Our good friends of Angela’s Ark are set to depart on a historic voyage to Memphis. They are prepared to go “old timey”, which means on a flat boat, authentic and river worthy. The history of this boat is a rival to the history of this voyage. Angela’s Ark was commissioned for Mount St. Joseph Ursuiline Nuns, good teachers and early pioneers of faith and good works to the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. Their purpose was to celebrate their anniversary of coming down the Ohio. John Cooper built it for them, and now is present to witness its second great journey. Which leads to the second bit of history involved.
Captain Lewis at St. Charles reviewing the field.
The most dangerous thing on the river is a boat with a motor. Unless that motor is six strong oars, six strong rowers and good tiller. Angela's Ark deck with oars.
The last bit of the “Old Timey” is the crew. The crew won’t appreciate that so I must explain the joke. They are the First Squad. The stunt doubles to the reenactors guild of Lewis and Clark and many other rendezvous events. They range in age from 18-80, and the eighty year old is fitter and stronger than the youngest of the usual reenactor crowd. Most are more comfortable in sheep skin, elk skin, hemp cloth or the woolens of the 18th and early 19th century military issue than they are in even Levis or Wranglers. They are likely to raid a food pantry, but then use the loot to cook and feed forty homeless river rats while entertaining a hundred more with stories. They help nuns on to flat boats, raise Native sons in the air and give them thrills and joy all the while cursing loudly at ‘neer-do-wells’, which is often each other Most of all, and most appreciated, they have done the rivers, the mountains and the trails, in the “old timey” way, by paddle and saddle and blisters and sweat, and they are ready again. Bon Voyage! See you on the river.
Tags: Angelas Ark, First Squad, Lewis and Clark, Memphis, Mississippi River
