WRC Members, 

          The anticipation, the frustration, and the worry of what Mother Nature will dole out when trying to guess if we will be the recipients of her beauty or the agony of her rage is what was foremost in our minds in the weeks before this meet.  No-one can anticipate exactly what the outcome will be, till almost the last minute ! I had been glued to the weather channel the days before and watched the maps of green, orange and red as they raged across from west to east headed in our direction !

As I’m sure with most of you, the question that was upmost in our minds was, Do I load the motors, prep the boat, check out the tow vehicle or just wait till the last minute and say yeah or nay ?  But when preparing a meet for almost 40 people it isn’t quite that easy ! 

The good news was Mother Nature was in a good mood and gave us what had we hoped for, a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and light clouds.   My guess is she saw how good people come together and make big jobs easy with many hands to help !   

My morning started early about 5:30 going to my regular coffee stop at the Speedway down the street, then down to the dock to do the last minute preparations, put the table cloths on, and wiped them down, get the coffee set up with all the necessary condiments, get the crock pots of SloppyJoe out and plugged in and make sure we didn’t forget anything ! 

The gang started arriving right on time and by 10:00 most of motors were out and on display to those who were in the buying mood !  Dick Bergan was true to his word and brought a trailer load of Mercury’s, ScottAtwater’s and an Evinrude or two !  Next to Dick was Brett Ventura with a load of old inboard & outboard engines and an Airboy outboard. 

Soon the boats started to arrive both by water and by trailer ! Paul Wood & wife Gale brought their boat and a couple motors, Dom Durda brought his boat and a couple motors,  John Hagerman and wife Cindi brought their aluminum boat and a couple motors, Bob Davidson brought his nicely finished Pennyan  boat with his Merc Mark 20, Todd Mizen and son Tommy had their aluminum boat with an Evinrude Speedifour on it.  Our very own Mr 4 to 1 Jerry Kay brought his trusty Chrestliner with the mighty 45hp WestBend, he also brought his wife Lin !   Next to roll in were Dave & Jack Deck with their newly acquired 2.5 liter Hydro, this boat is powered by a extremely quite Pinto engine, (Not)  as we all found out when Dave fired it up !   Jeff Brewster kept Dave on his toes !

Another nice addition to our meet were the two families that came,  Steve Schmitmeyer & Linda, with son John and Suszie and their son George !  The other family was Dan & Angie Curran with their little ones,  Kylee,Mason & Sophia !  Steve brought their aluminum boat with his 10 Johnson and son John brought their Trimaran sail boat with the noisy cricket / Neptune ( AKA reference to Men-in-balck movie )  So nice to have the little ones to enjoy !  Little George is at the age where Grandma and Grandpa have to run to keep up with him LOL !  Good job Linda 

John Fairgrieve and John Birchak both brought their aluminum boats John F. with an Evinrude 18 and John B. with a couple different motors including a very quite 6hp Evinrude More on that later !  John B. also brought his two kids John Jr, & Jessie and girlfriend Margie !   

There was a lot of buying and selling at the Bergan table as the ScottAtwater parts were going left & right, Dick even had a couple things I needed LOL !  The Reed Boys, John & Bill were hot on the Mercury motors. And Don Moore was all over the ScottAtwater parts for his 16 Firestone. I think Randy Wilcox almost cleaned out Bob Joynt’s collection of motors !  Randy let us know if you need help getting them running ! 

Mr. Bob Peters finally showed up as I was sure he would as I had that one elusive part he needed to get his steering working in his Johnson powered Lyman !  

It’s always amazing how fast time flies at these meets as it was now time for Lunch !  As I mentioned during the meet my wife Peggy  goes way beyond when it comes time to prepare the food !    She’d ask me ” How much SloppyJoe do you think we’ll need ” I’d reply ” How much did you make last time ”  Then it’s ” I don’t think that’ll be enough, I better make more “!   Then it’s ” Do you think I should get a ham ? ”  My reply, ” We have 100 Hotdogs !   ” really” ?   ” I’ll get a ham too ”  LOL  This goes on for a couple days before the meet ! But in the end No-one goes away hungry !  And it’s all non GMO LOL !  Plus we have plenty of left overs Yum !  SloppyJoe for breakfast, SloppyJoe for Lunch and SloppyJoe for Dinner !  Midnight snack !  You guessed it ! SloppyJoe LOL ! 

Our competition for the Quietest & Noisiest motors running at idle at the dock were Steve Schmitmeyer with the Noisy Neptune, and John Birchak with the quiet 6hp Evinrude,  John won a gallon of 2 cycle oil and Steve won a gearcase pump assembly with gear oil ! 

Thanks go out to Al Carlson for bringing the pop & bottled water and the ice & tub to put in it !  Al also was one of the Wednesday guys that helped spread the wood chips that kept us all from wolloing in the mud. My other saviors in that task and repairing the dock edging  and nailing up new (old ) Firehose to the dock,  were John Hagerman, Paul Wood, Dom Durda, Jerry Kay, Bob Joynt and Bill Mohat !   

Other Big thanks go to Lin Kay for her Potato Salad & brownies,  Cindi Hagerman for her Baked Beans !  Dave deck for desert & Dick Bergan & Bob Joynt for the morning donuts Thanks also to those I didn’t mention for their additions to the menu !  I try to keep up with who brought what the old bean just don’t get-um all !   Other big thanks to Dom Durda, Al Carlson and my son & daughter for helping clean up after the meet,  That is one of the tough jobs when it’s all over and your too tired to do it all !  Much Appreciated ! 

Until Next time  Remember ~  Keep the Blue Smoke Flowing ! 

Gary & Peggy