Dave's Sauce Box

What's better than a new member with a left-handed river banjo?  A new member with a left-handed river banjo who owns a liquor store.  Dave brought a box o' booze on the fall trip that turned our gravel bar into a speakeasy every night.

That cardboard box, though, is not up to RRCC standards for equipment and style.  Below are a few suggestions that have all been approved for purchase and reimbursement by the club because our Treasurer is in Colorado and won't care if you know what I'm saying...

Dave and I have also been doing some canoe shopping for him, which is always fun.   Here are few I was in favor of - all real listings and all within driving distance of Nashville.

The Russian Bear

The 20-Footer

"Cash, trade or beer..."

Grabbler's Special

Coke Boat 

The rare, tandem center-facing canoe

Q:  How is a six-pack of Bud Light like two Indians

laying in the bottom of a canoe?

A:  They're both fucking close to water.

"Peaceful Willow"

Pink

"If you like excitement try a sailing canoe..."

Not permitted under RRCC bylaws

But eventually Dave made a sensible choice.  A big blue 17-foot Old Town.

So now he's got a left-handed river banjo, a Sauce Box, and a canoe to haul it with.  Throw in a 3-night loaf of bread and you're done packing.

Death of a Jon Boat

You may recall we gave our boat to my garbage man on a kind of permanent loan.

https://rrcc.blogspot.com/2017/10/new-faces.html

The deal was he would keep it at his house and use it as much as he wanted but we could get it back any time we wanted when the RRCC went on a jon boat kind of river.

This arrangement did not end well.

The garbage man is fine, but we had to put the Green Mule down.  According to Peter F. Feldman this is the saddest moment in sports.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/pdf/DeathofaRacehorse_Heinz.pdf


So what next?  Stuart is coming in late Thursday night for the Spring trip and needs to get to us somehow, which was the whole reason we bought it in the first place and by "we" I mean "he".

One option is to camp Thursday night at the put-in which we have done a few times.  Car camping does have its advantages, but it may diminish some of the epic-ness of an extended trip.  Three nights "down river" feels like you're really doing something.  Another possibility is that Cronin MAY have a jon boat in his possession we could use but it is hard to understand his accent and he might have been saying "fat bottom" not "flat bottom."  We will plug all these variables into the RRCC trip planning software along with the requests for late arrivals, early departures, bridge accesses, campsites, daily distances, water levels, and special requests from the kitchen.  In the meantime, here is a pictorial tribute to the Green Mule. RIP you leaky old gal.