Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Annual Minnesota Visitor Arrives Early

Each year around Valentine's Day my friend John Kerschbaum
comes out from Minnesota to row cruises with me in Newport. 
It's always great to have his help, and each time I see John,
I'm in the crazy gauntlet of preparing for the busiest week of the year.

This time, however, John came out for a different purpose and we aren't scurrying around to prepare for "V-Day".
This time we are busying ourselves with preparing for the U.S. Gondola Nationals.

We don't really care about winning - sure it would be great - but really we're just looking forward to the excitement and camaraderie. All the same, we're old guys now and we don't want to get beaten too badly by some kids who are are young enough to be our offspring.

Speaking of which, we spent some time on the water today with one of my gondoliers - Simon, who got some good pointers from John about rowing in tandem.

John shares some rowing wisdom with one of the local whipper-snappers.
 
So in a few days we'll get together with a whole bunch of other guys in striped shirts, guys who actually understand the weird job we do...because they do it too.
 
From Boston to California, Minnesota to Rhode Island,
Nobody identifies with a gondolier like another gondolier.

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