Vreeeooooooom!

There's an annual Poker Run boat race that occurs on Rice Lake in September. After I had extended the girlie weekend invite to my friends, I learned about the Poker Run.

My first thoughts were:
"Poker run!? How can we have a relaxing weekend if insanely large speedboats are tearing up the lake!?"
and
"Oh, Man. My vehicle-obsessed son is going to KILL me if he's not allowed at the cottage that weekend."

After some waffling on the girlie invite I finally decided to have everyone there at the same time. The number of girls who would be attending had diminished considerably so there were beds enough for all. (turns out this didn't matter as none of them stayed the night).

The red-headed kid was in heaven. From the moment he woke up on Saturday morning he was down on the doc with his binoculars, scanning for signs of big-boat activity. This was right around the time when I saw my cellphone for the very last time. *sniff*

They had a great day for the race. The lake was like glass.

"Do you see anything?"
"No, not yet."

The boats congregated in Bewdley at the south-east end of the lake. The captain and the kids took off in That Damned Boat ™ to go to observe. And to use the loo. The princess can always be counted on for an ill-timed bathroom break.

Here are a few specimens that were there.

The money that has been sunk into these boats is just loony. I bet they have spent more than we did for the cottage!

Nobody needs a boat this big or this fast.  I would be more than happy to help them spend their clearly excess cash in more productive ways. Ways that benefit me directly, of course.

*cough*

Moving right along....

Crazyiness

Nuts! Give me your money you loons!

Lined up at the start.

This one was taken from the porch. It's the only boat we saw pass directly in front of the cottage.

 The kids loved this boat. They've spent the whole summer reading the numbers on the motors of boats at the marina. They've realized that the higher the number, the more powerful the motor. This was the best one all summer: why use a 300 HP motor when you can have three!

(Aside:  why list "horse power" on a boat motor. How fast can 900 horses swim, anyway?)

Another view of the boats at the start. The Captain and the kids are in one of the boats in the background. (This photo and subsequent photos were taken from Rice Lake Today Forums)

 This is the boat that roared past the cottage.

 boat.

 Another boat.

 And, another boat.

Apparently the kids called this one the Batmobile.

And finally, the boats tearing down the lake.

For all that the boats are insanely big and loud, we really weren't disturbed much by the noise at the cottage. They were far enough away that you could just hear a dull roar in the distance.