Gary and I joined his sister Kathe at Canoecopia at the Alliant Center in Madison today. We couldn't believe the traffic and the cars in the parking lot until we realized it wasn't only the canoe show. In adjacent buildings there were golf and bicycle shows, too, plus another part of the parking area was set aside for those who were going to the anti-Governor Walker rally at the capitol. People parked there and caught buses carrying their signs of protest.
It won't be long before Walker is an ex-governor. Yesterday he set up a legal defense fund, but state statutes specifically state that he cannot do so unless he is under investigation for voter or electoral fraud. It looks like he is on his way to the court system.
But that wasn't on our mind today. We were collecting material for our summer tour around Lake Superior as well as looking at new equipment. We talked to the experts from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and of course, Ontario. We went to a symposium by Bill Mason's daughter Becky who demonstrated advanced Canadian canoeing. The week before, Gary showed me Bill Mason's movie, Path of the Paddle, in which he took his family canoeing on a river leading into Lake Superior. His daughter Becky was a little girl then. Now she is making her own canoeing movies, using techniques unavailable to her late father.
We learned a lot today but the crowds were more than I can stand.
We came home with stacks of maps, brochures, and posters to consider in the next three months.
On the way home, we stopped at Van Patten Road east of Shiocton and found Canada geese, coots, sandhill cranes and red winged blackbirds setting up their summer homes. Just east of Black Creek, tundra swans were paddling around in water. These birds arrived a week earlier than last year.
Seeing avian friends again is making me so happy so when I totaled the negatives and the pluses of the day, it was a positive day.
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