- 223 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
"In an age that values faster and faster travel, Lane's river memoir affirms the great value of floating and observing."â
Booklist
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Three months after a family vacation in Costa Rica ends in tragedy when two fellow rafters die on the flooded Rio ReventazĂłn, John Lane sets out with friends from his own backyard in upcountry South Carolina to calm his nerves and to paddle to the sea.
Like Huck Finn, Lane sees a river journey as a portal to change, but unlike Twain's character, Lane isn't escaping. He's getting intimate with the river that flows right past his home in the Spartanburg suburbs. Lane's three-Âhundred-mile float trip takes him down the Broad River and into Lake Marion before continuing down the Santee River. Along the way, Lane recounts local history and spars with streamside literary presences such as  Mind of the South author W. J. Cash; Henry Savage, author of the Rivers of America Series volume on the Santee; novelist and Pulitzer Prizeâwinner Julia Peterkin; early explorer John Lawson; and poet and outdoor writer Archibald Rutledge.
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Lane ponders the sites of old cotton mills; abandoned locks, canals, and bridges; ghost towns fallen into decay a century before; Indian mounds; American Revolutionary and Civil War battle sites; nuclear power plants; and boat landings. Along the way he encounters a cast of characters Twain himself would envyâperplexed fishermen, catfish cleanÂers, river rats, and a trio of drug-addled drifters on a lonely boat dock a day's paddle from the sea.
By the time Lane and his companions finally approach the ocean about forty miles north of Charleston, they have to fight the tide and set a furious pace. Through it all, paddle stroke by paddle stroke, Lane is reminded why life and rivers have always been wedded together.
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Three months after a family vacation in Costa Rica ends in tragedy when two fellow rafters die on the flooded Rio ReventazĂłn, John Lane sets out with friends from his own backyard in upcountry South Carolina to calm his nerves and to paddle to the sea.
Like Huck Finn, Lane sees a river journey as a portal to change, but unlike Twain's character, Lane isn't escaping. He's getting intimate with the river that flows right past his home in the Spartanburg suburbs. Lane's three-Âhundred-mile float trip takes him down the Broad River and into Lake Marion before continuing down the Santee River. Along the way, Lane recounts local history and spars with streamside literary presences such as  Mind of the South author W. J. Cash; Henry Savage, author of the Rivers of America Series volume on the Santee; novelist and Pulitzer Prizeâwinner Julia Peterkin; early explorer John Lawson; and poet and outdoor writer Archibald Rutledge.
Â
Lane ponders the sites of old cotton mills; abandoned locks, canals, and bridges; ghost towns fallen into decay a century before; Indian mounds; American Revolutionary and Civil War battle sites; nuclear power plants; and boat landings. Along the way he encounters a cast of characters Twain himself would envyâperplexed fishermen, catfish cleanÂers, river rats, and a trio of drug-addled drifters on a lonely boat dock a day's paddle from the sea.
By the time Lane and his companions finally approach the ocean about forty miles north of Charleston, they have to fight the tide and set a furious pace. Through it all, paddle stroke by paddle stroke, Lane is reminded why life and rivers have always been wedded together.
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Yes, you can access My Paddle to the Sea by John Lane in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
eBook ISBN
9780820341316Subtopic
TravelTable of contents
- MY PADDLE TO THE SEA