The Story of Our Canoe

It all began about 3 years ago when we moved into our condo in Germantown, MD. Our condo is located on a beautiful lake which is perfect for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and walking around and enjoying the beautiful views. But, we were only able to enjoy the fishing and walking because we did not have a canoe or a kayak.

Well, God provides in mysterious ways. One afternoon, while we were walking, we happened upon a nice red canoe. It was on the side of the road amongst matresses, dressers and other trash. It appeared that someone was being evicted from their home or doing some serious house cleaning. So, we checked out the canoe and noticed that it had a giant hole in the middle of it. There was a 12"x18" hole cut out of it. But, that didn't stop our excitment of finding a canoe. So, we waited until it got a little darker and we carried the canoe from the side of the road, across a bridge, through the woods and hid it behind our condo.

Andrew worked on patching up the hole with fiberglass and we went on a canoe trip with some friends for Memorial Day weekend. We made it about 9 miles down the Shenandoah River with no leaks and hit some rocks that scraped the patch off and we started sinking. I still have a scar on my knee from trying to evacuate. Andrew and Chris France had to walk the canoe the last mile and, needless to say, we didn't get to do the second day of our canoe trip. But, it was fun while it lasted.

So, we brought the canoe home and put it back in the woods. We went to check on it one day and it was gone. Someone had stolen it! We searched around the lake for it and found it on the other side. Whoever had stolen it had tried to patch it up with rubber floor mats (that go in cars). We kindly wrote them a note thanking them for trying to fix our canoe, but that we didn't appreciate them stealing it from us. So, we stole it back and chained it to a tree.

We worked on fixing the hole again. We used plexiglass and caulking this time. You can kind of see the patch on the side of the canoe in this picture.

We haven't used it too much since, just a few times around the lake. But, no major trips. So, this brings us up to date until a couple of weeks ago...

A couple of Sundays ago, we went to check on our canoe, just to make sure it was there. And guess what.... It was gone! It was stolen AGAIN! To be honest, I was a little happy because it still leaks a little and it gets bugs in it since it is kept in the woods. So, I don't really like to use it. But, Andrew was devistated. So, we searched the woods and the perimeter of the lake searching for our canoe. We thought all hope was lost until we saw a little red shining through some trees and a bright white patch on the bottom of a canoe. We got closer and realized that it was definitely our canoe. No other canoe has a 3'x3' patch made out of plexiglass and bathtub caulking on the bottom of it. But, it was no longer red. They had painted the sides of it black. Can you believe that. Someone cut the chain off our canoe, stole it, took it to the other side of the lake, and then they painted it black. What nerve!

So, we made a game plan. I wrote a note to leave for the thieves and Andrew stole the canoe back. The note said...

To whom it may concern,We have taken our canoe back! We clearly had it chained to a tree so that others would know that it belonged to someone and so that it wouldn’t be stolen. But, you have taken it and started painting it black. We do not appreciate having to search for our stolen canoe when we could have been enjoying it out on the lake today. We are disappointed that our neighbors would cut the chain and take something that didn’t belong to them. We trust that this will not happen again.

Andrew hid the canoe so well that I can't even see it. We haven't used it since. But, at least we have our canoe back.

(Wow, I thought this would be a quick little blog. Sorry, it ended up being a book)