57 - 8/8/2010 - Skagit

Nolan in the S-Bends

The second day of the Poker Run weekend I like to change things up and get in an early run. This time, I let a different person use my catboat, and I used Brian's tubes with my new frame. The tubes are kind of big (12'6"x22.5"), but it turns out that my frame is almost too short for the tubes. I'll keep that in mind for when I decide on what to buy.

Nolan and I did a quick morning run and I was home by mid-afternoon.

56 - 8/7/2010 - Skagit Poker Run

Homer, me, Lyles, and Dari

My back had been bothering me, so I took a few weeks off from boating. My original plan was to use Brian's cat tubes with my frame, so I loaned my catboat to someone else. I ended up taking my IK, which was fine since the flow wasn't that high. Usually, I start the Poker Run weekend by running the Sauk as an overnighter, but I'm having to save up my vacation for January, so I didn't arrive until Saturday morning. I took my time because for the first time in 7 years I wasn't involved in running the event.

The run was fine. Several people switched boats. The person who borrowed my catboat decided they didn't like it, and there was more switching around, but I stayed in my IK. As you can see from the picture above, I went as a frog. My niece got the hood for me when she was in Japan, and I wore it the whole day. That part was lots of fun. It's easy to meet people when you look goofier than usual.

I had lousy poker hands, but won a couple of small prizes. I screwed up my potluck dish and ended up saving it and eating it for dinner the next night. I'll have to make a simpler dish next time. The one good thing was that I got my new Zing tarp. We used it to help protect the potluck tables from the rain.