I left Susan and Eleanor at Uncle Dick's and went over to Rouseville, hooked up with my Fraternity Brother Tom and my buddy Chet.  Chet and I had planned to canoe down French Creek, from just below the dam to where French Creek merges into the Allegheny River.  Tom had suggested that we stay at his house and he would shuttle us back and forth from the river.  They don't make them any better than Tom Jarzab.

    So, Chet and I put the boat in the water near Union City.  Within minutes we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the creek, the quiet, the serenity.  The water was shallow and the current swift at times.  We got stuck at least twice on gravel bars, once we had to portage the canoe around a giant tree that had fallen over the stream and we encountered wildlife; moma deer and her fawn, moma fox and her pup, moma goose with 12 ducklings, vultures, hawks, muskrats, turtles, you name it, we saw it.  What impressed me the most was the quiet of the woods, the sound of the water, the calls of the birds...it was a great experience.

   French Creek was beautiful but it got slower and deeper which required more paddling on our part.  We were on the water for almost eight hours and the last two or three we paddled, paddled, and paddled some more.  As we neared Cambridge Springs civilization began to intrude on the serenity of the river in the form of drunken boaters.  Lots of them.  To make a long story much shorter, after spending the night camped by the river, the next morning we decided to end the adventure and we called Tom to come get us.  It was a good trip.