Chapter 55

May 6 - 24, 2001

Team Three's First Trip

The rest of the weekend went quickly, but enjoyably. Once they got the groceries packed, the crew headed over to the Burro; as planned, Scooter caught a ride with Carl and Duane, who were staying in the bunkhouse in the barn that crews occasionally used on turnaround. Jim showed up before too much longer; they had a couple beers and another Burroburger, and then announced they had things to do, so went back to the house and were soon doing what they really wanted to be doing. Sunday morning, they each had their normal loading to take place in their own companies' parking lots before the trips up to Lee's Ferry. And as for the rigging -- for once they'd be doing it at the same time, not a common occurrence, and to do it two trips in a row was unprecedented.

Around nine on Sunday, Jim drove her over to the Canyon Tours lot. He pulled into a parking space and said, "Scooter, you know how it is up at Lee's, we might not get a lot of time, but let's try for a few minutes."

"Right," she said. "Maybe, if it works out, both crews can head up to the bar about the same time."

"I'd like that." He let out a sigh. "Scooter, this has been a wonderful weekend, and I thank you. It was a lot more than I ever figured."

"I hope that's not a 'but' I'm about to hear."

"I don't think so," he said. "Look, you don't have to if you don't want, but I'd sure like to do it again."

"That kind of 'but' I can handle," she smiled. "How about three weeks from last Thursday?"

"How about three weeks from last Friday, that's when we get in."

"Guess we'll have to make it work," she sighed. "Let's not piss around with laundry while we're together, that'll save us some time."

"Works for me," he grinned. "Scooter, like I said, I had a great time. The thing is, maybe over the next three weeks we want to make up our minds if we're just having a good time or we want it to go somewhere."

"You better believe I'll be thinking about it," she smiled, squirming around in the seat to kiss him. "Let's not waste time now; we can talk about it then."

The kiss went on for a long time before they broke apart. "Hey, babe," he whispered. "You take care of yourself."

"You too, babe," she smiled. "See you on the river."

The rigging went well -- there was no reason it shouldn't; four of the five boatmen on the crew had rigged together last time, and that speeded things up a lot. Wade and Hannah did a great job helping out, and Scooter told the crew that everyone needed to make sure the two swampers got plenty of time on the sticks; she or Jerry would let them row some of the big ones on each trip. Privately, Scooter would not have been surprised if either or both of them got raised to boatman towards the end of the summer if the crews shifted around to need extras, and they were hands-down favorites to be boatmen next year.

The rigging went so well, in fact, that Scooter and a couple others spent a few minutes hanging around with the motor-rig crew as they rigged -- in several ways a much more complicated job than it was for the oar boats. That evening, they all went up to the bar for the last chance before the customers, but it was a big, friendly gang of rafters from the two crews, and while there were some good stories told, she and Jim didn't get much time together.

They did get a few minutes the next morning, while Scooter was waiting for the customer bus -- the motor-rig bus was about an hour behind, on the normal schedule. They just leaned back against a raft talking, until she saw the customer bus coming down the road. She pulled her traditional cigar from her hatband, lit it, and turned to Jim and said. "Time to get the game face on, guy," she smiled. "I'm looking forward to next time."

"So am I," he grinned. "Good luck, Scoot. I'll wave at you when we go by."

After some of the adventures of the last trip, this one went smoothly. It helped that the customers started out as strangers, not friends that they already knew. It wasn't as good a group as the last trip, and it was somewhat larger. All that seemed long ago and far away, now.

The trip was also different in that Scooter really was the trip leader, all alone. When she'd led trips in the past, she'd had Crystal with her to back her up on her thinking, her decisions; sometimes Al would be along, as well. Now it was all in her lap; while Jerry was a nice guy, this was still just his third year as a boatman and fifth on the river. He was still a little young and green, still a touch of a cowboy. There were things she could have depended on Crystal to do without asking, where now she had to talk them out with Jerry ahead of time. It was clear they were going to be a while getting into the same smooth-working team she'd had with Crystal for almost two years.

