Glass Mirrored Water

April 15, 2025

The Glass Mirrored Water not only reflected the sky but my thoughts as well.

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On Friday I found myself on the road headed up to our house in Antioch. It had been almost a month since I had been up to the house, and I was itching to visit.

I could only imagine the amount of junk mail that I would find stuffed in the mailbox (it was packed solid with only two pieces of actual mail). I was confident though that I would be successful in the house maintenance that I had planned.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about taking the canoe out on Saturday. The weather looked like it would be perfect, Saturday couldn’t come soon enough.

Captain’s Quarters Dinner

For dinner, I walked down to the Captain’s Quarters for a burger and some random chit-chat with the locals. The meal hit the spot, but the real treat of the evening was getting to say hello to “Cody” one of the friendliest German Shepherds I have ever met.

Normally my wife is the one always telling me about the therapy dogs that she gets to meet at her work when they are brought in for students. Here I meet one at bar?

I quickly sent her a text message, gloating in my luck. It was short-lived… She had seen four therapy dogs at school that very day. I couldn’t help but smile.

Some people have all the luck!

Saturday Canoe Time

It was just after seven when I started getting ready for some canoe time. The weather forcast called for temperatures in the high fifties for most of the day with a high of around sixty-two.

Heading out to the garage I got the canoe ready for transport and in no time was walking it down the road towards the Captain’s Quarters.

Last year Larry the owner said that I could use his boat launch for the canoe free of charge which I so appreciate. Water on the chain is still quite low, nowhere where it needs to be for most boats.

But for the canoe the water level wasn’t a problem. All I really had to do was keep an eye on how deep I went with the paddle/oars. Fox lake was like glass, as was Petite Lake.

One evening earlier in the week I took some time to watch videos about different canoe strokes. I started off practicing the “J-Stroke” which allows you to only paddle on one side of the canoe solo.

It worked well but felt pretty slow. I wasn’t in a hurry, really I just wanted to enjoy the experience to fullest.

Soon after exiting the Captain’s Quarter marina onto Fox Lake I decided to try something I have never done before – Rowing a canoe!

When we got this canoe last year used the previous owner included a set of rowing oars with the canoe. He pointed out the two oar holders he had installed in two locations on the canoe.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I decided what better time than now to try them out. Wow, what a great surprise it turned out to be.

Rowing felt like it changed the whole dynamic of the canoe. I immediately felt more connected to both side of the canoe when rowing. It was very easy to make minute adjustments to either side as needed.

The oars really made the canoe solo exponentially faster. Before I knew it I was already halfway through Petite Lake. If you know the area, that was a significant distance for my first time out for the season.

And the lakes were practically empty. I say four fishing boats the entire time and a few people out and about in their yards. As an added bonus Petite Lake was absolutely crawling with giant white pelicans. They will soon migrate away from the chain, but this last saturday they were a sight to behold.

My apologies for the potato camera quality of the picture below, it was the closest I could get and the iPhone camera never ceases to disappoint me (I’m not salty at all, lol).

With every row I could feel the stress draining out of me. It was just what I needed. While I wish I could have kept going, I knew I had work to do back at the house.

Just before eleven I had the canoe back in the garage and I was off to buy supplies, but that is a story for another day.