CEDAR RIVER COLOR CRUISE 2004
Written by MICHAEL COURTNEY & COMPANY!
(all pictures are AFTER the story!)
2004 was a tough year to hold a Hover Rally in
Iowa on the Cedar River.
The Summer Cruise was first moved from the
last weekend in June to the first weekend in June.
Notice was sent out that there would be a Fall Cruise on the Cedar River the weekend of Oct 1st thru Oct 3rd. The month of September was warm and pleasant. On the weekend of September 18th & 19th I went to the hover rally to the Wisconsis Dells. The temperature for that weekend was near 80 degrees and we had a pleasant time. I was thinking if the weather would be this good in two weeks that would be great.
Of course Mother Nature had her own ideas.
Around Sept 20th there was a 13 inch rain in Austin Pe, Minn that
emptied into the Cedar River. It caused considerable
flooding in Waverly-Shellrock, and Waterloo with the crest at 7
feet over flood stage. This was all heading for Cedar
Rapids and Palisades Park. I stopped by Palisades Park on
Sept 25th and the river was running into the boat ramp parking
lot. I thought OH NO! Not another flood to cancel The
Cedar River Fall Cruise! Not to worry as Mother Nature was
on teasing and the River was back in its banks by Sept 27th and
falling steadily.
The weather forecast kept changing daily and
then finally on Thurday it said there would be intermittent
showers on Friday with high of 65 with sunny skies for Saturday
and Sunday. The forecast was half right. It was sunny
on Saturday and Sunday but the showers on Friday were anything
but intermittent. It just rained all day and did not quit until
after dark. Needless to say there was not any hovering done
on Friday.
Saturday was much better with the
traditional breakfast of Mary Jean Janni's "Chicken
Chilli" and it was good. I had 2 bowls.
After breakfast we all went down to the Boat
Ramp. To my surprise Vernon Weber was there and had already
run the rapids. Although the first time he dowsed while trying to
hover up the rapids. Later he got the hang of it and did just
fine.
There was a total of 6 hovercrafts
including: Linda & Verdon Weber, Vernon Weber, MaryJean &
Dave Janni, Andy Pittman & Donna Woods, Ray Mathews and
myself. Everyone hovered up and down the rapids except me
but that was because I needed to take some pics. "Okay,
I really have had some bad luck going through the cut to get up
above the dam" and decided I did not want to chance crashing
at the start of the hovering.
Verdon had a thrill in the rapids when he
tried to go sideways across them and nearly stook his hovrcraft
on its side at a 45 degree angle. But the Master put it
back under controll.
Around noon we got together and I asked
everyone if they would like to have a treasure/scavenger hunt.
Everyone agreed it was a great idea so I gave each of them a
small treasure to go hide between the boat ramp and Sutliff which
is 10 miles downstream. They had to draw a map to the
location and then later we would exchange maps and go find the
treasures. It was quite a sight to see hovercrafts coming
in and out of slews and creaks and off sandbars after hiding
there treasure. You could see them looking around to make sure no
one was watching. Some would deliberately make a false stop
just to make sure that if someone was watching.
We hovered down to Rochester and had lunch
while watching the Elk. Yes I said ELK. You know the big
overgrown deer they have out west. There is small herd of
20 in a pen across the road from the Rochester Park.
After lunch we headed back. Earlier we
had put all the maps in a hat and each drew out a different map.
Everyone seemed to be in a little bit of a hurry as we came
closer to the treasure zone area. People kept looking at there
map and then would go up river a ways and then downriver.
Sometimes doing a 180 turn then back again. It almost
looked like bunch of hovercrafts just mingling around out of
control. Finally all made it back to the Park with there
treasures. A few more runs in the rapids when someone
suggested going up to the roller dam. You know where I tried to
make the infamous hover up the dam.
Okay this was going to be my test to see if
I could get up through the cut without crashing into the side of
the dam. Mag was shaking like a leaf as we started are
accent toward the cut. Maybe it was me shaking. My
hands were glued to the handle and I gave Mag more throttle
getting closer to the mouth of the rapids leading into the cut.
I kept saying to Mag, "You can do it! You can do it! You can
do it!" and by golly she did. First I am looking at the
mouth of the rapids and the cut and next I am hovering above dam
on the smooth river. We all headed up to the C ST roller
dam 10 miles upriver. It was a nice ride up and back and I
did not have any problems going back through the cut.
When I got back to the boat ramp who did I
see! Lo and Behold there are Dennis and Carol Alm. They
just couldn't stay away and had driven 250 miles to see us and of
course have dinner at Gwens.
After cleaning up we headed for Gwens for
Barbeque Beef, Fried Chicken, Chiskabobs, and all the fixins.
Later we all headed back to the Park for a campfire and good
conversation.
Sunday morning we had some more Chicken
Chilli for Breakfast and then said our goodbye's to the Janni's,
Ray Mathew, and the Alm's who were heading home. "Vernon
Weber left Saturday night".
That left Linda & Verdon, Andy Pittman
& Donna Woods, and myself. We did a little hovering but
it was quite windy and ended up back at the boat ramp at 1:00 pm.
We all parted company with the Linda &
Verdon heading Northeast and Andy and Donna heading Southwest.
Another Cedar River Cruise coming to a
close.
See ya next year
Mike C "Mag Master"
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The End!
Happy Hovering "Mag Master"
AND