We have an outdoor store in Travelers Rest, SC which has a big rental sale every year the first Sat. after Labor day. Sunrift Adventures is the name and hiking, canoeing, biking, clothes, backpacking, and all the goodies that go along with it is it's game! The store is in the old Browns Feed and Seed Store, where I used to buy seeds for the garden and feed for my chickens many years ago. Drive through TR on Hwy 276 and you can't miss the store. The Sat. of the big sale, they have the canoes and kayaks, plus lots of stuff sitting outside the store waiting to be sold. I'll go ahead and give the store a good shout out even tho they have taken many many dollars from me the past 15 years. I have always been happy with my purchases.- www.sunrift.com - Check them out!
Gracie and I paddle an Old Town Canoe bought at, you guessed it, the rental sale at Sunrift Adventures! Many years before I got the canoe, I paid for a very cheap Twin Stripe Feather Brand canoe paddle from a discount sporting goods store. This paddle leaned against the closet wall for I think about five years. I had no canoe! I would see it and say, "One day I'm going to get a canoe to go with this paddle." And one day I did! [ Some of you are saying, he wasn't up the creek without a paddle, what was he? Real simple- He wasn't up the creek! ] I remember the day the big red canoe came into my life, it was a Sat. An early Sat. morning in the small town of TR, SC. The day before I drove to the store and scouted out the terrain, employees were emptying the old hay barn of it's glut of personal watercraft and spreading them along the old railroad bed so wannabe canoeists and kayakers could pick and choose the right boat. I walked among them nonchalantly, and a green novice I was, at this point in my life I could count on one hand the number of times I'd been in a canoe. My canoe knowledge was very limited, "A canoe is pointed at both ends and you sit in it and paddle!" Not really knowing what to look for and too proud to ask those young experienced paddlers I chose to select my canoe my own way----"Hey look a big red one! that's the one I'm gonna get!"----And it worked for me!!!
Because I had made up my mind, based on all of my canoe knowledge, I was not going to let any one buy this canoe out from under me. I stopped a working dude and asked how I could save this canoe so no one else could buy it. She said," Get here early and sit in it." The store opened at 9:00am, not a minute before, when should I be here? She said," In the past some people have been here before daylight." OK, now I have a plan! The next morning I popped out of bed at 5:30am and did just the bare necessities, the truck I was driving at the time was a late 60's model Chevy and rough looking and rougher running. I'd built a wooden rack on the back and it had seen better days, the sides moved back and forward and side to side, I nailed a two by four across the top on the back so I could lay the canoe on top of the rack, had some old bungee cords with which to tie the canoe in place. Ran outside to get in the truck as I listened to both chortling and tittering coming from my loving wife. She said,"I'll be up at nine." Raced up to Sunrift and parked out of the way near the ball field. The big night lights guided me to the boats and the big red canoe, I was the only one there and I sat in the canoe and claimed her for my own! In just a few minutes another wannabe showed up and sat in the canoe right beside mine. We talked and neither of us were canoeist, both buying our first canoe and excited about the fun we would have when we put it in the water. It was only 6:00am, we had a long wait until opening time, I don't remember which one of us suggested it, but one guarded the canoes while the other rode up to Hardees and bought biscuits. We saw the sun rise and hordes of strange looking people descend on us. People walking all around and looking at our canoes and other canoes and kayaks, we sat tight and gave the evil eye to any and all who dared look twice or touch our canoes! Others boats were picked and people dropped paddles and life vests in them and laughed having fun shopping and outfitting their new watercraft. My new buddy and I; tired and dazed and sore from sitting for three hours on the hard plastic seats just wished we could purchase and go. The Sunrift sales dude showed up and wrote up my name and canoe serial number so I could now go stand in line and wait to pay for it. The wonderful wife arrived and we also bought a four man tent, have used it several times and have some good memories and some not so good!
Now I'm in line, my ticket for the canoe and my tent. Yes, it's paid for and time to load up and head home. Another short line to pick up the canoe and tie it on the truck. My turn- the dude helps me put it on the rack and I get the bungee cords and start hooking them around the canoe. "Stop, you can't use bungee cords, you have to tie it secure." I say," I'm not going very far." He say," I can't let you leave without it being secure." So he gets some of that white plastic string and we tie it down. Not a problem! Slowly I drive home just as proud as I can be with my brand new used canoe- a 16 foot, 9 inch, Old Town Canoe with gray tractor seats, black plastic gunwales, and wooden thwarts and a wooden carrying yoke. Discovery 169! RED!! There you go!
On the water or in the woods,
Turtle
