jtexas
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2003
- Messages
- 8,646
Camping with the family at Colorado Bend State Park in San Saba County, Texas. I left early & had just enough time to set up camp before dark, wife & kids left when school got out & arrived a couple hours later. <br /><br />The parade of stupid human tricks started on day one, Friday: after checking in with the park ranger, I found I needed to turn around in a bit of a tight spot. Didn't allow quite enough room, and the mushroom anchor hanging on the bow put a nice new dent in the Explorer liftgate, just above the taillights.<br /><br />An unexpected cold front hit Friday night, high winds & thunderstorms. But the tents held up & kept everything dry. Weather cleared Sat. morning. Getting ready to launch Sat. afternoon is when I discovered SHT #2: I noticed the big bag of charcoal I had packed in the boat was soggy. Of course it broke open, some coals ended up on the floor, the kids (and me) were too impatient to clean it up right away, so when we got back from our river cruise Saturday evening, everything (feet, clothes, seats, floor, gunwales) was covered in soot.<br /><br />Sunday afternoon we wanted to see if we make it about four miles upriver to Gorman Falls, a famous local landmark, even though I'd been told it gets shallow a half-mile upriver. My boat only drafts about 11 inches anyway. Well, after dinging the skeg on a couple rocks (idle speed, no damage), and grounding on one, we decided to turn around & cruise to a swimming hole at a freshwater spring a couple miles downriver. <br /><br />When we got there I noticed we were ankle-deep in water. Convinced I had knocked a hole in the hull, I immediately turned it around & drove back to the ramp. <br /><br />Loaded the boat, got in to pull up the ramp...now<br />this is probably the stupidest of stupid human tricks: I put it in gear, but when I eased off the brake it went backwards! I tried applying the gas before letting off the brake, but it still went backwards! What I learned is, when pulling a boat up a ramp, you want your transmission in "D" not "R." Remember that.<br /><br />Well, after a thorough inspection of the hull, what I had forgot was, that in a hard turn to starboard my boat will take on a lot of water through the livewell overflow (a design limitation, not a defect). The wife had lost her cap (my "lucky" fishing hat) on the way, so we'd done a couple hard u-turns. Duh! That's what the bilge pump is for anyway.<br /><br />Drove back to the campsite and walked down to the riverbank to collect my fishing rods, which I had set out because the wife doesn't have a fishing license & I didn't want to risk a chance encounter with a warden. Big mistake - somebody came along & took 'em. Hard to figure, since there were only a couple other families still there - everybody else had packed up & pulled out already. Not real valuable stuff, 4 rods I can replace for about $250 total. Very frustrating.<br /><br />Sunday night, I was snapping a few more photos & noticed the film counter on the old Canon AE-1 was up around 28. Walked out of the lantern light to a dark spot & opened it up and guess what I found? That's right, no film in the camera!<br /><br />Monday: packed up & pulled out, the wife about a half-hour ahead of me. About eight miles down the road, there's the van, parked with a flat tire! Put on the spare, find a place in the next town to fix it, and head on home.<br /><br />Strange, even after all that, except for the lost fishing equipment, I'd still call the trip a success. Go figure.
