Riverman An American Odyssey by Ben McGrath

This tale took me by surprise. It’s a non-fiction modern mystery about an unconventional traveler who’s lasting impact on those he meets along his way becomes poignantly clear.

Dick Conant had paddled his canoe thousands of miles along American waterways until by providence, on Labor Day 2014 he skirted past author Ben McGrath’s Hudson River home in Piermont, New York.

McGrath, like dozens he would come to meet, found something about Dick Conant and his self-directed quest to be unforgettable. They met a few times before Conant continued on his latest endeavor; to canoe from Canada to Naples, Florida.

The book includes a map of the many waterways Dick Conant navigated throughout his life, as well as photos of the man and his own journals. During his exploits, he took on the famous and the lesser known bodies of water and didn’t limit himself to just rivers. He traveled The Ohio, The Allegheny, The Mississippi, The Yellowstone, The Missouri, The Snake, The Holston River, The Timberidge River, The Mobile River, Lake Pontchartrain, The Gulf InterCoastal Waterway, Matagorda Bay, and ultimately The Hudson and Chesapeake Bay.

There is a quiet power to the story and I’m able to imagine the same was true of Dick Conant.

 

Rivers and Travel Highs Converge at Harper’s Ferry WV

Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia was a highlight of a spring roadtrip – a place with the perfect blend of history and scenery at the  confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.  It offers a unique 2-for-1 deal in that the town and Harper’s Ferry National Park are actually indistinguishable. 

At the base of ‘The Lower Town” sits ‘The Point’ where the mingled waters of the two mountain rivers flow along the boundaries of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.  Driving in this entire area is a dizzying game of automobile pinball as you bounce across state line to state line in a crazy game of geographic boundaries.  Harper’s Ferry is actually a quaintly* compact place, tightly hugging the hills and yet, the stocky B&O Railroad tunnel gawks right out of the mountain above and bringing the Amtrak line straight from Washington D.C.  Abolitionist John Brown’s Fort is also a sturdy thing to behold, hunkered proudly at the confluence point in the Lower Town, as if to dare the rivers and hills to make it budge after all of these years.

*”Quaintness” should only be expected during “low” seasons. Due to the narrow, steep streets and lack of space for parking, the place has to be an over-crowded trap during spring break, summer and fall color season!   Hence the Park’s need for the “official” National Park center above the town. It’s only there to shuttle crowds down the hill to John Brown’s Fort and the other historic sites. Or, take the train from Pittsburgh or DC.  A final tip, dining options were limited.

A natural spring runs through The Rabbit Hole Gastropub.

One of the few open restaurants in early springtime, The Rabbit Hole offered scenic  dining on the deck overlooking town & railway station.  It’s almost “as old as the hills” when you realize that there is a visible mountain spring running through the main dining room.

Another kind of confluence is the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters & Visitor Center just above town. Spend a little time in the office and you’ll hear the stories of through-hikers, day-hikers and meet people from all over the world.  We hiked straight out of the trail office towards the rivers and alongside places where Thomas Jefferson walked.

ATC Headquarters, Harpers Ferry WV

A short walk up those same hills brought us to our suite in a beautifully restored house across the road from the ATC headquarters. Perfect homebase for your visit.  https://www.potomacadventure.com/

Happy Trails!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Boys In the Boat by Daniel James Brown

image from the bibliophage.com

A non-fiction story that could have been penned by script writers from back in the day. Let’s see, first we’ll set the scene during the start of the Great Depression. Add in a bunch of mostly working class/downright poor heroes to compete for college degrees and championships in a wildly popular upper class gentleman’s sport and oh, yes add an epic showdown with Adolph Hilter!

The University of Washington Rowing Team’s pride and ongoing rivalry with University of California Berkeley is just the beginning of the athletic triumphs the author Daniel James Brown brings to life. I had no idea of the immense popularity of rowing in those days. Throngs of folks lined shorelines, boarded boats and even rode trains that traveled back and forth along the race course to watch their teams compete. And the fervor seemed to be more intense the farther east you went – all the way to Poughkeepsie NY and back to Oxford and Cambridge for what they simply refer to as “The Boat Race.”

There is plenty of time taken to describe the craftsmanship that went into making the racing shells, the hardships many of the men endured, and the intense competition to be one of the nine chosen for the Varsity boat. All done while the reader more and more anxiously waits for the next race to begin!

No spoilers here, however as each race takes place the intensity and pressure to succeed increases. The author quietly fills us in on the enormous efforts taking place in Germany as the Third Reich wakes up to the idea that the Berlin Olympic Games could serve as the perfect backdrop to fool the world for just a little longer. The boys in the University of Washington boat certainly have something to prove to the Nazis, to the rest of the world, and mostly to themselves.

