I was out unicycling and I got a call from JoJo, “The River Wife”. I was stopped at an intersection and picked up the call to see what she wanted. She mentioned a paddling race coming up in a few days and wondered if I was interested in it. I told I would find out and get back to her. I called Danelle (my actual wife) and got her blessing that we didn’t have anything else going on that Saturday. So I called JoJo back and confirmed that we would be racing.
JoJo had prior commitments and didn’t get much sleep the night before. We headed out early going south on I-44 from St. Louis to the Rolla area for the race. “The Gas” is a 20 mile race held on the Gasconade river. JoJo got a shuttle driver for us so the logistics were perfect for us!
The start of the race was quite hectic. All the boats shot out at full speed all headed for a narrow gap and a lead over the others. We held up just a bit to avoid the traffic jam. Two boats in front of us capsized and we were just about to ram one to make a third and possibly fourth (us) when I had a serious pull backwards on my paddle to maneuver us out of the way. We got a decent advantage from the boats that flipped and spun out and quite an excitement.
Our boat and skills lend towards serious long term paddling, so we didn’t finish that well next to the skinny race boats, but we had a fantastic time!
Hogan Haake