As the tide of test divers funneled through the tents, everyone was rather pleased that the air temperatures had dropped over night. While the water temperatures had remained at perfect drysuit levels. We had a few divers with excited stories of Paddlefish sightings, and several positively gleeful stories about comfortably warm and dry hands following first encounters with Zip Gloves and 40 degree water.

In keeping with the biblical theme of my last few comments, our own Faith Ortins was introduced to the quarry waters (with a little assistance and planning from Mike (Gilboa’s Owner) and Joe Wysocki (Optiquatics), in what appeared to be a pseudo-baptism. At this point, I’ll simply defer to the pictures, and their 1000 words.

For the second day in a row, the return of the building dark clouds had me a bit nervous about taking down tents in the midst of another deluge. Thankfully, due to some careful planning and a bevy of eager DOG volunteers, suits were returned to the racks in as timely a manner as possible (even allowing a few tardy test divers to get most of the way out of their insulation before racking it), tents were dropped and rolled and the DOG Truck packing moved along very swiftly. A few light sprinkles of rain were quite welcome as the last rack made its’ way into the truck.

Following our crew picture by the water, DAN’s Field Rep Brittany was “escorted” to the water in a gesture of welcome to the family, from several pranksters. Once again, a picture is worth 1000 words. She was however, spared at the last minute from a complete dunking, but she may be scared mentally for many weeks to come! <g>

A few stats from the weekend:
- 1 diver managing to enter the water without closing the drysuit zipper – there’s always 1(got that out of the way on Saturday)
- 215 test divers
- well over 600 “meat units” consumed
- 8 Boca burgers consumed
- 1 jar jalapeno's (for Pam)

Possibly the funniest moment of the weekend for me was a discussion in the rental truck with Faith and Al Morris (DUI’s Northeast Rep).

“You know, Mike hasn’t yelled at me once this year for driving too fast in the parking lot.” Faith noted.
“Have you been driving too fast in the parking lot?” I asked.
“No.” she responded.
“See how that works!” I quipped.
Apparently this stream of logic caught Al completely off guard, and he about busted a gut laughing. If you know Al Morris, he’s quite the joke-master, and today, something I said managed to crack him up. That was a pretty cool feeling.

I was actually quite pleased to see that most of the Gilboa visitors heeded the parking lot speed limits, just like Faith, especially when you consider the number of kids, ducks, and his highness “King” Louie (the coolest cat in the world) that are scurrying about between dives.

What a great weekend! Thanks to all of the DOGs, Test Divers, and Gilboa staff for letting us visit with you for yet another outstanding DOG Rally. We really enjoyed hanging out with you.