Hope Floats NC

Hope Floats NC to Bluegrass

Chris — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:33:46 +0000

Hope Floats NC is sponsoring a Bluegrass concert on April 20th at the amphitheater in Smithfield Commons. Admission to the concert is free but we will be encouraging and accepting donations for the American Cancer Society throughout the event. The concert will start at 3:00 P.M. and is scheduled to run until 6:00 P.M. The featured bands are Carolina Tradition, Carolina Grass and Tim Renfrow & Feelin Country. Local Johnston County Relay for Life teams will be selling food, drinks and other items during the concert. The Hope Floats NC Team will be making their way from Raleigh down the Neuse and should arrive at the event around 5:00 P.M. Come out and enjoy some great music and help us in the battle against cancer. Working together we can make a difference!

Parley with the Castaways in the Florida Keys

Chris — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:41:25 +0000

On the heels of the first real snow storm in North Carolina for 2013, team members Laura, Cathy, Mary Grace, Bob, Regan, Charlie, Anita, Kim and Chris headed down to the Florida Keys for a winter training mission. With less than 90 days until our 2013 Temporary Lapse of Sanity Tour, we needed all the seat time we could get. Our adventure started at Florida Bay Outfitters where we met up with Pete, Adam, Craig, Scott, Lou and Patrick from our sister cancer fighting team the Castaways Against Cancer. Paddling out of Key Largo we made our way across Blackwater Sound, through a mangrove tunnel at Dusenbury Creek into Buttonwood Sound. Heading northwest into Florida Bay we pointed our kayaks into the wind and headed towards the distant shore of Nest Key. We made camp on the west shore of the island and settled in for an afternoon and evening of fellowship. We traded stories of our kayaking adventures into the evening before retiring to our tents. The following morning we packed up our gear and with the wind at our backs we paddled back to Key Largo. Over lunch at a Castaways favorite, Hobo’s Cafe, we tossed out ideas for future combined adventures together before taking our leave. The adventure was well worth the trip down and the information we shared will help us both in our fight against cancer. Click here for pictures from our trip.

2012 Trip Report Finally Posted

Chris — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:13:16 +0000

It is long overdue but I have finally be able to get all of my thoughts together and finish writing the trip report for our 2012 tour. It wasn’t something that I could sit down and write overnight, it literally took me many months to gather my thoughts and put them into a storyline that I thought would give you some idea of what it was like to paddle for 9 days and over 218 miles. Click here to read the report.

Keys training mission only a month away

Chris — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:29:05 +0000

We are just a month away from our January training mission with the Castaways Against Cancer down in the Florida Keys. Nine members of our team will be traveling down to Big Pine Key for a 10 day trip in mid January to get in some winter seat time in a warmer climate. While we are down we will be making an overnight trip with the Castaways in their home waters. The members of Team Hope Floats NC that are making the trip are very excited about the upcoming trip and look forward to meeting more of the Castaways Team.

October Training Mission a Complete Success

Chris — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:39:10 +0000

On October 13th Kim, Chris, Laura, Cathy, Mary Grace, Wendy and Sara headed up to Lake Drummond in the Great Dismal Swamp for an overnight trip. We were joined by Castaway’s Against Cancer member Craig Engler, aka the Pylon King, who recently moved from Florida to Chesapeake Virginia. We made the short 3 mile paddle from the access just north of the Feeder Ditch out to the Lake Drummond Reservation. After setting up camp we ventured out onto the lake to explore for the afternoon. Dinner back in camp was followed by a wonderful exchange of stories with Craig about both our tour this past April and the years he has paddled with the Castaways. We awoke to a beautiful Sunday morning and following breakfast we packed up and made the short trek back to the launch site. After loading the cars and farewells with Craig, we made the 45 minute drive around to Merchants Millpond State Park. The trip to the park was a true adventure as none of us had ever visited the millpond before. Once unloaded, we paddled out to our campsite where we unloaded the boats and then headed back out to explore. The GPS was a great help in finding our way around. We paddled deeper into the watery Cypress forest and after a couple of hours finally circled back around to our campsite. Mary Grace and Sara, unable to stay the night, reluctantly left the group to head back to the parking area. Chris joined them on their paddle back to the boat access so he could help them load. Just before reaching the turn to the access, Mary Grace spotted an alligator which has quickly earned her the nickname of the Louisiana Gator Hunter. We were able to get some great pictures of the gator before he finally got bored with us and swam away. Back at camp the Fire Marshall, Wendy, built us a toasty fire where we enjoyed fellowship into the early evening. Check out the rest of our pictures from the trip.

2013 Kick Off Dinner

Chris — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:54:45 +0000

Chris and Kim hosted a dinner on Saturday evening at the Bentnickle as a wrap up for the 2012 tour and the kick off for 2013. The team enjoyed a bbq chicken dinner while they reminisced over memories of this past season. After dinner we had a brief information discussion of some changes in next year’s tour and watched the “Life As We Knew It” 2012 Tour video. The party continued for some until late in the evening with the last leaving after midnight. We all enjoyed a wonderful evening of fellowship and look forward to another successful tour next year.

Pictures from the 2012 Tour

Chris — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:38:42 +0000

We finally have pictures from the 2012 tour up on the website. It was very hard to pick from the over 3000 that were taken during the tour, but we have a good sampling in there. Each album has sub galleries for every day of the tour so you can follow along and see things just as we did. While you are in the gallery don’t forget to check out the pictures from others places we have been since the tour in April. We will be adding pictures from other trips as we make them so come back often and see where we have been.

Planning for 2013 Tour Underway

Chris — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:59:10 +0000

With only a couple of months since finishing up our 2012 tour, planning is already underway for our 2013 tour. The date has been set for April 20th through the 26th and we will again be paddling the Neuse River. This year we are ending our tour in New Bern and will be joining in with the Craven County Relay Event to be held on Friday the 26th. Invitations have gone out to our 2012 team members to join next year and it looks like most everyone will be joining us again. Keep checking back often for the latest information about upcoming events.

Welcome to the new Hope Floats NC site!

Chris — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:09:27 +0000

Thank you for stopping by our site. We are currently building a new look and it is still under construction. Please bare with us and check back often. We will soon be back up and going.