I Don't Think We're Alone!

Mark shouts a barrage of profanities at us.  I don't think he was angry with us, I believe it is the equivalent of a dinner bell in his eyes... Either way it worked.  He shouts, we eat.  Good system.  

As a side note I have to say I will not be able to do justice with words how fantastic Mark was as a camp cook.  Every meal we ate was excellent and he made it look effortless.  From this day forward I will always pack a Mark Carlson in my expedition gear if possible.  Seriously, you get so used to the cursing that after a few days you don't even notice it...

First night menu was a sausage and potatoes cajun kinda deal.  It was great.  After a day of one trying situation after another, a roaring fire and a hot meal were just what we needed to 'right the ship' and start having some fun.  Maybe even loosen up a bit...

Of the six of us, Seth and I don't drink at all, Mark drinks so rarely you might as well say he doesn't drink either, Rob might have the occasional beer and we all know Greg likes his beers.  And then there is Mike...

At this point in the evening we have come to terms with being behind schedule, have a great camp site with a nice fire, we are dry, have full bellies and for the first time of the actual trip we are enjoying ourselves.  Mark is out exploring the island looking for his wilderness friends, Seth has cell signal so he checks in with family letting everyone know we are alright, Rob is enjoying a Pepsi Max,  I break out the cigars, Greg cracks another cold one and Mike is sipping a bottle of what I assumed was iced tea.   

Mark stealthily creeps back to our camp through the foliage and shouts "Hey!" we all jump much to his chagrin.  "There is another camp on the other side of the island.  It's like a big party or something..."  A quick glance around the fire confirmed that no one was really in the mood to "meet the neighbors" tonight.  I couldn't speak for everyone but I was TIRED.   Getting in the sleeping bag and laying on the rocky ground sounded awesome right now. 

Mike however, takes a pull off his "ice tea" bottle and starts yelling "Wooooooooooo!!!!"  Like... a lot.  "WoooOOOooooeeee!" Take a drag of "tea" then...  Whooooooooooop whoooooop!" And so on.  Of the Six, I am the biggest jokester and by far the loudest one.  I always have a story to tell, some joke or just basic clowning around.  Mike on the other hand is a pretty quiet, reserved guy.  This "Whoooping" about was actually getting me concerned.  Had he gone around the bend?  Was one day of arduous canoeing all it took?  Done?

As I pondered that mystery Mike began making some kind of plan, "...go over and see what the hell is going on! Wooooop!" that I had no interest in.  I sort of  shuffled away form the fire as my own #2 anxiety was starting to grow.  

Going to the bathroom without a bathroom is not something I practice with much regularity.  Full disclosure:  It would have been like 1984 or so since I had used an un-bathroom.  Of all the things that had me on edge about this trip, going #2 was the most unreasonable yet the most unrelenting concern.  I knew I would have to go eventually but, until that moment happened I would try not to worry about it.  

"Patrick!  Buzzman!  Get over here!"  yells Mike.  He calls us around the fire to begin to tell us how much he loves us  (Greg immediately began nervously shuffling his feet) and how much this group of guys on this trip mean to him.  Right about now is when I figure out Mike's tea wasn't tea.  It was some of Clermont, Kentucky's finest bourbon.  That thar tea was Jim Beam and Michael was half in the bag.  

He was still speaking in complete sentences when he came over to me and said "Patrick, I may need your help..."  I started to say "Anything you need..." when he continued " I was trying to warm up with a little 'Beam and I might have gotten a little too warm.  Don't let me do anything stupid!"  I joked and said "Too late, little buddy." Then the wheels came off...

He went from coherent to indecipherable in one sentence.  Extreme cold + empty stomach + Stress filled day + Bourbon = Good Night Irene!  The only way I can describe it was it was as if he had been tranquilized.   Rubber knees and all!  He never did go over to meet the neighbors, something I'm sure he still regrets!  I won't tease him too much here.  It was all good fun and we had taken his oars so he wasn't rowing anywhere!  

