. Or as I liked to call it, the Manager of It.
For fun, I paddled whitewater rivers.
The ultimate goal for many whitewater enthusiasts is to paddle the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The 225 miles from Lee’s Ferry to Diamond Creek are filled with enormous rapids and breaktaking beauty.
While there are commercial firms that will take you down the river, to do it right you need to go on a private trip and there are only 200 private trips a year allowed in the canyon. The waiting list is currently at 13 to 15 years.
My chance to go came in the summer of 1998. I had lucked out and a friend of a friend, one of the premier boaters in the East, had a extra place on his trip. For several months I go into training so I will be ready. We will be driving cross-country because we have to bring our boats. All told, the trip will take a month.
On Friday, July 17th, I finish all the last minute things at work and reassure my assistant she will be fine, just fine. I even give her my “Bible”, a compellation of documentation and procedures on everything you ever wanted to know about our business system and were afraid to ask. Once I’m in the canyon, short of helicopters and National Park Rangers chasing down my boat, there would be no means of communication and she was a bit nervous about the situation. I had created a new system backup and I put it on her desk, just in case, then entered some teasing notes on the scheduler as to where I will be for the next month as I make my way down the river, and leave for vacation.
We weren’t leaving until Monday morning. Saturday I spend packing all my gear for 18 days on the river into a single large, waterproof duffle bag. On Sunday I wake up early. Some of us are meeting at a local river for a final shakedown run. As I’m getting out of the shower at 7 am, I hear the phone ring. I race to get it, thinking it might be something about the paddle today.
Instead it’s my boss, saying, “I hate to rain on your vacation, but our building’s on fire and it’s fully involved.”
