I can't remember anymore how many years ago this was, but Toony would drag me up to go fish every spring-as I was honing my skills in "how to lose a fish". Dave was such a great teacher...."watch how I do it"...He seemed to float on the river and would pick fish out of holes that only he seemed to know existed under the swirling water. One day when we got there he had this big grin on and said he had to show us his new contraption that he built to get him up and down the bank of the river next to his home. It looked like something from another time, part tram, part trolley, mining car, old steel. Rube Goldberg. He told me to "hop" in-which for some reason I thought meant this was going to be a quick trip. We got in and (he was still grinning ear to ear)he started talking about how he built it. As always I was mesmerized by his thought processes for building things, but in the back of my mind I was wondering when we were going to take off. A few minutes later I realized we were, in fact, moving. What was remarkable was that it was SO SLOW you could barely tell! We were moving at the speed of molasses at -30F. I told him I was worried I might be a year older by the time we got to the bottom. That Grin got bigger. Looking back on that I am sure that was built at just the precise speed Dave wanted it to be-geologic. I think thats why he picked that beautiful spot on the river.He picked a place and a spot on the river of time that soothed his soul-and all those who visited him. I will miss him but I will forever know where I can go to find him floating on that river.
Bob Kovar