The sleeping arrangements are: Mike, Mark, Rob and Greg in the big tent.  Seth and I in the small one.  I mumble something about heading to bed and everyone more or less follows suit.  I ask Seth jokingly if he was going to load the gun for bed and he dead pans back "It was never unloaded.  Duh."

I am using a borrowed sleeping bag because I am such an outdoorsman I don't even own one... sheesh.  It's a mummy bag, which I have never used this type of bag.  It feels like being in a cocoon with a small "face-hole" to breathe out of.  I was super warm and very happy to be so!

I have an ability to fall asleep under any circumstances.  Maybe all those years of touring still has me conditioned to "Sleep when you can!" But I am a hit the pillow kind of sleeper.  Something that my camp mates apparently don't like!  It may also have something to do with snoring.  Which I am guilty of... but so are they!  I just did it first...



Pictured above: Greg, Mr. Beam and Patrick

    

This is FUN dammit!

So the realization as to how far behind schedule we were was certainly disheartening to me.  It was devastating to Seth. 

On our drive up to Warren this brisk morning we stopped at a gas station just outside of Clarion, PA for one last taste of basic comfort type foods (Mmmmmm... cinnabon!) before the trip and the last flush toilet we would see as well.  All of us were individually warned by Seth not to dally.  We were then individually scolded upon return for, you guessed it: Dallying.  So needless to say schedule and time were important to Seth.

We get back out in the river and notice that Greg and Mark were just coming into view on the horizon.  Seth and I easily paddle upriver to them.  We try to tell them we are going to pull over at a good spot and make some decisions, but I don't think they understood us or could even hear us over Mark's barrage of cursing.     Seth and I then nose it down river and what must have seemed like a puff of smoke to the Brew Canoe, we vanish (again due to our unfathomable speed.) 

We run down Mike and Rob in short work as well.  I remember thinking at the time that I would have figured them to be faster moving than what they seemed.  I mean, both were able bodied, Mike was probably the most experienced canoeist of us, Rob possessed the strength of ten mortal men and their canoe seemed to be tracking nicely.  Thought they would have been faster... Anyway, we tell them we have to have a meeting and figure this situation out.

We find a decent spot.  We even wait for Greg and Mark to get there before discussing our situation.  While we waited, Mike had been bragging about his blowtorch coffee that he makes with a ... well a blowtorch.  So I invite him to give me a sample of his wares.  Blowtorch+coffee pot+Sanka=Best Coffee Ever.  Actually just holding the warm cup was awesome, I don't know if I even drank the coffee.  Still frightfully cold.  We were all trembling so bad we decided that Muhammad Ali would have been alarmed and advised us to "have that checked out!"

The coffee helped.  No that's not a strong enough phrase.  The coffee might have saved our lives!

Mark and Greg pull in.  I have never seen Greg really "down."  As great of a guy as Greg is, staying upbeat seems to be his super power.  Even when things get crappy (Like say, dumping your canoe in freezing water!) he just always has a good outlook and a shit eating grin on his face.  However, Greg might have found his kryptonite...  Five straight hours of being yelled at using every known combination of profanity had taken it's toll.  Even the youngest and brightest among us had been beaten down.  Five hours of this adventure and we were all but done.  

After a summit meeting of all three canoes we decide a camp fire and a little R&R and an early start tomorrow will be the best plan. We will go until a minimum of 4:00pm (no matter what) then start looking for a spot to camp.  It was 2:00pm at this time.  Mark did stop swearing long enough to say he wanted to repack the Brew Canoe, burn the cooler and track down whoever invented inflatable coolers and throw a rock at them.  

