15th State Paddled–New York (Sept 25, 2010)

L-R: Rich, Ellie, Matt, Chris, and Andy at Montgomery Village Swimming Pool, Montgomery Village, MD.

Back in the 1970s, I shared a house with another single mother who had three children.  I had two.  Their initials spelled CREAM.  We called them the “CREAM of the crop.”  Chris, Richard, Elle, Andy, and Matt.  I caught up with Matt in New York… and he took me to visit Niagara Falls.  Wonderful.

More text to follow.

Matt and Cherrish and son.

Matt is an avid “birder” and kayaker so next day he took me out to one of his favorite spots.  Beautiful day, great company, fantastic paddle.

I loved this launch facility.  Smooth.

On of the most fun paddles yet… Matt made it so.  Loved his license plate PAPAMATT.

Cherish pumping gas for me.  What a doll she is.  Matt, you done good!!!!

14th State Paddled–Michigan (for real–Sep 5, 2010

Had a nice visit with my former mother-in-law and brother-in-law… and he knows the Detroit River, been boating all his life.  So got good instructions for my Michigan paddle.

Jim Bailey and his mom, Peg Bailey on Gross Isle, MI.

I launched the kayak in my mother-in-law’s back yard on a canal.

Labor Day Weekend party-goers… gather in this little cove… to PARTEEE!  (have a video but can’t figure out how to load it)

There was suppose to be a water way cutting through all this growth, but I didn’t find it and got stuck, ending up stowing my paddle and pulling myself through with my arms and hands.

Finally I broke through and was greeted by a pair of white swans.

On the way back along Gross Isle, I saw herons, cranes, etc.  Awesome.  Hard to believe all this beauty is right there by Detroit.

So, I did, for sure, kayak Michigan.  And it was wonderful spending time with my delightful mother-in-law, Peg Bailey.  We spent hours going through the Bailey Family photos and I scanned as many of them as I could for my sons and grandchildren.  What a treasure, both the photos and Peg.

14th State Paddled–Michigan (sort of)

I was surprised to see how beautiful “up-state” Michigan was…. a very enjoyable drive.   More text to be added…

I decided to try and kayak here… but note the very large flag blowing straight out… it stayed that way most of the time.

My expression reflects how I felt about the conditions.  I put in from ramps in a harbor…. and paddled out to the mouth of the harbor… where it goes into the Lake.  The wind was strong and the waves were high.  It just seemed foolish to go farther when I was alone and no one had my schedule.  So, chicken Swankie turned back to shore.

I waved to some folks on a boat… saying I was kayaking all 50 states and asked if the Harbor could count as Michigan????

Met these two jetskiers… and told them it was really choppy out there… and they gleefully said, “Oh, good!” and off they went.

Oh, well, I know Michigan has more water…. and I’m heading toward Detroit.