Thursday, March 22: A Logistical Conundrum

How to bring seven boats to the river when you have only four straps and none of Tom's vans are available?

This is the conundrum that presented itself that Thursday.


First we waited hoping that Tom was going to show in his big white van (after his Atlanta adventure, the Little Gray Van was getting pampered at the repair shop).  About half an hour before our meeting time at Angler's, we started to think about alternatives.... they were scarce. Ten minutes before the meeting time, all hopes of seeing the van appear were lost.  Time to move and do something about this!

We loaded four boats on Sandrine's car with the expert help of George and Liam, and Ellen was going to save the day by stopping by the office to take three boats on her car.  

There was one more hoop to jump through: how to tie those three boats with no straps?! Hmm... yeah... how about throw ropes and... lots of knots? Should work!?  That was a task for Ashley, George and Liam! That was going to be done in no time.  Yes but wait a minute... it is not all that easy... too much slack, no anchors, what's that knot already: "a double half trucker's hitch or somethin' "? After multiple, knotting, "unknotting" and "reknotting" the boats were somewhat tied on the roof... at least they looked like they were and with a little faith, we were going to keep them there all the way to Angler's.

Sandrine and Liam followed Ellen in case she would lose some of her precious load (Yeah! That's how much confidence we had in that tie job... and you should have seen the look on Ashley's face when we left the office...I think it meant "good luck with that!")


The ride to Angler's was long and stressful.  Liam and Sandrine saw the boats shifting around in every turn and they were just waiting for the moment when they would actually fly off.  They did not!  Yes, we witnessed a miracle!  We made it to Angler's and the seven boats with us... We even have pictures to prove it.  (Note the position of the top Pirouette at the office and at Angler's.... see any difference?)

There, Ben, Taylor and Zach were patiently waiting for us.  Yes, Zach is back!! We thought he had abandoned us but there is little doubt he was missing our back breaking workouts way too much to give up on this year's training. 

Welcome back Zach! It is great to have you back!

Incidentally, after we pulled in the parking lot, someone told Sandrine she was "the coolest Mom"!!!??? Hum... the "cool Mom" of SIX teenagers... REALLY?!?!  "Big sister" would have been a compliment, but MOM!?!?  That was a bit hard to take.  Better leave this comment behind and go paddling. :)

Since our little misadventure cost us some training time, we decided to go straight to the point and paddled straight to Wet Bottom.  Ben, Zach and George (who had traded his Wavehopper for a Fox) even spent a few minutes at Rocky, while Ellen, Liam, Taylor and Sandrine practiced ferries in the fast current below the rapid.  


This was a gorgeous and warm evening on the river and even though the training was shorter than usual, everyone seemed like they had their fare share of work.