So with the end of the water portion of our day at least in sight, we all had a little bit of zip and more gas in the tank.  Of course no one had a chance of keeping up with Seth and I.  As long as the water was deep enough for us to stay afloat the Bottom Dragger was a force to be reckoned with.  At exactly 3:20pm.  We see the greatest camp sight.  Ever.  It was lush and green and had easy access.  There was one serious problem.  For those of you following along at home: We had said we were going until 4:00pm NO MATTER WHAT!  Damn.  This spot was perfect.  Being so far behind was a real problem though.  So, after hmm-hawing around, back paddling waiting for Mike and Rob, then they don't wanna make the call either...  Sigh.  At this point we just move on.  

Looking back on the trip I honestly don't have many  regrets.  This was one of them.  Lesson to any who would follow us.  Trade 40 minutes of being "behind schedule" for a nice camping spot.  Every time. 

Seth and I forge ahead, both cursing our inability to make a decision and frequently looking at our watches hoping for 4pm.  "I'm sure that we will see A LOT of good sites a little down river" we say, "No one wants to set up camp that early in the day anyway" we scoff.  Camp Perfect.  Damn.

We start zig zagging bank to bank checking out potential spots.  Nothing is measuring up to what we passed but honestly I don't know how much further we could go.  Morale was low.  Finally we see and island that has decent access and a fairly flat looking large area to set up  tents and get the boats on dry land.  The water level can and will raise over night when they let higher volumes of water out of Kinzu dam... so long canoes if you left them in the river.

We all move in a silent efficiency.  Boats out of the water. start surveying to pick best spot for tents yadda yadda yadda.  Then one of us (I think it was me, but it really is a little blurry at this point) notice a trail of sorts.   It leads off, under a fallen tree that is approximately the perfect height to smash you square in the forehead, to a possible good bathroom spot maybe? 

LEFT TO RIGHT: Me, Seth, Rob, Mike and Greg.  Notice the Concussion Tree in the background.

Nope.  It lead to a sweet campground!  Fire ring and everything!  So after lugging gear a little bit further inland and about 56 forehead smashes later. We do a rather impressive job of getting a campsite up and running.  Fire lit and blazing (road flares are AWESOME) tents up, wet gear hung out and (kind of) drying.  Not too bad at all!

Earlier when I started to document this whole process I had determined that the safe money was going to be on Mark.  He would be in his element out here.  Well, I was right.  As we were dragging logs and setting up tents and getting the fire going, Mark was making dinner.  I was not expecting much.  I was prepared for soggy cold PB&J type deals but not Mark, no no.  Ol' Cookie Carlson was gonna eat well and we all benefited from that.  

"Yinz better get over here and eat!  I'm not waiting for you dumb shits!  $%##@*&!"






    LEFT TO RIGHT: Greg, Mike, Me, Seth and Rob

Don't say it... Don't say it!

At this point we were approximately 16 minutes and 400 yards into our journey with only 5,700 minutes and 193,200 yards to go!  Our situation was already dire.  Cold.  Crazy cold.  One boat already capsized, two others had taken on water in rescue efforts.  Two members of the party (honestly it wasn't much of a party at this point!) have already been completely submerged and the other four had gotten a decent soaking, again during the rescue.  Things have really went exactly  the opposite as all of us had hoped.   

The first thing to take care of was obvious:  Are you alright???  After that was determined and the guys got dried off (Giving the Hospital Smokers a little show in the process.)   The next order of business was: What the hell happened???  How could you dump your canoe already???  Wait... What?  Neither of you have been in a canoe before?  Really?  Oh.  I thought you were kidding... 

I really think that if anyone would have mentioned quitting, we would have.  So many things were already NOT they way it was planned and it did not appear to be getting better.  Then add the safety issue of two first timers.  Shit.  No one said it.  All of us exchanged looks trying to read each other.  "Do you want to quit?"  "Should we quit?" "What should we do?"  "What would our Dad's have done?"  No one said it.  We gritted our teeth, got back in the boats and rowed.  All of us silently figured that was the best way to stay warm anyway.  

Mark and Greg were in the BrewCanoe now.  Still pulling the inflatable beer cooler.  I have a keen eye and am pretty darn observant.  I picked up the subtle clues Mark was dropping expressing, subconsciously, his displeasure with having to tow a beer cooler.

