We had a great time yesterday, but I sure am sore this morning!

Yesterday Terry and I, along with Ron and Brenda Speidel, floated the St. Joseph River from Mottville, Michigan to Bristol, Indiana, a distance of about 7 or 8 miles on the water. I said float, but the water was so calm that we paddled for much of the trip.

You may recall that I sold my first kayak and replaced it with a different model, from Fluid Fun in Bristol, and that after one paddling excursion that lasted about an hour, I quickly realized that I had chosen the wrong boat. The good folks at Fluid Fun are very dedicated to their customers and to the sport, so they allowed me to trade it in on a different model that fit me much better. This was the inaugural trip in the new boat.

The launch in Mottville is very nice, and the river was flowing along nicely, allowing us to just dip our paddle blades into the water now and then to keep the front of our boats pointed straight. In no time at all we were paddling under the historic Mottville Bridge. Built in 1922, the bridge is the longest concrete camelback bridge in the United States.

I think the St. Joseph River must have one of the largest populations of turtles in the world. We saw then everywhere. Sunning on logs, swimming along, and slipping off the bank into the water as we passed by. This log held eleven, and we saw even more on other logs during our trip! There were also plenty of birds; Canadian geese, swans, blue heron, and ducks.

In some places the river was very wide, and in others it narrowed down, as shown in this view from Miss Terry’s perspective. The river is pretty shallow, not more than a couple of feet deep most of the way, and so shallow in some places that I got grounded on the gravel bottom and Terry had to grab the front of my kayak and give it a couple of strung tugs to get me moving again. (On dry land, she sometimes accomplishes this with a couple of strong kicks to my hind end.)

We put in at 2:30 p.m. and the trip took us just over three hours. The current that had carried us along early in our float died out, and we spent most of the trip paddling. I sure felt it in my back and shoulders by the time we arrived at our take out point in Bristol! I bet if I did that two or three times a week, I’d probably fit in my kayak better, and maybe not get stuck in shallow water so often!

On another topic, several blog readers have asked me to repeat the information on the veteran’s discount offered by Verizon Wireless. Take your DD 214 (discharge) to any Verizon company store (not a franchise store), and ask for discount code #117818. You will get a 15% discount off your Verizon bill, before taxes. I submitted my paperwork in June, and the discount started showing up in my next month’s bill.

Another company that treats veteran’s right is Lowes. Somebody had told me a while back that they offer a 10% veteran’s discount, and last week when we purchased the handles for our new desk/workstations, I remembered it as we were checking out. The young lady at the counter took a quick peek at my V.A. medical card and I got my discount! How very nice! You can bet I’ll do my shopping at Lowes anytime I can in the future!

Thought For The Day – Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to us; peace is our gift to each other.

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When you are my size, which is called Dwarf Portly by the fashion industry, you don’t go skinny dipping. But yesterday I did go chunky dunking!

My buddy Ron Speidel declared that it was a good day for kayaking, so we headed for Bristol, a small community a few miles from Elkhart Campground, and launched our boats in the St. Joseph River from the Public Access Site at Hermance Park.

I quickly discovered that the Wilderness Tarpon kayak I had just acquired did not fit me nearly as well as the same model boat I paddled last winter in Texas. They changed the seat in the newer models, and the new seat was miserable for me. The seat would not stay upright, and I found myself paddling from a reclining position that was impossible to deal with. When we finally managed to get the seat adjusted and fixed into position, the frame was digging into my spine.

I paddled over to the bank and got out of the boat to try and adjust the seat again, and when I climbed out, I did not notice several submerged logs which were covered in moss and very slippery. As soon as my foot landed on one of the logs, I found myself on my butt in about two feet of river water, with the kayak turned over next to me!

Everybody got a laugh out of that, and while Miss Terry and Brenda wisely stayed out in the middle of the river away from the danger zone, I pulled the boat back over onto its bottom. Ron paddled over to hold my boat stable while I worked on the seat and then tried to climb on board.

Can you believe that I slipped a second time, and capsized the boat again? Miss Terry grabbed her camera to record the incident for posterity (or to have something to show my life insurance company), but by then I was back on my feet, nothing injured except for my dignity.

Ron, to his credit, never gave me any grief. He just sat there with that same look on his face my dad used to get when my weird cousin came to visit.

I finally got back into the boat and we resumed our paddle. Ron and Terry quickly pulled ahead of Brenda and I, and Terry stopped to take a quick photo of us as we brought up the rear.

