Dragonfly For Darren

When giving the Electra truck and trailer a pre-drive check yesterday morning, I came across this little critter, hanging out by the one of the trailer's rear wheels.
A very cool, very large dragonfly. According to one of our warehouse guys ("Fast Dan" - we used to have a "Slow Dan", but he was fired), it had been flying around "as if it was on crack" when he arrived for work about 20 minutes prior. I'm wondering if it smacked off the trailer.
For a dragonfly, it was pretty large. But since it may have been injured, it remained motionless long enough for me to snap a few pix.
I knew my buddy Darren "Canoelover" and odonata lover would be quick to ID it. Sure enough, his response followed the posting of this last pic to the Electra Facebook page.
Thanks for the ID, Darren!

Joe, Bill and The Boat in Chicago

Well blog posts have certainly been few and far-between the past couple of weeks. Vacation, a parental visit and a very busy time at work have also faced a lack of inspiration along with a touch of writer's block leaving this place pretty quiet.

Bought a new computer this weekend after we determined that the five year-old HP PC was grinding away on its last legs, so the little bit of screen time I have had has been getting this (wonderful) beast all configured for three users. A few calls to my Apple tech support team (Rob and Dan) have helped greatly.

Anyway, Joe had special guests on the old boat yesterday - Bill and his family were in town from Oakland. Bill's grandpa was the original owner of the mighty craft and he was able to experience an outing on it outside of its home state of Wisconsin. Here are some shots from their Chicago River outing on Monday. So. Very. Jealous.

Bill takes the helm

312 at 9:12*

puttin' along Wacker

smooth sailing

*just a wild guess, 20 years ago we chased stale Hostess powdered donettes with Leinenkugels on Green Lake. One nasty combo.

Joe and the Boat - Genva Lake, WI

Joe and his family have certainly been enjoying the Aqua Fury / Dragonfly - my old 1957 Thompson Deluxe Sea Coaster.

Over Memorial Day Weekend she was put into familiar waters - Wisconsin's Geneva Lake (aka Lake Geneva). During my tenure as owner, it probably saw about 5-7 trips on Wisconsin's second deepest natural lake.


As far as we know, the boat was never used to tow water skiers or tubers by her previous owners (me and the Swans). Joe's kids got quite the workout in the chilly water being tugged around by the two stroke 1959 Johnson Super Sea Horse 35 (falsely labeled as "Super Quiet").

Look closely and you'll see her at the end of the last of the docks at the Riviera.

zoomed in

It's hard for me to look at these pics and not think that the boat is still mine. I feel like it's just another toy we left back in the Midwest to be picked up someday.

Good Times on Green Lake

My buddy Joe found some old pix from our trips up to Green Lake, WI over the summers of 1989 - 1994.

A refresher - Bill inherited the boat (then known as the "Aqua Fury" in honor of the copper 1977 Plymouth Fury he inherited from his grandmother) and sold it to me in 2004 (when it was renamed "Dragonfly". I sold it to Joe shortly before moving to California. The circle is complete!

Bill and his sweet FURY!, 13 years old at this point - with 13k miles on it!

Bill and I (look - hair!), 1990. Note t-shirt - I won a trip to the Snowboarding World Championships in Breck in 1990 from Spin Magazine.
Twilight, summer 1990

Our friend Roxanne, who surprisingly enjoyed hanging out with us goofballs. 1991 I think.

Me (shorter hair, not quite bald), Bill and Joe, 1994

Me and Bill at a rented cottage, west end of GL. Again, 1994

If I had a nickel for every can of Leinkugels that has been consumed on that boat...

Thanks for sharing, Joe!
One parting shot. It's this time of year when I start getting "boat sick" (as opposed to sea sick). I was playing some music earlier in the week that reminded me of being anchored in Green Lake's Norwegian Bay with friends. And beer. This summer is going to be strange without any GL visits planned.

Joe and the boat II

My friend Joe, new owner of the Aqua Fury or Dragonfly (depending on the boat's owner), had a great trip to Lake Chetek in the Wisconsin North Woods last week.


His dad Basil has been fishing at the lake for a number of years and knows all of the great fishing areas for catching northern pike.


Here's the trip report, in Joe's words...

"My dad caught 14 Northern (the largest being 29”) and I caught 6 (largest 26 1/2”). We also caught several large mouth bass, perch and lowly bluegills. It was a very good trip. The weather was OK (except very cold yesterday).

