Alright, so for a while now I've been bouldering in my garage, hard. Tuesday nights and at least one other night during the week. I've been dying to get outside and feel up some real stone. It finally happened today! My parents took the boys with them back to their house and Kari and I had the rest of the day to ourselves.
We decided to go to Kepler S.P. to see what the dam wall looked like. I had driven back there on my way home thursday and saw that the hill to it had been closed all winter and was snowed/iced over. We thought it would be worth it if the wall was dry to walk a little ways. It was.
Heres Kari on our way down to the wall. It was icy and snowy, but not too bad. We knew the walk down was gonna be a lot easier than the walk back up. It looked like the road was well traveled.
When we got there we were sure that the water was gonna be pretty high from all of the snow melt, (50 plus degrees!) but it was actually low still. The "diving board" was really the only place where the water was running off of the wall itself, but there was water standing pretty much everywhere. This was not enough to stop us, as we decided to do some traversing along the dry section of the wall.
Here's Kari posing for a shot of the dam wall. As you can see, the diving board, above her, is really the only wet part of the wall.
It felt so great for both of us to be back outside in nature and enjoying it. The air was crisp and the sky was brilliant blue. It was very centering. I felt very alive, and when I started working inside the "cave" I actually sent the problem the first try-a first for me and I couldn't have felt higher. It always makes me feel like all is right when I send on the first try. It shows me that practice, even in a garage, really pays off.
This is one of the higher moves on the "cave problem" that made my day. I actually sent it the first two times I tried it, and then fell the next two, then sent it one more time! I figured that I should quit then.
We then decided to walk upstream to check on some stuff that I've been scouting for a while and it looks KILLER. Looking forward to trying some new stuff on here.
Anyway, we were getting pretty beat, and hungry. We left, showered, and then went to a new place in Iowa City that a friend of ours from Burlington, Kevin Bangert, had a hand in building. He owns/operates "Mr. Motos", in Burlington. If you ever get a chance, go there. You won't regret it.
The place in Iowa City is called "Shorts Burger and Shine". It is made in an old shoe shine shop and still has some of the old nostalgic pieces from the original shop on display. We picked up my cousin Tony, and his wife, Alicia and headed downtown. It was DELICIOUS! We enjoyed some great burgers (that's all they have) and some great brews. This is Tony and Alicia. I'm still not sure how to spell her name, but its alright cuz she's not looking anyway.
What a great day!
CHEERS!
