View From a Prairie Home

by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist

Only some of us like to mess with boats. I was reminded of this the other day when our boat lift tipped over with our boats attached. Without a working motor, the boat was toast. And when I told people, not all understood. That I come from a line of boat people.

But when I thought some more, in the olden days, when people travelled, it was either on foot, horse or boat. Most of the cities in Europe are on rivers or along the coast. The rivers were the highways of the past. With boats, one could travel faster and carry more goods. The oceans were the super highways. Studies have shown that people crossed oceans thousands of years ago, carrying their goods and trading with peoples far away.

The next mode of land travel was of course, the “iron horse”, the railroads. Here, in the Mid-west, most cities were along the railroad tracks. And now, of course, we have cars and planes. Travel has never been easier.

But with this life void of the toil of hinter years, people have time for leisure. And for me, that has always been boats. I spent my childhood and youth by the sea. My grandfather’s cabin was on a peninsula on the southern coast of Norway surrounded by the archipelago that protected us from the big waves of the open ocean. Here, I was first taught to row in a big wooden row boat which would traverse the waves even in the break between the pull on the oars. On this boat my grandfather made a mast and with a homemade sail, he would try to teach us to sail. But my favorite boat was his wooden motor boat. It had an inboard engine made which had a chugging sound that I found so comforting. We would use it to go fishing or taking trips to one of the various islands. Here, we would tie up our boat, eat our picnic and then dive from the cliffs into the ocean.

Then, I moved to Minnesota. And I discovered the lakes. In the summers, we would haul our small metal fishing boat that had a little outboard engine and explore various lakes. We didn’t necessarily fish. Just being on the water gave us great joy and we would usually find a beach where we would swim.

Grant bought our cabin when I was in Norway with my kids. It was a joyful surprise when he showed it to us after coming back from a less-than-relaxing flight across 4000 miles and seven time zones. The night was clear with stars and a full moon. He led us out on the dock. The water was like glass and all was quiet except for the call of a loon. And, in the distance, we saw that this lake had islands.

From then on, the real boat adventures started. There were the many storm dramas.  Once we forgot to put our motor boat securely in the boat lift, it drifted across the lake and was found by the Stearns County sheriff who actually showed up at the farm. We surmised, they thought someone in our family had drowned, thus an empty boat.

With this latest drama, Grant knew what to do. He checked for sales on used boats and quickly found an affordable Chris Craft from -91. It is in pristine shape and runs smoothly across the lake. It has already served our family as a fishing and ski boat. And when we are alone at our cabin, we will take our “new” boat and just drive slowly across the smooth surface of the water, watching the sunset and listening for the loons.