Like many of my Carding Chronicles, the new three-part story that starts tomorrow was inspired by real events.

In this case, it’s the annual (or at least it has been for the past 44 years) raft race down a three-mile stretch of the Ottauquechee River in Bridgewater, Vermont.

It’s a fundraiser for local nonprofits, a good party and a lot of laughs.

So of course, Carding needed a raft race on the Corvus River.

This one got its name long, long ago from someone who liked browsing through the first dictionary of the English language, the one by Dr. Samuel Johnson.

So consider this your word of the day:
amnicolist n.s. [amnicola, Lat.] Inhabiting near a river.
—from the 1755 Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson

In Carding, the local raft racing crowd is abuzz this week. Wil Bennett and his friend Brian Lambert are out looking for raw materials for a raft. Here’s a sample of what’s to come. Hope you can join us!