Following high school graduation, my higher education consisted of attendance at two universities - the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. I fulfilled all my basic course work at the U of U and had hoped, that during this time, I would find a subject matter that interested me enough to declare a major. But after three years, nothing clicked. I finally decided I would be a teacher and history would by my major. I transfered to BYU to study archaeology.

I loved arechaeology, with full intentions of becoming a field archaeologist, but after a year, it was time to move on. 

Following another year of trying to find my place under the sun, a chance meeting with a friend, while browsing a war surplus store, caused me to have an epiphany - I would be become a professional river runner. I had already been on the rivers for 13 years as a guide, so turning professional, managing my own company was a natural.

Now pushing 80, and well into retirement, looking back on my life and deciding to start my own river company was the best decision I could ever have made, and studying archaeology at BYU was the perfect compliment to my choosen profession. The red rock canyons of the Colorado River are full of history, having seen their share of cowboys and ranchers, Indians and calvary soldiers, prospectors and explorers, outlaws, archaeologists and old Spanish miners and all leaving their mark on the canyons as they passed through. 

Mayan archaeology has always been of special interest to me and in 1983, I accompanied a group of archaeologists from BYU on a ten day expedition to Guatamala and southern Mexico to explore and study Mayan archaeological sites. 

There is some evidence that the two major civilizations the sprang up in Meso-America - the Olmecs and the Mayans had their origins in the Old World. One archaeologist who holds to this theory is renowned archaeologist Garth Norman. 

In 1985, I began conducting bus tours in Guatemala and Mexico and had Garth accompany on several tours as a step-on guide. 

Garth was the first to notice that the carvers of the numerous statues and pieces of art work found at archaeological sites, used precise measurements for their work, and the measurements were not  English units of yards, feet and inches. To his astonishment, he discovered the measurements corresponded to the Old World cubit and not just any cubit measurement, for their are many, but the Royal Egyptian cubit with a consistent length of 523 - 525 mm or 20.6 inches. This cubit measurement dates as far back as 2,700 B.C.