Kayak Day, Tuesday June 12, 2007

Our two daughters are out of school for Summer. We failed to arrange for their care so that we could go after the longer version of the Little Ski Hill mountain bike ride. No timely play dates, no babysitters, no nothing. So my experimental 7 speed mountain bike would have to wait for its test ride. No wait, that is my experimental single speed mountain bike that has been dismantled. Never mind. So we went to the North shore of Payette Lake for some 'yaking and relaxing. And that began with my own personal story of broke-ness, cheap-ness, creative-ness, frustration-ness, and pig-headed git-r-done-ness. What the hell am I talking about? Valid question.

We recently retired our 1994 Isuzu Trooper and bought a Honda Element. Reason I mention this? Our old Trooper had a Thule roof rack with a cargo box. Mounts that will allow us to put our rack and box on the Element? Hundred something something gang of money! But hey! One of our sales guys reps for Yakima! So then it would only be hundred-hunert-sumpity dollars for a whole new rack to mount the box on! My cheapity cheap-ness would not abide.
So I figure and drill and bolt and mostly I shout curse words. And after many cumulative hours of struggle I achieve success!

Thule rack solidly mounted on the Element roof! And with my trusty ratchet straps I was confident our two kayaks would stay on the rack even if we drove 100 miles per hour. All that, and I was only mildly grouchy! Okay, pretty darn grouchy. But I saved hundreds of dollars on extravagant outdoor gear automobile storage equipment without totally losing my mind! Or did I? I'll never tell.

So we drove to the lovely North shore of Payette Lake and unloaded all of our gear. We also unloaded our Doodle. That is we unloaded our Daisy Doodle. we unloaded our dog. And we didn't know if she could swim, if she would try to swim, if she would ride in a kayak, etc. We were concerned about how her little tiny dog brain would respond to the environment. So we took precautions, as outdoor gear purveyors should:

We strapped a foam pad around her body. She did not seem to mind. Excellent. And so we yakked. Of most photo-worthiness was Maddie and Daisy yakking.

And Lydia and I yakked.

And Jenni yakked

And we had lunch and it was a grand day out in the sun and fresh air and very good for our minds and bodies. And Lydia found at least ten bird feathers.