Re: [Paddlewise] Memorial Weekend paddles

Jackie Fenton wrote:
> 
> Hi Ralph!
> 
> How did your Memorial weekend get-together go?  Will you or someone
> be doing a write-up for PaddleWise?  Take any pictures? :-)
> 
> abrazos,
> 
> Jackie

Hi Jackie

The weather held up for the three days and we had good conditions except
for some wind on Monday that shortened our intended paddle a bit.

It was all good company but none of the out-of-towners showed up in the
end and so it was mainly a local, still appreciative, crowd.  We thought
of you a lot for putting together this listserver and several times
toasted your fine efforts to keep us in line.

The Volins and I were at all 3 days of paddling. The Leonhardts showed
for the first and third day...I like both couples a lot from previous
trips and got to know the Volins better.  Bill Covert from Pennsylvania,
who paddles with Debbie Reeves New Jersey crew a lot, also was on two of
the trips and was a delight to meet, a real witty guy with a wry sense
of humor.  On the Statue trip a number of Downtown Boathouse regulars
joined us, ones that mainly lurk on Paddlewise plus a few who learned
finally of the listserver . . . the T-shirts drilled the URL into their
non-retentive brains :-).

There are photos that the Volins, Leonhardts and Bill took including of
our festive dinner at City Island near where we paddled the last day.  I
think they will put them on the list.

We did our Memorial ceremony on Sunday with nine paddlers.  It seemed
appropriate as we were at West Point with our put-in and take out at the
Military Academy, the cradle of many who have served and sacrificed for
several centuries in our nation's honor.  We got the flowers six miles
south of there at our turnaround.  A newcomer and lurker on PaddleWise
and a nice guy who we all enjoyed meeting, Tom Dowling
(tombrooklyn_at_somethingoranother), was on a small marsh island changing
his shirt (it was a rash guard shirt that was, of all things, chafing!!)
when I spied some marsh lilies behind him.  I had him pick a bunch and
place them on his back deck.  We had some headwind heading back to West
Point but his wide body shielded the petals from blowing off their
stems.  When we were just shy of West Point, I had the paddlers pass by
as I handed them each a flower from Tom's back deck.  I spoke a few
words about rememberance and sacrifice and asked them to each hold a
moment of silence and then cast the flowers on the waters.  We then
headed into West Point with the flowers flowing behind us on the same
flood current that coasted us in.

Wish you were there.  Abrazos back.

ralph diaz

-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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