60 percent of the way there! And I hadn’t even intended to paddle this week. In fact, I didn’t even pack my boards for my trip to Ohio. I cleaned all the paddling gear out of my car. And then at the last minute—really, I was ready to pull out of the driveway—I called my friend Paula and decided to strap it all to the top of the car.
When I got to town, Paula was updating me on all the big Cincinnati news, including the fact that Pure Romance might relocate to Indiana because the state was offering better tax incentives. And she said what would become the magic words: “It is only 30 minutes away.” The next thing she knows we’re looking up launch spots on Brookville and Whitewater Lakes, her daughter is drawing a sign for me, and we’re driving across the state line.
From the water we saw black vultures circling above; we read this warning about these birds—only found in Southern Indiana—“attacking” cars at the boat launch. So we weren’t really sure what we’d find we got back. But we survived the attack of the car-eating black vultures. We had a lovely time in a cove protected from the wind, with wildflowers, trees just starting to turn colors, heron and jumping fish.
(Unfortunately, I just realized that when I paddled No. 18 I promised Paula’s kids that I would bring boards and paddle with them next time I came to town and it didn’t happen. I see a used board in their future...)
Photo credit: Paula Andruss
According to Native-Land.ca, this is Osage land.