The boat was resurrected...sort of

Dave spent a good deal of time on Sunday afternoon working on the boat motor. He took apart things and found little problems here and there, slowly making progress to a running motor. He's not even an "engine guy" ... and was "fixing" things by sight. He did get the motor running pretty well, so he felt confident enough to put the boat in the river last night. We packed up the kids and attached the boat to the truck after supper on Monday night and went to the boat ramp. He got the boat in the water and first took a ride by himself, then picked up the rest of us. It still isn't running perfect. When the motor runs at higher speeds, it tends to kick back and stall. So its still not working that great. But it was reliable enough to start up with each turn of the key and got us back to the dock safely. Violet LOVED the boat ride, of course, and Calvin tolerated it. He was mostly fixed on looking for birds in the sky that he could enthusiastically point at. We drove the boat past our river house and pointed it out to Violet. She said "Oh! I remember that house! Remember when I was a baby, I was sleeping in a crib!" I really don't think she remembers that. She might be programmed by hearing us tell her that when she lived at that house she used to be a baby. And babies sleep in cribs, naturally, lol. Towards the end of our boat ride, Dave noticed there was a small leak in the boat or somewhere in the engine allowing water to seep into the boat. The bilge pump pumps it out, but still, knowing there is a leak in the boat doesn't give me a ton of confidence. We had tentative plans to take the boat down to Lake Rathbun this weekend with the Hardinger family, but it seems the boat isn't working all that well so we're not going to take it.