The one morning that I venture out on the Bike trail without Steve, I get propositioned. I am not making this up. Steve was golfing with his photography buddies this morning and Kate needed to be picked up from rowing practice at 9 am. Perfect, I thought, I will head to the river a little early, take a quick ride downtown and swing back around to pick her up from practice.

As I rounded the corner from PNC Park to Heinz Field, I noticed this eccentric looking boat moored along the river. How cool, I thought – that boat has every fun piece of outdoor equipment known to man attached to it. A bike, a sailboat, a canoe, a kayak and a grill, paddles and a boat motor. The owner, Warren (not his real name, but that is how I will refer to him) was a few feet away chatting with a couple of police officers that were parked in a van. He looked, well, pretty much like the boat. How much more harmless could the situation possible be, right? Wrong. I made my scheduled turn around at Heinz Field and decided to ask if I could take some photos of the boat, and Warren said ‘Sure’. I asked him where he was going and he said, ‘New Orleans.’ I asked where he was coming from and he said ‘Warren, PA’. (Hence the name).

I snapped a few photos on my cellphone and that’s when it happened. Warren yells at the top of his lungs (cops by his side) – ‘Open the door and go inside – you can take some pictures of my bed – and then get in it!’

‘Nice try, Warren!’ I screamed back -at that same time I jumped on my bike and peddled away as fast as I could and never looked back.

I hope Warren has a safe trek down the river to New Orleans. I am sure he will be fine – since it’s clear that he is one smooth operator.

Post a Comment