Small world down by the river

If you read my Election Day post below, you'll see I took the Monongahela Monitor to Hildebrand Lock and Dam in early November. Here's an epilogue.

When I got back from that trip I noticed that my Sansa Mp3 player, which had been in a pocket of my backpack, was missing. I looked everywhere but could not find it. I had tied the Monitor up to a big sycamore and walked through the woods up to the rail trail then on to the dam. So, I figured that a branch of the bush had plucked the wires for the ear buds and I'd walked on through the woods leaving my Sansa hanging from a bush.

So, last Saturday my wife and I hiked up to the same spot where I thought I might have lost it. There was a bicycle propped against a tree next to the trail, and down below, next to the sycamore where I had tied the Monitor, a guy was fishing.

I followed my Election Day footprints through the woods, looking for my Mp3 player, and yelled out to the guy fishing, telling him I had lost something, so that he wouldn't be alarmed at my approach. "I have it," he replied, with a smile over his shoulder, holding his rod out over the Monongahela.

"What?" I asked, surprised by his words. "You found an Mp3 player?"

"Yes, but it's at home," the fisherman replied. His name is Bill Collins, he told me. He fishes in that spot lots and found my Sansa days earlier. Now, if he hadn't been there fishing that day, I don't think I would have gotten my music back. He asked about all the African percussion on it.

"Yep! That's mine" I'm in the Morgantown Drum Circle, and listen to a lot of percussion, especially Babatunde Olatunji.

So, we agreed to exchange phone calls, and I was able to meet Bill and his wife as they headed to church the next day. She invited me to go to church with them, and I gave them a gallon of apple cider I'd bought at Walmart that morning.

Those two are real nice folks. I told my wife, as we were walking home after the first encounter with Bill down by the River, "See, this river is such a great place. I meet people and have such interesting times" I hope to see Bill again. I know where he fishes, and he told me he would fish all winter for catfish. He was hoping to catch a walleye when we talked on Saturday.

I had put my Sansa through the wash early in the summer, and I didn't think it would ever work again. It did! Now, it's had a further adventure. Maybe it's because I have Babatunde on there.