She also spotted these big turtles sunning on a log in the river and took their picture before they slipped into the water. Do you think maybe they wanted to get out of the way before I fell out again, and landed on one of them?

Paddling upriver against the current was hard work, but floating back down to the park with the current carrying us along was very nice. I told Brenda it was like having cruise control.

Now, after reading this, you may think that kayaks are unstable. They are not. I am unstable! Anyone who knows me will tell you that. Once when I was overseas I was walking point on a patrol on a steep mountain trail, and my captain, knowing how clumsy I am, said “I sure hope he doesn’t stumble on a trip wire (to a mine).” One of my buddies replied “Hell, sir, let’s just be happy if he doesn’t fall off the damn mountain!”

With our paddling done for the day, we returned to Fluid Fun, where I explained my problems with the new boat. They were very accommodating and let me return it for a Native Watercraft Manta Ray, the same model kayak Miss Terry has, except in the Angler edition. I have paddled Terry’s boat a couple of times, and found it comfortable. She has loved it since she got it, and hopefully I’ll stay inside this one!

Thought For The Day – Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get

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We took a break from moving yesterday to get caught up on other chores.  We had several orders to fill and get mailed out, so that was the first order of business.

Last year we signed up with Stamps.com to be able to print our own postage online, and we have found that the small monthly fee is well worth it to be able to avoid standing in the long lines at the post office. We just weigh the envelopes and packages, enter the customer’s name and address, print out a label, stick it on, and drop the orders in the nearest mailbox.

Then I had to track down a missing book order that was returned to us by the post office. As it turns out, the address that came with the customer’s original order was incorrect. If you are ordering anything online with a credit or debit card, please be sure you specify the correct shipping address if it is different from the billing address on the card. Otherwise it creates delays in getting your items to you, and costs us extra to mail it out a second time if it gets returned to us.

All of that was too much like work, so we decided we needed some fun. Fluid Fun, to be exact. As I mentioned a while back, I wanted to replace my Ocean Kayak Angler model with a different boat that fits me better. Last winter when we were on the Texas Gulf Coast, I paddled a Wilderness Systems Tarpon kayak in Corpus Christi Bay, and really liked the way it handled and the room I had in it.

When we first started kayak shopping, we stopped at Fluid Fun Canoe and Kayak Sales in Bristol, Indiana. Even though we didn’t buy our boats from them, we were very impressed with their selection, prices, and most of all, their customer service. They are located right on the St. Joseph River and let us paddle several boats to get a feel for them, even though we told them we were not in a position to purchase anything at that time. These folks live and breathe canoes and kayaks, and they gave us a lot of valuable information to help us in our shopping and eventual purchase. I told Terry then that if I ever bought another boat, I would be sure to see what they had to offer.

Last week I sold the Ocean Kayak, and after leaving the post office yesterday, we drove out to Fluid Fun, where they had just finished unloading a shipment of over 90 new boats. Owner Matt Streib gave me a great deal on a Tarpon 120 Angler model, which I can’t wait to get into the water.

We have had yet another cold snap in northern Indiana, but hopefully it will warm back up in time to get some paddling in before we have to leave here for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally in a couple of weeks. If you are interested in a canoe or kayak, and are anywhere near the Elkhart area, it will be well worth your time to visit Fluid Fun and see what they have to offer. 

Speaking of the Gypsy Gathering, I have updated the seminar schedule, and I think it’s about finished, with maybe two or three last minute additions to come. Check it out at the rally link by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The rally starts in less than a month, so be sure to get your registration in and put us on your travel schedule. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Back at Elkhart Campground, we needed to make a trip to the dump station. It took a few minutes to remember where all of the switches and controls are in the Winnebago to get the slide rooms in and the HWH leveling jacks up, but soon enough we were able to go take care of that chore.

When we pulled back into our site, it was so nice to push a button and let the automatic leveling jacks do their thing, push two more buttons and deploy the slides, and push a couple more and have the rooftop Wineguard TV dish find the satellite and be watching Dish Network in just a couple of minutes. I can see that I’m going to get spoiled real quick in this motorhome!

Thought For The Day – Be who you are and say what you feel. Because those that matter don’t mind, and those that mind don’t matter.

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Yesterday was one of those days where it didn’t seem to me that we were all that busy, but looking back, I guess we were!

In the morning I printed off several of our booklets to fill orders that came in with our last mail delivery, which was waiting for us when we returned here yesterday, and Terry got them all packaged. Then we ran to the post office to mail them out, and stopped at the bank to make a deposit.

