Oh, the places it will go

The flat, fertile Ohio River valley where I grew up was a great place for growing soybeans and corn, but I always dreamed of wilder country.

That’s why I bought the canoe.

A 17-foot aluminum Grumman, it cost $239 at Beard’s Sporting Goods and came with a lifetime guarantee. I paid for it with money from my paper route.

That first summer, with the canoe tied on top of my friend Johnny’s car, he and I and another buddy traveled to northern Minnesota where we launched the craft on Moose Lake, and disappeared into the wilderness for a week.

I was 15 and the canoe and I have been inseparable ever since.

I took it back to Minnesota a couple of times, and it came West with me when I was 18. It’s been to the Everglades, Yellowstone Lake and the Tennessee River.

I haven’t had to hold Grumman to the lifetime guarantee, but the canoe has survived some close calls. It flew off my truck while I was driving through Georgia on Interstate 75, and once I had to use a chain saw to retrieve it from a logjam on Soda Butte Creek downstream from Cooke City.

In recent years, however, it hadn’t seen much use. I’d moved on to other boats and the canoe had pretty much turned into a lawn ornament, resting on sawhorses, half-covered by the caragana hedge.

Last year a fellow walking by the yard offered to buy the canoe. He told me I should sell it to him because I never use it. I got a little snarky and told him to get a paper route and buy a new one. He gave me a puzzled look and walked away. But I felt a twinge of guilt. I hadn’t used the canoe in years.

Then last fall Barb and I bought a cabin on Fort Peck Lake, and we took nearly everything that floated over there. I told my grandchildren that when they visited they could take the canoe out anytime they wanted. Barb doubted the kids would be interested in the old canoe, but I held out hope.

They visited us at the lake for the first time last weekend and the canoe was a hit. By the time they packed up to leave, all the kids except the baby had taken a turn in the Grumman, and my oldest granddaughter was becoming an adept paddler.

I hope it takes them to some of the places I’ve been, and more that I haven’t.

It’s guaranteed.

Parker Heinlein is at

[email protected]