The party itself consisted of thousands and thousands of people converging on a small island in the middle of Lake St. Clair. Once at the island, those people anchored their boats and set about consuming prodigious quantities of alcohol. Yes, it really is a "WOOOOO" sort of party, yes there's a lot of flashing in exchange for beads, and yes, as the day wore on there was an upward-trending tendency of boozy meatheads trying to act surly and pick fights, but happily the only violence I witnessed was my own merciless beatdown on the volleyball court.
Woooo!
So the party went off as parties do, and my own crew managed to empty a lot of bottles and cans. The sun was dipping lower and lower in they sky and everything was turning a sort of shadowy blue color, so we got ready to wrap it up. That's when we saw that, not two boats away, there was a reporter on the water with his cameraman. My stepbrother swam over to talk to them, and they interviewed him on the spot, and that seemed like the end of it.
As the sun turned orange and sank low so that its reflection grew miles long across the water, we rounded up our stragglers, pulled up the anchor, and headed back to the marina. We had barely come about when the party boat with the news crew waved us over. Their motor had completely conked out - plenty of gas, but no response from the controls or the engine. The reporter explained that they had less than an hour to get their tape to the news van back on shore.
We had a mission.
Er....yes, like that...
Quickly comparing the capacity of the boat against the already crowded conditions aboard, we judged that we could let two people come aboard, but that the others would have to fend for themselves. Assured that the stranded boaters had in fact radioed for help, we raced off at top speed for Belle Maer harbor.
As we crossed the lake, I had one of those beautiful this-is-why-I-live-here moments. Our boat crushed the wake and slashed the waves and every so often a big spray would wash up from over the bow, and we would all raise our drinks up and cheer. It felt magnificent to be alive.
In the back of the boat, the reporters interviewed my sister and her friends, my cousin, whoever they felt like pointing a camera at. It was all good fun, and we made great time across the water. We made a small error in taking the crew to exactly the place we thought they'd requested (a small marina just outside of Selfridge ANG base) instead of the place we were going, which is what they assumed, but we did get them to the harbor with time to spare, and one of our entourage drove them up North River road to their waiting news van.
I'm the blindingly pale guy standing in the back
And that's how my family and I came to be on Fox 2 News this last Friday. In their gratitude, and despite the rather obnoxious earful I gave them vis-a-vis how much I disliked and mistrusted Fox News, they used footage of us to lead their segment, including my shout-out to my own notorious Shockah Krew.
So there's a portion of my 15 minutes of fame, I guess - a great souvenir from a fantastic party to be sure. Now, back to my relentless search for employment, and nursing this total bastard of a sunburn I managed on account of being out half naked on a boat all day.
***When you buy off Amazon through this site, I make money***
3 comments: