Dan was working one day- roofing a house when the owner came out & offered him a paddle boat.  The owner was getting ready to move across country & needed to get rid of it.  Dan thought of his kids & happily accepted.  Dan figured when the kids were a bit older they’d love having a lake toy.  Not having a way to haul the paddle boat Dan gave Drew a call. “Hey man, whatcha doing?  Got a minute to buzz down & pick up something in your truck”? “Sure, whatever Dan.  What is it this time”? Drew was curious as the boys all had a habit of picking up odd items when offered free.
“Oh just a paddle boat.  Shouldn’t be a problem to get into the truck.  Craig said I could leave it in his garage ’til we get mine built.  He’s home so you can drop it off on your way by.”
“A’ight, I’ll be down in a couple hours. See ya then.” Drew hung up & went to explain to his wife why he was going to be gone all afternoon.

A few weeks passed & the boys didn’t give much thought to the paddle boat until one day Craig’s wife complained that it was taking up her parking space in the garage.  ”Get the thing out of my way! I’m so sick of having to park under the trees…my car always has sap & leaves or worse all over it.”  Jenn was used to the boys storing stuff in the garage but usually it wasn’t as big as the paddle boat.

“Fine, I’ll move it tonight”, Craig muttered as he headed off to work on his garden/landscaping business.  During the long hot day Craig thought how nice it would be to finish work & head out to do some fishing in the cool of the evening.  ”Damn not having a boat anyway…I’m sick of asking John to borrow his & I want to get out where the fish are really biting.  If only I could come up with some extra money.”  Shaking his head Craig gave Joel a call to see if they could go fishing.  Joel was more than game & promised to have his gear ready when Craig stopped to pick him up after work.

After work Craig swung past his folks to pick up Joel.  He chatted with his mom, grabbed a fresh rhubarb muffin & off the boys went leaving a cloud of dust drifting across the parched fields.  As Craig & Joel discussed the advantages to fishing different spots Joel suddenly remembered the paddle boat sitting in Craig’s garage.

“Hey, it’s too bad we can’t use the paddle boat!  We could get past the reeds at the edge of Sanderson’s Slough…might give us a better shot at catching something.  It’ll be quieter than the lakes right now.” Craig gave a sort of dumbfounded look….then his face broke out into a huge grin. “That’s awesome, it’s not like we’d have to paddle far.  And it’s so calm out there we wouldn’t drift much.”  Craig screeched to a halt at the nearest corner, whipped a U-wie & headed toward his house. “Besides I promised Jenn I move it out of the garage tonight anyway”.

The two boys quickly grabbed the paddleboat & with some awkward manuvering managed to get it on top of Craig’s car.  Several bungee cords & a little duct tape for good luck later & they were back on the road.

Once they reached Sanderson’s Slough the boys wrestled the paddle boat down from the car roof & managed to slide it to the shore.  Getting it into the water past the reeds & rushes was a challenge.  Craig ended up having to wade out about waist deep, pulling the paddle boat before they could move very well.  Climbing aboard the two of them peddled quickly toward the center of the water.  Craig used an old cooler with no lid as a makeshift drag anchor.  After a couple hours of fishing the boys had caught enough for a late dinner so they pulled up the cooler (which had nicely doubled as a place to keep their catch) and headed for shore.

Rather than go to all the trouble of getting the paddle boat back on the car, Craig & Joel hid it in a little spot in the slough where they knew no one ever went & tied it to a scrawy but tough tree.  As they climbed into the car the two were already making plans for the next Saturday.  They wanted to try their luck on Current Lake.

“We should call Drew, Robert & Dan…see if they’re free too.  Drew can bring the smoker & we can make a day of it.  I don’t mind taking turns on the paddle boat.  Besides my legs got tired…” Joel’s legs weren’t as long as Craig’s so he had a tough time keeping up. Craig laughed, “Yeah, it’d be nice if we could find a way to…” Craig stopped the car in the middle of the road. “Hey! Remember that old trolling motor Dad has?  You know, the one he fixed up off that old boat that got smashed in the windstorm last summer.  I know it works great.  I bet Drew could weld a mount for it…it’d be perfect for the paddle boat!”

Craig took off again as Joel grabbed the cell phone to call Drew.  After talking for a bit & explaining what they were thinking Drew was happy to get onboard with the project.  He also suggested that they look through the local free trade flyer to see if there were any other paddle boats going cheap.

Well it took almost a month to get everything set & fixed up but finally the brothers got it all done.  One hot lazy Friday in July Craig, Dan, Robert, Drew & Joel piled into Drew’s truck & headed for the lake.  The bed of the truck was piled high with fishing gear, lifejackets, coolers & camping gear. Behind the truck was a trailer holding 2 paddle boats & behind that on it’s own separate trailer was the smoker.  The boys were finally ready to try out the paddle boats with the trolling motor mounts.