09/09 - 09/10 - National Mississippi River Gathering

[Connie Fisher]

Hello, Hello,

We had a grand time at the First “National Mississippi River C-Brat Gathering” in Guttenberg, Iowa.

Since Guttenberg, Iowa is a charming, historic river town, on the Upper Mississippi River and more or less in the centre of the USA, the Mississippi River C-Brats present at the final breakfast on Sunday morning (9-12-2010), unanimously agreed, that this become a National event, inviting all C-Brats for an annual home coming gathering, each year on the second weekend in September.

The weather was absolutely perfect, with sixteen boats present and accounted for.

Home ports of Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and of course Iowa were represented.

From the beginning, the goal of this C-Brat Gathering was for everyone to enjoy yourselves, relax and get aquatinted with other C-Brats, while experiencing the adventure of cruising the Upper Mississippi River.

After all, we were on the Mississippi river and had only three ways to go, north, south or don’t go anywhere. Saturday we did cruise as a group, down river 25 miles for lunch at the Hawkeye Marina (it was very cool to see the Dory's all lined up), the only other scheduled event was to make it back to Guttenberg for social time and a Bar-B-Q banquet at 6:00 that evening.

The Host’s only request was that, no one go home until they ate all the food and drank all the Beer (some wine did mysteriously arrive from several directions, which also disappeared).

The Bar-B-Q banquet dinner was terrific, looked like every plate was clean, which was followed up with three Cherry, two Apple and two Peach pies served up with good old Iowa “Blue Bunny” ice cream.

By the way, on Sunday Morning while emptying out ice from the coolers, I found one lonely bottle of Sprecher “Special Amber” hiding out in the bottom of one cooler of ice and bottle water.

This oversight by the Mississippi River C-Brats in attendance, I believe is good cause to repeat this gathering again on September, 9 & 10 In Guttenebrg, Iowa 2011.

There was a good collection of items in the “Loot” treasure chest from various vendors of which every boat received a share.

I figure as those that attended make it home, we will all hear more about this Mississippi River C-Brat Gathering.

STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!!!

Best regards,

Ron, Connie & Bear Fisher

Added to Calendar
Signup created
Album of 2010 Photos
-TyBoo

[Joni Lynn]

Hi Ron & Connie, and of course Bear !
The Joni Lynn is home already and is resting peacefully in the barn. Thank you so much for an absolutely wonderful gathering. It was pretty obvious that we C Brats had a great time, and it sounded like we'll all be back next year. Ron & Connie, you folks did a marvelous job of putting this all together. Thank You !
P.S. I"m sorry I missed the one beer. Keep it cold; I'll be right back.
Paul & Joni aboard the Joni Lynn

[Papillon]

We can't wait for the pictures to appear....make sure the nerds prepare you a event album.

[Dragonfly]

Can't wait to see the Photos as well ! Meeting in the middle sounds like a wonderful idea. I am wondering if there's room there for a full out Brat invasion sometime in the future..? Now that would be an awesome site indeed ! Tracy

[mcc272]

I have been following the blog of Shingebiss http://mvshingebiss.blogspot.com as they did the Great Loop. They just tied the knot and are headed for home up the Mississippi to Minnesota. The current post, dated 9/11, chronicles their trip upstream through Iowa. In it is a photo, (the 13th one from the top) of the marina in Guttenberg. Well, what do I see but 3 C-Dorys and maybe a 4th behind the one on the left side.

6 degrees of separation, or less!

Sounds like you all had a ton of fun.

[smittypaddler]

The Fishers did an outstanding job organizing this gathering, and I'll definitely plan on being there next year. I have a few photos here:

http://smittypaddler.com/cds/cdl/UpperMississippi2010/index.htm

[Connie Fisher]

A Special Thanks You to:

THANK YOU! - AJ Becker at the Hawkeye Marina at Mud Lake for great lunch and taking good care of the C-Brats, e-mail: loto1234@aol.com

THANK YOU! - Barry Dykhuizen, Guttenberg City Manager for complementary docking at new Guttenbergs Marina. e-mail: gbergcty@alpinecom.net

THANK YOU! - Jamie Gamerdinger at “The Landing” for taking good care of the C-Brats, e-mail: kann@alpinecom.net

THANK YOU! - Joel Rauch & Randy Sheehy for the two burner galley stove- State of Mind Watersports - our nearest C-Dory Dealer
e-mail: joel@stateamind.com

THANK YOU! - Scott Boysen (C-Dory representative) for C-Dory caps, T-shirts and vests. e-mail: scott@seasportboats.com,

THANK YOU! -The Guttenberg Press - gbpress@alpinecom.net

THANK YOU! - Nancy Nuehring, Riverview Cafe, 431 S. River Park Drive, Guttenberg, Iowa 52052 for Reserving tables for the C-Brats breakfast/s.

