"River Talks "

Simply Put
I had the privilege to be on CCTV’s River Talks program recently and the comments that I have gotten through e-mails, phone calls and folks stopping me on the street tells me that we’re on to something good. If you did not catch the show, which aired locally on Comcast Cable Channel Four, you may be able to view it on the internet at www.chipola.edu/tv. If you can’t find it there, call Royce Reagan at Chipola College and maybe he can help you navigate your way to view it on the internet. If you’ll pay him off with some boiled peanuts, he’d probably burn you a copy on a CD.
Some of you may be wondering what I would be talking about on River Talks. I was invited to be on the program to talk about The Times series last summer called Rollin’ Down The River. If you recall the series, I paddled different portions of the Chipola River. I then wrote weekly articles that chronicled my trips and included pictures.
Stephanie Parker, The Times editor, took some of those pictures and organized them into a slide show. I took this slide show with me to the River Talks program and shared the slide show with the program’s host, Gary Latham and the viewers. Gary and I talked about the series and then talked about the different slides. We concluded the show with another slide show of the pictures along with a little background music, bluegrass of course. The idea was to give the feel of traveling down the river without ever having to leave your recliner.
Our plan is to continue the journey down the remainder of the river this summer (I made it to Peacock’s Bridge last summer). Once again I’ll chronicle my journey with weekly articles and pictures. Our long range goal at the paper is to put together a DVD that would offer a pictorial tour of the Ole Chipola River, from beginning to end. The DVD would include some narration, historical information about the river and of course some mighty fine bluegrass music as the backdrop.
I felt like this was a good idea but you really never know how folks will respond until you throw it our there. Judging by the response from our readers and viewers, this Rollin’ Down the River idea is a good one. Who’d a thunk it? Well you know the old saying, even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then. Well we’re going to take the ball and run with it to use a sports analogy.
So to Stephanie Parker, Royce Reagan, Gary Latham and all the others who have helped or showed their support for the project, Simply Put, thanks.

From the front porch: Coach said that the road to success is always under construction.