The second weekend in June found our family on the road to Wisconsin to attend a high school graduation party for my nephew, Alex. He is the oldest of my sister’s four children. Sis married a fine guy named Kelly from Wisconsin and settled down in a town by the name of Stanley which is smaller yet than Eaton, but how she wound up there in the first place is a story for another day.

On Saturday morning, we were able to help set up for the party which took place in their front yard. We stocked cookies and bowls of food, made sure there was plenty of cake cut and set out on plates, and just generally kept busy helping out wherever. We already knew a few of the attendees and made a few more friends along the way.

One fellow we met works at Reit’s (say ‘rights’) Garden Center, where their slogan is, Plants Grown “Reit.” Alex worked at the Garden Center and he knows the value of a dollar. When the guy mentioned that there was a free canoe just down the road from the Garden Center, we knew that adventure had to be just around the corner. Our whole family knows the value of conservation, and we’re not too proud to re-use something from the side of the road.

After the party was over and we had everything cleaned up and packed away until the next graduation, we were sitting around discussing our plans for the evening. Alex’s Aunt Laura (sister to my brother-in law Kelly) really wanted to go to the city park while she was in town. The topic of driving by the mystery canoe was also brought up. Someone asked Laura what our plans were, and she said something like, “I don’t know, but it involves a park and a free canoe.” We headed out from the house in separate vehicles, with two of them headed straight to the park while we took Alex with us to give directions to the free canoe.

We drove by a trucking company where the free canoe sat out by the road, on top of an old truck cap, also free. It was a pretty blue fiberglass canoe, made right in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. I was having visions of a quiet Sunday afternoon paddling a canoe across our pond back here in Ohio while my wife, Cathy, was having visions of all the bad things that could happen with a canoe strapped on top of a minivan on the long road trip home from central Wisconsin.

My better judgement kicked in and I decided to pass on the canoe. After all, we had no sure-fire way to secure it to our van top for the trip back to Ohio. Alex, being the wise, young, recent high-school graduate that he is, pounced on the opportunity. He decided the canoe would be his. When I asked if I needed to call and get his parents’ approval, he replied, “Well, I’m 18 now. I don’t think Aunt Cathy wants you to haul it home.” As our good fortune would have it, we found some parachute cord laying under the truck cap. We used the cord to strap the canoe to our luggage rack securely enough to get it to his house across town.

We dropped the canoe off at their house and headed to the park after our lengthy detour. Along the way, someone called Alex to ask what became of the canoe. He said “I’ll explain it later.” We met up with the rest of the crew at the park and related to Alex’s parents how a gently used canoe came to reside back at their house.

Reach BJ Price at 937-456-5159 for more information.