Pardon my tardiness.  My morning was undone by a series of misadventures not relative to this update.  Call it just another Monday.

Last weekend, as I do every Easter, I headed down to Pettit’s on the North Fork river for some camping and floating.  Alas, this year my vaunted floating partner Munkirs would not be joining me for the trip.  He cited a work conflict in his written report.  I’m inclined to believe that maybe he checked the weather forecast for the weekend and made a decision based off that, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt.  You don’t end a 27-year run of trips because of a few sprinkles.  After some hasty arrangements I ended up driving our car down there with Martin on Wednesday afternoon.  We made it down there around 5:00 that evening, with the first rain shower of the weekend arriving soon after that.  I actually ended up hunkered down in my car listening to the Royals game on the radio for the rest of the evening.

Thursday brought some passable weather, at least at the onset of the day.  After a nice breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches, Martin & I barged up with Zim and Chad, and Schuler and his neighbor for a trip down river.  (I am fairly certain Kurt’s partner had an actual name but it eludes me.  John maybe?)  We had a nice trip.  Lil’ chilly, but not too bad, and most importantly we stayed upright and it didn’t rain on us.  Several others canoes in our group couldn’t say the same;  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that many dumps.  By the time we got back to camp that evening Lost Brother Todd had dinner well under way.  We had BBQ that night, reheated from our efforts last weekend.  We way overdid it on the amounts, I think we could have fed the entire campground.  Better than running out I guess.  Shortly after dinner another monsoon rolled in, and it was back to the car for the Royals game again.

Friday morning we arose to a surprise;  Munkirs and Scotten rolling into camp at the unholy hour of 8:30.  OK 8:30 really doesn’t qualify as “unholy” but a little ciphering would show them leaving KC at 3:30 in the morning to arrive at that time.  Hmmm.  It just now occurred to me as I typed that, the sheer unlikelihood of the situation.  Remind me  to add the possibility that they spent the night in Cabool in a warm dry hotel to the list of other conspiracy theories swirling around the campfire.  At any rate, they showed up, throwing a little uncertainty into the day’s planning.  (Which, not remarkably, hadn’t really started yet anyway.)  Would I float with Munkirs?  Martin again?  Was Kurt going to float with Scotten?  Well, it all sort of turned into a moot point after they wouldn’t let us on the river due to the rising water levels.  If you could have only seen our sad little faces when we sauntered up to the office around noon, giddy with excitement for another day on the river, only to be somewhat derisively told, “I launched the last canoes for the day at 10:00 boys, no floating for you.”  What??!!!  How were we to know that??!!!  In their defense, they did sort of drive down to camp and tell us, “we aren’t letting any canoes on the river after 10:00,” or some similarly cryptic message.  Sheesh.  Classic case of miscommunication I guess.  Hey, breakfast wasn’t ready yet, what were we to do?  So, we sat around the campground all day, and honestly had a pretty good time of it, as we usually do.  And, yes, it did rain all night again.

Saturday we drove back home, and I spent the rest of the weekend trying to reorient myself into civilization, as well as chiseling the stench of camping off my body.  I really didn’t feel quite as beat up as usual, probably because I only floated one day.  I went ahead and threw some pictures up on here, so I am ahead of the game this year.  Apparently though, I may have been a bit too hasty in my efforts;  Donette has already pointed out a few unintentional anomalies which may require subsequent editing.  I’ll see if anybody else notices the same and go from there.  Easter Sunday Donette and I went to Stroud’s for dinner.  I haven’t been there in a long time, although she goes there with some regularity without me.  That place just isn’t my “thing” I guess.  Matter of fact I’d never been to the new location.  Turned out it was quite nice.  One of my big gripes, the ridiculously long wait, was a non-factor and we were seated right away.  I have to say the food was better than I remember too, it was very good.  Now my other little quibble, that they are just a tad pricey for fried chicken and potatoes, was still in full effect, but what can ya’ do.  I guess it was a holiday, live it up a bit.