Dragon Boat Competition - Part II

Woke up Saturday morning shortly after 6am and left the house just after 7am. Got to Couchiching Park right around 7:30am when we had planned to meet. Found some of the others on Team Dunlop and after some opening ceremony confusion (first time they held the event in Orillia so it wasn’t the most organized), the races got under way shortly after 9 am.

There were 27 teams total, so 9 heats of 3. We were in the second or the third heat. Our steerer, Dave, took us out a little early and gave us another quick practice run. We placed second in our heat. We headed back to our tent and chatted a while, 3 of us went to Mariposa Market for some soup, and after we returned the results from the first set of heats was announced, we placed in the top of the silver division. We were quite pleased with that. There was an hour break, though they really should have skipped the break since it had been on the verge of raining all morning, so it was damp and chilly, but the rain did hold off until late afternoon.

We placed 3rd in our second heat and by our third we were all so tired, and starting to get sore that our third race was pretty pitiful, we never really got into a proper rhythm and our paddling was way off.

Let me tell it is hard work; it is completely different to canoeing. In race paddling you use short strokes and have to lean over as far as you can at the waist. By the time I was driving home at 4pm I was feeling pretty sore in the arms, back, waist and butt. I’m also sporting a bruise on my one thumb where I kept hitting it off the side of the boat. It only proved to feel worse this morning when I got out of bed – I was pretty stiff. But it was a great day, had a lot of fun, met some great people and can’t wait to do it again next year!

When I got home from the races my sister, Del, nephews and Gladys were here. We had dinner and then they (sister, Del, boys and Dad) left to head down to the race track for the final races that were cancelled last weekend. My Dad was planning on coming to the casino with my Mom, Gladys and myself, but Ty asked him to go to the races. So my Mom, Gladys and I headed there on our own but after about an hour of being there my cell phone rang and my sister and Del were going to drop my Dad off at the casino because the races got rained out. My Dad ended up winning $80, Gladys won $150 and my mom and I each lost $55. We got home just before 11pm; my Dad watched the news and the three of us played Kanasta. By the time we stopped playing at 3am I had won $1.50 so my total loss of the evening was just $53.50.

Today we played a little more Kanasta, my sister, Del and the boys came over in the afternoon, we had cake and coffee at 3pm and Gladys headed home shortly before 5pm.

It was a good weekend. Gladys is such a nice lady; I’m so glad that we still keep in touch with her. She wanted to come up before we headed to Germany. While my grandfather was still well, him and Gladys went to Germany for several weeks. She still talks about all of our relatives over there and the things that she saw on the trip. It is hard to believe that she is 80, she seems so much younger. We’ll be seeing her again for Nate’s first birthday (I’ll actually be away for it, but my sister is having the party once my Dad and I return at the end of the month).

Ok, I’m off to do some laundry, ironing and I have to give Asili a bath as she got into some smelly swamp water a couple of hours ago. I also brought a bunch of work home on Friday as I want to get a lot done before going on vacation, so I should get at it!

Oh and yippee! I have visitors for lunch tomorrow. My sister is bringing Ty into town to go Halloween Costume shopping and they will be meeting me for lunch. I'm so happy to be back around my nephews; that, without a doubt, was the hardest thing about being overseas - I missed out on seeing Ty grow up and change over those 18 months.