Handy

June 1
Pere Marquette State Park, IL

The wheels have been set in motion. I met up with an old CAP acquaintance, travel partner, and nemesis, Andy, today. He treated me to dinner in a restaurant at the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. We then went back to my campsite and partook of some Mike's hard lemonade while reminiscing about past adventures, like the time we, along with some cohorts took a home-made raft down the mighty Cumberland River. Or the time we spent a week on the Maine Trail Crew, where we single-handedly cleared 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail. (Some stories tend to grow bigger over time.) Andy and his wife Amanda are proud new parents of a beautiful daughter Clare Marie. She is said to favor Andy, but without a long, flowing, red beard it's hard to say. I tried to convince Andy to leave wife and newborn to join me on this adventure, but being the noble gentleman he is, he did the honorable thing and opted to stay behind with wife and family. You've betrayed me for the last time Handy...