‘Want to come with?’ That was the 4 word email I sent to my brother Jack who live in Ventura, California on Monday afternoon, just 5 days before this whole adventure begins. His reply on Tuesday, ‘Sounds interesting. The wife is ok with it, the kids are furious.’ Well in the next two days, we both burned up the internet getting flight prices, checking on places to stay, etc. As it turned out, the flight price was ok, but all the other costs would have made for an awfully expensive 4 day fishing trip for him. So after all that, I’m back to the solo trip I originally planned and I find myself sitting down in the truck for the drive to Rice Lake. This year I made a new rack for the front of the canoe to rest on and eliminated the front tie down straps. I had tested it for about a mile, but didn’t quite know how it was going to react to interstate speeds next to a semi or something so the first few miles once I hit the Tri State Tollway were pretty tense. The new rack, though, was probably more stable that my old way of strapping the canoe down and had the benefit of no distracting straps in front of the windshield or buzz from the top strap. In fact, I called this the best piece of new gear for the trip because it worked so well on the road and it made loading and unloading the canoe so much easier. Once my fears about the canoe rack are gone, I really settled in to the drive. The weather was really stinking hot and that may have been one of the reasons I drove all the way to Osseo, WI non stop. I must have been pretty dehydrated to go 330 miles without so much as a potty break! I stopped in Rice Lake, checked in to the hotel, and had dinner at the local Culvers.