"You know, if you didn't have this mother @*%$#!@$ boat anchor dragging behind you this %$$-ing canoe might even pick up some speed and maybe you @#$%-ers wouldn't have *&^%-ing *&^%-ed and *&^% in the water.  *&^%!"  Or something like that.  Like I said... very subtle.

Now we are actually making headway though.  We are clicking off the miles and feeling pretty good, aside from a few personal setbacks: losing the feeling in my toes...  Actually it was my feet...And my finger tips... and I couldn't stop chattering my teeth.  We all kind of dealt with our issues quietly.  I think we were too afraid to share how miserable we each were for fear of a doubt avalanche.  That and the misery pissing contest that would ensue.  "You think you're cold??  You should feel my..." You get the point and we didn't need that.  It was already bad enough!  

So, when you are silently rowing along, your mind wanders.  In a good way.  In a way you can't do driving or at the mall or any of the million other things the bombard us in our modern lives.  It's a good thing.  I don't know what the other guys were thinking but I was running all the gear I had with me through my head trying to determine if I could wear all of the clothes I brought at the same time.  Then I did my best to think of what I thought the symptoms of hypothermia were.  I would look at my toes and actually say "move" and try so hard to get them to move... damn it.  Toes no move.  This trip keeps getting better and better!

So I ask Seth what he thinks the symptoms might be and he also doesn't know but is pretty sure he has a bunch of them.  

Now, I would like to add that at this point it had quit snowing.  So we had that going for us.  Our boat, Greenie, had about 2 inches of water in the bottom and was doing nothing to help out with the "hypothermia" problem.  I say "Let's find an easy spot to pull over and bail this water out and check a map to see where we are."  It's agreed and Seth begins crafting a bailing tool out of a water bottle and I tell Mike and Rob, who were about a hundred feet or so behind us, what we are up to and to keep going.  With our outrageous speed we would catch them in no time.  And, if we took longer than expected we might even see Mark and Greg, who were no longer in sight. 

You know that ouchy, tingly feeling when your foot falls asleep and you try to walk...  multiply that by about 100 when you take  numb, freezing feet plunge them into 35 degree water with a rocky bottom and slick footing while trying to drag a slightly overloaded canoe.  Yee.  Haw.    

So we start to bailing.  First thing I notice is how nice it was to stand up.  Back was already starting to fatigue... sweet.  Feet started to get feeling back, that's good.  Even with trembling hands Seth made a nice cut on the water bottle bailer, that's good too!  And we found that a pair of boxers does a decent job of mopping up the bottom of the boat.  The boat was dry... that's great!  Holy cow!  This trip is turning around.  Finally...

With eyes full of newfound hope I say, "So where are we?"  We had been rowing about 5 hrs at this point, so by our calculations we should be somewhere around 18 miles down river.  Considering our difficult start, that wasn't too bad.  Remember, we need to average 30 miles per day and we were expecting a big first day due to excitement and being fresh.

With a furrowed brow and flipping pages Seth replies, "Hmmm... I think Mike has a map too.  I think we should cross reference where we are... Maybe I missed a bridge... or something."  

"Seth.  Just tell me."

"6 miles.  We have only covered 6 effing miles."

Leaving from Greg's house 7:04 a.m. 33 degrees.
(From left to right)
Mike, Rob, Patrick, Greg, Mark, Seth 

   

Once The Sun Comes Out, I'm Sure We'll Be Fine!

Aaaaaaaaand we're back!

