Our Past Tents – Page 4 – Aly & Bryan are always up to something…

April 6, 2013October 20, 2023

2013 OOO Demo Day

The local paddling store, Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters in Hot Springs, has a ‘Demo Day’ every year. It was at this event last spring that we had a chance to meet the staff of the store and some local paddlers who had come out to help. It was at Demo Day last year when Bryan and Mandy picked out their LiquidLogic XP kayaks, and where Hayduke and I first tried, and settled on, ‘his’ Native Ultimate. Just a year later, we still have those first three boats in our garage, along with three more used boats we’ve bought since then, and four we’ve borrowed from other people. We’ve made some great friends of paddlers since then. We kind of felt like this year’s Demo Day was a sort of anniversary for us.

This year’s event was bigger and better than last year’s, I think. Hayduke kicked it off by cheerfully knocking me down and dragging me down a slick rock and into the cold lake. He does love water, but that was a little ridiculous, and I told him so, and he didn’t care about my opinion at all. Continue reading “2013 OOO Demo Day”

March 16, 2013October 20, 2023

MWA Kayak Slalom 2013

Every spring, the Missouri Whitewater Association hosts a slalom event on the St. Francis River in Missouri. In kayak (or canoe) slalom, boaters race downriver through ‘gates’, which are really sets of two poles hung from wires strung above the water. Green striped gates should be paddled through heading downstream. Red striped gates have to be passed heading upstream. Racers are timed from start to finish. Missing a gate entirely incurs a 50-second penalty; each pole touched adds a 5-second penalty.

I don’t remember how Mandy heard about the MWA Whitewater Championships, but she wanted to try it. We’d never been to the St. Francis before. Bryan and I, always suckers for a good road trip, were agreeable. Continue reading “MWA Kayak Slalom 2013”

March 1, 2013October 20, 2023

Winter on the Water

It’s been cold, but thanks to drysuits and neoprene and excellent long johns, we’ve been paddling anyway. Late in January, we were invited to join a small group to paddle on the quiet water of Bayou DeView, from Hickson Lake to Apple Lake. It was a gray day and my mood matched the weather, but it was still good to be outside. We ate lunch on Whiskey Island, and Debo ‘adopted’ a too-thin, sad little snake, packing it carefully in a dry box for the trip back to the truck. (Note: A month later, the little snake’s eating goldfish like they’re going out of style. He’s fat and healthy now and he’ll go back home to Whiskey Island sometime in the spring.)

The more we thought about creek paddling, the more Bryan and I thought we should get Crash a helmet with more face protection. She’s never had the least little problem with wearing helmets, and agreed that she’d appreciate headgear that might help her keep all her teeth and jawbones in the same place. We asked around and did a little research, and just when we’d decided on a ShredReady, and Bryan found one on sale. The new helmet arrived on our doorstep right beside a nice big rainstorm that brought the creeks up. But Mandy’s grades weren’t great, and we wouldn’t let her skip school. She was stuck at home, wearing her new helmet in the kitchen, watching videos, while her friends paddled Richland Creek. Continue reading “Winter on the Water”

February 1, 2013October 20, 2023

Laser Vision (Post-Op) (updated)

Post-Op

The drive home was fine except I was super tense and trying not to cry. I wasn’t upset at anything but the whole experience was very stressful. I’m not sure if I needed more Valium or needed to wait longer for it to kick in. The multiple attempts on my left eye weren’t confidence inspiring even though I knew we were losing suction before anything critical was taking place. Continue reading “Laser Vision (Post-Op) (updated)”

January 31, 2013October 20, 2023

Laser Vision (The Operation)

Typical doctors office, we have a 9:30a appointment and don’t go back for almost an hour. Once in the back, they check to see which is my dominate eye (right) and give me a Valium. They proceed to put me in a hair net and place booties over my shoes. My forehead gets a sticker saying which type of surgery I’m having and in which eyes (custom, bladeless, both eyes). The surgeon then stops by to introduce himself and have one last look at my eyes in the microscope. He then walks me through the procedure and lets me know what he’ll be asking me to do. After that, it’s game time.

We get escorted to the surgical suite. Aly has a seat outside the window with a monitor that lets her watch what’s going on. I’m brought into the darkened suite and laid down on the reclined chair. Several times I’m asked about my name and birthdate and they make sure it matches up with the name tag I’m wearing on my head. I suppose this is to make sure they have the proper settings loaded into the computers based on the tests they’ve previously run on me. Continue reading “Laser Vision (The Operation)”

January 30, 2013October 20, 2023

Laser Vision (Pre-Op)

Pre-Op

I have been considering LASIK surgery for a number of years now, keeping an eye on my prescription to see if it was changing, asking various doctors if they thought I was a candidate and talking to friends that have had the procedure. Cost was always an obstacle, as was the fact that I only have two eyeballs. They tend to not heal themselves if you lose your vision.

I’ve worn glasses since forever and for the most part don’t mind them. They got in the way of playing catcher in Little League baseball but so did contacts due to the sand the catchers mask tends to pick up. My vision was such that I couldn’t get prescription Oakleys or other wraparound sunglasses for wearing while riding my bike and I made due with a pair of “old guy” prescription inserts for the Bolle sunglasses I wore. Continue reading “Laser Vision (Pre-Op)”

January 19, 2013October 20, 2023

OHT: Section 4 (Part 1)

Britt’s backpack has been around since the mid-eighties. Someday I want to sit down and write out a memoir for that pack. It may have gone on more good trips than I’ll see in my lifetime. A replacement internal-frame pack in Britt’s size has been found and ordered, so this was the old pack’s last trip. It wasn’t dangerous or exciting, as some of its earlier trips were. But it had one last long weekend in the woods with good friends and clear skies and a bright moon, and I hope that was enough.

We began our walk at Lick Branch, where we’d left off hiking a couple of months ago. The trail was level for a bit before beginning a long, slow, all-afternoon climb. Our camping spot was perfect, on a flat spot just above a tumbling bluffline of big sandstone blocks, and a barred owl called through the woods as we set up. We never saw the owl, but he sounded close enough to touch. Worn out, I went to bed right after supper. Continue reading “OHT: Section 4 (Part 1)”

January 15, 2013February 2, 2013

We’ve moved! Websites, that is.

Hi! Aly and I put a lot of work into our family website/blog over the holiday season, and we made a big push to not only finish a ton of old blog posts but to jump ship from Blogger too! We made this new website from scratch to contain our blog and our photo gallery. Now that it’s all in one place, and mostly running on WordPress, it should be easier to maintain and update in a timely manner.

January 11, 2013October 20, 2023

Time Machine

“If the pure and elevated pleasure to be derived from the possession and use of a good telescope were generally known, I am certain that no instrument of science would be more commonly found in the homes of intelligent people.” —Garrett Serviss (1901) Pleasures of the Telescope

The forecast for tonight and the following four nights calls for rain and clouds. After a dry summer and a drier autumn, what caused the sudden switch to wet weather? Why did we go straight from drought to downpour? Continue reading “Time Machine”

January 7, 2013October 20, 2023

Monkey In a Boat

Our young friend Monkey has been nosing around the edges of our kayaking hobby for a few months. She and her family went with us one warm day last summer on a Remmel-to-Rockport trip. I think they all enjoyed it, but I think Monkey enjoyed it a little extra. Since then she and Mandy have talked about boats several times. She spent a few days with us over the holiday break, and it worked out that I could take her on a group trip to Bayou Deview on the Saturday before school started again. Continue reading “Monkey In a Boat”