Can you Canoe?

Many of you know that we had our first Grandfather, Fathers, Uncles, Brothers, Bros-In-Laws, Sons, and Cousins' canoe trip up here in NW Georgia last weekend. Dad (Gramps to some) had been planning/hoping to do this for some time now and it finally came to fruition. It was a close call with Mother Nature, but we only had a few sprinkles, some wind here and there and little sun... come to think of it, I'd call it "Pleasantly Overcast". It was a 17 mile Canoe trip on the Etowah River. 5 adults and 5 kids (better make that 10 kids). The put-in point was on hwy 411 half way between Cartersville and Rome, GA and the take-out point was at Grizzard Park on the East Rome Bypass (Hwy 1). There were a few rocky shoal rapids (not real rapids, but more turbulence than your average bathtub) which posed minor challenges as well as opportunities for some to get wet (tipped canoes... no injuries or drownings though)... Fun was had by all and we look forward to doing it again... I had a water proof disposable camera and have developed the pics to a disc and uploaded them to winkflash and photobucket... here are the links: http://sandm96.winkflash.com/ and http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w106/scottheckles/summer%2008/canoe%20trip/
but in the meantime, here's a few pics for proof: (if I'm not making sense, I'll read this later and edit it... I just got home from work and am in need of sleep)


A view from the Captain's Seat (Ethan and Stanton in front).

Who's the Captain in this picture?



"Where's the TP?"........ ........ ......... ........... Nothing to see here, move along, move along.


Sometimes we made a 4 canoe barge and just hung around.



Other times we stopped and emptied the water from the canoes (they tend to float better when they are IN the water and not with water IN them)


This kinda looks like a "Flood Rescue Picture... a la Hurricane Katrina" (BTW, That's the Birthday boy in the background... Happy Birthday Shane)


There was some kid swapping going on (just to keep things fresh... it was almost 6 hours in a canoe...)



Grizzly Adams was there



It was a dang good time... Maybe some day we'll be good enough sailors that we can bring along some Women-folks.... Sounds like a plan....
There are more pics on Winkflash and photobucket...
I'm tired and am quickly running out of steam.
Thanks for including us in your adventure Dad (if you ever read this)... let's do it again.
Later,
Scott