When I got out of the truck to start unloading our gear, a few things came quickly into focus.  The first was how much my hands hurt.  I was thinking "What did I do to my hands?  Did they fall asleep and are now all... tingle-y?"  Nope.  Hands were wide awake.  They hurt from the cold.  My hands were so cold, they were painful and we hadn't even unloaded the trucks yet.  The next thing was the look on all of our faces.  I wouldn't call it panic, but I wouldn't call it confidence either!  All of us in one way or another questioned if we could even do the trip.  Freakishly cold temperatures never really factored into my calculations.  I barely and I mean just barely, brought a hooded sweatshirt.  I know I mentioned it in the last blog, but that was months ago.  I think it deserves being brought up again.  It was SNOWING!

So there I was. Freezing. Exhausted. Excited. Nervous. And still a little pissed off from the night before, all the while wearing a borrowed hoodie and ski-mask, packing all I would have for the next four days to keep me alive into the hull of a borrowed (thanks again Jen from Mark's work!) canoe that I didn't even know if it would float, to embark on a 4 day hundred plus mile journey that I wasn't even sure if I could complete in the first place!  Oh yeah, it was snowing.  Had I mentioned that?  So far this seems like an awesome way to kick off the summer holiday...

We're all pretty much different versions of the same smart ass.  Always have been.  The apples didn't fall very far from the trees.  So with 8 smart asses loading canoes it was almost absolutely quiet.  Too quiet.

Harry starts us going by informing us "...the nice thing about the cold air is the water won't seem as cold... you know... If you go in!"  Really?  Learn that in science class?

Dad then lets us know that "...once the sun comes out, I'm pretty sure it will warm you right up!  It might even quit snowing!  Unless you guys are looking forward to a snowball fight!!!"   Thanks Dad... Hilarious as ever.

It did get us talking though.  I then reiterate my plan if I find a snake (dead, rubber or otherwise) involving chasing Mark and throwing rocks, sticks and profanities at him.   We start joking about how much sunscreen we will save, Mike and Mark about break into a fist fight on two different occasions and next thing you know we are loaded and ready to shove off.

Now it's here.  Time to go.  Again, if I wasn't so damn cold I might have been more sentimental but I thought the paddling would help warm me up. A quick good-bye and away we go!!

All three boats in the water!   Seth and I in Greenie, Rob and Greg in the Hoover (with an inflatable cooler tow-behind no less!) and the Carlson boys in the Carlson Boat.  I personally thought it was hilarious to put M&M in the same boat so I could watch them fight!  I had visions of having to pull over so they could fist fight.  Better than cable!

I was worried about Seth and I riding in the same canoe.  The two of us combined had to be at least 460lbs.  The heaviest combo in the group.  Probably closer to five bills, in one canoe... plus gear, food, water and ammo?  Add in an air temp of 34 degrees and I'm not in love with that at all!

Needless to say we sat pretty damn low in the water.  The entire trip we were 2 inches from sinking.  We also were not very stable.  At all.  Any given minute we would start rocking side to side uncontrollably.  So we couldn't sit still and float or we would capsize.  Aaaaalright!!!

But... we could paddle like the wind!  Not that it was a race (because Seth and I would have straight SMOKED everyone!) but Greenie and Co. were off to a quick lead, followed buy the USS FistFight with the Brew Canoe not far behind.  A few hundred yards down river (once you go in the right direction... It's harder to figure out than it sounds!)  there is a short run of little rapids.  Seth and I decide, since we can't really turn or float, that speed is our best ally, so we tear off and conquer our first set of rapids!  Hooray!  Then Seth notices the debris trail...  

We turn as quickly as we can (which at this point, was the first intentional turn we had tried...) taking up most of the river to complete our arc but made it upriver quickly (due to our tremendous speed!)   As we approached, the beer cans in the water were all we needed to see... Greg and Rob are in the drink.  It is freezing.  This was no joke.

Seth and I are scooping everything of theirs we can get our hands on into our boat.  The fact that we were  ready to capsize at any second made this a very enjoyable time!  USS FistFight was doing the same as we were both making our way to Greg and Rob.

I have to say this was very scary.  We were absolutely on our own in a dire situation with very real consequences, then an incredible thing happened.  People talk about doing and seeing incredible things during extreme situations from adrenaline.  Well, I know what they mean now.  We all do.

