On Saturday, we flew into MSP and were driving north to our cabin outside of Ely. Ben had one of my solo canoes that he had kindly picked up from me in California and taken back to MN. I offered to swing by his place and he thought about coming to Ely but it turned out that he was going to be near Hinckley and so we decided to meet at Tobie's. We always stop there for bread. We actually arrived simultaneously and had a good time chatting while we transferred the canoe and he and my wife got to meet each other. And his dog was with him and that's a good treat.

Once he went on his way, we bought our bread and then decided to have some ice cream at the outside window. While we were finishing up, a car drove up carrying a SR Q18.5 with flying moose stickers. I went over and got to meet MattM and two friends from southern California that he had just taken to Quetico. We had a nice chat and one of the friends asked, "so you recognized those stickers as being from the forum." Well, duh.

I've got to admit that my canoes are not properly adorned and will try to remedy that soon. It is nice meeting folks. I sometimes wear a flying moose t-shirt in Ely but have never had anyone notice it.

And I'm so happy to have a solo in Ely! It's a Sawyer Summersong One of my friend's kid, whose in his 20s, guides for Piragis and took a look at it today and thought it looked like a fast canoe. I'll have to let him take it out because I'm sure he can make it move faster than I can.

You'll have to change andym to fasteddie. Haha.
That is so great. Guess I should have gotten some bread too. Haha.
Was nice meeting your wife... And you again. You both looked ready for adventure!

What a nice story. We will be stopping at Tobie's, for sure, on the afternoon of Sunday August 12th, for bread for our cabin week, veggies from the stand there, and some sort of nice treat, too. We have never seen a "Flying Moose" there, but we will keep looking!

It was great to meet you and your wife andym! We had a fantastic trip, and having a chance meeting with a fellow bwca.com member was a great way to end it. I hope you have a blast with the solo canoe and enjoy your time at the cabin.

I'm headed up to Crescent Lake tomorrow for some family car camping. If anyone happens to see a silver rav4 with a Quetico 18.5 strapped to the top, feel free to say hello!

andym..... glad to hear you got to see Ben and Matt. both are good people.....

more importantly I'm glad to hear Matt is taking good care of the family truckster.... aka my old canoe ;)

The flying moose on my canoe and/or hat did not get me noticed by any fellow bwca.commers on either my May solo or daddy/daughter trip last week. Actually it's been a couple of years since that has happened.