Gorge Run: that just happened!

[Ghost]

Had a ball. So many thanks all around that I'm bound to miss a bunch--advance apologies for that. Thanks to:

• Hedge and Christina and the Sherpa and Easton for hosting another great event
• all the A-dock folks for making us welcome
• Todd and Jill for the steaks and the yeoman's work at the grill, staring down the mushroom clouds
• Everybody for all the great food at Saturday's dinner
• Todd (Cam's dad, Todd) and the Captain for smoking chickens all day and repelling the crusading pamphleteers (especially with Todd playing hurt)
• Hedge for wrestling the pesky Bushwhacker machine into submission (also while playing hurt)
• Randy for a bunch of good food
• Jim for a bunch of top-shelf margaritas
• Jamie and company for cooking breakfast
• Callie for finding that ramp 40 miles south of Hales
• Dre for risking getting stranded to tell us where the ramp was ("You never leave man behind!" -Raising Arizona)
• Phil for being great crew and keeping me fueled/beered/entertained. And for attracting so many dudes to the boat. (Or maybe not for that. )
• Everybody for making the trip and making it so much fun

Alas, the sun has set on another trip to paradise.

Chatt 2013 027 small.JPG

[The Hedgehog]

What a dang good time. I just got off the phone with Serve Pro. They think that they can get the Roamer back to normal (if there is a normal)!

i will post more on it later but for now, many thanks to those that helped make it happen. Another fun filled event with great friends!

A big thanks for the shirts Mike!

[The Hedgehog]

Ok, so I just talked to Phil. No I did not have to call the "Like it never happened" people.....maybe I should though!

[duckhunter]

Just parked the boat in the shop and my ass in the recliner. Epic weekend. I will throw some pictures and additional comments up later, but for now a HUGE thanks to everyone that made this thing happen.

Chris & the duckhunter crew

[The Hedgehog]

Ok, so I just talked to Phil. No I did not have to call the "Like it never happened" people.....maybe I should though!

[Inferno]

Mike .........Thanks for the T-shirts as there great and the next time I need a ride in the Cig ))

[Ghost]

Definitely. (Nice job giving Hedge a drive shower, BTW. )

[roadtripse]

Definitely. (Nice job giving Hedge a drive shower, BTW. )

Well, if it makes ya feel better, Buiz took a drive by shower from Inferno a couple of times. One can never be refreshed enough...

My impressions of the weekend:

1) Best time I have had at a donzi rally in two years. No drama equals mucho fun.

2) That damned green wheeled smoker is going to kill me yet, but we will continue taunting the beast.

3) The Gorge is an incredibly beautiful place to run a boat.

4) Take a new guy for a quick blast in the Flowerpot and watch the bugs collect in said teeth.

5) Bill and Christina are gracious hosts. And Roger rocks. The saloon is empty without Allie.

6) I'll be there again next year...

[Donzi Vol]

Despite joining for less than 24 hours, it was a great time. A big thanks to Bill and Christina and everyone who helped organize the weekend. Thanks also to Bill and Todd for calling me out to do some much needed calendar maintenance in order to get there.

A couple thoughts:
1) Riding with Stan and Susan is great. When he says, "We're gonna out-fox them today," that means you'll be in the air shortly. Gotta say that it was pretty funny being on the giving end of a rooster tail shower.
2) Floating cabins are cool. Thanks for the hospitality, Floyds!
3) The people and friendships are at the core of a great event.
4) Tennessee is an awesome place to live, and God was showing off a little when He made the Gorge.

Looking forward to next year!

[The Hedgehog]

Definitely. (Nice job giving Hedge a drive shower, BTW. )

I was a little dirty anyway! Lol

[duckhunter]

Well, if it makes ya feel better, Buiz took a drive by shower from Inferno a couple of times. One can never be refreshed enough...

My impressions of the weekend:

1) Best time I have had at a donzi rally in two years. No drama equals mucho fun.

2) That damned green wheeled smoker is going to kill me yet, but we will continue taunting the beast.

