My Dad's New Boat - Part 1

I’m super fortunate to have wonderful parents. They have given me more opportunities than I’ve deserved, have been wonderful role models and are active grandparents. One of their best decisions ever was to build a cabin on Ponto Lake in Minnesota. They call it the Looney Bin. Get it? Because there are birds called loons that live on the lake. Ha! How lucky am I? My mom started going to Ponto Lake with her friend when she was in third grade. I think it’s really cool to know that so far, three generations of girls have loved these same waters. It’s timeless.

Here are Mom and Dad with Paul Bunyan's sweetheart in Hackensack, Minnesota. The person who made the statue of Lucette didn't do a great job, but I'm sure they put a lot of time and effort into it. Hopefully statue-making isn't their number one talent.

Last year, my parents got a new boat just before the 4^th of July, which is traditionally the weekend we spend together with my parents and both of my siblings’ families. We were all excited!

Stan and his boat

 The boat ran fine, but there was something minor wrong with the propeller, and it didn’t have enough power to pull a skiier. My dad was pretty mad. So he and TJ hopped into the truck to get it taken care of. Pretty soon they were driving slowly around a neighboring lake and my dad was looking awfully interested in driveways. TJ was starting to think they weren’t going to the marina. It turns out that my dad remembered what lake the sales guy lived on. And he remembered what kind of truck the sales guy drove. Oh boy.

My dad is one of the nicest 70-year-olds you’d ever meet, but he's not a pushover. TJ was hoping they wouldn’t be able to find the sales guy's house. But my dad is pretty astute, and it didn’t take him long to find the place. TJ followed my dad through the party that the sales guy was having (probably to celebrate selling a boat to my dad). Dad walked right up to the sales guy who was enjoying a beer. TJ was pretty uncomfortable at this point. The sales guy put his beer down and said he’d bring a new propeller out the next day. My dad said he would be back if that propeller didn’t show up. It’s never good when customers know where you live.

The guy brought the propeller and it all turned out fine. Come back tomorrow for Part 2 to find out what happened when we tried to take the boat out of the water. It's one of my better stories!