Up to his Old Tricks

Inspired (threatened?) by the big miles the RRCC put up on the Sequatchie - and the idea of Chicago as a paddling destination - John Guider has just announced an even bolder adventure.

JOHN GUIDER EXPLORES THE GREAT LOOP

Award winning photographer and author John Guider (www.theriverinside.com) (www.johnguider.com) will soon take his custom made John Slattbo (www.hydrvisios.com) design sail/paddle driven kayak around America’s great loop.

Leaving his home port of Nashville, TN, John will make the over 5000 mile circumnavigation following the currents of the Cumberland, Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans where he will enter the inter-coastal waterways east across Alabama and down to the Florida Keys. From there John will make his way up the Eastern Seaboard to New York and the Hudson River and head to the Great Lakes and then on to Chicago, the Illinois River and back to the Mississippi.

Depending on the weather, the journey will take from two to three extended summers. This will be the first time the loop has been made in such a small craft. The size of the boat will add a sense of adventure to the project and will allow John an intimate view of his surroundings and access to places larger craft couldn’t venture. John will photograph people and places in his own unique way creating a special American portrait for the 21st Century. Ruckus Films (www.ruckusfilms.com) will also film major parts of John’s adventure in order to provide a documentary for intended release on Public Television.

John is presently looking for sponsors for this important project. Benefits will include acknowledgement on John’s releases and in his publications. Corporate logos will be placed on John’s boat. Sponsors will be given limited access to John’s images and his identity as it relates to this project and their public relation needs. Besides traveling past some of America’s most compelling landscapes, John will make port at many of the county’s most populated urban areas such as New Orleans, Miami, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and St Louis. The opportunity for dialog and exposure to this project will be immense.

Water and its uses are quickly becoming one of the world’s most talked about resources. John’s compelling images and writings will be an important addition to this important conversation. John’s present work, The River Inside, is currently on tour to major museums. Presently at the Tennessee State Museum, the show in 2009 will find a home at the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, before traveling on to the Ach Museum n St Louis and the Mud Island Museum in Memphis. In 2010 and beyond other museums will be announced as well.

For information on sponsorship please contact John Guider directly at guiderstudio@comcast.net

That's a pretty nice trip.

But can he blow smoke rings through his cheek?

~

The RRCC Goes Uptown

Here are scenes from our night on Lower Broad - jacked up on red wine and the news of getting even more urban next spring on the Chicago (That Toddlin' Town) River. The steaks were excellent, even if they lacked that certain Big Daddy je ne sais quoi. And of course John Guider's incredible photos. But John stole his own show with tales of danger (near drownings) and intrigue (near arrests) on the Mississippi around his canoe at the exhibit.

The BM accepts his award, as Sara Evans looks on.

The Amazing, Artful Barge Dodger.

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)

Sending a Message

It's Election Day. Let 'em know how you feel.