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I arrived at the Milwaukee airport on the 1st of June happy to recover both bags off the conveyor belt!
Dan picked me up with half smiles and half frowns. I new the Midwest was getting dumped on with rain and most of the rivers were flooding! “How’s the site?” I ask. Dan replies, “its not looking good brother!” I was going to foot with Mike Molepski on the 2nd so Dan was crossing his fingers in hopes of the water lowering on his site by Thursday. We drove two hours to meet Mike for dinner and then to pass over the goods for the night and next day of foot’n! This is just the beginning of one of the longest weeks of my life!
Not to dishearten anyone, but this was definitely the most traveling I’d ever done in own week for a clinic!
Like I always say though, “You can’t control Mother Nature!”
It’s nobody's fault that the weather was bag and the lakes and rivers flooded!
I’ll tell you one thing though, Mike Molepski’s site is bad ass, and that cold little river just three miles off of Lake Michigan saved our butts completely!
So, the clinic went well on Wed. and now Mike, Scott Hodack and myself had to drive two hours South to Lake Keases. The reason for the move has to accommodate other footers in the area so they didn’t have to drive three plus hours to where we already were. We arrived at a quaint little glassy lake with houses all around it. Little did I know we were at the lake where the Badger Land Show Ski Club practiced for years; and where a well-known footer spent many hours training for barefoot competitions? Jeff Milbrath.
We had a good day but lost a couple footers due to some wind picking up and a couple boats on the lake we couldn’t quite hide from.
With a little patience, and some talented footers, we made out just fine and everyone walked away with something new in their bag of tricks.
Later that day, I got dropped off at Dan’s house just around the
corner; just in time to watch the forth game of the Tampa Bay Lightning melting the ice in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
I got to bed just after the game went into overtime with Tampa Bay loosing.
Friday: We decided to ski at Lake Sinissippi, which was about an hour plus away. It was flooded as well, and no boats were allowed on the lake, but we decided that we wouldn’t get any yahoo’s intruding into our coves. So, everyone skied hard and we had sweet water all day! There was a little debris in the water but nothing to be concerned about. We headed home after a beautiful warm and glassy day to rest up for the upcoming trip to Kerry Tolsmans, where the Midwest Regionals
has been held the last three years.
Saturday: Up at 5am to meet everyone at 5:45am at the Park & Ride. We traveled over two hours up North to the site that hadn’t been flooded and where no walley’s are allowed!
We arrived at 9am and skied to our hearts content! They even gave me a tour through the Dells where the most indoor water parks in the world lie!!
Drove by Tommy Bartlett’s water ski show site and saw the famous Duckie’s from World War II that give rides to people in the river.
I must say that I got to see as much of Wisconsin as I’d had hoped to in one trip!
No, I enjoy every minute of my travels because I want to see as much of this world as I can while I’m young!
Most people ask me how I can travel so much during the summer but to tell you the truth, at times it can be addictive!!
After the summer ends it’ll feel good to be home, but just after one to two weeks of being idol, I’ll want to jump in a plane and go on another adventure!
Then after about three months goes buy you get into your routine and don’t want to leave at all!
It can be a vicious cycle!
We arrived back in town around 9pm just in time to watch half of the second period and the third period of the Lightning. Sunday and Mon. we decided to go back to Mike’s site just because we new the conditions would be ideal. Mike’s site is the cat’s meow!
He has a cottage/house overlooking a river that feeds into Lake Michigan. You can’t go up river because it’s too shallow and no boats come up river from Lake Michigan because the channel isn’t marked and it’s dangerously shallow as well.
So, his boat launch is just down the hill from his garage under his cabin that they call the “Shrine!”
The Shrine is immaculate with a beer tap, fuse ball table, shinny waxed boat that has nearly 160 hours on it and a bathroom for a last minute call. O yeah, there’s also a shed by the boat launch that has a beer tap in it as well! Thanks so much Mike for the great hospitality!!
I’d like to give a shout out to Dan Baumgartner as well for having so
much patience throughout the week! The weather can do some freaky things and Dan had to try and accommodate every footer that was ready to meet and foot on his site, yet couldn’t due to the flooding. The week ended up running smoothly with great weather, great water and everyone learning something new and staying healthy. Except Mike
Schoenky hurting his MCL on an attempted front to back on his feet. Get well Mike!!
So you at the Nationals!
KSO
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