Quite the celebration

There has been a lot of coverage on the Kruger Canoe Adventure Blog with many photos of the Memorial, so I wont duplicate here; but I will say that the VKM puts a lump in your throat and tear to eye when standing there with all the family and friends that participated in the memorial dedication.
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I did get a chance to take a look at Verlen's Sea Wind and Loon that made some of his epic voyages. Mark pulled them out of the museum for the memorial dedication. I believe a couple of Verlen's grandchildren paddled them on the memorial paddle. Pretty impressive indeed.
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Here's a shot of Larry "Coach" Hoff making his way to the put in for the Memorial Paddle. He's riding his bike towing his Sea Wind; a typical day for "Coach". bike -paddle -bike - paddle -bike - paddle.
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A who's who of expedition paddlers showed. Steve Landick was there to say some kind words and share stories of his stories of 28,000 mile ultimate canoe challenge with Verlen Kruger along with many others; the list is long the stories riveting. The cocktails flowed and stories were told.
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Sixty nine Kruger Canoes participated in the Memorial paddle down to Portland Michigan; here's a shot of the pack, Bob Bradford in a cruiser picture left.

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Here's a shot of Boo before we shuttled canoes; this would be the last time we would see her blue spray jacket. She set it down at the put-in and forgot it. We made a few calls and looked for it but to no avail. She's bummed as this jacket has been with here on some of her more notable paddles.
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The paddle was complete, even with a monarch butterfly making the journey; a symbol of the Kruger line of boats, this little fellow hung around for quite some time visiting paddlers.

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Paddle on,

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The Capt'n