Aug 2 (3 in my journal) – Closing the Loop - We ate our last breakfast consisting of one slice of bread apiece, jerky, and Jolly Ranchers. We had pancake mix, but we wanted to get on the water. We paddled Bayley Bay in a light breeze, which meant that Bayley was a bit choppy. We made our way to Prairie, not looking forward to our paddle on Moose. Every other time we have paddled Moose has been into a significant headwind, not so this time. We had a quartering light wind and the paddle was fairly easy. I do wonder why sometimes a wind from the right or left will push the canoe in the direction of that wind. At Prairie a fellow named Jim, from Illinois, commented on our Bell Seliga. He had paddled one and felt it was the best tripping canoe he had ever paddled. We later met at Williams and Hall and we enjoyed talking to each other in the parking lot. He introduced me to his wife, Peggy. He mentioned that he enjoys Canoecopia, perhaps I will see him there sometime. I have never been but I plan to go next year. We told our tale of adventure to Dave and Blaine, and anyone else who would listen. After showers and loading the car we headed into Ely for our traditional post trip pizza at Pizza Hut. I called Susan from there and it was only then that I discovered we had lost track of days and had come out a day early. We enjoyed a good laugh about that. We went to Brandenburg Gallery and did one last tour through Pirages before hitting the road.

We stopped again in Spooner, mainly in order to have breakfast at the Prime Bar again. We stopped at the Bear Paw store in Rice Lake, WI and Humbird Cheese in Tomah, WI. We pulled into our driveway at 12:30AM.

We have enjoyed telling family and friends our tale, and are already planning our next adventure.