It was summer probably 2014, the summer was winding down and the days were getting shorter. Dad was going to winterize the wave runners. I convinced him that we should go out one last time and ride them before he did, just to get our “moneys worth” on the year. Pops needing very little convincing to get the wave runners on the water anyways. So, off we went in the mid-morning. We gassed them up at that old gas station on route k and put them in on perche.
We rode from sand bar to sand bar all day. Dad was up to his usual tricks that day too. His was always the faster machine. For some reason his would always run like 5mph faster. He’d run up next to you and try to soak you. Then blow by you full throttle laying down on the seat.
We visited a bunch of sandbars that day just to rest and drink a couple beers or have a snack. Dad loved to look for the cool rocks and shells on the sandbars, in the creeks, on the beaches, everywhere.
It was getting late in the afternoon and we pull of on one more sandbar right in the middle of the Missouri River. It’s summer and the water is low so we just ease up on the edge and cut the engines to float in. He hops out and pulls his sea doo up on the beach. I spot something red in the water like 20 feet to our right so I steered that way. Just down the beach I start to pull my rig up onto the sand. I turn my attention to the red thing in the water. I walk out there and pick it up.
I reached down in the water and found a perfect bright red spear point arrowhead just laying there half submerged in the middle of the Missouri River.
He saw me pick it up. He was more or less astonished. He came over real excited and gave me a big hug. We stared at it in awe, couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have just stumbled across this awesome artifact. We spent the next few hours combing the rest of this huge sandbar for anything of note and didn’t find much. We always collected cool rocks anyways, but this day was better. We nearly rode back in the dark just because we lost track of time.
That’s one of my favorite memories I had with my Dad.