The day after the Houston Expedition, I didn't care about the rain. I didn't care about the wind. Lightning and ship traffic, and navigational hazards were the least of my worries. I was on my way, with Elisa and our two daughters, to the Boy Scout Convention of the Sam Houston Area Council - the largest council in the BSA.
When we arrived, my girls and I gave the gondola a good waxing and gave the boat a general clean-up.
Then came the crowds.
I've done a lot of things with gondolas, but this was the first time I trailered one into a convention hall and allowed hundreds of kids to climb all over it. I had expected to shake hands with a lot of scouts and parents, but for some reason, I hadn't anticipated the Cubs. The gondola had an automatic draw, everyone wanted to see what that huge black boat was all about. For the Cub Scouts, and other young kids at the convention, seeing other kids on the boat was all it took to inspire them to climb aboard too. In retrospect, I think having Cub Scouts climb all over the gondola, was a good "durability test", and the gondola stood up to the test very well.
The folks from the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau had their ultra-professional convention display gear set up next to the bow of the gondola, and the whole booth looked great. The Irving CVB staff had a steady stream of convention-goers to meet and greet.
All-in-all, the event was a great success.
After seven hours of hand-shaking, photo taking, and making sure nobody got hurt, we were all quite ready to call it a day. We brought the truck in and hooked the trailer up, and in a short time were on our way.
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