My employer did not have need of my services for the weekend so I managed to
have the whole weekend off work, yea. After a week of 6 AM to 6:30 PM I was
ready for some time off.

This weekend, August 6 - 8 was the last Poker Run of the season. The previous
four were at Cooley Canal Yacht Club, Wyandotte Yacht Club, Elba Mar Boat Club
and River View Yacht Club. Cooley and Riverview are in Ohio and Wyandotte and
Elba Mar are in Michigan. With a little good luck I have managed to make it to
all five scheduled Poker Runs.

The way this works is each of the five Poker Runs are in conjunction with the
host clubs annual regatta. At each stop the participant receives a playing
card. This last Poker Run is at the Maumee River Yacht Club also in Ohio on the
Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. To receive a card you must come by boat and stay
a minimum of 8 hours. Tomorrow afternoon the cards will be opened and the
participant with the best hand will win. I have been told there will be a 1st,
2nd and 3rd place prize. The prizes will be monetary in nature and will help to
offset some of the costs of attending. Nothing will equal the fun of attending
the events.

I left the dock at Harbor Marine at 10:33 A.M. after pumping 91.0 gallons of
gasoline into the fuel tank and arrived at the Maumee River Yacht Club at 11:35
A.M. after a 24 mile run. The course was from Bolles Harbor towards the Toledo
shipping channel and then up the Maumee River. Part of the Maumee River thru
downtown Toledo is a no wake zone so it took an hour to get there. I was rafted
off another boat and did not have direct access to shore power so I used an
extention cord run to another boats 110 outlet so I could run my refrigerator
and a fan. It's not supposed to be a real hot night so sleeping without A/C
should not be a problem.

At 3:30 in the afternoon MRYC held their Commodores Reception. Each Club does
this throughout the year. Free drinks for an hour and a half and many do take
advantage of this. My Commodores reception will be in December. The reception
was fun and a good time was had by all. We had the usual Commodores shot, in
this case some Cherry Whisky from Canada. I think it probably will become the
class of 2004's official drink.

After the reception I headed back to my boat and I was joined by my Vice
Commodore and we had a good discussion concerning the Club. We then headed off
to dinner at the yacht club. We both had the prime rib and it was very good. I
usually don't find most food selections and restaurants to bad to eat.

At 9 o'clock the band started to play. They had The Danger Brothers. They are a
real good band and they know how to work an audience. There were very few who
were not out on the dance floor shakin their booties. The band played until
1:00 A.M. After the band was finished many of the partygoers moved to their
boats and much of the revelry continued until 3 A.M. of so when I finally fell
asleep. It was a great day.

About 9 A.M. Sunday morning I heard others stirring so I finally decided to get
up. It was a good night to sleep, cool and comfortable. Went up to MRYC's
dining room for their breakfast buffet. They had a decent spread. Next I headed
down to the docks to visit with some of the other clubs and their members while
waiting for noon and the opening of the cards.

At noon they held the opening of the cards. I did have a pair of queens but 1st
and 2nd places were held by straights one of which was king high and 3rd place
was taken by 3 of a kind so I did not win anything. There is always next year.

About 12:35 P.M. I left MRYC and headed for home port. I took a little side
trip out to the Toledo Light to take some photos of the lighthouse. I arrived
back at Harbor Marine in Bolles Harbor at 2:00 P.M. after a 26 mile cruise.
Lake Erie was fairly calm the only real wave action was from the wakes of all
the boats that were out and there were many boats out enjoying a great day on
Lake Erie.

Next weekend will be our midnight renweekend.dezvous at Dunbar and Sullivan. So
ends another great summer boating