Saturday, April 11, 2009

Life's been busy

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted in my blog.

So much for keeping up with the detail so here is the Coles Notes version instead.

12-Mar-2009

I did make the trip down to Ain't Louie Fest in TN for Spring Break. The plan was to just drive straight down to Lenoir City, TN and then get ready for a week of boating.

We all know that life is subject to being quite dynamic. After staying at somes friends place in WV, I ended up taking a slight into North Carolina to go boating with some new friends on section 9 of the French Broad. It was a nice run to shake off the cob webs of not being in my boat for four months.

After that we all headed over to TN to get ready for the festivities which unfortunately for me included five days of rain. I am not complaining as it is needed for paddling but sucks when your sleeping in a tent for the week.

It was great to see old friends and meet a whole lot more. Gabe won the award for the furthest drive. He came 2500 miles with his dog to pick up a new boat and have some fun.

I had some excellent boating on Clear Creek (Jett to Lilly), the Little (Sinks to Elbow), Middle Fork of the Little Pieogeon, and Tellico (Below Jarods Knee to Turkey Creek).

Both my body and boat took a beating as I kept pushing myself to the the next level. But my boat did end up losing on the Telico when I end up punching in the front of my boat when Tony decided to go sideways and block the run on the river. Ehhh ... crap happens.

I had originally only planned on paddling up until wednesday and was going to take the thursday off before heading south to Alabama for NAWFest. But enough was enough ... i really need to dry out my gear after all the rain.

18-Mar-2009

I woke up up the wednesday morning and decided to take another day. My friends asked my what I was going to do. I told them I decided to go watch me a sunset in the Gulf of Mexico. I packed up my stuff and drove 8.5 hours to watch the most beautiful sunset to date that I have ever seen on a spit in Pensicola, FL.

After that I grabbed a room for the night to relax, have a nice hot shower, and sleep in a really comfy bed. I sepnt the next morning doing laundry and re-packing my car for the next phase of the trip in Alabama.

I ended up staying with some friends thursday night in Taledaga, AL. I met Joseph and Arlene two summers ago when we were on a white water canoe course together. Dinner was great as was sleeping in a nice comfy bed :).

20-Mar-2009

I left early on the friday morning to head up to the paddling festival a few hours away. It would be day one which included the huckfest off the falls followed by the boater cross. The huckfest was great but the boater cross did not even get started as the local sheriff kicked us off the property due to a supposed land dispute with someone who was claiming to be the land owner but was not. Imagine a couple hundred people being forced to leave all at once standing along the side of a road waiting to get a ride to the parking lot. Not My idea of fun.

After that fiasco Dooley, Memree, and I went for a late lunch in town before I headed off to the main festival site to setup my tent. At least it was hot, sunny, and zero forecast of rain. What more could you ask for as a premise for a kick ass pre-party.

Lots of people were playing in the rodeo hole during dinner. I unfortunately had to re-patch the hole in my boat from TN. Thank god for two part expoxy sticks from Home Depot. Forty minutes later I was in the eddy lineup where i spent over an hour trying to side surf my boat right to the gunnel line and always swimming. But the water was warm and I was paddling in shorts. Well at least I thought it was BALMY but the US boaters thought it was cold .... lol.

Soon it was dark and the pre-party had started.

The plan for staurday was to take photos of the rodeo in the morning and go paddling with Arlene, Joseph, and gang on the saturday afternoon. We ended up running a section of the Warrior Locust Fork. It was a gorgeous day. I kept running non-tradional lines down all the runs and had a blast. We parted ways. My plan was to go back to the campground for the main party and awards ceremony and then head over to Andy and Lynn's place.

The party was great. I was really happy I made the trip to AL. I met lots of new friends and hope to make it back the the festival next year. I said my goodbye and made it to Andys just before midnight and the funny thing was they were just finishing dinner.

22-Mar-2009

We had an early breakfast and then headed out for another day of fun in the sun paddling on the Mulberry river. I was a nice day to wind down before my impending two day roadtrip back to Canada. I spent the night at Arlene and Josephs.

I got up early monday morning and was gone by 4am (Central). I managaed to drive 1120KM in 12.5 hours to my friends place near Lost Creek, WV followed by the an easier 8.5 hour drive home the next day. At least I managed to score a couple of 60 ouncers of Barcardis at the duty free.

I sepnt the wednesday basically doing laundry and catching up on sleep before having to go back to work on thursday.

All in all it was a great time, saw old friends, met new ones, experienced great southern hospitalitys at its best. Would i do it again ... yeppers.
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Going on a water therapy road trip to the USA

Well ... not much has been happening in my life except that work has been super crazy and I am going through paddling withdrawl (4 months has been tooo long).

I have been planning a return trip to TN since I was there a year ago.

The last three weeks have been a blur as I have been checking my gear, fixing what ever, and packing it.

T-2 days and I am gone for 10 days of fun hopefully in the sun paddling.
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Monday, February 9, 2009

Roadtrip to Ottawa

Friday:

I decided to do a roadtrip with a friend to the booming city of Ottawa via a quick side trip to visit my dad and drop off some goodies plus pick up my Thule rooftop carrier.

We also managed to get in a trip to the Costco in Gatineau (it is my mission to visit as many Costco's as possible) for a bear run. You can pick up a 24 of Corona for 33 bucks including deposit and tax. You can also pick up at 55 pack of Coors Light for 55 bucks also including deposit and taxes.

My primarily goal for the trip was to say goodbye to a good friend of mine who was leaving for an extended trip out of country.

Saturday:

After breakfast with and a goodbye hug from my friend ... Mark and I headed off to the new Canadian War Museum as both of us had never been there before.

The museum is definitely worth the visit. More detail can be found here http://www.warmuseum.ca/.

We had dinner and then headed over to the casino in Gatineau for a few hours of excitement. I spent (lost) my pre-set 20 buck limit in about an hour at the slot machines. I spent the rest of the time watching the craps game trying to figure out all the rules. It was an interesting game with too many variations which made it kind of challenging.
After that we stopped in downtown Ottawa to take some photos of the ice sculptures and the National War Memorial.










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Saturday, January 31, 2009

January Update

Holy moly ... I can't believe I have not updated my blog since Xmas.

Not much has happened since then ... just the normal busy at work stuff.

I did manage to do a few more photo shoots of friends.

The first one was of my friend Julie. We had not seen each other in eight months and had been planning it for four months.







The rest of the pics can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157611953486615/


The second one was of my friend Tiffany. I met her back in October while paddling with some friends.




















The last one was of my friend Victoria. She happened to be home for a two week visit from out west in order to celebrate her birthday and visit friends. This would be the second time I have taken pics of her. First as a blonde and now as a redhead.



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