Boats a priority, always have been

I put the canoe in the lake last weekend. Ice only covered half the bay, and I hoped a pike or two would be cruising the melting edge. I didn’t get a bite but it was good to be on the water again.

I’ve been a boat guy since I was a kid. I bought that canoe with paper route money. It wasn’t, however, my first craft. That was a little jon boat I found abandoned in the woods when I was 12. Dad helped me get it home where I patched the holes, gave it a coat of paint, and bought a pair of oars.

A small flotilla of watercraft followed in that jon boat’s wake including a couple of drift boats, two aluminum fishing boats, a center console, a pontoon, and a couple of kayaks.

Boats have always been one of my top priorities.

When I left home at 18, the canoe came with me. When I was offered a chance to cash in my retirement fund or roll it over into a 401k, I chose cash, and used the money to buy a wonderful wooden drift boat.

So it was with little hesitation that I agreed with my wife that we needed a new pontoon boat. It had to be big enough for all the grandkids, and fast enough to pull them on the inflatables. And of course it had to be rigged for fishing.

But while I was all in on the idea of a new boat, I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. I’m a committed procrastinator. Often I’ll put things off for so long that I’ll talk myself out of them. Barb, on the other hand, is quick to pull the pin.

During a frigid trip to Billings last February we found just the boat we were looking for and closed the deal. Now I have to clean up the old pontoon boat and trailer it to Billings where I’ll exchange it for the newer, faster one.

I‘ve been waiting for the ice to go out on the lake before making the trip. I didn’t want to pick up the new boat before I could put it in the water.

In the meantime I’ll hop back in the canoe and fish a bit, watch the ice recede, and enjoy the feel of the paddle in my hands.

It’s what floats my boat.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected].