Hi, this is Cindy. Before, you read of our not-yet-sailing adventures according to Sam's perspective. He does a great job of detailing but I see things a little differently than he does. I'm the optimist and he is the realist. His philosophy is that a person must always plan for what can go wrong and be prepared for it. My philosophy is, lets just try it and if something goes wrong (which I don't think it will) we will deal with it at that time. I keep him upbeat and he keeps me grounded and in check. At least that's how I see it........
The lottery type drawing for the anchor buoy on Lake Monroe was Saturday morning. We did a little pre-lottery preparation with our best friends at a local winery on Friday night. A little dinner, a batch or two of wine, and tons of laughter got us mentally prepared for the much anticipated drawing that would occur Saturday morning. We eagerly drove the 40 miles over to Monroe bright and early on Saturday. Because sleeping in on Saturday mornings is so precious to me, getting up at 6:00 am was a huge sacrifice. But worth it because I was sure our name would be drawn. Sam pampered me with bringing a cup of this yummy coffee concoction of a little coffee, some creamer, and LOTS of caramel topping. It definitely helped get me moving. We had a hearty helping of B's & G's (biscuits and gravy) at a local restaurant and we were on our way to Monroe. If you have never visited southern Indiana in late October, you should. Its beautiful. Our area is made up of rolling hills and beautiful wooded areas. Lake Monroe sits beside the Hoosier National Forest so its protected from development. We passed partially harvested fields as well as fields that had just been picked. It looked as pretty as any cover of Midwest Living magazine.
We arrive at Payntown to an empty parking lot. Hummmm, this is such an anticipated event, I can't imagine why the lot isn't full. Maybe this is a good sign that everyone else has decided they don't want a buoy and we will get one for sure. Turns out we arrived 45 minutes before the drawing instead of 15 prior. We still ended up being the only people anxious, curious, or silly enough to witness the event. But because we were the only ones, I was asked to be the Vanna White of the experience. The very nice ranger who coordinates the process asked me to pick the names out of the hat so no one could accuse him of being dishonest. There were 19 slots available and they will then pick 19 alternates. When he asked me to draw the names, I thought it would be fun. It was. But with each name I drew that wasn't Sam's or mine, my excitement changed to nervousness. I certainly couldn't blame anyone but me if I didn't choose us. The pressure was mounting.... How could it be that I drew 19 names and none of them was ours? The ranger could obviously read the disappointment on my face. That's when he started consoling me. He said not to give up. It seems that last year, of the 14 alternates, each of them were given the opportunity for a buoy. My hopes lifted and we started over. I had a good feeling. I just knew I was going to choose the the right name this go round. I looked over at Sam and he grinned and gave me the "you can do this" nod. Five more names were read. Ugh! Then another 4 names and the finally Sam's name was read. Hip hip hooray! We are on the alternate list. Not as good as we'd hoped for but our hopes are still alive. I will say that as I've gotten older, I've learned that gratification isn't always instant and because of that, I appreciate things much more than I used to.
We celebrated almost getting a buoy last night at our favorite winery and today we are driving to Terre Haute to look at yet another sailboat. We flew to Madison this morning and looked at foliage and our drive on highway 46 this afternoon should have some surprises along the way. I'm hoping for a few antique malls and new wineries to explore. I'll keep you posted on what we find..........
Good luck to us!