Rob picked up the canoe.  In about five feet of ICE cold water he hoisted a canoe filled with river water, camping gear, food, Greg, beer and carried it to shore.  He CARRIED IT.

Rob is a big boy.  About six and a half feet high and built like an oak tree and strong as an ox.  Even still, this was incredible...

My first thought was get them warm.  My second thought was, that 16 minutes into our trip: It was over.

But OH NO!  Not with these tough guys!  Na-uh!

After we are all on shore and out of hypothermia danger, Greg looks up and says, "Yinz guys think it's too early to have a beer?"  That was all it took.  We split up the Fist Fight Twins (probably for the best) put Greg with Mark and Rob with Mike and away we went!

  

The Long Answer: Part Two- Wagons North!

By the time I got back to Mom and Dad's place I had to decide: Pack or Sleep.  I was still pissed off from having that damn dead snake waved at me every time I turned around for the last five hours.... so i decide to pack now.  "I'll get plenty of time to sleep on the trip!" i think to myself.  I manage to get most of my stuff into six smaller jugs.  I then put those jugs in a water resistant giant gym bag kinda thing.  What doesn't fit in the jugs I just stuffed in the bag.  It is water resistant after all.  It's not like any of that stuff is really going to get wet!  I am an expert canoer... just haven't been in one since... hmm....   When was Beverly Hills Cop in the theater?

I get to bed around 2:45 a.m.  I blink and it's 5:00.  Damn.  Didn't want to start off this tired.  Too late now!  It's here and we are off!  Thankfully Dad talks me into throwing a couple extra long sleeve shirts and a hoodie in with me.  He didn't really have to talk too much really.  The phrase, "You do realize it's 34 degrees outside, right?"  goes a long way towards convincing you to pack say, a ski mask, on your summer kick off canoe trip!

I just want to say right now:  I had no idea what cold was, until this trip. 

The Six finally are all in the same place at the same time.  Since starting the planning, we hadn't all been together.  If we weren't all in actual shock over how cold it was, we might have been a little choked up about the real start of this quest,  No turning back now!  We pose for a couple of pictures in our sweet River Quest '13 T-shirts, courtesy of Mary Ann, then we high five each other,  load up and tear off!

We head North to Warren, PA.  It keeps getting colder and colder.  When we get to the approximate area of the boat launch it was actually snowing.  I wish I was kidding.  Snow.

I say approximate area because we...  ummm.... never looked into where we would put the boats in the water. We assumed (wrongly!) there would be a big park kinda deal that we could back the trailer into the water.  So we drove in circles around Warren looking for a park.  We're all looking on maps and trying to get 4G on our phones to figure this out.  I mean... we can see the river,  It's right fricking there!  The Original Questers didn't actually remember getting in the water!  They kept saying things like  "Margaret dropped us off." and "This was Bruce's town, he knew where to go."  All we found was a hospital that had a helipad right at the water's edge that some people in hospital gowns, smoking cigarettes, said it would be ok to launch from.  Even though they couldn't figure out why anybody would get into that water.  It was snowing after all.

I think to myself "Silly hospital smokers! We're going canoeing... not swimming!  Jeez!"    

Or so I thought...

The Long Answer: Part One

"Soooo.... How was it?"

That, undoubtably, has to be the one question I hear the most.  I have been talking and writing about this Quest for several months.  Anyone who would sit still long enough I would tell them about it or this blog and usually both. It's been exactly two weeks since we finished this epic quest.  So, it only makes sense that people would want to know "How was it?"

The Short Answer:  Awesome.  Wouldn't do it again.

The Long Answer goes something like this:

The weather looked somewhat promising as I headed East with a jeep loaded down with flashlights, machetes, water jugs and Clif Bars.  I had also packed a rain suit "just in case" and an extra hoodie.  I had intentionally NOT looked at a weather report for the areas we would be in.  I was going. Rain or shine.  It turns out I could have said: Rain, shine, sleet, snow and freezing cold.  But no... I wasn't going to look at the weather for fear it would bring me down or something.  Prepared Schma-pared!  I had a machete!

