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Water Dawg

Hayduke loves water, so when when we decided to buy boats early this year, it seemed unkind to consider getting into a hobby he’d love, in a way that excluded him.  So I chose my boat with the intention of paddling with Hayduke.  We brought him with us to the lake when we tested boats.  I only looked at buying boats that his wet doggy body would fit in, and that he could get in and out of while out on the water.  We practiced.  I chose the Native because it seemed to work well for this, and once home, I put the boat in the living room floor and taught him to get in and out of it, and encouraged him to lie down inside.

A fat lot of good THAT did – the dog more or less totally refuses to get into the boat on the water.  I’ve tried and tried to teach him to ride with me.  I’ve put soft things in the bottom so that it would be less slippery.  I’ve tried using a tab on his pinch collar to hold him.  I’ve tried bribing him with snacks. I’ve given up. Continue reading “Water Dawg”

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Ocoee Trip

Yeah… Mandy and I are punting on this post… here are a few photos and a video. Suffice to say, we had a great time and will be back.

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Rendezvous!

I’ve been sick, sick, sick.  But the Arkansas Canoe Club’s big annual camp out and get-together was this past weekend, and Bryan and Mandy wanted to go.

Rendezvous is held every year at Camp Couchdale, the state FFA organization’s big event center on Lake Catherine.  The facilities are pretty nice (though bathrooms seem a little slim) and there are bunkhouses for those who want them, and  there’s plenty of room to camp between buildings.  I arrived first and chose a campsite between the buildings and the very edge of the lake, sure that it would be dark and quiet. Continue reading “Rendezvous!”

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Goodbye, BFCC

I’ve been on the Little Rock mayor’s Bike Friendly Community Committee for the past year.  The committee itself was formed several years ago to provide review of the city’s infrastructure and policies alongside a sort of list of ideal practices one would find in a city friendly to cyclists of all kinds.  Little Rock can’t become Portland overnight, but by choosing things that would be simple and low-cost, we could make real progress toward treating cyclists and pedestrians well and providing safe space for all road users.  Sounds good, right?

It was useful and worthwhile work, I’d thought.  I was aware that there were problems – that the specific structure of LR’s city government made progress of this kind difficult, and that there were people on the committee itself who were happy with the status quo, who would be difficult for me to work with.  I knew it would be time consuming, and that I’d have to go to a lot of meetings.  (I hate meetings.) Continue reading “Goodbye, BFCC”

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Rockport

Mandy learned to roll her new XP9 before school let out. Then she left for six weeks in Tulsa. She was only back for a week or so before leaving on her New York trip. So really, she didn’t get to spend much time at all in a kayak until the first week of August.


Then, when she came back, she flung her whole 100 pounds into kayaking.  We expected her to take a few tries to roll again, maybe even needing another lesson or two.  Nope – she nailed the first roll she tried in the UALR pool.  She’s spent every available piece of August on the water, working hard on kayak skills.  Mid-month, we bought our friend Renee Hanshaw’s Dagger playboat for her. Continue reading “Rockport”

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Swiftwater Rescue Class

We just got into this whole paddling thing this summer and here we are deciding to sign up Mandy and I for a swiftwater rescue class. The class is taught by some very experienced locals who have received training and certifications over the years from a national paddling organization. They are trained not only in how to conduct a swiftwater rescue, but also how to teach the swiftwater rescue skills and how to train other teachers.

What is “swiftwater rescue?” And why would we noobs be signing up? And why isn’t mom getting trained too? Here’s the course overview for the 20 hour class we took: Continue reading “Swiftwater Rescue Class”

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Bon Ton Roulet

A couple of months ago, we gave Mandy a present:  A plain white envelope.  Inside was the receipt for her ‘ticket’ to participate in the Bon Ton Roulet, a seven-day supported bike tour around the Finger Lakes in upstate New York.  It’s her first trip in that direction, and more importantly, it’s her first trip out of state without parents.

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We dropped her off at the train station for a late-evening departure on Thursday.  She was to travel with our friend Kathy, as well as with a couple of other women cyclists from the Little Rock area.  We sat with them for a bit but left before the midnight train arrived.  Mandy had really been looking forward to even this part of the trip – she was by far the youngest in the group, but as the only one who had traveled on Amtrak, she was ready to provide a tour of the facilities!  They sent texts from the train:  they’d arrived in St. Louis a bit late, they’d left the train in Chicago, they’d used my notes to find stuff to do during their layover, they’d boarded their new train for Syracuse. Continue reading “Bon Ton Roulet”

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Training Rides, New Bike

Mandy and Kathy have spent the last couple of weeks getting ready for their trip to New York.  Neither has been riding a lot, so now that Mandy’s back from her trip to Tulsa, they’ve been getting together nearly every day to spend some time on the bikes.

It was a good idea, except that on Thursday, on the way home from their practice ride, Kathy’s little grey Mini got rear ended on the interstate.  The liftgate is crumpled, the bike rack is ruined, and – the worst news – both bikes are twisted up.  Both front wheels look like flattish Pringles.  Mandy’s frame is only bent a little, but because of it the bike won’t shift properly. Kathy’s carbon fiber is dinged enough that two or three bike shop people have said it would be unsafe to ride. Continue reading “Training Rides, New Bike”

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History

Bryan’s grandparents know he likes old camera gear, so as they’ve been cleaning out their attics and closets these past few years, they’ve passed their Brownies and other old cameras along to us.  One from his Grandma Schambach came to us with a roll of film still inside; we sent it off to be processed and got these gifts from his family’s past.  Is this Metairie forty years ago?

Where is this?  Is this a photograph of a family member’s house?  Is it the view from a great-uncle’s window, or from the top of a factory where his grandfather worked? Continue reading “History”