Funny things happen on an adventure like this…
I was walking back from a store in Titusville the other day and I was crossing the parking lot, when an elderly gentleman called out to me from his truck. “Are you a boater?” “Yes I am…how did you know” I replied. “You look like a boater” he replied. “What does a boater look like?” I had to inquire. “First, you are on foot walking, secondly, you have a backpack on and thirdly, you have boat shoes on.”
Ok now that we got that sorted out, John (the elderly gentlemen) asks me what I am doing and if I needed to go some where? “I am fine thanks”, I replied and explained I was just trying to figure out where the post office was…”jump in the truck, I am going there myself”, he replies (turns out it was 4 miles away).
So enroute to the post office, I learn that John is a boater as well and is very familiar with the loop. A penny drops in the back of my mind somewhere…have I seen John somewhere on our adventures? He asks about our looping adventure, what kind of boat we have and how is it all working out and of course, I ask him a similar set of reciprocal questions.
Before long, I learn that not only has John completed the loop 8 times, but on one occasion he and his son wanted to see how cheaply they could complete the loop…BINGO! I now figured it out, my book ... "BYOB (bring your own boat) – looping on a frugal budget." I am talking to Capt. John Wright, the 80 year old (?) author of BYOB, that I read as part of my preparation/research and yes, his picture was on the back cover. Capt. John is one of the god-fathers of looping. He told me when he first contemplated the loop, no one in his circle of Texas boaters was certain it could be done; certainly it had never been documented. Eventually in the course of John’s research, he found a retired Coast Guard officer who had been stationed up on the Great Lakes, who confirmed there was Chicago/Illinois River navigable link to the Mississippi, as well as the Hudson River/Erie Canal link (clearly there was no internet back in the early 70’s nor recreational boating of this scale).
I will try and shorten this already long winded story… so once I connected all the dots, John and I have a wonderful lengthy looper conversation. I eventually get back to the boat, only to tell Alison of this random meeting and inform her John wants to go out to lunch with us and come visit Catan. Couple days later, we have a lovely lunch with lots of good conversation and learning. Alison and I are delighted with our new acquaintance, not to mention John presented us with one of his new books. If you are at all curious, Capt. John has a great website www.captainjohn.org
Stay tuned for more adventures…
