About two hours into my late winter migration from Georgia, I was rear ended on a country road. The work van driver was watching ducks walking on the right side of the road as I made a left turn, with trailer and car lights blinking. In a few seconds, he had twisted my trailer and driven it into the back of my car, going through the back door and twisting it open. The window broke and some of my stuff fell out as I was accelerated across the other lane, through a sharp ditch and up a hill. By the time I stopped, my canoe, my favorite boat ever, was a pile of splinters and a few pieces of fiberglass/Kevlar.
I also lost my bicycle, bicycle rack and my car, together with some of its contents. (I had everything I owned with me. ) And I lost most of my vacation with friends and relatives due to the work of getting everything documented, and diagnoses and treatment for my neck which suffered soft injury damage. I also could not fully use binoculars and my camera.
But it was Swamp Sprite that will be irreplaceable. I have paddled hundreds of miles in her, including eight days on a solo paddle in the boundary waters. I've packed her for many canoe camping trips, including a catered trip for ten women and twice I've catered Thanksgiving for eight on a sandbar of the Neches River.
I remember using it to teach a young friend to paddle her kayak. I slid the seat all the way back and put her there with a double blade in her hand while I sat in front of her. She got the hang of it quickly as she had been paddling in the front of a tandem canoe since she was three. As she turned, she asked, "how do you turn this"? I replied, "Like you just did". After that, she was ready to paddle her own little solo kayak.
I could bring a pad, take out my seat, and just lie down and drift while bird watching, sitting up to navigate around river snags. Birds didn't recognize me as a danger and went about their business close to the boat.
This boat was only in production for maybe a decade. I bought her the first or second year it was it was in production. She was a free style canoe and I used a stroke that felt like stirring water, for mile after mile. After I sold my sea kayak, I still often went paddling with my kayaking friends, just using a double blade and easily keeping up with longer boats.
I chose to rehabilitate her twice with new gunnels and thwarts since I could not find a better boat new.
I'll be grieving for her for the rest of my life.
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| Grandson's first paddle |
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| I think this was on a paddle in North Carolina |
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| Sunday Sail on Lake Anahuac |
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| I looked like this in my first volunteer years |
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| Swamp Sprite and I loved Okefenokee because she lived in the Refuge boat house and I could jump in and take off/ I loved tis the feeling of being suspended between two worlds here. |
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| Not sure where this was but it is on some lake |
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| This was my second Thanksgiving that I catered the meal for eight friends on a sandbar |
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| At a migration stop at the Texas border last year |
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| This was a homecoming I had with friends at Caddo Lake one southward migration |
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| Canoe, bike, and trailer after we cleared the road |
I have been able to get a new car, thanks to a loan from my daughter against future payments. My car was not deemed even worth the entire down payment.
On a personal note, I still have to get several more medical exams on my neck, including an MRI. But I'm leaving for Colorado tomorrow and will have to start looking for medical help for the third time.
