Brainerd's Brian, my Postal Hero

I want to say a very special thank you to a kind man who will likely never read this. We stopped in Brainerd, Minn for three things: mail for me at the P.O., supplies, and a hopeful chance at an interview with the local newspaper. Of the three, we got one: some food supplies. The editor of the paper turned me down, saying "We get so many PR's like yours about people doing the river for this cause or that." The package I was awaiting had yet to arrive, forcing me to check in with Postmaster Brian to arrange to have it sent forward downriver. Brian was the opitomy (sp?) of Minnesoata "niceness" that we've been encountering for weeks. I thanked him and left, ran by a thrift store to buy a pie pan to use as a plate, loaded up on high calorie candy bars at a gas station, and headed back to the river.

That's when it hit me. My "thwart" bag was missing. The thwart bag is so named because it attaches to one of the thwarts, or cross members of the canoe. But it makes an odd day-pack because there's no way to strap it over your shoulders. Only reason I was carrying it was that it contained evry valuable without which this trip would cease very quickly, and I'd left it behind somewhere.

I found it, after a panicked running tour of downtown Brainerd, at the P.O. Brian had it behind his counter. Hooray. That would be the end of this tale but for the "above and beyond" effort Brian went to on my behalf. You see, in the bag was a full prescription for migrane headaches. Brian must know someone who suffers migranes, perhaps himself, because hour got on the horn to the police to intercept us down at the river landing. When I returned to his office and my bag, he said "I saw that Immitrex in there and I knew I'd better act fast as you couldn't do w/o that."

Indeed. Or my camera with half full card. Or my this, or my that. Losing all that woulda been bad. Thank you, Brain of the Brainerd, Minn P.O.!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device