River Trip (Gloucester MA 6-7-11)

        The weather forecast for Tuesday changed just enough so that our plans changed along with it. It went from an "iffy" day to a beautiful day, so we decided to take advantage of it. We put the dinghy in the truck and headed down to Newton to pick up Stephen, who was missing his boating days and anxious to get out on the water.  We had a choice of two rivers to put the boat into- the Charles River and the Mystic River.  We chose the Mystic because if the weather got hot enough to get into the water, the Mystic is a little cleaner than the Charles. 

         Our adventure started out a little ominously.  Our 11 year old dinghy engine, which has never so much as blinked when we tried to use it, decided that it didn't want to run that day.  Paul spent a while fiddling with it, and he got it so it would run for a few minutes before dying, so we decided to just tool around in that part of the river, staying within "rowing" range of where we put in.  It wasn't bad- we'd drive for a bit, then let the wind float us back.  Eventually though, whatever was clogging the engine cleared up and we felt confident enough to take off for Mystic Lake, a few miles up the river.  It was a beautiful day for that kind of ride.  After zipping up the river, we floated on the lake and ate the picnic lunch I  had packed.

Eventually we made our way back to our put in point, and after a day in the sun, we were pretty tired, in a pleasant, had a good day,  kind of way.  We didn't deflate the boat since we are hoping to use it again before we leave here.  We drove back towards Newton, had dinner at a casual restaurant, and dropped Stephen off at his house.