Boom! This is Books & Biceps #308!

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BOOKS

Canyon O’Grady: Colonel Death - A Great Western Hero Battles a Blood Thirsty Cavalry Officer South of the Rio Grande by Jon Sharpe

We’re on our annual family vacation, ditching the steam of South Florida for the beautiful lakes and hiking trails in the mountains of Glacier National Park and Waterton.

Whenever I travel I bring a few books and always hope that I encounter a cool local bookstore in whatever town we’re in so that I can buy something on a whim that I’d never heard of before.

On this trip, I found a little hole in the wall called The Book Nook that has a decent selection of new books but a stellar collection of used books as well.

While killing some time meandering through the aisles, an entire series of books caught my eye. The covers were old school. The theme was glorious. And there were hundreds of them stacked high for only $1 or $2 per book.

The entire series is about a lawman named Canyon O’Grady and I picked one up with this phenomenal name:

Colonel Death: A Great Western Hero Battles a Blood Thirsty Cavalry Officer South of the Rio Grande

Now, I know this is faaaaaar from any other kind of book I’ve recommended before. And this isn’t even a recommendation to go buy one of the 100+ Canyon O’Grady adventures…

But this IS a recommendation to pick up books you normally wouldn’t pick up in old book stores.

And I say this because for $1 and about an hour, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. It’s fast. It’s campy. It’s like a 70s TV western or something Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood would have starred in.

I’m not saying I’m going to read all of these. Or even one more. It’s just nice to dip your toe in completely different genres to see what other writers are doing (or did) as they carved out careers and created characters.

Here’s tipping my cap to you, Jon Sharpe. Well done.

👉 You’re Invited: Premium Flex Members will be reading Jaws together as our July Big Read of the Month, with cool discussion about the book, movie and other awesome action novels in the B&B Community chat group. We’re in the middle of our Summer Blockbuster Reads theme and you’ll love it. You can join with this link.

BICEPS

This is one of the greatest views I’ve ever captured with my camera. Majestic. Breathtaking. All of it. This is the view from the Prince of Wales lodge in Waterton Lake and despite the fact that the air temperature is in the low 80s, the lake is fed by glaciers and snow field meltwater and remains an icy 42-46 degrees on the surface and about 38 degrees five feet and below all summer.

After hours of hikes each day, we’d all have killed for a jacuzzi, but alas, this is a national park, so no dice. Instead, what we saw a few tough guys do after traversing up and down thousands of feet is take an old school plunge.

No fancy tubs. No back rest. No setting the temp with an app on your phone.

This was bare bones, strip down and walk in until it’s deep enough to dive under.

After watching a few brave dudes splash in, my son and I decided to man up and get it done:

Aaaaaaaanndddd holy hell! Forget any cold plunge you’ve tried before. I’ve done those. Those are cakewalks compared to this.

This was next level.

Instead of sitting still in a tub of cold water, the currents of glacier melt running beneath the surface felt like you were being swarmed by ice lasers. And the waves and wind made it feel 10 degrees colder than it was. We made it about 3 minutes before coming out because we couldn’t feel our feet. But damn, it felt good! Super proud of my son for joining me. All-time dad moment and photo right there.

QUICK FLEXES

In light of our glacier plunge, revisiting this popular column seems apt. You’ll enjoy this one:

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Thank you all for reading! Stay Strong! - Jon

BONUS: Check out these greatest hits:

ONE: How ESPN’s SportsCenter United a Generation in the 90s

TWO: The Remarkable Rise of Carl Weathers from Bullied Kid to Football Star to Rocky

PS: You still reading Gus and Mallory? Thanks for getting through the whole thing! No skimming!