Around 11 o’clock my phone rang. Marc called to hitch a ride home. “Where” did I ask “is Braden with the boat?” “Oh,” Marc answered, “he is rowing around Betsie Bay in search of a way to get into Elberta”.
I must admit that this did not make any kind of sense to me. I left the house and drove to the railroad bridge to give Marc a ride to the house. He wanted to pick up the big, red truck to then be able to tow the boat to where it belonged – Braden’s Uncle’s yard.
Suddenly things were crystal clear: They had rowed the Betsie River to under the railroad bridge when they ran out of water. Marc in the front of the boat weighed the boat down right into the mud. So Braden “kicked” Marc out and took the boat all the way down to East Shore Marina and then across towards the Cabbage Shed and into Elberta.
Marc and I stood at the bridge watching young Braden row his duck boat into Betsie Lake and over towards the west side of the lake and up to where we were waiting. It took quite a while but he made it and he still had a smile on his face.
click on the small pictures to see really large pictures of the adventure 😉
Adventures of an Innkeeper 