Buying a Canoe 7-3-99

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It all starts with an ad in Uncle Henry's Weekly Swap It/Sell It Guide, Vol. 30, No. 26 - July 1st through July 7th 1999.

Any good second hand sale in Maine starts with a visit to Uncle Henry's - Ah-Yuh!!!

Now the difficult part of these ads as my wise co-worker Sandy warned me... is that anything you want in Uncle Henry's is always out in East Bumf&%k. Sandy was right!

This canoe was in Lagrange which was a mere 230 mile round trip - maybe a little less because we sidetracked twice that day to the Old Town Canoe Factory Outlet, in Old Town Maine. - Old Town is just above Orono on the map.

Yup! It's the Old Town Canoe Factory Outlet. Located just below the factory. We got here just minutes before it opened for the day.

This is Mecca for canoe junkies! Everyone in Old Town rides around with these canoes on the roof of their car. Up here a canoe on your car roof serves primarily as a garage!

While your a waitin' for the store to open you can glance over the gate to the side yard, and salivate as you view canoes and kayaks of all kinds.

It's a great warm-up so that true canoe junkies don't hyper-ventilate when they open the doors to the store, and you have all those new Old Town canoe's peering at you all at once.

When they open the doors... Wowee just look at unfolds before your eyes!

They do have many canoes on display, at very reduced prices.

We wanted to check this Outlet Store first to make sure there wasn't a different canoe, or a similar canoe (like the one we were chasing from our Uncle Henry's ad) at a better price.

Hey!! We found an Old Town Discovery 158 Canoe, just like the one in our Uncle Henry's ad. Same color and everything.

The price although attractive, was not nearly as good as the one being offered in the Uncle Henry's ad.

Our only concern...what condition was our Uncle Henry's canoe going to be in?

We decided to trek onward, risking life and limb heading another 20 miles north to Lagrange, in the relentless pursuit for the better deal!

Well we drove north on Rte. 16 to the "Composite Lodge" with the blue roof and blue skirt, and then turned left, and followed the directions down the dirt road... and glory be.... there it was just like we were told.

The actual owner was on vacation but he had made arrangements with "Louis" his neighbor to take the money if we wanted the canoe.

Well this is Louis. We arrived at about 10:30 a.m. and Louis already reeked of booze.

He was nice enough to talk with, but much of what he said didn't make very much sense.

He did explain that the canoe had never even been in the water. (The canoe was new and unscratched)

Well we went ahead and made the deal with Louis.

See Louis eye the cash, see the cash make Louis's day!

I just hope that Louis doesn't drink up his neighbors money. The neighbor wasn't due home for another few days!!!

We asked Louis for a Bill of Sale, but he didn't quite understand why we needed one. He kept assuring us that canoe was in excellent condition, and that we had his word on it. I tried to explain several times but all I got were confusing glances from Louis, and more assurances of the canoe's quality. I gave up. I figured we had enough pictures to demonstrate the transaction should problems arise.

Well here we are putting the final touches on the deal, and tying down that canoe.

Louis has the money, but wait.... now what is Louis staring at!!!

Hey Louis stop that!

Our deal is done.