HOME - July 8th
Well, I arrived at home on Monday, July 3rd. Good to see family and friends again. LuAnn and I spent the 4th of July with friends and family at a small lake outside Superior, WI. Our friends, Charlie and JoAnn Wright and Jim and Sandy Waletzko each have a lot on the lake and for the last 8 or so years have spent the 4th of July holiday camping out with friends and family. Lots of fun swimming, boating, fishing, water skiing, shooting off fireworks, etc.
Our daughter, Heidi Samarzia and her husband Nate and children, Devin, Drake and Ryah were there as were the families of both the Wrights and Waletzko and others. Everyone had a great time. The children had a blast. Norm, Charlie and JoAnn's son-in-law, took the twins, Devin and Drake fishing and they did well. They told their mom that they had to kiss each fish they caught before they released it so it would bite their hook again. Needless to say, Norm got a little dirty look from Heidi.
As much as I'm glad to be home it also is tough to adjust at first. Same thing was true when I came home for short breaks on my bike and hiking trips. Tough to explain but it takes a few days to get back into the swing of "one's normal daily life routine" so you don't feel like an outsider. It's getting better, but now I'm already anxious to get back to paddling. Before I do go back I hope to play some golf and I need to make sure everything is on track for the Ryan Hoff Memorial Golf Scramble. We had a meeting on Thursday with the committee and everything seems to be falling in place. They do a great job in making the tournament a success, and LuAnn and I are very thankful. The key for me before I leave is to know that LuAnn is comfortable that all is okay in the preparation for it. The tournament is August 12th and I will be returning on August 8th for it. Sometime in one of my later journal entries I will give more details.
Plans are to fly back to St. Louis on July 19th and continue my journey. I will need to make a big decision once I get back. I've been able to find very little information on people that have attempted such a journey as I'm doing. I know of only two that have attempted an Atlantic to Pacific journey and they were not able to complete it back in the 80's. As for doing the Lewis and Clark trip from St. Louis to the Pacific I've come across one such expedition by a young man, Norm Miller, who completed it in 2004. Norm had to go up river to Yankton, SD and come down stream because of river current and the danger of going around the wing dams. In fact he flipped his canoe at least once in his attempt to go upstream.
You can read about Norm's struggle with the lower Missouri River at: http://www.lewisandclark-2004.com At Yankton, SD the Missouri starts the first of I believe 5 lake reservoirs which continue through the Dakotas and Montana and make paddling upstream doable and safe. So when I get back the first day will be experimenting with my ability to continue upstream or do as Norm did and move up to Yankton and come back down.
On the Mississippi I did have a couple of challenging times dealing with wing dams, but nothing that I was not able to get around. What I hear is that the current is tougher on the Missouri and the water swirls a lot more around the wing dams. In any case, my decision will be based on safety, which I promised LuAnn and my family I would do. Another first for me!
Time for some golf.
Tomorrow I will write one more entry about the yellow lab that visited my campsite at Grand Tower.
Our daughter, Heidi Samarzia and her husband Nate and children, Devin, Drake and Ryah were there as were the families of both the Wrights and Waletzko and others. Everyone had a great time. The children had a blast. Norm, Charlie and JoAnn's son-in-law, took the twins, Devin and Drake fishing and they did well. They told their mom that they had to kiss each fish they caught before they released it so it would bite their hook again. Needless to say, Norm got a little dirty look from Heidi.
As much as I'm glad to be home it also is tough to adjust at first. Same thing was true when I came home for short breaks on my bike and hiking trips. Tough to explain but it takes a few days to get back into the swing of "one's normal daily life routine" so you don't feel like an outsider. It's getting better, but now I'm already anxious to get back to paddling. Before I do go back I hope to play some golf and I need to make sure everything is on track for the Ryan Hoff Memorial Golf Scramble. We had a meeting on Thursday with the committee and everything seems to be falling in place. They do a great job in making the tournament a success, and LuAnn and I are very thankful. The key for me before I leave is to know that LuAnn is comfortable that all is okay in the preparation for it. The tournament is August 12th and I will be returning on August 8th for it. Sometime in one of my later journal entries I will give more details.
Plans are to fly back to St. Louis on July 19th and continue my journey. I will need to make a big decision once I get back. I've been able to find very little information on people that have attempted such a journey as I'm doing. I know of only two that have attempted an Atlantic to Pacific journey and they were not able to complete it back in the 80's. As for doing the Lewis and Clark trip from St. Louis to the Pacific I've come across one such expedition by a young man, Norm Miller, who completed it in 2004. Norm had to go up river to Yankton, SD and come down stream because of river current and the danger of going around the wing dams. In fact he flipped his canoe at least once in his attempt to go upstream.
You can read about Norm's struggle with the lower Missouri River at: http://www.lewisandclark-2004.com At Yankton, SD the Missouri starts the first of I believe 5 lake reservoirs which continue through the Dakotas and Montana and make paddling upstream doable and safe. So when I get back the first day will be experimenting with my ability to continue upstream or do as Norm did and move up to Yankton and come back down.
On the Mississippi I did have a couple of challenging times dealing with wing dams, but nothing that I was not able to get around. What I hear is that the current is tougher on the Missouri and the water swirls a lot more around the wing dams. In any case, my decision will be based on safety, which I promised LuAnn and my family I would do. Another first for me!
Time for some golf.
Tomorrow I will write one more entry about the yellow lab that visited my campsite at Grand Tower.
posted by Coach at 9:24 AM
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