And you thought we were nuts?

   I would like to introduce you to Jennifer and Pierre. They are a couple form Quebec City who decided to do the loop as well. The only difference is they are doing it by Canoe. I met them last night at a potluck. They have been paddling their way around the great lakes and now the river system. Pierre tells me they paddle 60 miles per day in the river because of the current. In the great lakes they were averaging 50 km or 30 miles per day. Wow! They have a tent; a bunch of barrels with food in them, and they burn about 4000 calories each per day. They are amazing people to talk to and certainly have some pretty good stamina for their age. Pierre is 52 years old and Jennifer is 34.  When I asked them why they are doing this; Pierre tells me he has 3 buddies in their 50's, one had a stroke, the other a heart attack and the third has cancer. Pierre is a contractor and says we live life at 200 miles an hour. Running all the time and going nowhere. They love to canoe so they thought why not go and check out the continent. We talked for quite a while and heard many stories, but the one that amused me the most is with the tow boats on the river.

   I told you before that the tow boats have the right of way here. If you want to pass a tow boat, you have to call them on the VHF and request permission to pass and direction as to which side to pass them on. The reason for this is because the tow boats are very long and the river is winding, with lots of twist and turns. If they have to take a corner they can sometimes take up the whole river.  Anyway, at one point in time they were coming towards a boat and they called him and asked for permission to pass. The tow boat captain just laughed and told him to pass on the left. When they actually passed the tow boat, the captain was in awe and he started calling all the other tow boats and telling them how they got passed by a canoe. When they actually passed every single crew man on the tow boat came out to see what was going on.  I wish I could have been there to see their faces!  So if anyone wants to read more about these two, then you can check out their web site at www.wildravenadventure.com

   As for us, we had a nice easy day. woke up early, saw Jennifer and Pierre out and then Jim cleaned the decks. We spent the afternoon at the pool and then dock tails on the Lido deck with Randy and Sherri. Tomorrow we shop. Night  all.