Uncommon Adventures blog

Coming back into the States and slamming gears into the high speed, instant messaging, express lane, espresso charged, text crazed, fast food, speed date, multi-tasked, super-sized, midnight madness sale mentality just makes me want to hug myself and crawl into a corner and rock back and forth.  Re-entry shock of flying is a bit rough on a person. Driving down was slower, but you were always wholly there.
Flying back has taken me nearly a week to catch up with myself…in time to climb into my other car and drive the Interstates to Charleston, SC for the 19th annual East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival. I’ve missed two, but I had good excuses. One the way, I got to stop and treat my young friend Adrienne to dinner.  A is a rodeo paddler who managed 9th in the Worlds in Prague last summer and took the long boat competition on the Green River last summer.  She now lives on the Green just outside Hendersonville, NC and practices a lot.  She’s almost 21…I’ve known her since she was 8…look out paddling world!  Driving through the cool mountains and seeing spring unfold in the colors of redbud and dogwood is always a rite of spring for me.  Coming into Charleston, wafts of honeysuckle and jasmine on the breeze, I’m embraced by the feeling of a family reunion.  Dear clients from trips, park staff, volunteers and the other contributors who all gather here each year have become fast friends bonded by this terrific festival.  There are many layers to the experience that involves very little sleep, some good humor and even better drink. The sweetest parts are usually the late nights mixing new personalities with old friends like Nigel Foster, Ken Fink (and dear Joan) and Russell Farrow. We toasted those who have come and gone and checked in on others and told many stories…several of them true.  Hearing the inside tale of the IR Vacation to Hell that Russell and Team Sweetwater “won” last year. Like the other VRH trip the previous year, the trip planners made sure the trip had about as much reality to it as, well, reality TV.  Faced with a decision to call for a boat extraction or face waiting a month for freeze up (on a week’s food supply) to hike out, Team Sweetwater made the only non-suicidal decision.  Krakauer probably doesn’t need fodder for a new book anyway.
Is there anything better than sipping tequila, playing music and singing with the best guys in the guys in your world?  Only one thing…bring someone new to the pack in. I’d invited a lovely young guide from Kodiak to bring her guitar and share in the fun and get an incredibly sensitive guitar lesson from Russell, who used to be a rock star.  Only later did Casey learn that her favored demo boat was one of Nigel’s designs and that Russell used to make his living on-stage with the Smithereens.  It was a perfect snapshot of in-the-moment living. Check out Smithereens on I-tunes and for Russell’s latest band, Sisemore.  They make a great soundtrack for the multi media program Russell made of the VTH trip.  Encourage Russell to make a film…he’s good at it…sweetwater.com.