OT close call

awesome achievement and a great story...just read it. ..what a legend ..best read in awhile..thanks for sharing it!

 

It wasn't an attack, perhaps I should have said "misleading to me personally" as having been employed by the US Army Corps of Engineers for 11 years, and having travelled the Columbia's entire path from it's source to it's mouth by land, my immediate thought was 'How can you ski nearly the length of a 1,200 mile long river when it has so many dams and locks throughout it's course"?

Incredible feat no matter how it happened.

I water-skied once, on Lake Oswego as a 14 year-old, and it was a blast for about 90 seconds then ended horrifically when I dipped the tip of one ski into a wave. Never skied again.

 

Yeah, he was a remarkable skier and one of my best memories in the 60's was him putting a chair on a wooden disc and skiing around the area we would camp at on Lemon Island which is at the west end of Government Island as it had an inlet where you can keep the boats tied up near shore and we would pitch the tent in the sand.

 

My mother was one of the key personnel who started the Oswego Water Festival, primarily on Oswego Lake but also at George Rogers park on the Willamette, in the late 50s. She got Hilo Hattie to attend in the opening year. Hilo Hattie was the Polynesian mother of the young Polynesian lady who loved the American sailor in the movie "South Pacific", one my favorite movies. There were all sorts of water skiers in that festival.

I've also done quite a bit of swimming on that lake. I spent every summer day swimming at the Oswego Swim Park. I'd ride my bike there just as soon as the bus that transported us strawberry pickers dropped us off in Oswego. Sometimes I'd either swim or fish in another part of the lake that bordered the down town area.

 

Glad you have that over with. Best of luck with the continued recovery.

I can't help but think that your treatment today looked something like this:



You don't have any bolts in the side of your neck, do you?

 

Fully clothed? Where's the fun in that?

 

Have you ever water skied on your bare feet?

 

Love the feet. And the helper looks wholesome.

Maybe it wasn't the sun. Maybe it was an alternate version.

May I pull open the drapes?

 

Gee, I never envisioned him skiing through the locks. How naive of me.

 

Weed is not totally legal. It's still against Federal law.

When applying for my last two security clearances, they gave me a hard time for smoking weed in college. I owned up to it completely and eventually got both my clearances. One clearance came from the NSA. An earlier one before I smoked in college came from the U.S. Army.

 

River Glad you're back and doing well, hopefully some Blazer wins here soon will help out the recovery.

 

Yep, that's Lemon Island although the shape has changed over the years as the sand bars on the Columbia tend to shift and change with the swift current. We stopped camping on Lemon Island around 1962 as we then went to a camp ground on Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho which coincidentally had Farragut Naval base for basic training partly due to it's incredible depth of over 1,000 feet for a fresh water lake.

 

Isn't that place in Idaho where they trained submariners?

 

I have not.
You?

 

Great article!

 

Hell, I doubt you knew there were locks in that 1200 miles.

 

Yep. It's now a state park and campground on the south end where as we camp on the north end. The Navy still has a research center there. The lake is huge and can get pretty nasty at times with it looking like an ocean and over 3' waves but one of the most beautiful parts of the country and when the weather is good an outstanding time. It also has some of the best fishing in the USA where a rainbow trout can be had at around 40lbs and a lake trout breaking the world record at 43 lbs.

 

This is outstanding. One step at a time. Two weeks ago, my dad, 71, was with his hiking group on Mt Hood and suddenly collapsed and has a massive heart attack. He did not make it. I have been devastated and lost. He lived 3 miles from me. My kids are so sad as well. I have to make sure my mom makes it through this. They were one week from their 50th anniversary. Anyway, I only share because it was so sudden and even the nurse, EMT etc could not help. It was instant. Just sharing because I’m thankful someone like you (who I don’t know) at the very least has tremendous doctors helping you, you know what you can do to help yourself. You should be full of hope and treasuring each day.

 

Dang, sorry for you loss Calvin. Good on you taking care of your family in this trying time.

Glad you're on the mend River.