The American Victory Tour

Observations from the Passenger Seat
By Cathy Cloud

If Joe ever offers you passage on any leg of his tour, get in, hold on and prepare to be amazed. This man has created an adventure that the collaborative efforts of Spielberg, Hemingway and the Audubon Society couldn’t reproduce.

On the trip you will be wrapped in a physical and emotional bubble of voluntary hardship that will exhaust and energize you at the same time. But, before you embark, you must leave behind all your notions of travel by car or bus, by train or plane. You will not be safely sealed in a glass-and-steel cage with windows that can be tweaked in an infinite array of positions to keep the wind from whipping your hair across your face. Secondly, you can’t ignore other people like you do whizzing down the interstate or across the unfriendly skies because… well, you’re not whizzing, you’re gliding…verrrry slowly. Joe calls the Intracoastal Waterway, America’s Main Street. You’ll be amazed how apt that description is as you chat with someone on the shore as you drift by.

Cathy Cloud 'rode' with Philly Joe for 11 days in June 2002.

Another difference you’ll notice immediately on this trip is that you will not learn about a changing weather front by tuning in to a weather report. YOU will be the thermometer, the barometer and the meteorologist. Trust me, you will know when the weather is about to change. And change it does while you enjoy the 3 full comfort levels of canoe travel. You will either be "wet", "recently wet" or "about to get wet."

As you dry out, you will soon discover the strange perspective of traveling only torso-height above a not-always-smooth, watery surface in a Kevlar canoe so thin that sunlight shines through it. Distances are deceptive at this angle. For a preview, lie down on your living room floor and look across the room with your chin in the carpeting. See how tall the pile suddenly seems and how huge the space has become. This is the perspective from the passenger seat in Joe’s canoe. Everything is bigger than you are. Again, this is one of those dichotomous experiences...humbling, yet exhilarating.

You’ll also learn that distances across water that seem hardly worth pulling the cord on an outboard motor to scoot across become "crossings" in a canoe. That 15 minute, motor-powered zip across a wide bay now requires a weather check and your full attention if you’re venturing across with only a paddle for push.

You will also learn that speed is relative. When all goes well, a solid 10-mile day will take on epic proportions around the campfire that night. But when nothing goes right, you’ll be thrilled to have just gotten out of sight of last night’s campsite. I cannot overemphasize one point…Joe works for every inch he gains…there are no exciting downhill runs; there is no hands-free coasting…every mile on this tour is earned.

And after earning more than 1000 miles, Joe has proven that he can go it alone. Therefore, as a passenger, you are free to simply slide into your seat and scout out bald eagles, alligators, beavers and sharks or simply listen to the birds as you scan the horizon mesmerized by the quiet. But I suggest that you go for the incredible high that comes from dipping a paddle into the water and pulling back a few times. The rush of that water against the paper-thin hull is nothing compared to the rush in your head and heart that says you are part of Joe’s great American Victory Tour. Enjoy Joe… enjoy America!

A very grateful and recently-wet passenger,

Cathy Cloud