With those chores behind us, we drove ten miles or so to the small town of Bristol, where we stopped at Fluid Fun, a canoe and kayak dealer that stocks the most impressive line of boats we’ve seen anywhere in the country. I want to replace my Ocean Kayak Angler model with a different boat. It’s a great kayak, and I’ve only had it in the water a few times, but it just doesn’t fit me well. I found a couple of models that are better suited to my needs, and will probably stick my boat out in front of the bus today and see if anybody here in the RV park is looking for a good fishing kayak.

While we were in the area, we stopped and checked out a couple of public launch sites on the St. Joseph River for our next paddling outing. One was at a small park right in Bristol, with a good parking area and not one, but two, boat ramps.

When we left Bristol, we stopped at Phoenix Commercial Paint to visit with owner Michelle Henry. She had a Class C motorhome in the shop that she was in the process of stripping down for a new paint job. Michelle gave us a tour of the place, and explained how paint is mixed to create custom colors for the beautiful full body paint jobs she produces.

It is amazing how a custom paint job can transform a dated looking RV into a rolling work of art, and even more amazing that Michelle can turn out such quality work for half of what some places charge.

What’s the secret? Hard work, being willing to do a lot of the work herself instead of hiring expensive help, and a love of what she is doing. You can bet when we find the right coach to replace our bus, we’ll be talking to Michelle about a paint job!

Back at the bus, I actually did some work! A company called Pineapple Publications contacted me a while back and wanted to use some of the material from my Publishing4Profit website for a new book on self-publishing they are bringing out this summer. That led to an interview with the author, Christy Pinheiro, which in turn led to an offer to be listed as co-author of the book.

Christy sent me a copy of the final manuscript and asked me to give it a final proofing before it goes to print. So I spent the rest of the day and most of the evening doing that. The Step-By-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit! will be available in just a few weeks, and I’m looking forward to seeing the book when it is published.

Speaking of books and publishing, several readers have written to ask me what I think of my Amazon Kindle, now that I’ve had it a while. Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. I love the concept of the Kindle. It’s a great product, especially for RVers who have to consider the weight of books if they do a lot of reading. You can store hundreds of books digitally and carry a complete library in your Kindle. And having seen the new model Kindles, I’m glad I have the first generation model. It just feels better to me. But to be honest, I hardly use it.

Part of that is because just about the time I got the Kindle, Terry’s cousin, Carolyn Henley, who is about to become a fulltime RVer, gave us several big boxes of once read books that we have been working our way through in the last few months. With that much reading material, there just wasn’t much reason to buy anything.

Also, as convenient as it is to order a book online and download it to the Kindle, we just love prowling around both new and used bookstores. Terry and I can spend hours in a bookstore. Sometimes we buy a lot of books, and just as many times, we don’t buy a thing. Either way, we still have a good time, and we look forward to finding new bookstores to explore wherever we travel.

Thought For The Day – I wish the buck stopped here. I could use a few.

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Happy Fathers Day to all of the dad’s out there. Be sure to call your father and tell him you love him. My own dad has been gone for over twenty years, and I sure do miss him. He was always my biggest fan, and he always encouraged me to follow my dreams. He gave me my love of books and of travel, and from the time I was old enough to understand what he was saying, he always told me that I could do anything I wanted to in the world, if I just put my mind to it and worked hard enough to make it happen. I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it had not been for his influence on my life.  

The first order of business for me yesterday was a haircut. I had gotten so shaggy that I was in danger of being in violation of the local leash laws. So Miss Terry cut my hair and trimmed my beard, and I look almost human again, or at least as close as I ever get to it. Anytime Terry is cutting my hair, we always have somebody walk past and ask if they can be next. I guess if times ever get too hard, we can set up a mobile barbershop.

With that chore done, I worked on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal most of the day. Our good friends Tom Owen and Diane Rojewski came to visit a little after 5 p.m., and took us out to dinner. Tom and Diane are two of our favorite people in the world, and we always enjoy spending time with them.

The weather has cleared up, at least for now, and we’re looking forward to getting the new issued printed and mailed so we will have some time to play outside. I get cabin fever if we’re stuck inside too many days in a row.

With the weather warming up, we’re really itching to get our kayaks in the water. The lazy St. Joseph River winds its way through this area and has some good places to launch, so I know we’ll be out on the water the first chance we get.

This time of year in the Midwest, we always have to get used to the fact that it stays light outside until well after 9 p.m. We’ll be busy working on some project and not realize how much time has passed until we glance at a clock and discover it is close to 10 p.m. and we still have not had dinner!

Thought For The Day – Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

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