I've arrived in Denver!... Well, those of you that follow my social media (which, by the way, if you don't, you TOTALLY should!) and those of you that are my mum will know: I've actually been here for a few days already but I just haven't had time to blog it all out because there's been a whole lot happening! Some would say too much, but those people would also be the physical incarnation of my own anxiety and actually only exist inside my head for the purposes of self-sabotage, so they can, quite frankly, piss off because they would be wrong!

Team Slama - photo courtesy of Margaret Coulter

It's been a whirlwind of awesome so far! I've already lost countless homes and livestock to this poetical storm of an adventure and still keep finding myself continually jumping back into the SUV of my mind and chasing the next hurricane that rears its beautiful head in my subconscious side mirrors.

"Jesus, Rik - put the metaphor down a second! What have you actually done?"

Good question.

"Thank you."

I'm tired.

"We know."

...

So! Arrival was pretty uneventful... and I mean uneventful in terms of American airline flights, which in any other aviating nation's terms actually equates to MASSIVELY eventful... I could tell you about my polite attempt to quickly acquire directions to the baggage drop off from a security officer so I could make my connecting flight in time but instead ended up being less than politely interrogated for the next fifteen minutes about my reasons for being in America; I could tell you about how my bags got selected for the fifth flight in a row to be "randomly" checked for explosives and narcotics because the UK's checks aren't "thorough enough anymore"; I could tell you about the signs in the airport ordering "Strictly no chatting or joking with customs personnel" or how I was told upon asking why they needed to take my finger prints on the way into the country that I shouldn't have a problem with it if I have nothing to hide - I could describe my face at that point... hint: it was similar to the face one might pull when they realise anyone around them at any given moment could be carrying a gun... I could describe all those things but it'd result in a long and not particularly interesting paragraph and we still wouldn't be anywhere near finding out about Denver... soooo, sorry about that but yeah... America... sort ya border out will ya?! And I DON'T mean build a bigger wall...

Anyway, so I've arrived in Denver! Gosh... ever feel like you've been on such a long journey and not actually gotten very far?

"Is he referring to this blog post or American airport security again?"

Hah! It's both! - I never leave metaphor!!!

But look, this post wasn't meant to be about this - I wanted to tell you about visiting Red Rock Amphitheatre and doing some freestyle poetry jamming and creating doodles with these guys in the street in Boulder and eating the most amazing vegan ice cream and completing official registration for the slam and how nice it is that the teams out here are genuinely excited by our presence and the sheer electric storm energy of the poetry we've already seen and the bonding of our team through our rehearsals and the fried cauliflower burger I ate earlier and and and... there's JUST SO MUCH!

Showing off our doodles with StrangerArts

But, it's really late now - rapidly approaching 4am... and I'm tired and I'm up early tomorrow and I've yet to even start building tonight's fort to sleep in (I know... I could just sleep on a sofa... but shut up - I don't question your life choices...) so I'm going to get some sleep! But here is a very important graphic regarding Team Slama's bouts, coming up! They're going to be live streamed on the Slamalamadingdong Facebook page so scribble on your calendars, set your alarms and brew up some coffee (especially my English fam! Time zones right?!) because it's gona be frickin awesome!

I love you and will be in touch with a more coherent post soon... maybe...

(But seriously, do follow/ like/ share up my Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat (RikTheMost) and Twitter - there's more documenting of this journey, as it happens, on them - especially SnapChat for fort updates! And whilst you're at it - follow my team mates: John Englezos, Fleassy Malay and Benjamin Solah - because they're posting all sorts of cool things too!)

Love love,

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