It really drew attention… in fact we had one couple follow us off the highway wanting to look at the boat. The owner of the resort loved the boat and wondered why we were using it for fishing… (thinking it was too nice for mere fishing). Just about everyone at the resort stopped to look at it."

Glad you and your family are enjoying the boat, Joe! I wish I could have been there with you.

Joe and the Aqua Fury/Dragonfly

One of the hardest things to leave back in the Midwest was the Dragonfly, my 1957 Thompson Sea Coaster Deluxe wooden boat.

1957 Thompson catalog page

Green Lake, Norwegian Bay, cicra 1990

I bought it back in 2004 from my friend Bill, who's grandpa bought it new and used it extensively at their Green Lake cottage (west of Sugarloaf). In 1959, he re-powered it and upped the HP from the original 25 to 35.

Bill, Joe and I used the boat a few times each summer from 1989 thru about 1994. At the time it was stored at Bill's grandma's (later brother's) home in Berlin, WI. We christened it the "Aqua Fury", so named as the car that we towed it with was Bill's grandma's 1977 Plymouth Fury. The copper Fury only had 14k miles on it. I towed it once with my 1988 Subaru Justy, but ended up damaging the transmission, replacing it a few weeks later.

In front of Bill's grandma's house, Berlin, WI. Circa 1990

Dork on boat, again circa 1990

Bill ended up moving to the Bay Area in the mid-90s. At that point, the boat had another nice hibernation. Fast forward to 2004. Bill's brother Tom was selling the detached garage where the boat was collecting dust and had to get the boat out. Since we had moved to Wisconsin about six months prior, the timing was perfect for us to have our turn with the boat.

Allie was hesitant at the idea of having a boat. She didn't grow up around boats like I did and didn't see the appeal. But I was insitant so I took a trip up to retrieve it in April '04.

I think she was also a little let down when she first laid eyes on it. Covered in dust as it hadn't been used in about seven years, it looked pretty sorry.

The pups checking it out, the day I brought the boat home - April '04

I re-christened her the Dragonfly for this stage of the boat's life. The missing coctail flag was replaced with a Wisconsin state flag and a few minor maintenance items were taken care of. Surprisingly the boat fired right up once I put a fresh battery in. Amazing considering the gas was seven years old and the carbs still had old fuel in the floats.

Boating quickly became a favorite summer pasttime for us. Living about 4 blocks from Lake Monona and having a boat launch in our neighborhood made it super easy to launch the small craft for anything from day trips to after dinner cruises.

"Crazy driving", Lake Monona 2004

Of course being the Green Lake freak that I am, we had to make at least one pilgramige to Green Lake every summer. GL is only an easy 75 mile drive from the Madison area.

Summer 2005, Green Lake. Lone Tree Point in the background

Green Lake, Norwegian Bay, 2005

The boat and the "barn" at Old Acres Green Lake, 2006

A tired Celeste (bags under her eyes), Green Lake's North Shore near the Heidel House, 2006

With Carlsbad being our next destination, I knew I'd have to sell the boat this summer. Bill was contacted first as he and his wife had thought about moving back to the Midwest. He couldn't take it, so Joe was called. Thankfully he was able to buy it and keep it in the circle.

Now this boat was built by the Thompson Bros. Boat Company of Peshtigo, WI. Until Joe's ownership, the boat had never left the great state of Wisconsin. We were afraid that something very bad would happen once it crossed the cheddar curtain. Siezed wheel bearings maybe?

The good news is that Joe and his family have been enjoying it. The boat now lives in Naperville, IL and has had a few excursions in the short time that Joe's owned it. He's even rigged up a rope for towing his kids on a tube. Dang, I shoulda done that!

Joe's family on the Chain o' Lakes IL

I'm enveious that Joe was able to bring the boat out to Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. It's a trip that I had always wanted to take with it. Glad he took some great pix...

I never thought this boat would ever see Chicago or a Great Lake.

Chicago River

Thanks Klaus!

Here's the rig that brought us up to GL - "Klaus", a VW EuroVan MV. Klaus is a great adventurewagen and will take us on our trip to California later this week. The boat is a '57 Thompson Sea Coaster named Dragonfly that was just sold to a friend. I'm going to miss that thing, but at least it's staying within a tight circle of friends.