THANK YOU! - Rene Boyer at EZ Loader Boat Trailers for the EZ LOADER
T-Shirts and trailer parts. Attention Rene Boyer, e-mail: rboyer@ezloader.com

THANK YOU! To everyone attending this C-Brat Gathering in Guttenberg, Iowa.

THANK YOU! - Jane & Tom Augustyn of Clayton Ridge Farm for terriffic a Bar-B-Q Dinner, e-mail: crfmeats@alpinecom.net



Best regards,

Ron, Connie & Bear Fisher

[sjboysen]

Ron, Connie and Bear,

Congratulations on your first successful gathering I look forward to seeing the pictures.

Scott

[Connie Fisher]

Hello Scott,

Thank you for the complement/s on the the Guttenberg, Iowa Gathering, we had 16 boats and are planning for a dramatic increase next year.

This Gathering was very relaxed and arranges somewhat as a family reunion with individuals and groups making up their plans as we went along.

All re-gathering each evening for camaraderie, refreshments and conversation.

After all, we are on the Mississippi River and the choices for each day are simple, go north, south or don’t go anywhere (Guttenberg, Iowa is a charming, historic river town that is very relaxed and a fun place to explore).

The oldest boat was my 1983, 22’ Classic and the newest was Doug England’s 2009, 26' Venture Cruiser.

We had a tour of boats after breakfast on Friday (which was a big hit) amazing the differences in each boat particularly on the inside etc.

So far you can see photos at http://smittypaddler.com/cds/cdl/UpperMississippi2010/index.htm
which were previously listed by smittypaddler.

I’m sure there will be more pictures posted as we go along.

Also heard several comments of how impresses the C-Brats were/are that you are monitoring, commenting and interacting with c-brats.com.

Oh, by the way, the items you sent were an absolute hit with everyone as our “loot” treasure chest was divided up with each boat.

Again, thank you for your contribution.

Best regards,

Ron, Connie & Bear Fisher

[ajens]

A very special thanks to Ron & Connie for organizing a great weekend in Guttenberg. I think we all felt like one big family when we left on Sunday. Andy & I stopped to visit a friend in Wisconsin on Sunday then headed towards MPLS today(Monday). We stopped at a Farm & Fleet in Winona, parked on the edge of the parking lot and a gentleman came by(his wife actually dropped him off by us) to tell us that he guessed we had been in Guttenberg. His good friend Paul O. had been there, too. Since we were a small group of C-Dorys, we knew exactly who he was talking about. Paul, he has some good names for your boat.
We had a wonderful time and have it on our 'schedule' for next year. Hope to see some of you before then, though. Happy travels.
Molly & Andy
MollyJ

[rogerbum]

Sounds like a great event. I guess we out here in the PacNW will have to start referring to any event attended by both Americans and Canadians as "The International (put location here) C-Brat Gathering".

[dmengland]

Hi Ron, Connie and Bear: My son Tom, the vet, said it best, "What a great bunch of interesting people at the C-Dory gathering in Guttenberg, IA". Isn't it wonderful that we all come from varied backgrounds but are connected by the thread of a C-Dory. Thanks so much for turning this gathering into something special. See you all next year in 9&10 September. Doug, Tom, Todd and Ryan England

[Jazzmanic]

[Ramon Sr]

What a wonderful time we had in Guttenberg! Thanks to Ron and Connie for a well organized event. You are great hosts. The camaraderie, the scenery of the quaint and historic Mississippi river town, the food (Laura is still raving about the pies and Blue Bunny vanilla ice cream), and the boating were unforgettable.

A few of the highlights were meeting a wonderful group of people with many interests in common, the outing down the river on our way to lunch, the BBQ dinner on Saturday night, and gathering every morning for breakfast or coffee. Thanks again, Ron and Connie.

We are looking forward to next year's gathering.

Ramon and Laura

[TyBoo]

You guys are very good at this! I stuck a link to the 2010 picture album in the first post to this thread (and here). We'll book it and get it on the calendar and front page before too long.

There aren't any pics in that album yet, though!