Love at First Sight

This last fall I bought my first kayak. I was inspired to make this purchase by my good friend. She invited me to go kayaking with a group of her friends up at Black Creek over in Mississippi. It was the first time I had been kayaking since I was a kid growing up in the islands.
Now, I was practically raised on boats, and for some reason my dad seems to feel that if a boat cannot move without a motor its not a real boat. He always has preferred sailboats, though he owned fleets of canoes and kayaks when he was younger. For some crazy reason he sold them off when I was born. Anyway, I grew up on boats, but they were almost all sailboats, and it wasn't until we moved to the islands that I got to go kayaking for the first time.
Well, it had been a long time since I last felt the trade winds playing in my hair and since I last held a paddle in both hands when my friend asked me to go kayaking with her. She decided to pick an easy trip since she was the only one who was an experienced kayaker, so we set out on a 3hr trip. The skys above us were gray and brooding as a tropical approached the coast. Despite the ominous skys, it was the most fun I had in a long time, and before we reached the landing I had reached the conclusion that I had to have a kayak of my own. It took a few months for me to find my kayak - though in truth I thought it would take much longer.
The ad was for a sit-on-top kayak for $250, and I skipped lunch and part of a class to go see it. I wasn't expecting much, so I was surprised when we walked around the garage and saw it lying there. The guy hadn't lied on the phone - it was ugly.....but it was beautiful too - a sixteen-foot Scupper Pro TW from Ocean Kayak. For some crazy reason someone had painted it. A good portion of the paint had worn off, and now it was a motley barn-red with patches of faded orange plastic showing through.
I had been expecting a slightly dinky, plastic sit-on-top - the kind they rent out at beaches. Instead, it was obvious from first glance that this wasn't just a plaything - it was a boat! For one thing, it had storage, lots of storage with a tank-well in behind and a large hatch in front. It was love at first-sight! We hurried to the gay bar on the corner to use the ATM, ran back, tied the thing to the roof of my car, and drove back to campus as fast as I could to slip into the class I was missing. I couldn't stop smiling!