Two Coots in a Canoe: An Unusual Story of Friendship -- by Dave Morine
Hardback Edition Price: $22.95 + tax (CT, MA, VT only)
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“Dave Morine has done it again, proving that it is often what you do when you aren’t striving to get ahead that is most important. When you finish this book, you’ll want to drop everything, grab a canoe, and explore your own river.” – George H. Fenwick, President, American Bird Conservancy.
The American coot is a member of the rail family that somewhat resembles a duck. But when author Dave Morine writes that he and his friend Ramsay Peard are “two coots,” he means it in the sense of “a couple of semi-foolish old duffers who should know better than to attempt something like this.” But since Dave decided to follow a career as a conservationist by launching another career as an author, he’s developed a knack for putting himself in ridiculous situations and then writing himself out of them.
Dave hadn’t had any contact with his college buddy for decades when Ramsay called him more or less out of the blue to invite him on a source-to-sea canoe trip down the Connecticut River. They agreed to one thing: No camping. They would “rely on the kindness of strangers.” Planning the trip, Ramsay got in touch with CRWC, and we put out a press release and email to members, prompting offers from 55 people willing to feed and house the “coots” on their way from the Canadian border to Long Island Sound.
This book is a narrative that weaves together those hosts and their communities, the long river and its landscape, and a friendship and its silences. Since Ramsay’s post-trip suicide is announced in a copy of his obituary before the story begins, the suspense is lifted right away. But it only serves to deepen the value of the friends’ comic misadventures and the time they spend together. And it deepens our sense of the Connecticut River as a place that has witnessed many human dramas, large and small, as humorous, heroic, beguiling or baffling as they may be.
©2009 by David E. Morine
Published by Globe Pequot, Guilford, CT
Hardback, 303 pages, 5.5 x 7.3 inches, $22.95
ISBN-13: 978-0-7627-5459-5
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Photo credits: ©R.S. Ryan for Shutterstock
Image Credits at Right - Illustrations: Bill Singleton; Photos: ©McConnell/McNamara, ©Ethan Nedeau, ©Duane Raver, ©Jerry Monkman www.ecophotography.com, CRWC Staff
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