Once I get to my parent's, I make plans with Mike and Seth to meet up at Mark's house and make some final decisions on gear, load up the canoes, finalize leaving/rendezvous times and then everyone get home and get to sleep.  I figured an hour max.  Maybe two hours...

Mike picks me up and we discuss the cooler temps as we drive to Mark's.  It's raining but we agree it's better now than tomorrow.  As we head up the sidewalk, I about jump through my skin, as I almost step on a dead snake.  Laid out, real nice, on display...  Damn it MARK!  I have an effing machete!  Damn it!

Seth and Harry were already there and we start off by marveling at Mark's packing job.  The jug system was well used with him.  He had all of his clothes in a Cheez Puff container.  All of them.  He had another one full of individually packaged bags of potato chips and Doroitos.  The jug looked like there were hundreds of them!  It was beautiful.  Mom and Dad came over for a quick stop to wish everybody a safe trip.  Dad and Harry then gave us a few last tips and questioned all the stuff we were taking.  After an easy hour of fart jokes , theorizing where all the Cheez Puffs went and packing strategy comparisons ,we figure we should load up and get some sleep.  "It will be our last for a while!  Hahahahah!" 

I remember the next several of hours like this:

Ok... where's the trailer?  

Oh.  We have to go get it.  OK. 

Put that snake down!

Wait... what?  We don't know if we can get it?

It's at his neighbor's house and he said it's ok to just come get it?  Who said it's OK?

Does that smell like shit to you?

I am SERIOUSLY not kidding, get that snake away from me.  YES, I KNOW IT'S DEAD!

Is there such a thing as grand theft trailer?

What if we move the Blazer over there, pull this truck up here then back that truck out on the road while the other truck pulls in, while we stop traffic...

Damn! That really smells like shit!

What do you mean you don't think that truck will start???

I will not be held responsible if you bring that damn dead snake near me AGAIN!

Just drive it through the neighbor's effing yard!!!! 

Ok... For the LAST TIME.  WE ARE MEETING AT UNI-MART AT 7AM!!!!

What?  That's the wrong direction?  Oh for the love of....  

Somebody, please get me a fricking MAP, so we can figure out where we are going tomorrow!!!

Ok... we all agree.  Meet at Greg's at 7am?  Five hours from right now.  Great.  Someone tell Greg and Rob.  See you assholes tomorrow.

Looking Back

Not being the most tech savvy person on the planet... actually I'm  way behind your average 6 year old with a cel phone!  Any way some of these I cant get to work on the black background...  I don't know why.  At any rate another contributor to The Call... has shared some thoughts and feelings.  I'd like to introduce Bruce's wife, Mike and Mark's mother and Aunt to all of us:  Betty

I'm not much with writing words so hang in there I will try to put my thoughts down about the trip.  I'm so proud of you boys ( yes, you will always be boys).  Bruce would have been proud of you also.  I know that at the funeral you finally decided that this was the year.  I know that Bruce was with you all the way.  He and the others had hot weather and you 6 faced  horrible weather.  


   This time you kept everyone up on your plans by the blogs, we didn't get the e-mails but that is okay.  We here on land kept up with your journey each day by e-mails, pictures on texting It was fun to follow your trip.  When your Dads went, they got in the river in Warren and we met them in East Brady.  We knew nothing that they did or where they were.   This trip was so much more fun for us.  You have another generation planning their trip.


   The three boys were so excited to see you when we found you. They were really hoping to get into the canoes  that day, but it wasn't their time. When everyone was there to greet you in Parker, it was great.  What a joy to watch the canoes come down the river and pull into shore.  Then the picnic at the Buzzards was like old times. Thanks for doing the trip and remembering Bruce the way you did.  I love you one and all.