T Minus 5

This weekend, cheering crowds lined the streets and hung signs from the overpasses as the canoe trailer made its semiannual trek up I-65 from Cool Springs.  It was made available to the public for photo ops at Brown's Diner on Sunday afternoon before being moved to the staging area on Barton Ave.   You may now bring your canoe for loading any time this week.  Thank you to those of you who already have. 

While we were at Phil's warehouse we helped ourselves to some useful looking equipment that was clearly being underutilized by ERM.   Is it stealing if you say you're taking it?  We grabbed a couple of extra collapsible tables thinking we'll need the counter space for the big veggie chop, even with the upside down Grumman.   We'll bring some more cutting boards too because there's probably been something worse than Gluvit on those tables.   We also got a nice, professional-looking utility box to hold the jon boat accessories (spotlights, tools, outboard oil, etc.).  It will give us lots of river cred because it says "Large Impingers" across the top so if we get pulled over by a MO DNR agent we can tell them we're impinging.  Only thing better would be saying we're sucker gigging. 

Mike is confirmed for the trip so he's still in charge of an axe.  Make sure it has a blade on one side and a blunt end on the other because we'll be using it for driving wedges as much as chopping.   Rob, if you forget the wedges we'll have to find something else to use like your cell phone.  Vernon:  you are the lube man. 

For those of you still worried about the distances, look at Float #24 (October 12) about half way down this "Float Log":   FLLOG.   They covered 44-miles on the Current River on a one night trip.   Granted, they were in kayaks but they also say they were heavily loaded with both gear and beer.   Nice pics, too.  Should get you fired up.