Mary and I had a good time at Canoecopia this year. In the end she ended up schlepping boats and surprisingly I ended up on a computer. I guess that was to be expected.

On Friday we were much too busy to be able to see much of the show other than by passing glance as you ran for a snack. The day was spent ordering kayaks for customers, having them shipped from the warehouse over to the Expo building, re-identifying them on the computer and then getting them loaded and tied on the customers car. On average a person would have to wait about an hour or two to get their boat from the time they paid for it. Which means ordering your boat should be the first task of the day. By evening were were pretty wiped out and happy to drag our sorry carcasses from the Exposition Center. A snow and Ice storm rolled into the city and made escape a dicey proposition. Luckily we were staying at a motel just block or so away.

In the evening we walked from our motel over to the Sheridan Inn to join our friends from the North East Sea Kayakers group. In just that 50 yard walk we were frozen and covered in wet snow and were glad to get inside. I noticed

Wayne Horodowich chatting at the bar when we came in so we were pretty sure we had found the “canoecopia” bar. We found everyone squashed in a corner and happily warmed up. I think we spent about 2 hours there until we called it a night and returned through the snow back to our room. ( 2 Heinekens and I was toast) I’m sure we were lousy company. I kept feeling my brain taking little cat naps in the middle of converstations. . . . By the way Alex, I really envy your new Valkyrie!

At one point I counted around 60+ boats sold in 20 minutes or so. Wow! Again we had little time to see the show itself other than in glimpses. My oddest moment was when I met a paddling friend who had blown up a picture of me in his kayak that he is selling and plastered it on his truck. Not that I minded, but it’s pretty weird to see a picture of yourself stuck to the door of a truck! By the end of the day we were just happy to be on highway 12 heading north back to Baraboo. I really think that was one of the hardest drives I have ever had. I needed duct tape to hold my eyelids open.

Sunday was our free day. We were up and back in Madison by the 10am opening bell. Our main goal was to finally go get a good look at the

VCP Qajariaq. Frankly we were surprised by it. It is certainly not a high volume Anas that we were expecting. See the Canoecopia Photo gallery. There had obviously been some major design changes along the way. In the end I would like to get out and paddle it, but I still wish they would build a proper Anas HV boat. The most talked about boat was the Outer-Island by Impex. The new Kevlar version was certainly the star of the show.

Next Sunday at 2 pm we are planning to go out for a “play day” at

Lake Columbia. A chance to test out my new waterproof camera! I can’t wait to get back on AND IN the water. Even if it is a little heated lake!

Maybe things will settle down and I can take a bit of time to put together a more useful post or two. Stay Tuned. . . .

-dm