story behind the story, after the jetboat race pt2

With a whiff of gas fumes and mile long plume of spray, the jet-boaters roared past, some only 10ft from the shore where we were tied up.

It was fabulously loud and exciting.

My heart was racing, my camera zoomed in and tracking, my feet balanced on the bow of the jet-boat which slightly rocked as the racers flew by.

Having waited so long for this, I was having so much fun!

The jet-boats flew by, gunning the throttle at speeds over 100mph and approaching 140mph. Defying gravity with barely a few feet of hull touching the water still, most of the boat wasn't in the water. Skimming the surface and zipping around floating logs, it was a deft display of steel nerves and practiced grace.

Some of them were having troubles because the cross-wind wasn't helping. Some of the boats were reared up like they were popping a wheelie and others were low in the water -- I wouldn't know why, but guessed that they'd sucked up something that wouldn't spit out the back very easily.

After all 30 boats had flown by and then turned around and raced back to the finish, starting staggered one minute apart, we left too.

My camera was starting to die as the batteries hadn't been charged in a while, but I was more than happy.

The boat's skipper stopped to talk to some friends who were parked on the bank watching the race. They had beers for the passengers but I still had to write my article and he still had to steer home.

We were almost home and there was a log jam of boats trying to get up the one boat launch. So the skipper asked if I'd like to see how high the river had gone on the other side of the peninsula.

In retrospect this should have foreshadowed my troubles to fording the car along the road. I was game and off we went, the boat bouncing off some incredibly high peaks and valleys I didn't think were possible outside of ocean waves. Like 4-5ft swells. It was still fun.

We got to the bridge and I'm like can you touch it? He was like sure why not? I asked if he could hold it and he eased the throttle, let go the wheel and stood on tip-toes. Still was 4inches short, but it was supposed to be 4-6ft lower. Incredible amount of rain. This was the photo that appeared on the cover of Whitecourt Star, my first issue of printing.... WOOT.

We got back and parted ways with much thanks. The skipper was more than happy just show off a beautiful way to get around on the hidden water-highway of Alberta.

Got in my car after I had packed up my camera and downloaded my photos. I followed the last trucks and jet-boat trailers back to town.

And then I got to where the road ended and 2ft of water began. The water had crested a few hours before. Good to know now.

There were two 1/4ton trucks and a car stalled and dragged back out on the side of the road. This was a very bad sign of attempting to drive through it.

So I backed out of the way of the trucks and someone gave me a ride back across so I could find someone to tow me across.

The newspaper publisher had told me to call her if I needed any help. This would qualify as help needed. The waters were still rising.

She said not to worry the other reporter almost got trapped out there too the day before in his SUV. It wasn't much in the morning.

The fact that those huge trucks were up to their running boards and past the axles said I was going to be waiting for a while to find someone to drive.

No problem, she'd call and ask her brother. He phoned to say he'd be there in 15 minutes. I'm guessing he'd just got off work. No matter, I needed help and he was happy to lend a hand.

He got there and got to work, pulling out a tow rope. He asked which city I was from. Half-teasingly he pointed out that only a city boy would try to get across that in a little car and not have a truck. Fair point....

After a few tries we got through and I'm happy to report my car-doors are water-tight. Lesson learned that water that is up to my knee is a bad idea to drive through. No doubt, but what I didn't know was that water will over-flow onto roads when it's raining bad enough, hard enough.

Was mightily glad that someone was wiling to come own and help me out on short notice. AMA would have taken hours to send a tow-truck. It was a quiet statement of how neighbours look after each other. I was totally grateful and left a Timmy's card with my publisher as a token of thanks.

It was a wild and wet long day. My car got the under-side washed. I met some very down-to-river people and got a glimpse of how the camaraderie extended to random strangers and friends alike.