Fun day paddling down the river

Today Casey and I had a chance to canoe down the Fox River in the Mid-American Canoe Race.  This the second year that we have done it and I hope there are many years to come.  During the day Casey mentioned to me that a few years down the line we will be racing with Josh and Charlie.  That sounds like one of the coolest things in the world to me!

We started our day at my house to load the canoe up on the van and drive up to the starting line in St. Charles.  After dropping the boat off we drove back home and walked to the finish line which is conveniently located about 3 blocks from our house.  From there a shuttle took us back up to St. Charles.  I don't know if Casey and I had our math wrong on travel time or if we are just more efficient in getting around but we got to the starting line about an hour before our start time. 

We watched some of the other teams go off and picked up some things to do and things not to do.  There was a team of two guys who both looked to be about twenty years old and most likely were entering the water for their first time ever.  They crashed into the shore twice, switched seats once and almost tipped multiple times all in just the first 50 yards.  It was hilarious painful to watch.

The best part of the race is a tough call between two times.  The first would be when we came upon the Red Oak Observatory Deck and had our wives and kids cheering for us.  It was so awesome to hear their little voices carrying so far over the water.  They were so happy.  The second place was the finish line where we were cheered on to the finish line by our number one fans once again.

We are the guys in the white boat not strategically blocking the middle of the river

Overall we did pretty well.  We beat our time from last year by a minute or two.  All in all it was a good day. We came in 10th in the field of the Men's Competitive division (out of 27). I am very proud of that.  We narrowly edged the guys that took 11th place by three-tenths of a second.  I'm glad our fans were cheering so much for us at the finish line!

Trying to look good and finish strong in front of our fans!

Walking up this hill a lady asked me, "You guys been doing some canoeing?"  I had about twelve possible smart-aleck comments that I wanted to say back to her.  Two guys just walking down the street carrying a canoe. 

After the race we had to walk the canoe back home.  It always makes for an interesting time carrying a canoe through city areas that aren't used to seeing a canoe!

What a great day!