 

 

 

God’s Majesty and Purple Mountains shared by Jan Oden

 We just returned from a whirlwind week in God’s country.  I have to say that I’m glad we waited until now to see Grand Tetons and Yellowstone…because each of us appreciated it so fully. I feel sorry for atheists of the world….you can’t possibly not believe that God had everything to do with the spectacular beauty that we witnessed (in every direction!!).

Our first two nights were spent in a 2 br condo in West Yellowstone…great location, close to the park. Then next 2 nights we moved south to Jackson Lake Lodge on Jackson Lake in the Grand Teton Natl Park. We toured as much of Yellowstone as we could on the 4th of July. On one stop after seeing Old Faithful geyser, we pulled over to enjoy the scenery of the mountains and the Yellowstone river, and lo and behold this beautiful bald eagle soars over the river right below us…all four of us just looked at each other and had an emotional moment of silence, just being thankful for this amazing country of ours.

All day Sunday and a good part of Monday were spent touring Yellowstone’s magnificent scenes AND animals…including a mother grizzly and her 2 cubs…several bison (2 very close up!)…elk, mule deer, prong horn sheep….Julia and Dylan would go wild every time we saw any wildlife… and we saw plenty! We headed to Grand Tetons to take in Jackson Lake, Jenny Lake (we can’t help but be drawn to lakes after growing up with Wisconsin and Michigan lakes in our lives)…absolutely stunning views.

We thought about taking a raft trip on the Snake River, but decided to do that next year instead. So we took a dinner boat tour on Jackson Lake overlooking the Tetons last Tues. night. The guide told us some great stories about the area and then we boated over to Elk Island, disembarked, walked over to picnic tables set up by a campfire and had a cowboy dinner of grilled steaks and lake trout, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, cowgirl beans, fresh salad, biscuits and apple cobbler for dessert, yummy!! Then we hiked up a trail on the island to an overlook of sunset on the lake.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing these wonders of our America, do. You will not be disappointed!

Just finished…Treasure Island

Enjoyed reading my first Robert Lewis Stevenson novel, Treasure Island. What a bright, lively story! Nothing overworked or old-fashioned- which I confess I half expected. The classics are classics for a reason.  I was hooked immediately when old sea captain, Billy Bones mysteriously takes up residence in the seaside inn  Jim Hawkin’s family runs. He rants, he raves, he drinks rum, and he’s gripped with fear of The Black Spot! The pirating and adventures soon move out to sea! Long John Silver is alive – and both terrible and irresistible to young Jim Hawkins.  A fine, fantastic yarn, “And you may lay to that!”, as Long John would say!  Do I like it even more because it is a story with a map? Of course!

“Life on The Mississippi”, Mark Twain

Be good and you will be lonesome. Mark Twain

Just finished…I found this book enjoyable, but it lacks in the sharp humor and hilarity that makes “The Innocents Abroad” a favorite of mine. Life on the Mississippi is detailed in the telling of how and why Samuel L. Clemens chose to sneak aboard a steamboats, and work his way to become a river boat pilot. He truly loves the endless variety of people, scenery and extraordinary stories that flow along with the waters of the great river. In its 60 {Chapter I – LX} Chapters, Twain creates detailed chapter titles and subtitles to help us track his journey and musings: Here are some highlights!
Ch. I-II – Some Geography. Some History. It’s all good.
Ch. III Boy Stowaway – clearly the seeds of Huckleberry Finn were planted here.
Ch. XI A Somnabulist Pilot – Spooky and still believable.
Ch. XVI Racers and Racing – The boats steal the show.
Ch. XVII Gambler – What would a Riverboat be without a good Gambler story?
Ch. XX Thunderous Crash – Here you will read the heartbreaking irony of how Twain’s little brother Henry’s fate was tied so closely and tragically with Twain’s own.
Ch. XXI and Ch. XLV The War Begins – “All day long you hear things “placed” as having happened since the waw; or du’in the waw; or befo’ the waw….”
Ch. XXXI – The Dead House. The Hidden Money. A tale of dark treachery – and they sound like Hardy Boy’s titles.
Ch. XXXIX – Ice as Jewerly – Describes an early ice-factory in Natchez, MS!
Ch. XVL – Cock Fighting – A “must-have” in this kind of book.
Ch. XLVII – The Gilded Age – The title of one of Twain’s later books.
Ch. LIII – Boyhoods’ Pranks Again, Tom and Huck were really born right here.
Ch. L: Describes how he came to use his nome de plume after the “real Mark Twain”, a Captain Isaiah Sellers a highly revered old riverman, used to use it when writing notes about the river’s condition. Samuel Clemens mocked Sellers in his first published newspaper article. Clemens makes a sad apology to the man here as maturity makes feel the sting of his words, but it is sadder because the hurt was done.

So, there you have it! Stay tuned for my Samuel L. Clemens Book Chronology because I reckon I’m gonna read ’em all. How can you resist a man who once said, “Be Good and You Will be Lonesome.”