Hehe, great story. I've been reluctant to let my wife back down the ramp.
FINALLY, a few weeks ago, we were at a ramp that was empty! I told her to
get the truck/trailer and back it down. She looked at me like I asked her to
sacrifice our first born! Anyway, she did it... after a few aborted
attempts. She actually did a pretty nice job for her first time. A couple
of more times at an empty ramp, and she'll be good to go. :-)

--Mike


"Frogwatch" wrote in message
ups.com...
Decided to go scalloping today, last weekend before the endx of the
season. Took the Tolman out of St marks wildlife refuge ramp a few
miles east of the St. arks light in about 2' of water. Only me and
my 11 yr old daughter were looking and I cannot snorkel anymore cuz I
do not wear contact lenses anymore so am blind without glasses. I had
to just seem em from above but I got enough for one person, My
daughter decided they were cute and started throwin alll of hers back
(Cute scallops?), Finally came back in just ahead of a thunderstorm
with a line of boats coming in to the ramp behind me. Normally, I'd
just pull up to shore, back the truck down, walk over get in the boat
and power her up onto the trailer.
My wife is simply unable to stop herself from giving unwanted advice
no matter what I say. She just rattles advice as if it is some sort
of background noise that I have become adept at ignoring. Suddenly,
she says that SHE WILL BACK THE TRUCK DOWN THE RAMP (huh, she has
never done anything like this). It is a pain in the ass ramp, a
narrow double one where you have to back up around a curve and then
make a right turn onto the ramp with no room to maneouver. There is a
line of about 50 boats all waiting to get out ahead of the approaching
thunderstorm and I know this is gonna be a fiasco. But then I
thought, "Great time to teach her a lesson" so I said, "are you sure"
and she says "I know how to back a car". "OK, OK, dont get snippy, go
ahead". I put boat in idle and just watch and its great. Eventually,
people are offering to help, giving conflicting directions all around
her, a line of trucks waiting, people offer to do it for her (she
refuses), people start cursing her out. She eventually gets the
trailer on the ramp but backs off the side of it and has to start
over. I am sitting there on the boat trying not to laugh and
wondering if I will have to beach her and go help but after many tries
she does it. I power onto the trailer and away we go with many ****ed
off people behind her.
As we drive away, I say "not as easy as it looks is it". She pretends
to be unconcerned about all the people who were angry but eventually
on the way home she says, that seemed like it took 30 minutes, "it was
awful". "Why were they all so mad at me, everyone has a 1st time".
All I could say was "poor choice of 1st time". I actually think thsi
was a good thing to happen/