Muscoda WI - April 20, 21 and 22 (page five)

There was more fun as the wind settled down and the river beckoned us late into the evening on Saturday.... We showed various tapes on the VCR the Webers brought, including Junkyard Wars and King Boris from the Twin Cities!

	Bill Zang putting the PL Express thru her paces!

Guess he liked her!

John Lynch and Mike Jacobson trying out the chain puzzles!

Bob Steinhauer recently had a bad accident with an ice pressure ridge that had expanded across a sandbar on the Wisconsin River. The damage resulted in many changes for the Eagle......including centrally located gas tanks totalling 12 gallons, not offering Bob the opportunity to fly faster, having reached 55.5 mph just recently in his cruiser! What a beautiful machine (see photo right below also)....

Sunset and the eagles watch over us!

SUNDAY

I was asleep in the campsite when the familiar drone of a hovercraft went by at 7 a.m. Within minutes Verdon and I were dressed and necessities done, we hopped in our hovers and followed along. Soon we had many others and the day of all days began. It was a beautifully quiet morning allowing many short cruises for everyone and of course those ever present challenging speed runs. The Pink Lady gave me 52.2 mph this morning, and later on during the day, we let her all out and hit 54.4!!! ...but best of all was the breakfast provided by Bob and Gloria Steinhauer (and their dog Angel)!

THE GIFT OF A HOVERCRAFT!

Dave LaCombe is one very generous hovercrafter! No one can deny that. We have a chat group on the internet called Hoverlovers and one day Dave posted that he would give away his 10F to anyone interested, hoping that some young hovercrafter would be enticed to share this enthusiasm in the sport. Well, I knew the right person and asked Dave if I could share the post with Brian Roesch! Brian was more than eager to get a hover......with any amount of fix-up involved. Brian had just built the leaf-blower hover--using 2 engines for more lift and was ready for bigger and better!

Brian just got bit by the hover bug--note that smile! Hope it never disappears!	Dave brings up the 10F for Brian....showing him some tricks!

Great gift ... We all thank you David for spreading the enthusiasm you have! (A footnote to this story came on April 25, when David sent me an email relating the following: It was my pleasure to give away The Toy to an enthusiast. With the new craft, and the 19P following close behind, I have no use for 3 hovers, and The Toy would never be used again. It's a great performer, and I'm happy to let someone else enjoy it!

After only one day, Brian had it near back to new with only the skirt and touch-up paint left to do. I look forward to seeing Brian and The Toy in Muscoda this August, and maybe I can convince him to let me take it out one last time :-)

Linda, without your thoughtfulness, I wouldn't have met such an excited hovercrafter to share my gift with. I hope he has as much fun with it as I did, and I'm sure he will! Thank you...end of quote.)

STILL NOT DONE!

Sunday came to a slow close as more hovercrafters had to head home, travelling anywhere from 1 hour to 9 hours and we do understand. But however there were 5 of us left and we couldn't stop. And the strangest thing about it was, the crafts were all different colors. Mike Jacobson had his white craft, Ben Tilson his yellow, I had a pink one, Verdon had the Hesston White color and Bill Zang had his blue one. I didn't have my camera with me when we did 59.4 miles down river, but I assure you it was a beautiful site. But as everyone knows, there isn't a hover-in complete unless someone has incurred some type of ding.....and it's usually a Weber! Verdon met up with a railroad bridge. He thought the water was low enough and he almost made it....

Dave LaCombe says about Verdon's incident: Haha, speaking of that duct. I was riding with Verdon when it happened. We were coming up to a rail road bridge which is normaly high enough for hovers. This year with the river so high, it was iffy. Verdon looked back and said to me "I think we can make it." Well, we did end up making it under the bridge, or maybe I should say, through it. The duct hit about 2 inches below the damage, but pushed the hover down and took off what you see. The first I-beam that we hit did some damage, but the second one was the worst, which just about took the duct off completely. Anyway, we both laughed about it and continued the cruise.

	OUCH!
	Mike Jacobson and Bill Zang STILL hovering when we left!

Thank you one and all for coming.....if I have made some mistakes in this presentation, please email me and I will be happy to correct them!

The Pink Lady says Good nite until Terre Haute!!

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