This morning I took time to do a couple of loads of
laundry and walked around and took a few pictures of Pierre’s Echo Bay Marina.
Don and Larry came over to our boat to get a tour and
visit a little more.
After lunch we took a walk up to Billy Proctor’s
Museum. It is a 20 minute hike through the woods to a little building built by
Billy Proctor who grew up in this area. His step-mother was a fishmonger and
from the age of 9 he fished and sold them to his her. He is an expert on the history
and fishing in this area and involved in the conservation of salmon. Billy is a crusty old man who has collected
“stuff” his whole life and now has it displayed in his museum. There were a lot
of old bottles, fishing lures, antique tools and random items that he
displayed. He was sitting on the front porch when we started arriving. He
appears to be a very shy man but was very pleased that so many people were
coming to see his museum today. There is no charge but any donations go to the
local fish hatcheries. I asked him if I
could take his picture and he said “oh, why not. These %#$%@#%@ photos!” I got his picture but he wasn’t about to
pose for it. We enjoyed viewing the things that he had on display and Bob was
fascinated with an antique two person chainsaw made by Mercury Outboards. I’m
sure he will be doing some research on that when we get some good internet
again. Billy also had a small building in honor of the elementary school that
his kids all attended. At that time there were 35 students but the school
closed nine years ago. They burned the building down two years ago and he
rescued the piano and blackboard out of it. Billy gets about 4,000 people each year coming to visit his museum. This first picture is of Billy and the others are of our walk to his museum and our time there.
In the afternoon Pierre and Tove held a rubber duck
race. Many of us purchased a rubber duck for $5 and then they dumped them off
of a bridge. Their son, Christian, was in a kayak at the finish line and the
first duck to cross the line won all the money they had collected from the sale
of the ducks. It was very entertaining and everyone had fun even though it had
started raining very hard.
This evening was Pierre’s famous Pig Roast. They
cooked the pig all day long and then everyone got together with for a potluck
of side dishes and the roast pork. Entertainment was Charlie Long who sang
during happy hour and then again after dinner. He had a beautiful voice but
also wrote many funny songs about boating. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. He
and his wife are the ones that brought my medicine to me at Sullivan Bay when
they flew in.
