Undaunted Curiosity

About the Book

Enjoy a leisurely cruise in a 54’ yacht on the rivers, lakes, waterways and canals of the United States and Canada, from New York City up the Hudson, thru the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario, then zigzag down the St. Lawrence River thru the Thousand Islands to Montreal. The cruise then moves across Ontario and Quebec to Hull and Ottawa on the Ottawa River into the historic 1820’s Rideau Canal and its 45 colorful Lock Parks. This spectacular scenery of central Ontario leads back to Lake Ontario, at Kingston, then via the 55 locks of the Trent-Severn Waterway thru Canada’s “cottage-country lakes” to gorgeous Georgian Bay. Here the journey turns south to Detroit, via Lakes Huron and St. Clair, then around Michigan’s “thumb”, to Sault St. Marie and Lake Superior. Moving across the Great Lakes to Chicago leads to the Illinois River into the Mississippi. The entire length of that mighty River then is cruised and described. Other tributary rivers explored town-by-city-by-town are the St. Croix, Ohio, Muskingum, Kentucky, Green, Kanawha, Allegheny, Monongahela, and Arkansas, most to their head of navigation. The White, Black, Atchafalaya, the West Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Morgan City to Mobile, and the Tenn-Tom Waterway from Mobile Bay north to Columbus, Mississippi then follows, in detail. 190 marine charts and illustrations and 23 pages of color photos provide details of the magnificence encompassed in this book. The scenic wonders and delights of 16,000 miles of America’s Waterways are explored and exposed, showing off America the Beautiful.

About the Author

Douglas W. Ayres was reared in southeastern West Virginia during the Great Depression, dreaming of boating the United States. In 1948 he joined the Army, followed by education at Roanoke College; the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Syracuse University; and the University of Southern California. An Air Force commission provided 20 years of service, to Major. Doug always had at least three active involvements, so most endeavors overlapped.

Doug became a flunky to a mentoring Town Manager, and signed as indentured servant to a Town Attorney to read for the law. Now, 58 years later, he is a retired City Manager, of Melbourne, Florida; Salem, Oregon; Inglewood, California; and Leisure World Laguna Hills, California. For another 25 years Doug also served as consultant to scores of governments, ranging from the United Nations to local special districts. He also arranged financing for several billion dollars of municipal capital improvements. Simultaneously he taught in the Graduate Schools of California State University, Long Beach (2 years); the University of Southern California (15); and the University of California, Irvine (2), and conducted seminars for a wide array of public officials.

In 1988 he and spouse Pam started sliding into retirement. They purchased a boat and began their Voyage of Discovery cruising the vast majority of the navigable waterways of North America 26,000 miles in all.

These adventures are described in detail, complete with copious charts, illustrations and color photos, in Volumes I and II of UNDAUNTED CURIOSITY - Boating America's Coasts and Waterways.

Pamela Swift Ayres was born in Missouri and reared in Kansas and on an Iowa farm. Her engineer father did not believe in female higher education, so after high school Pam escaped to Southern California to pursue higher education on her own at community colleges and the University of Southern California. There in 1981 she and Professor Douglas W. Ayres met in one of his Graduate School courses.

Pam started in municipal government at age 18, in California City, the 2nd largest California city in area. She soon became the youngest elected City Clerk in California history, also serving as Assistant City Manager, and twice as Acting C-M. Next was appointment as City Clerk of Bellflower, California. At age 31 she was appointed as City Clerk of Pasadena, from which eight years later she retired to coordinate husband Doug's burgeoning array of partnerships, corporations and speaking engagements. During Pam's career she was President of the City Clerks Association of Southern California, then of the California City Clerks Association. In 1988 she was named California City Clerk of the Year.

Simultaneously with managing Doug's endeavors Pam provided election administration services to a number of California cities, some by court order to determine and alleviate election problems. After both she and Doug retired they together provided home rule city charter conversion services to several California General Law cities. In 1988 they embarked on their Voyage of Joy, cruising the vast majority of the navigable waterways of North America 26,000 miles in all.