GO’s Sand Bucket By Georgia Osten
You’ll never guess where we went last weekend. Nothing like a kinda spur of the moment trip. Our Granddaughter, Addyson, happened to be in a Crew competition in of all places – Chattanooga! To my knowledge, I’ve never been to Nashville or Chattanooga. We flew from Houston with our oldest daughter. It was a straight flight to Nashville. In Nashville, we met our youngest daughter, Addyson’s Mom, who flew in from Tampa. We rented a car and drove about an hour and a half to Chattanooga, where our Grandson, Grant, drove from Bloomington, Indiana, to meet us at the hotel. We all got ready and walked to the river where all the boats, oars & tents were set up along the banks. What a sight! We were standing on one of the many bridges where we could get a bird’s eye view of everything. We spotted Addyson, she spotted us and immediately called her Mom. She was so surprised! “Mom, I see my Aunt Leigh, cousin Grant and is that my Grandma & PawPaw?” Needless to say, she was busy, but made the time to find us and give big hugs!

Chattanooga is on the Tennessee River. This was the 42nd annual anniversary of Head of the Hooch Regatta. Probably over 2200 registered to race. Over 180 teams competed, schools and clubs from all over the US came to this 2-day event. The Crew members do it all. There are 8-boats, 4-boats, 2-boats and 1-boats. Sculling is where the person rowing has two oars, sweeping is where the person rowing has one oar. Our Granddaughter’s race was an 8-boat, in the picture below, she’s the third from the back. The steersman is a Coxswain, pronounced cox-in. The Coxswain sits in the rear of the boat facing forward and yells to the teammates which direction to go, along with lots of encouragement.

Well way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
It gets hotter than a hoochie coochie
We laid rubber on the Georgia asphalt
We got a little crazy but we never got caught
Down by the river on a Friday night … that’s Alan Jackson

Sunday, we all gathered for breakfast at the hotel to say goodbye to Addyson. She rode back on the Academy of the Holy Names bus to drive home with all 30 of her teammates.

What a special time in our lives to get to witness our Granddaughter in such a grand event. Very special as well was the time spent with family, some of whom we’ll visit for Christmas in Tampa.

When you make plans to visit in the very near future, It’s never “goodbye.”

GO’s Sand Bucket is only one beach bum’s journal of life at the beach, probably something each of you can relate to. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts, visions and/or feelings of just exactly what the beach means to you. Email: [email protected]

[GO: Nov-7-2023]