July 28 Manistee paddle and BBQ, almost
Published on 7/28/2010
On July 28 members Gail Hastings, Becky Jones, Tracie Lord, Marlene and Marv Puska,Tom Wells and guests, Bob and Ann Pentland and Mary Beth Lepczyk departed Cameron Bridge for George Freeman's cottage about 15 minutes past Long's Livery.
It was a beautiful day, the river was high and non-challenging. Our stated objective was to take out at George's, have a bar-b-que/picnic, load up our gear and head for home.
Unbeknownst to the female portion of the group, the river splits shortly before Long's and if one stays to the right, one goes past Long's and George's, and must continue to M-72, about an extra hour and half. There is a sign on the river which points to the left for Long's, but the ladies, who were traveling together, didn't see it, and if they had, wouldn't have known of its importance. The men met at George's, immediately noticed there were no women, realized what must have gone wrong and went down
to M-72 to wait for the inevitable.
It didn't take too long for the ladies to realize there was a problem; they found a couple on a dock with a cell phone and a call to one of the men got everyone on the same page. Everyone got together about 2 hours later than planned; a cold dinner was shared by everyone at George's instead of a bar-b -que and a new page was added to the memory book.
Respectfully submitted,
Tom Wells