As expected, Jim passed her twice on the trip -- the first time when they were having lunch and orientation at Cathedral Wash, so all they could do was give a quick wave back and forth. The second was down below Lava while the trip was winding up. This time they were on the river, and Jim sidled the big S-rig over to her raft and they talked for a couple minutes; yes, they were both having good trips, see you Friday.

That night, as the customers were bedding down, Scooter called a little crew meeting on one of the rafts. They clustered around and talked quietly. "I've been thinking," she told them. "I don't know why we piss up a day off on Saturday getting groceries and packing them, unless it's one of those 'we've always done it that way before' things. What would you say if I got together with Al when we get in and ask him if we can get started early Sunday morning? I know the damn grocery store is open all night. We might be a couple hours late getting to Lee's to rig, but hell, we spend half a day sitting on our asses up there most trips, anyway."

"Want to spend a little more time with your boyfriend?" Duane wisecracked.

She really hadn't talked much about Jim or what they'd been doing, but the way they'd acted around Lee's, and a couple other things that had been said left little doubt, either. "What do you think?" she snorted, not giving a direct answer. "Besides, I doubt Kelly would get very pissed off at Jerry, either. Look, I know it means cracking those lids river time on Sunday, but it gives everyone a whole Saturday off. It also pretty well means no closing the Burro Saturday evening, but I don't think anyone on this team is very big on closing the Burro, anyway."

"Well, I'm in, obviously," Jerry nodded. "I never figured that out, either. I know I've heard Al wisecrack that he hired Jeff because he figured that after thirty years of driving a school bus he ought to be able to come close to putting up with a bunch of drunken raft guides coming off break. I'll bet they used to party pretty hearty."

"Could be," Andy said. "I've heard stories like that. And I'll bet the timing is tied in with it, too. I'd say it can't hurt to ask."

"Try it," Duane nodded. "Anybody who wants to get really shit-faced Friday night would have all day to sleep it off Saturday."

Barbie, Wade, and Hannah also agreed quickly. "All right, no promises but I'll run it by him. I'll try to get to him before we're done unloading topside, so make sure you check in with me before you take off."

Loading up at Diamond Creek Wash was nowhere near the fastest she'd ever seen -- that had been the time when Norma warned them of a flash flood -- but it went pretty well, considering. While it was always hard to have the trip end and say goodbye to the customers, it was a little easier this time since she wasn't all that sorry to say goodbye to some of the customers. Besides, she knew that after a day off she'd be seeing Jim, for less time than last trip, but still seeing him.

In the process of loading up, Scooter asked Jeff how the rest of the last trip had gone, and whether he'd liked it. "Turned out it wasn't as bad as I thought," he admitted. "Might be I'd have to consider doing the other half sometime, too. Seemed like everyone had a good time to me, even though a couple things happened."

Jeff didn't list any specific happenings, and Scooter reasoned that something that might have been a big deal for him was routine for the crew, anyway. Still, there were some things that she'd like to know about, like what happened with Nanci and whether Nicole made the rest of the trip all right. She'd liked to have talked with Jeff about it a little more, but the loading was going on, and as soon as they were at the top of the hill she was sawing logs in her seat.

Back in the lot, she got the crew to going on the unloading, and headed in to see Al about the idea of doing the groceries early Sunday morning. "You're the trip leader, it's your choice," he replied, to her surprise. "We did it a little that way a few years ago, when the grocery store first started being open 24/7," he explained, "But we used to have some boatmen that needed the time Sunday morning and the ride up to Lee's to sleep it off, and then some."

"I doubt we're going to have that trouble with this crew," Scooter told him as her suspicion was confirmed. "So how'd the tail end of the last trip go?"

"There was some interesting things happened," Al smiled. "A couple of 'em was all-around shockers, too."

"Jeff was saying something happened, but he didn't say what," Scooter smiled. "You want to fill me in?"

"Hell, I don't know where to start," Al snorted. "Maybe the best way to do it is to tell you to look at the trip board."