“Kippa”

06 Thursday May 2021

Posted by “Oh Captain My Captain” in Cruising pups, From the Writing Room, Thinking Outside The Boat

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Best friend, Cruising canines, CruisingTheICW, English Springer - Labrador Retriever Mix, Kippa, Life, Love, Precious, Rainbow Bridge, Rescued

January 21, 2003 – May 6, 2016

Kippa was a cruiser

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.”

When Kippa woke me at 5:30AM on Friday morning, May 6, 2016. I knew it was her way of telling me the time had come. Just weeks before, her cancer had returned, surgery and treatments had failed, and she was ready to “Go Over the Rainbow Bridge.”

Kippa was special. She had “rescued” me following the March 2003 deaths of my dad, and Vic, the old Lab that we had rescued while living in Raleigh. Her mom was a beautiful English Springer, and her dad was a neighbor’s handsome black Lab. She would grow up to have her dad’s size and color, and her mom’s beautiful wavy coat.

On the Sunday morning after Vic’s passing, I found the English Springer/Labrador Retriever litter while reading the classifieds of the Sunday newspaper. A phone call, and the encouragement of our children, led to “Nana” and me driving to Edisto Island the following Tuesday to meet the little girl I had read about. When the owner picked her up for me to see, and I started rubbing her head and ears, her little paws locked around my wrist. The owner smiled, “I think you’ve been adopted.” She hung on long enough for “Nana” to walk back to the car, retrieve my camera, and return to shoot a pic.

Day we met Kippa

As we drove home, “Nana” asked what I wanted to name her. My dad’s nickname in school was Kip. Because he’d been my best friend, I wanted to name her after him, but the names Kip or Kippy didn’t fit the newest addition to our family. “What about Kippa?” she asked. Perfect. The little girl from Edisto Island would be named Kippa.

On Thursday, two days after bringing her home, I took her to our veterinarian, Dr. Scott Senf, of Animal Medical Center – Mount Pleasant. Scott and the vet techs loved the little ball of black fur — and she loved the treats they gave her. At 1:30AM on Friday morning, Nana woke me with the words, “Your little girl is calling you.” When I got downstairs to her “condo” in our dining room, she was whining and pawing at the condo’s gate. When I let her out, she ran straight to the front door and continued pawing. The minute I opened the door, she ran into the front yard, squatted, and relieved herself of a bad case of diarrhea. She got me up one more time that Friday morning, but at only ten weeks old, she knew to do her “business” outside, not in her condo or the house. For the next thirteen years, her intelligence never ceased to amaze us.

Labs are water dogs, and Kippa was no exception. She may not have been a “boatyard dog,” but she was definitely a “cruising canine.” At five months old, she spent eight days with us, cruising aboard our restored Cargile Cruiser, SunSmiles, and to the day we sold the boat she never had an accident onboard. In her mind, she owned that boat. From the moment she jumped out of the car at the marina, she knew exactly what needed to be done before running down the dock and waiting for permission to board the boat. On the first day of our eight-day cruise, she mastered climbing the three-step ladder from the raised cockpit to the sundeck to join us at the helm.

When Kippa was ten, we adopted Kate through the Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation of Winston-Salem, NC. Kippa accepted the little brown puppy as if it was her own. We credit Kippa with teaching Kate what our “pack” expected of her.

Though Kippa was obsessed with retrieving tennis balls, she was completely tolerant of Kate, the quick little puppy, outrunning her to the ball. I will forever treasure my video of Kippa slowly loping after her prized tennis ball the day before the she went “Over the Rainbow Bridge.”

Our vet, Dr. Scott Senf, of Animal Medical Center of Mount Pleasant was right, our four-legged family members will let us know in their own way when it’s time for them to leave us. At 5:30AM on May 6, 2016, Kippa let me know it was time for her to join Vic, Sullivan, Prince, BamBam, and Babs, “Over the Rainbow Bridge.” As soon as the practice opened, I called Scott. He was out of town, but Dr. Steven Epstein and the practice’s senior vet tech, Dawn, came to our home and took precious Kippa’s pain away while she lay on her bed as her “Mom” and I held her and whispered our love and goodbyes.

Kippa and family

Today, May 6, 2021, we have no doubt that Kippa is Resting In Peace, with her gentle and loving nature, she has God smiling every day.

Fair winds and following seas, Kippa Lou. Our love will not allow us to ever forget you.

Dad, Mom, and Kate

One Year Ago There Wasn’t A Storm, But There Was “THUNDER”

11 Tuesday Aug 2020

Posted by “Oh Captain My Captain” in A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, Thinking Outside The Boat

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1974 Pinto, 427 Chevy BIG Block, Babineau Metal Works, Bowman Gray Stadium, Family, Friends, Gary Babineau, History, Life, NASCAR, NASCAR Modified racer, North Carolina, North Carolina Motorsports, Peace Haven Speedway, Proud to be an American, Racing, Reflections, SCCA Formula Vee, THUNDER, Truth, Winston-Salem, Zink C-4

August 11, 2020. Cruising the ICW is about cruising the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in a boat. But, racing and fast cars were my passion long before boats. This post is about THUNDER. When not CruisingTheICW aboard Slow Dance, there’s nothing better to cruise than THUNDER.

“Flat out ’til you see God, then BRAKE HARD!!!” Anonymous

One year ago, a dream came true. A NASCAR Modified came into my life — a vintage, street legal, NASCAR Modified appropriately named “THUNDER.” Having heard it cranked countless times over the past year, my neighbors consider the name appropriate. I’m not the only “motorhead” in our neighborhood, just the loudest.

As a child, I developed my confidence racing in the juvenile division of the Forsyth Micro Midget Club, in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. My mother may have ended my “budding racing career,” but she could never erase the memories or my love of racing. I no longer needed Mother’s consent in the 1980s, when I started racing a Zink C-4 Formula Vee, in SCCA competition. I sold it in 1999 for us to buy our first cruiser.

The first time I saw NASCAR racing was in the early 1950s, at the half mile, dirt, Peace Haven Speedway, also in Winston-Salem. It was one of NASCAR’s first tracks, and hosted some of the biggest names in NASCAR racing. My Mother’s great uncle was one of the developers of the track.

Bowman Gray Stadium, a quarter-mile, paved oval, also in Winston-Salem, was another early NASCAR track. Since the stadium had lights, NASCAR began racing there every Saturday night during the racing season. I spent countless Saturday nights watching the modifeds and other NASCAR series race there. It led to my passion for the Modified Series. Sad to say, the closest I ever got to racing Modifieds was watching them.

Three years ago we were returning from a trip to our old hometown when on the other side of I-40 in Davie County, I saw a vintage Bowman Gray Stadium racer that had been converted to “street legal,” traveling Eastbound. If I’d been driving my old Land Cruiser, we would have crossed the median and chased him down just to get the story of the car. That one sighting lit a flame of desire for a “street legal” NASCAR Modified. Last year as we prepared to cruise the Chesapeake Bay for the summer, one appeared for sale online. We took delivery on it last August.

In the late 1970s, the car was built and raced in the NASCAR Northeast Modified Division. After retirement, it was eventually bought and converted to “street legal” by Gary Babineau, of Babineau Metal Works, in Auburn, IN. When it comes to sheet metal, Gary is an artistic genius, hence his claim to fame of building 19, authentic reproduction, 1960s vintage Indy racers, for museums and private collections. He did an equally masterful job with a little, red, 1974 Ford Pinto — South Carolina’s first, “street legal,” vintage, NASCAR Modified race car. I have never driven or raced anything that was video taped as much as THUNDER.