Water Wonderland Meets Fall Wonderland

Here is the gathering, gathering for the gathering. I gather they are about to have some fun.

Thanks to big time fellow Woody Boater Dennis Mykols for sending in this fun report from the great North.

The perfect gathering boat

The Water Wonderland Chapter of ACBS held a Fall River Run on Saturday Sept 28th. Planning an event like this, so late in the fall (for Michigan boating) can be a crap shoot. We could be basking in 80 degree sunshine, OR scrapping frost off the decks in the morning and wearing parkas and gloves while “enjoying “ our last boat ride of the season. Don’t laugh, cause Ronnie and I had to do that two years ago at this same event!

What a fun boat, not a boat to gather on.

Well, we lucked out and the weather gods smiled upon all 15 Classic Boats that showed up for a 60 mile round trip run on the Hardy Dam Pond, north of Grand Rapids, Michigan. We had    “THE 80 DEGREE DAY” !!!   Blue skies, light wind, and a warm morning to launch the boats at the River Ridge Resort.

The fall leaves are starting to turn

We fired up the engines around 10 am and headed South for a 20 mile run on what is the Muskegon River dammed up. Nice twisting, tight curves on a wide body of water, at a nice 20 mph clip.

Once we got down to the dam, we floated a while and soaked up the sun, temps now up towards 70 degrees.

On the way back to the resort, the captains set their own pace, with groups going different speeds. A nice catered lunch by the great folks at the River Ridge Resort awaited us at noon.

Bring on the color!

Then we all jumped back into our vessels and headed North, up stream, for a several mile run on the narrower part of the river.

Lets go

By now it was 80 degrees and a 10 mph wind out of the South, gave us a nice chop on the water. Also about this time of the day, all the locals also started to enjoy this late fall gift of warm weather (normal around 60 degrees).

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah  Zip-A-Dee-A, My oh my, what a wonderful day for a woody boat ride!

We all got thumbs up and had a lot of people taking pictures of us as we cruised by other boaters.

Dennis and “The Captain” THIS IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT!

Few wanted to get back on the trailer as we came back to the Resort, knowing this just well may be our last “GREAT WARM and SUNNY MICHIGAN BOATIN’ DAY” for 2013. So, what the heck, hit it, and lets do another run down to the dam and back…

Nice smooth riding

What a wonderful day on wonderful boats with wonderful folks, all having a wonderful time…mmmmmm I wonder how they named their chapter?

Thanks Dennis for making our Monday a little brighter.