My friends think that I have an adventurous life. The sad truth is that I don’t have a lot of things on my bucket list to do and tend to get stuck in my routines. If left to my own devices my adventures would be few and far between, so it helps that I have a friend who has a bucket list that is infinite in length and does not let a moment slide by without chalking up an adventure.

Kerry Ward is a proponent of what he calls the Full Tilt Life (FTL), and he embodies that principal all the time. When one spends time with Kerry one needs to be prepared to be on the move a lot. Kerry and I have a symbiotic relationship. In order to maintain his FTL he sometimes needs some support, both for his work and for his recreation.

If, for example, he has a job for his company, Full Tilt Team Development, in Calgary one day that goes until 5 pm and then a job the next morning at 8 am in Phoenix, then it helps to have a friend who will pick him up at 10:30 pm at LAX, drive all night to Phoenix, work the job with him, then drop him off at the Phoenix airport afterwards. Sometimes connections can be challenging, and connections are my speciality. I have both the willingness and the flexibility to jump in and help with those connections.

On the recreational side, if he has a nine day open span and sees an ultra marathon in Cappadocia at the end of it, then it helps to have a congenial traveling companion to share expenses and driving for a road trip who he can call up on a Tuesday and ask “want to go to Turkey this week?” The great thing about retirement is that I can say “sounds great, let’s do it!”

The current adventure began on Monday, 5/20, when I drove up to the Morgan Castle in Hollywood to pick up Kerry and his gear. From there it was off to Las Vegas where we checked in to a luxurious 2 bedroom condo in the Waldorf Astoria Residences. Kerry had met a new friend a couple of weeks ago who had offered the use of his place in Vegas from 5/20 through 5/28.

After checking in it was off to Harry Reid airport to pick up his wife Danielle who was flying in from Puerto Vallarta for the week and would be staying at the Waldorf while we were off on other adventures. We enjoyed the Waldorf for the day, went out for all you can eat sushi, and then picked up another adventure buddy, Chris Hardwick, at the airport. Chris owns a Land Cruiser that he keeps in South Africa, and last summer Kerry and Chris had spent a month driving around the south and west of Africa in that vehicle.

Next it was off to the Mirage Hotel for the 8:30 performance of the Beatles Love show. Our deeply discounted front row seats had been secured by a mutual friend, the supremely talented Holland Lohse. Holland has logged over 4500 shows performing just about every acrobatic role in that venerable Cirque du Soleil show. Afterwards, Holland and his performing partner Sienna Martinez treated us to an extensive tour of the inner workings of a Cirque show.

We got in late, and then were up early as we wanted to get to St. George, UT, by about 7 am. Our first stop was at friend Kerry Sherman’s house. Kerry S. runs outdoor excursions and was lending us ropes and other gear that would be used for the canyoneering that was on the agenda for the next several days. We also met up with another one of Kerry W’s new friends, Jenny, who he had met just a couple of days before at a wedding in Texas.

Speaking of that wedding! The celebrants were Mike Foncannon and Kiera Britton. Mike is one of Kerry’s facilitators for his Full Tilt events, and Kiera is an actor. They were married a few days before in Texas and had driven up to Utah so that Kerry could take them on a canyoneering adventure. Once we were geared up we met them in Zion Canyon and they were off on the shuttle with Kerry, Chris, and Jenny to attack Behunin slot canyon. It was a very challenging choice for a pair (actually trio, including Jenny) of rookie canyon runners. While it is not a very technical canyon, it does have a total of nine rappels, all over 100 feet, culminating in a final 165 foot free drop to the Emerald Pools.

While the canyoneers were off adventuring I took the opportunity to visit one of my favorite road hangouts, River Rock Coffee Roasters in LaVerkin. They have good coffee, great sandwiches, and very nice pizzas in a very lovely location. When I did the Zion 50K ultra marathon in 2018 I spent a good deal of time there and fell in love with it. It was great to be back there. I was pretty sleep deprived already so after the coffee shop I found a shady spot in a park and took a bit of a snooze.

Around 4:30 I headed back to the park to await the canyon crew. In this kind of work there is a lot of waiting around. I had purchased a Garmin Messenger, a small satellite communication device that Kerry was carrying. The problem is that in slot canyons there is usually not enough sky for the communicator to work, so it wasn’t until about 6 pm when they had exited the canyon at the Emerald Pools that Kerry could get a message out. Shortly after 7 they arrived back at the Visitor Center on the shuttle. They arrived in very high spirits, and then Kerry, Chris, Jenny, and I headed back to Saint George to Chez Sherman while Mike and Kiera were off on the next phase of their honeymoon trip.