3) The Gorge is an incredibly beautiful place to run a boat.

4) Take a new guy for a quick blast in the Flowerpot and watch the bugs collect in said teeth.

5) Bill and Christina are gracious hosts. And Roger rocks. The saloon is empty without Allie.

6) I'll be there again next year...

Todd, I concur on all points; especially #4! Thanks so much for the ride in the Flowerpot - she is an incredible boat. For me it's the gold standard of 22 Classics, well though-out and impeccably rigged. Also thanks for the contribution of time and dead cows for the dinner on Saturday. Best steaks ever (and you managed to keep your eyebrows intact, just barely).

And another huge thanks to Bill and Christina for putting this thing together. There is a TON of behind-the-scenes coordination to pull something like this off, from reserving cabins to coordinating private rooms for lunches to lock times to getting all the indians rounded up in the morning (and/or early afternoon...). You guys rock! The sunset cruise on the Fountain was a great time as well.

Not going to try and mention everyone else by name, because I would fail miserably and leave folks out. But my crew had a LARGE time again due to the great group of folks that attended this event. It was a hoot being the "welcoming committee" at the entrance to the floating cabins. Getting a chance to chat with everyone as they walked (or got carried) by our porch was a HOOT.

I was a little behind schedule on the prop testing and intended to do some tuning on Thursday, but that was scuttled when we lost the shift cable during our inaugural sunset cruise on Wed night. The one thing I hired out because I didn't feel like dealing with it came back to bite me; apparently the cable is not supposed to be routed where it can touch the coupler... Big shout out to my best friend Jamie for spending all day getting the boat sorted out with me in the parking lot and to the girls for taking it all in stride. The old cable is still for sale cheap BTW.

Other than that the boat ran great although still slow as hell. This fact was highlighted for me in spectacular fashion when Todd cruised at my WOT speed and then dropped the hammer in the 'pot. At least we did the last-minute muffler yank in the parking lot so it sounded fast... At one point at the swimming hole we had 13 folks on the bowrider (don't tell the USCG!) and 1500 watts of tunes CRANKED. There was at least a six pack of beer consumed as well. So we're slow, but we have a lot of tiddlywink spirit!

Thanks again to everyone for everything. We'll see you guys next year!

[duckhunter]

I was a little dirty anyway! Lol

With a name like Hedgehog, you've got to be rollin' dirty!

[ITLLFLI]

Sounds like a blast(as expected)!!

We were on our way home to from Florida on Thursday and the kids were behaving so we decided to take a small detour while in Chatt and swing by for dinner hoping to catch a few of you. We had a great dinner and managed to meet Duckhunter and crew. I didnt have any cell signal so I wasn't able to call any of the numbers I had but I think those that were already there were out on a cruise!!

Looked like a beautiful place to boat! I hope to come down one year soon!!

[tylogans 22]

All I can say is that me and my boys will be there next year, the pictures look great. Looks like a great place to do some boating with other fanatics.

Take care,
Gregg, Logan and Tyler Wright

22 yellow devil

[duckhunter]

Sounds like a blast(as expected)!!

We were on our way home to from Florida on Thursday and the kids were behaving so we decided to take a small detour while in Chatt and swing by for dinner hoping to catch a few of you. We had a great dinner and managed to meet Duckhunter and crew. I didnt have any cell signal so I wasn't able to call any of the numbers I had but I think those that were already there were out on a cruise!!

Looked like a beautiful place to boat! I hope to come down one year soon!!

It was great meeting you and your family on Thursday. If you had been there an hour earlier you would have caught a bunch of folks instead of just me with the bowrider blown apart in the parking lot! Just like charter fishing trips - "Man, you guys should have been here last week!" I was pretty frustrated with the boat at that point too; if you would have had your 22 with the 540 on the trailer I would probably have bought it on the spot and sent the bowrider downstream like a Viking funeral pyre. That would certainly have surprised the guys coming back from the swimming hole...

It's a great run and well-worth the trip, hope you guys can make it next year.