Summer Novel Part Five The team went from staying in an RV, to a farmhouse, to top floor suites in Prague, to camping in North Carolina. They were sharing their camp site with Davey Hearn and his family. Davey is a many time Olympic Slalom Kayak Team member and also many time world champion in C-1. Also joining the Front Range Paddling Association (FRPA) team in from Europe was a group of ten others from Colorado brought in by Chris's eight month pregnant wife. Kris had driven a van full of kids and her nearly bursting belly across the wind swept plains of Kansas through the St Louis Arch to the Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. Kris must be a saint for all the discomfort she must have been in to complete this task for him. Unexpectedly she was jumpy and as chipper as we had ever seen her after arriving in from Atlanta after not seeing her for the past month. A group of paddlers from Rochester, New York, Chris's home town had also joined our group camp. The entire summer the kids had been hanging out with athletes, but none of them, until now, had spoken English as their first language. The team was met in North Carolina by. After two daily training sessions, with all of the people there, there was always something to do. Kal actually issued a challenge to the campers one night. "I'll bet that eight of you can't catch me and duct tape me to a tree." Why Kal stated this obviously false statement was a mystery to Perrin and everyone else involved, but Perrin and seven other people took him up on the challenge. He got a five minute head start to either run and keep running or run and hide. He took the latter of the options. Seven minutes after Kal had taken off running he was found hiding in a washing machine. Flailing, kicking and screaming 'NEVER!', Lisa, Perrin, Tom, Nic, and four of the paddlers from Rochester grabbed a hold of Kal. Perrin quickly began to wrap his body in duct tape. After creating a duct tape cocoon around the clothes he had been wearing since Europe, Kal was completely immobile. "Are we done?" Perrin asked. "Didn't he say we need to tape him to a tree?" Questioned Tom. "I don't think he can stand." He was carried to a picnic table and tapped to its bench. "Ok Kal, we have left your mouth uncovered. It is your mission to escape. Go." Nic started the watch. Kal, hurling insults at anyone who mentioned that he might not have thought his plan through, began to gnaw his way through the duct tape holding his wrists together. At twelve minutes he had his hands free. His torso was difficult to un-tape, but nothing like his hands. When he got to his bare legs, which were covered in duct tape, he realized that he was about to wax his own legs. "Ahhhggg! It hurts. Look at that! My legs are bare; all my hair is on the tape!" He yelled. At twenty minutes and fourteen seconds Kal ripped the last piece of duct tape off. His shirt was dirtier than it had been in months. Not only had he been wearing it since Austria, but now with all of the duct tape residue on it, dirt was clinging to it even more. "I told you I could escape from you guys." He said. "Actually that is not what you said." They corrected him. "It's ok though, we should do this every night. Who wants to go tomorrow?" back to Summer Novel 2003