Water Skiing on the Potomac

But wait you say, Cham doesn't own a boat, nor water skis, nor does she know how to water ski, nor does she know anyone that water skis. Relax, just listen to the story.

Considering I was still tired from last week I didn't have any big plans to hike, or bike or tube. I wasn't going to even go anywhere but I didn't feel like staying home. So I decided to drive a short distance to Williamsport on Friday night, ride up the C&O a bit with the bike and camp out at Jordon Junction and decide what to do from there. The plan went well, I swam in the river and fell asleep early when my little campsite appeared to be raided by loud teenagers at around 10:30PM. I lay in my tent preparing to go postal Baltimore style, a routine I reserve for drunks that keep me awake, but I decided to hold off and the kids fell asleep by 11PM so they were lucky. The next morning I awoke to find a brat camp contingent from the Judge Patrick D. Molinari Juvenile Shelter in Manassas. I decided to rat the kids out to their leaders, then I felt bad when the leaders made the kids apologize to me. They turned out to be really nice kids who didn't quite understand campsite etiquette.

I decided to take the car down to Damn #4 near Big Slackwater on the C&O and head north on the tow path with the bike. The map looked like the trail was there. So I set off only to find the trail was unmaintained. The first thing I did was fall off the bike and get all scraped up. Then, I realized there were cobwebs and spiderwebs everywhere that got into my hair and all over me. Then the towpath ended after about 2 miles. I was irritated and my bike was covered with mud. The only good news was that an osprey flew slowly about 20 feet over my head, very neat.

I got back to my car and tried to wash the bike off at the boat ramp by the river when I heard somebody ask me whether I wanted to go water skiing on the Potomac. I wasn't having much fun with the bike and water skiing sounded like a much better option so I agreed even though I didn't really know anything about the sport. The group that invited me consisted of Butch, Danny, Jesse, Caleb, Dave, Scott and Bugs. There was another dog but I forgot the name.

I will not tell you the details of my water skiing lesson but all I can say was that I was not graceful. I fell the first time, the second time I couldn't stand up (not pretty) and finally got up for about 30 seconds the third time. I was pretty sore from falling off the bike so I figured I wouldn't push my luck. Fortunately for me, nobody took a picture of me water skiing but I did take a bunch of everyone else. So here they all are. I had a really great time on the river, thanks very much to all of you for putting up with me!!!!





After skiing I went up to Berkeley Springs and returned to the Red Guitar Coffee Bar and listened to Brooksie Wells complain about her exes. It made me realize I'm glad I'm me. The manager at the coffee bar didn't mind if I spent the night in the parking lot. I was pretty stiff the next day so I hit the Berkeley Springs farmers market, managed to talk myself out of another massage and headed home leisurely.