Five former Chippewas converged upon the Oil Capital of Michigan this weekend for the 4th annual Chippewa River float. We met up at the Bird Bar & Grill on Friday night and from there, set out to soak in the college atmosphere. The college atmosphere, however, has changed since the late 80's. We walked down Main and University streets expecting to hear loud music and parties everywhere. Besides a few hangers on the porches, there was not a party in sight. It seemed like every house had a 60 something inch screen television and people were just sitting there. What's with that? The youtube/facebook/xbox youth need to get off their rear ends and talk to their neighbors. We ventured over to Al, Eddie, Greg, and Mike's old house, the Peace House. The front door was literally open so Al walked in and chatted it up with the current residents. I think they were a little freaked at first that these old dudes were in their front room but once I asked if the throne in the basement was still standing (elevated toilet in Al and Mike's area of the house), they knew we weren't just talking trash that the fellas used to live there. We were invited back for the Central/Western game. We felt our age later in the evening at the Blackstone Bar. We had the jukebox playing the Seger, Zeppelin, Allman Brothers, Blues Traveler, etc.. tunes while playing pool (Eddie P. was putting on a clinic). Once our music choices stopped, the tunes for the others in the place took over. I didn't recognize one song. Sad.
The forecast for Saturday called for a chance of showers for the river float. While the doppler had a long green line of rain over Lake Michigan at about 9 AM, we felt confident that we'd be down the river before it reached us. Well, that long green line must have moved pretty fast. The float started dry but after about an hour, it started spitting a bit. No problem as the spotty rain didn't affect us too bad plus the fishing was going well (nice catch by Al). The spotty rain, however, became steady rain and the steady rain became a serious downpour. We were soaked. The casual, nature watching float became a sprint at that point.
The rain didn't melt us and after drying out along with some fresh clothes, we got our second wind and enjoyed some cold beverages and many, many chicken wings. The day even brought about an Elvis sighting at the Bird later in the evening.
Good time; good people.
Trail Head
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Elvis in the house! |
