A few years ago I decided that I needed exercise. I realized that I had done most of the usual things, jogging, hiking, joining a health club, aerobics, walking, and biking; oh, did I fail to mention power gardening? (any gardening in Florida other than small container gardening has the potential to create large  “me Tarzan you Jane” kind of foliage that has to be hacked back periodically with a machete. I call it power gardening.)

All these forms of exercise worked, but they didn’t really call me. They just weren’t me. I wanted something more, some new form of exercise. I would gaze out over the lake having perhaps a glass of wine and ponder exercise. What to do, what to do, I would think. Then I saw it. A person in a boat rowing, not any boat, but a scull, how graceful they looked.. Just like a needle streaking across a sleek glass table with hardly any hint of the water being disturbed. This was not ordinary rowing. This is very cool to watch. I wondered; could I do that?  Could I become a sculler? Could I become one with nature gliding noiselessly over Lake Wellington’s glassine surface?

I had to research this. On to Google I went. , I found it, the Florida Rowing Center. And where was it, you ask? Right here in Wellington, it was right across the lake. I had to find out more, was it suitable for me? Every reference said it was good for children of all ages. I could do this. So I called the Florida Rowing Association, I spoke to the director. She assured me I could do it. She would help. She was my savior. I bought a scull. She showed me what to do. I found out about Craftsbury the sculling center in Vermont. Summer vacation was only a few weeks away. I signed up for a week of sculling camp, and off I went.

I returned to Lake Wellington with my “Head of the Hosmer” cap, two Craftsbury tee shirts, and the ability to get into and out of a scull without breaking my neck. (Did you know that the seat in a scull moves back and forth?)  I was also able to move the scull forward and backward in the water without falling out. I was a sculler.

to be continued.........................................