Monday Paddlin' Blues

I got up this mornin'
Stumbled outta bed
Drove to work on the Beltline
But had a kayak in my head
I got the bluuuuuesss....
I got the Monday mornin' paddlin' bluuuuuuuessss....

Today was especially Mondayesque. Don't know why, maybe it's a lack of time off and a gorgeous morning combined with the knowledge that I was destined to sit at a desk most of the day and do all the stuff that business owners have to do but would rather not.

Sam Crowley is in town, doing some contract work for Rutabaga, teaching future folks how to be instructors. Pretty cool, as Sam and I were in the same ACA IDW* course back in 1995 in Bayfield. Sam went on to be an IT (Instructor Trainer) and teaches all over the Midwest. The shame is that we see Sam at least twice a year, he stays at our house, and yet we have paddled together exactly once since 13 years ago.

Today we fixed that. I took off from work early, and Sam and I drove up to the Wisconsin Dells. Known as the place "Where Nature and Fun Collide" (no kidding), the Dells are best know for this, but there is some lovely scenery—and it goes unnoticed by most of the folks who visit. Only kayaks can slip into these holes in the limestone.

We only paddled an hour and a half, but it was 90 minutes more than I would have paddled otherwise. The Dells have some lovely grottoes and rock formations, and the early greens that are so bright The tour boats were mostly pleasant and polite, giving us a wide berth. One huge jet boat was emblazoned with huge red letters across the side—THE WISCONSIN DELLS EXPERIENCE. That's funny, because their experience could have been had in any body of water, including but not limited to the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District holding ponds. It was all about the speed and splashing and stuff.

Anyway, the jet boats created some nice tasty wakes when they blasted by us. They didn't even slow down the second time they passed us, a nice compliment in a certain way, and we got to surf in the wakes they left behind.

I think we had a Wisconsin Dells experience. Maybe I'm a snob but I think our experience was of a better quality.

*For those who are not familiar with the alphabet soup that is the American Canoe Association, IDW stands for Instructor Development Workshop.