The World Kayak Tour Blog Site is sponsored by Camp Arrowhead, Jackson Kayak and Entropy Gear. Krazy Kayakers are a group of three paddlers travelling around, having fun, and searhing for the meaning of life. The group includes; Matt Rideout (Tennessee) Jez Blanchard (Australia) D-Mac (North Carolina).
We'll be following the World Kayak Tour and Krazy Kayakers Jez, Matt and D-Mac on our Roadtrip blog - stop over at http://www.worldkayaktour.blogspot.com// and drop them a hello - They love feedback and are always wired -
Thursday, August 24, 2006
We spent the night driving from Washington DC to Seymour, CT. This was quite an epic drive to say the least. We pulled out of DC around 11:00 pm and drove our way through Baltimore, and then onto New York City. Somewhere in Delaware we stopped for a midnight snack at McDonald’s. This was the beginning of an interesting conversation. Jez and I were standing at the drive thru, because the bus was too tall to fit through, and a guy sticks his head outside the window of his big black Excursion piloted by his driver wearing tuxedo and begins to speak. He asks,”Are you guys just standing there or what?” I replied by saying,”Yes we are waiting for our food, sorry mate.” A few moments later we walked away with our sacks full of food and Jez turns to me and asks if the guy looked like a member of the band Hanson. I answered,”I think your right.” I walked back up to the excursion and said, “You asked me a stupid question, so now it’s my turn… are you guys Hanson?” To make a long story short, it was most definitely the band Hanson ordering French fries at 1:00 am in the morning in the middle of nowhere Delaware… Random.We passed through the New York City around 4:30 am, and there were already massive amounts of traffic. I was amazed to be driving on an interstate that had 6 lanes of traffic in both directions, that’s right 12 lanes of mass chaos! The lanes are very narrow, and the tractor trailers were passing us as if we were setting still. Jez drove through the heart of the city; I feel that he deserves an award for driving the bus right through the middle of Brooklyn! After we traveled out of New York City I fell fast asleep as Jez drove us on into Connecticut.
We arrived at Thule U.S. Headquarters around lunch today and met with Steve Doviak, their marketing director. Steve checked out our remarkable new bus (which still does not have an official name) and then treated us to lunch. After lunch, we picked up our new gear and began to assemble the massive, massive new rack. The two of us spent the next 3 hours putting the rack together in THULE’s parking lot. The bus now has 4 sets of 89” bars ( largest allowed by law, built for a Hummer!), 2 Ferrari red twenty one cubic feet cargo boxes, 2 sets of Hull-A-Ports, 2 kayak stackers, 12 straps, 2 t-shirts, 2 work shirts, 2 hats, and a bunch of logos to put on the bus. The people at THULE are some of the best people we have met on the road. There is no question that the two of us will always be THULE customers. Check out the bus pictures, this thing is awesome & really tall. We are only 6 inches shorter than the average tractor trailer.Jez is back at the wheel again, and I have resumed my roll as computer nerd and we are headed for Watertown, NY. The next update will be from the Black River Festival.Good night from interstate 84,Rideout
