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-IJ gtf)3i~ 13r~({b ({X arm, 1JgO-1Jg2 r1 n 1980 Tom Vail was a passenger on one of Georgie's small V triple rigs. The raft required three boatmen, but when they launched from Lee's Ferry, there were only two. One of the boatmen had not shown up. After they pushed off, Chuck Kane, the trip leader, asked Tom if he wanted to row. Tom later said, "He probably asked me because I'd brought the most beer, so I must be the most qualified. I said, 'Sure, that sounds like fun.'" So Tom rowed a triple rig on that trip. Halfway through the canyon Kane's group double-camped with Georgie. Chuck took Tom over to introduce him to Georgie, and that was his first meeting with her. Georgie had a way of testing people when she met them: We ended up standing right next to each other ... she put her arm up on my shoulder and she says, "Oh, you're Tom. I hear you're doing a pretty good job." And with that, she swung around and kneed me in the groin. Not hard enough to put me to my knees, but enough that I felt it. And, I'd heard enough stories about Georgie at this point that I knew what she was doing.... "How's this kid going to react?" So my reaction to it ... I put my arm around her, and I said, "Okay, Georgie, you and me, up into the bushes, right now!" Of course, my biggest fear in the world was that she'd go with me.1 Tom went on to become a steady boatman for Georgie. Roz Jirge continued to make annual trips with Georgie. On an August 1980 trip they made a stop for "egg break" at about Mile 30 209 and met up with the firemen's group. On Georgie's boat egg break, a brunch of sorts, was just that-hard boiled eggs and salt. Here, Roz learned how the other boats fared. She noted, "Egg break is a feast on the little boat. There were corn tortillas, eggs (of course), bacon bits, salami, chilies, olives, mushrooms, smoked oysters-the list seemed to go on and on." In later years Georgie took her cue from the jealous complaints of the passengers on the big boat. She brought many of the goodies suggested by the firemen, although she drew the line at smoked oysters. In 1980 Brian Rasmussen also took a trip with Georgie. He was twenty years old and had spent the summer working at Marble Canyon Lodge. Before going back to school at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, he purposely quit his job at Marble Canyon Lodge two weeks before school started in order to try to get in a river trip. He had been on two trips before and was hoping to get his foot in the door with one of the outfitters. He hung around the Lee's Ferry launch ramp looking for a possibility to go down the river. During his two years of employment at Marble Canyon Lodge, Rasmussen had come to know Georgie, and she just happened to be rigging out a trip while he had that window of time to do one. He asked her and she said she could use an extra hand. He ended up swamping (being a helper) on one of her motor rigs, the "Swinging Single." The one event that really stood out in Rasmussen's mind in the time he spent around Georgie occurred early in the trip, on the second or third night. The usual routine before dinner had been that a few bottles ofblackberry cordial be passed around. There was also hot water for tea or coffee. It was cocktail hour and would get to be a big, festive occasion, with everyone socializing and visiting. On this night near the Little Colorado River, with the sun going down and the colors intense on the cliffs, Rasmussen was talking to Georgie. She put her arm onto his shoulder and asked how everything was going. She also told him even though this was a fun and festive occasion, and everyone was partying, "you still have to remember where you're at. You're in the Grand Canyon." With that she spun him around to look at the upper cliffs, which were still lit by the setting sun. It was a very spectacular scene, one that he never forgot. While the others were...

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