We bought this boat in January from a young fellow who lives on the Mississippi. Who buys a boat in January and expects it to work? Such is the wonder of Craig’s List – making you trust in people even when there are so many bad ones out there. 

Well, it’s a great boat and except for one little hose problem, which could’ve come about from sitting outside the rest of the winter. It works just fine. At least that’s what our friends Lori and Glen told us, after an aborted birthday (Glen’s) trip when we couldn’t get the engine to keep running. Thankfully the boat was just hanging off the trailer at that point, not entirely in the water.

That was months ago. And Glen found us a new hose. Then Paul asked me what I wanted for my birthday (September). “A ride on my boat in the river!” He tried, valiantly, to make it happen…but the Fates conspired against him. Then, this last week, we took the plunge. We picked a day we knew no one would be waiting for us to learn how to back a trailer into the river and we did it. Slow and steady and in she went! After some hard pulls – OK enough to make me sore the next day and give me a blister – we let it sit. Then a check online about something called a carburetor adjustment (who knew?) and then Paul gave it some pulls, and made the right tweaks when it sputtered and Voila!

We headed upstream, still not trusting our new-to-us but vintage Evinrude 15. Except for a few sand bars lurking a foot below the water, one that tried to take the entire motor OFF the boat at one point, all went well. We arrived back at the ramp safe and sound and feeling pretty darned good about ourselves and our new boat.

River wonders – for the first time we were able to see turtles sunbathing on a branch, and two great blue herons. There are just some things you only get to see when you’re on the water!

It was a big deal though. We’d rather just lower the boat into the river from our place. Anyone interested in helping build that kind of system? We’d have to get approval from the county but word was a while back that it wouldn’t be a problem.