After months of planning and preparations it was finally time to head north, and I was only a half hour behind schedule, that's good for me. The three hour drive to northern Iowa to pick up Rod and his oldest son James was uneventful and we were on our way to Minnesota to meet up with Rod's youngest son, Riley in the Twin Cities. He is driving over from Waukesha and will take two vehicles to Ely. We arrived at our bunkhouse room at Canadian Waters in a heavy rain and decided to get a pizza and then a couple of drinks at the Boathouse. We tried to organize our gear and went to bed.