Watercraft

Throughout my childhood my dad, uncles, grandpas', etc. all had boats. And I spent countless weekends at lakes, usually Harlan County Reservoir, and Sherman Dam. When I was 15 my grandpa Duke gave me a old 50's era boat that would seat 5 and had a 50 horse outboard Mercury. It had a white hull and red top, lots of chrome and black upholstery and black engine. He restored it and it was sharp and ran good. I sold it back to him when I was around 22.

After that I got busy with life and didn't have anything to take out on the water. Duke died in 2000 and I borrowed the 'little red boat' a couple of times from my grandma. In the meantime my dad got a air boat to use on his new river ground near Centura and we'd get rides and fish for catfish off it when we went there.

Fast forward to 2008. We're in Lincoln for our first spring and I take the kids to Holmes Lake to catch bluegill. The have a ball. Just using zeboco 202's, a split shot weight, plain hook with some kernels of canned corn and a bobber. Fishing off the rocks on the bank you can see 4" bluegill come out of the rocks and take the hook, one right after the other. It's a hoot. We throw them all back.

Then it hits me, the big blue expanse is calling me, and I get the itch for a boat. I know I can't afford one, and the wife is a bit of a landlubber, but I can't get it out of my mind. I find myself checking craigslist and even looking at a couple of boat stores, Sams Club and Scheels. I decide what I need is a Two Man Bass Boat. Long story short, I tell my grandma about my dream and she tells me that she gave a small boat to my dad years ago for the kids to play on at one of the ponds on his river ground. I call him and ask about it, and he says it's still around, that he never liked it and it hasn't been used. He said I'm welcome to it if I want it. Another quick check of craigslist yields a minkota trolling motor and battery for $75 in Beatrice, a quick drive down there and a trip out to Cairo and I'm once again a seaman! The wife sarcastically calls it "his rubbermaid tote".

It's real small, rated for 1 person or 250 lbs. but since I'm tipping the scales at 150 lbs. and the two youngest are around 80 lbs. I figure we're safe to use it as long as I only take one at a time. I just throw it in the bed of the pick-up and go. We had allot of fun with it all summer last year.

You'd think that would pacify me... wrong, then I get to thinking about all the fun I had canoeing the loup growing up. Hmmm. I need a canoe! So, back to craigslist I go. I watch for a few months and even tried trading a atv trailer for a canoe to no avail. Then one day I check again. And deep into the depths of craigslist I find that UNL's Rec. Dept. is having a inventory liquidation sale. Starting on a Thursday at 10am and continuing through the weekend. It's a worthless ad. And I figure I'm the only guy in cyberspace that has seen it.

The appointed day arrives, I sneak out of the office and get to UNL at 1/4 to 10 feeling confident that I'll get a canoe or two. You see, the ad said they had like 13 or 14 canoes from $30 - $70. (their usually over $200 for a decent used canoe in the paper or online) I neglected to tell the wife about the UNL sale, but I'm thinking I can save face if I pick-up two. One for me and one as a gift for her. (typical testosterone thinking, huh?) Or, if she wasn't delighted with her new vessel I could sell the extra for enough of a profit to cover the one I'd keep. Essentially getting a 'free' canoe and not taking anything away from the family grocery budget. I'm feeling pretty smart!

Back to that morning at UNL, as I round the corner of the building I find a herd of over 50 outdoorsmen! After a few minutes someone from the rec. dept. comes out with numbers 1-60, everyone draws one and the person with #1 gets to go first. They announce everyone can pick up to 3 canoes and when their gone, their gone. I draw # 27 *bummer* I see the guy with #1 and ask him how many he's going to get. He said he wants two, but decided he'd get 3 and sell one. I ask what he'd have to have to sell me the rights to buy his 3rd canoe. We agree on $25. I pick a $60 canoe and when the dust has cleared I've got a nice used canoe for a total of $85. Still well below what it's worth.

That was in January of 2009, we've had it out a couple of times and love it. For one reason or another the wife or 17 yr old hasn't come out on it yet. But it shouldn't be long. Even though she's not much for canoeing, I think I've sold her on the idea of a romantic sunset cruse. I don't know if I've got to stand up and sing as we go under the bridges on Holmes Lake like the gondola guys do in Italy, but I'll let you know how it goes. I told the girlfriend of my 17 yr old about how great it'd be if he took her out on it some quite, serene evening and she ate it up. Even if he'd rather be playing basketball, I'm hoping she'll help get him out on the water sometime soon. Of course he's too busy and too cool to go out with me on it.