A real adventure!

…We’ll have to chalk this last weekend’s regatta to one of the most interesting on record. It was very odd, all the way around.

It started when we all walked up to a local pizza place near the hotel just outside of Seattle. We waited to cross the road at the crosswalk when all of a sudden a very loud ‘boxing bell’ sounded to alert of the crossing availability. What the hell was that??! Dinggggg! “Ready for round one” …Was this to be the cars against the pedestrians. Bizarre!

We got to bed by 11pm that night, only to sleep a little late because the radio failed to wake either of us. Nice way to start Saturday morning: “Oh my God, we’ve gotta be there in 15 minutes to rig the boats!!”, I exclaimed when I saw the clock as it was just hitting 5:35am.

And, it progressively gets stranger from there. We get outside, after grabbing our belongings, only to hear that the boat trailer hadn’t arrived. R, one of our coaches, is looking rather exhausted and says from the balcony of his room, “Don’t bother rushing. There’s no boats.” He and our other coach had been up til 3am, trying to figure out some way to fix the mess that had begun the night before.

WTF? No boats?? Where’s the trailer?!? Apparently, the trailer’s electrical system was hooped, and it couldn’t be driven in that condition. …Lovely! So, let’s see, no boats. What now?

Many of us standing around in the parking lot decided to head down to Starbucks near Green Lake and get some breakfast since we weren’t needed for boat-rigging. At about 7am, one of us gets a call from coaches saying they’ve managed to beg, borrow and plead for a few spare boats, and guess what? My team needs to be on the water RIGHT NOW.

Ya. I just ate a big freekin donut and a big-ass mocha. (Vente!) BLECH. Now, I have to jump in a boat and row with my other three crew-members at a pace that will give us a chance to cross the finish line without looking like complete freeks out there? I almost lost my donut during those few minutes of pure pain. Thankfully, I didn’t. I came so close, too. That would have been truly gross. Had I known there’d be a chance of us rowing for our 7:40am race, I wouldn’t have eaten so late in the morning. Oh well. There was no projectile vomit from our crew, even though we all felt the same way.

The rest of the day’s races were all completed other than the last two because of weather. I cannot believe how amazing the other clubs were to provide us with the needed equipment and boats to race. My heart was warmed.

And, thus concludes another regatta! What an adventure…

ps: Thanks Sandi and Kevin for your hospitality last night! We had an awesome time playing that new game, and seeing your abode! Jer and I are looking forward to playing another game again soon.