Along the Hudson

TOP: Imagine what an erection it had to be to get a house out of it

2nd: Kids baseball game monster. That's a full sized adult coaching in the front of the frame, a 12 year old in the back

3rd: Peter on beach stealing food from other people's kayaks

4th: Jack, Connie, and Scott discussing where connie would get locked in tomorrow

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I ended up only paddling for 4 days, but they were great fun. Each day brought new twists and turns, be it the weather (just missed several Tstorms), the tides (ebb means out...dooh!), the food (a cheese fondue over a caesar salad doesn't work all that well for someone lactose intollerant), or the massive diarrhea on my last day. (NOTE TO SELF: Get diarrhea on a hiking trip, not a kayak trip) It was all a good time.

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One evening Peter and I walked "up the hill" to Saugerties, a very cute little river town. We found a awesome local history bookstore, and then watched a little league baseball game. Well, that is after peter bought a half gallon of ice cream and a quart of root beer so he'd have a float at the game. The kids were amazing; these were 12 year olds, and the biggest kid on the field was probably 6'2" and 230. They were TONS better than me, and except for the fact that they knew how to win games, could probably have played for the Yankees. Well, and I don't think any of them were sleeping with Madonna yet...

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Every day as we're paddling along there would be shouts of "EAGLE"...didn't matter really if it was an eagle, a hawk, a seagull, or a woodpecker. They were all eagles to us. Night one we were invited to the Mayor's house in New Baltimore, a quaint little river town, for a cookout, homemade ice cream, and a live band. Great way to spend an evening after a tough paddle and the townsfolk could not have been more hospitable.

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The only bad story on the trip was when we were stopped to rest on a small river island. We were hanging at the beach (all 30+ kayaks of us plus the 2 BBBB kids boats), and some douchebag wheels right into the middle of our boats with his powerboat (probably that daddy bought for him). We knew he was pissed at humanity right from the start...the boat was obviously his only chance for sex, and with gas being $5/gallon, he couldn't afford to even take it out. He jumps out of his boats, walks up to our picnic table, and says "Get up, this is my table" Quote, unquote. On a public island....on state owned property...after he had just about run over our kayaks. He took some verbal abuse. Then, his douchebag friend pulled up in his cigarette boat (the REALLY loud ones) and made his own scene. In retrospect, not a great thing to do when the people running the show for us are all state employees, cops, etc. And, we had radios. I suspect he spent much of the rest of the day being checked by the local gendarmes. And, with any luck, he got BWI'd one his way back in that evening.

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"Gotta start carrying my .357 in the kayak now" Lumpy out