Post-Trip Gala Wednesday, November 19

Depending on which begining-of-life theory you subscribe to, the Club has probably now been in existence for 10 official canoe trips. Most of us agree that the Piney River in Spring 2000 was pre-conception. The Club was really born, or at least viable outside the womb, by the first Buffalo trip since it included both Stuart and the Big Daddy Skillet for the first time. So if you add that to the Stones River in Spring 2004 and two trips every year since - that's 10. We are celebrating the event with a blow out Post-Trip Meeting and the unveiling of a special Spring trip to kick off the next 10.

Here is the order of events.

On Wednesday, November 19 we will meet at 3:30 pm in the Oak Bar of the Hermitage Hotel.

At 4:00 we will walk across the street to the Tennessee State Museum where we will meet photographer John Guider who, in 2003, put his canoe into Spencer Creek outside of Franklin (more shallow, even, than the upper Sequatchie), paddled down the Harpeth, and kept turning left until he was in New Orleans. Apparently that was not enough of an adult sized serving for him - he later finished off the Mississippi from its headwaters down to the confluence with the Ohio. And that is how you go down the rest of them rebel rivers. My friends.

John will give us a personal tour of his exhibition The River Inside that includes about 75 platinum prints from the trip and join us for the dinner along with David Fox who made it all possible and knows his bow from his stern, too. Watch this. Listen to this. Buy this.



Dinner is at The Palm where we'll have a private room with LCD screens and surround sound for the trip slideshow, a PowerPoint of next spring's destination, reports on the trailer, and finances, etc. It will be a big deal. Phil will jump out of a cloud of dry ice smoke. Mrs. Cooper will jump out of a cake. Since it is the 10th slideshow, we may dig into some of the RRCC's Greatest Hits like Choctaw, Kid Rock and Gin & Juice in addition to the usual formula (2 parts RL Burnside/1 part 70s Stones). Maybe Bob will produce a retrsopective CD.

After dinner, if temperature and tourists cooperate, the Gravel Bar Band will set up for busking on Lower Broad to try to recover some of the cost of our guests' steaks (everyone else is on their own).

After that, it's on to Tootsie's for all the "Hollers & a Swallers" and David Allen Coe sing-a-longs we can stand.

Which is a whole lot of both.


1. Fall 2000 (Buffalo River)



2. Spring 2004 (Stones River)



3. Spring 2005 (Duck River)



4. Fall 2005 (Duck River)



5. Spring 2006 (Piney River)



6. Fall 2006 (Elk River)



7. Spring 2007 (Green River)



8. Fall 2007 (Buffalo River)



9. Spring 2008 (Dale Hollow Lake)




10. Fall 2008 (Sequatchie River)