In the "Hard to Believe" department: About 2 weeks ago I gave up and threw out the note with the young lady's phone number who said she lost her camera. Today I got a call from a hunter who came across a camera on the river bank! 30 miles down river from here! and it still works! and there was a photo of my bus with legible phone number! and a date stamp! I've called everyone that went tubing on July 9 but no positive results yet. So maybe the date is incorrect or maybe someone will still return my call. In the mean time if you or someone you know lost a nice camera while tubing with us, give us a call and be prepared with the description of your camera. I am hopeful we can reconnect someone with their property and more importantly their memories. Glenn
The Camera by Eric and Katherine
July 9, 2010
The day started out like any other day. Well, I should say the only unusual thing was the number of people who woke up "sick" for work that day. The reason was a nice day on the river tubing with Dan River Adventures. After loading up our coolers with refreshing beverages and changing into our river water gear, we jumped in the Dan River bus to take us to our drop-off spot.
Our group of twelve started off on our leisurely float down the river. It was a good group of friends enjoying the sunshine and the water and each other's company. We were celebrating the last few days of summer and our last chance to spend time together as a group before some moved away for new jobs and opportunities. The infamous event that shapes this story happened about half way through our trip, when my wife decided to give one of our friends a "noogie." However she had forgotten that she had in her possession our Canon Power Shot SD1000 which was in its Canon WP-DC13 waterproof case. The camera had traveled to Australia and spent time on the Great Barrier Reef, but it was the Dan River which was going to immortalize this camera. About 15 minutes after giving "the noogie" she realized that she did not have the camera any longer. It was at this time that she and a friend decided to head back up river to "look" for the camera. Needless to say it was not successful and the camera was thought to have been lost to the river gods.
January 19,2011
My wife and I are sitting in Cairns, Australia. We are in the airport waiting for our flight to Melbourne Austrailia with a group of students from the institution where I teach. In Melbourne, we plan to meet up with our friend Kathryn, from NC. Little did we know that the bulk of our visit would be spent reliving a great story form six months earlier. Indeed, just before flying from Hobart, Tasmania, Kathryn received the following e-mail: "Hello Kathryn. A camera has been recovered from the river and date stamps on the photos indicate it was lost at the time we took your group tubing in July. If anyone in your group lost a camera while tubing, let me know and please let me know that you read my e-mail. Thanks, Glenn/Dan River Adventures"
Could this possibly be our camera? Almost six months later??? It had to be!!!
January 26-28, 2011
My wife and I arrive back in The States and immediately e-mail Glenn to inquire about the camera. He asks me to describe the camera to see if the camera that was found is ours. After giving a description of the camera, the finder of the camera is satisfied that the camera is ours and we begin trading e-mail and phone calls in an effort to meet.
February 2, 2011
We shall call this day "the reunion." I guess before we get there I should explain a little more about what we know and how this all happened. Sometime in January, a hunter and his son were crossing a frozen river bank and in the river they noticed something that was out of place. Upon further investigation they realized that it was a camera in a waterproof case frozen in the ice. After chiseling away the ice, and letting it warm up back at home, they were able to turn the camera on. Yes, that is right. After months in the river, the battery had enough power that they could sort through the photos until they came across the most recent time stamp: 7/9/10. Flipping through the pictures they came across a random picture of the Dan River Adventures bus and trailer with our tubes and most importantly ---the pnone number of the tubing company. An innocent picture at the time ended up being crucial for the camera to return to its home. The hunter, Tim, called Glenn at Dan River Adventures to tell him of his find. After some discussion it was determined that the camera had traveled almost 30 miles from where we were picked up. It had survived summer, fall, and winter temperatures, all the while being submerged in the water---and it STILL WORKED 7 months later!!
If it wasn't for the persistence of Tim and Glenn we would have never been able to get our camera back. The last irony came in how we finally received the camera. We met Tim and his wife at Williams High School in Burlington. The high school is only about 3 miles from the apartment my wife and I live in. Tim was going to be coming to Williams High School to watch his son play JV basketball.
My wife and I were very thankful for all the effort that Tim put in to making sure the camera found its way back to us. The camera case has seen better days and in certain nonessential spots had accumulated some grit, but the case remains waterproof and the camera works just fine.
I spent a good portion of the evening going back through old photos that were still on the camera and trying to clean out the random river deposits from the waterproof case.
What an amazing journey (and what a great product)!! Thanks to all that helped our camera find its way home.
Website Owned and Maintained by Glenn Bozorth
FLOAT THE DAN RIVER AND EXPLORE WHERE THE SAURA INDIANS LIVED
