We Canoodled!!

We picked up our canoe this morning!! It was so very exciting. We had to drive to my brother's friend's house in Woburn to get it. That's about a 1/2 hour away. Our first order of business was getting the canoe secured to the top of the car. I had gone to EMS and bought the kit they had there. It supposedly came with everything we needed. I say "supposedly" because it didn't. Since Hubby and I are neophytes at owning a canoe, we read the package directions. Attach the spongy things to the canoe so when you flip it upside down you don't scratch the roof of your car. Check. Use one of the belts with the buckle to put around the middle of the canoe and through the windows (after carefully opening the doors so you can get into the car after putting the strap on). Check. Use the hooks.........wait a minute....hooks? What hooks? There are supposed to be hooks that connect to the other straps to hold down the front and back of the canoe. No hooks. We checked the package. It was supposed to include hooks. Luckily, Steve, the guy we were buying it from, had some rope and another strap we could use and we got it attached to the car. Doesn't it look great? I was nervous driving down the highway with it on the car, but it was solid as a rock. Now the big problem was....where to take it? It was an overcast day and threatening rain, so we didnt' want to go too far. We decided to take it to where I used to work at Summer Camp and launch it off their beach. We didn't want to take the digital camera on the water with us in case we dumped it, so we took this picture on the ground at the camp. ( Just disregard the sign behind us........no one took notice).

We had a wonderful time canoeing around the pond. It was so small we went around twice.....once clockwise, and once counter-clockwise.....for good luck.

We have to store the canoe at my brother's house since we live and a condo and we have nowhere to put it. Thank goodness my brother is a good guy and said he'd do it for being able to use the canoe sometimes and maybe some babysitting thrown in.

And yes, we are naming her "Canoodle". There's a story involved in that, which I am too shy to share...but I'm thinking you get the drift by the name.