Friday was a very warm day. Harold and Lori got to Morgan's Campground first around 1:00 and set up their tent, then headed over to the gambling boat in Indiana to try their luck. Lance arrived around 1:30 after a hot drive from up north. Ted and Connie arrived around 6:30. Will and Gloria soon after that, followed by Guy and Vickie in their popup.
Harold and Lori came back a little poorer, but enjoyed their trip. A fire got started and the tiki torches were lit. Harold and Lori did some dutch oven cooking. Sometime during the night Jonathan and his gang arrived, but they were not seen until morning. And Paul Kerlin arrived at 1:30 am and slept in the back of his pickup. We had 2 very nice campsites on the river and one across the road. The river was down enough that a nice babbling could be heard throughout the night. It was very quiet in the campground.
The air cooled off nicely and everybody said they slept well. Breakfast was a mixture of cooked and cold foods. We got things together and left the campground just after 9, heading for the put-in at Corwin. As we were gathering things together and putting on the water, 5 kayakers arrived and were putting on the water after us, but we never saw them the rest of the day.could they have been members of SOFA?
Guy and Vicki were in the old ever-so-heavy but very durable aluminum Grumman, Jonathan and his gang were also in an aluminum canoe, Harold and Lori in their Roylex, Will and Gloria canoeing together, Ted, Paul and Lance solo. We could tell early that it was going to be a hot day. It was hot, and the river was shallow. Not unbearable shallow, but there was some wading and scraping and pulling going on throughout the day. But we had enough water that we still felt like we were on a canoe trip.
We had a nice lunch in the shade with Gloria passing around her candycorn and nut desert (it tastes just like a Payday) and Harold giving tastes of his hot pepper jelly. Guy and Vickie got hot while they were canoeing and decided to go swimming right after going thru a chute and they said the water was surprisingly refreshing. Harold and Lori took a short swim too because they got so warm, but they had gotten energized from lunch and took off up the river so they just swam by themselves.
We missed having Tony up front finding river gifts and taking pictures. The occasionally shallow river made for some interesting river reading and dodging of obstacles. In some spots, if you were not in the deepest part of the river, you might have been pushing off the gravel. But a good time was had by all and we finished the 14 miles by around 4:00.
Time to cook! The Feast was highlighted by a deep fried turkey expertly prepared by Ted and Connie. There was also excellent meatloaf, two kinds of potatoes, salads, fruit, and deserts including brownies and homemade pies (the brownies were excellent). Harold got out the OHCRA cornhole game. Many games were played during the weekend, but I am pretty sure that Harold and Lori were the king and queen of the boards for the Little Miami 2007 trip
As night started to fall the tiki torches were lit. It was so warm that nobody really felt like a fire was needed for a while. Tired, a little bit sun touched, warm, bellies full, nobody really wanted to move. We did finally have a small fire for a while. Harold made Jiffy Pop (with the canoe on it). I have never seen Jiffy Pop cooked over actual flames, but Harold knew how to do it. I didn't look at the time, but I believe we were all in bed before 11:00.
Sunday morning was another feast! Top chefs Ted and Connie made sausage, bacon and pancakes for the group, Will made a sort of quiche in the dutch oven, and there were more potatoes and fruit. Only Harold and Lori were really considering the trip down to Morrow, but finally decided against it and we all played more cornhole and broke camp. We were all on our way home by around noon.
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