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When retired CEO Ramsay Peard, 61, called his old friend David Morine, 59, and asked the longtime conservationist�if he wanted to canoe the Connecticut River, �Morine said he?d do it under one condition: no camping. �We?ll rely on the kindness of strangers.?

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And that's what they did. Mooching their way down the river and staying with strangers every night, Morine and Peard got an inside look at such issues as the demise of farming, the loss of manufacturing, gay rights, and Wal-Mart versus Main Street, and they were able to delve deep into the lives of complete strangers. But Morine soon realized the one life he never dug into was Peard's. After spending a month with him in a canoe, he had no idea that his friend's innermost thoughts had taken a fateful course.

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Written in the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, this book will be treasured by�conservationists, canoeists,� and old friends still seeking a thrill. Everyone else will be delightfully entertained.