Archive News Story
DCNR #4 - Daily Convention News Report
Today’s “waterlogged” report about Convention tour #8 – the Buffalo Harbor Cruise – was told to Mike Mottler by Jerry (Dampened But Not Distressed) Calkins (RM 9418), the newly elected Secretary of LCCA.
As we boarded the motor coaches at the host hotel for transport to the Buffalo harbor dock, we noticed an ominous sky overhead. We hoped for a day that would be a memory-maker; and it was, but not as expected.
We arrived at the cruise ship on time, walked aboard, and cast off. After ten minutes the skies opened, and a mid-morning rain shower descended upon the boat. Passengers on the lower enclosed deck were shielded from the downpour, and the crew rolled down the protective side curtains on the upper deck to provide some separation from the weather for those passengers. The rain shower soon ended, and our adventure on the water continued; a bit shaken but not totally stirred.
Then the “perfect storm” struck, and it became clear that our memories of this cruise would be moist indeed. Those on the outside open decks were drenched, and memories of the good ship Minnow of the “Gilligan’s Island” TV series came to mind. The crew scrambled to capture a roof leak on the upper deck in a 30-gallon waste container. This stopgap measure captured the flow for a time, but the container soon had to be emptied. The crew carried it to the rail and dumped it overboard, but the wind sprayed this water onto the deck immediately below where other passengers were huddled like refugees from the storm. Now the dark-humor allusions were about the Titanic, not the Minnow.
Upon recommendation of our tour guides and a few of our wet group, it was agreed to return to the dock. We re-boarded the motor coaches and our guides improvised and narrated an historic, architectural tour of downtown Buffalo, including the grounds of the famous exposition area.
Shanghai Red's Restaurant - our planned lunch venue - accomodated our "too early" arrival. This meal break lifted our spirits and helped us dry off. After lunch, We returned to the busses and completed the pre-planned tour of the Botanical Gardens of Buffalo and Erie Counties. We left the gardens bathed in sunshine and arrived back at the hotel under clearing skies - dry and with our memories intact.