Introducing crew members Jerry & Lora

What happens when you mix childhood friends, old rock band members and a lovely new wife with boating? Well, you get our fantastic friends, Jerry and Lora.



Mark and Jerry have been friends since before the beginning of recorded time. Growing up in Indianapolis during the sixties, they shared all of the experiences one would expect including a LONG night in the Indy drunk tank following an evening of silly mischief involving automobile antennae. During high school and college Jerry and Mark played in a rock band with Jerry playing bass guitar and Mark as the drummer. The band continued after our marriage and was for a while our sole means of financial support.

Even as life, children, and gainful employment seemed to consume the past forty years the friendship between our two families has remained a constant. Together we have shared the loss of all of our parents, Jerry’s divorce from my dear friend, the marriages of our children, the birth of grandchildren and finally Jerry’s marriage to the charming Lora. So it only seemed natural that Jerry and Lora would become the first crew members for the new Lolligag.

Taras (our other dear friend and guitarist for the rock band)
and Jerry crewed on the former Lolligag as we made the seventy mile river trip on the Illinois waterways each spring and fall during the past five years. Jerry and Taras, being quick studies, caught on to the boating lingo, line handling and protocol for entering/exiting the locks immediately, so my role aboard the Lolligag became that of official photographer and eye-candy. Being the photographer, I can handle…I am still working on the eye-candy thing…



Jerry and Lora, as relative newly weds, are just as cute a couple as you can imagine. We do however have to keep a close watch on them because they always seem to be snuggling together with that dreamy look in their eyes…For those of us who have been married for more than forty years, it is refreshing to see what “young love” can do for baby boomers.



As crew on the maiden voyage of the new Lolligag this spring, Jerry and Lora rose to the occasion. It was certainly an adventure that I will share with you in the next blog entry. All of their crewing skills were put to test during the trip from Traverse City to Chicago. In spite of, or maybe because of this, they both have remained our wonderful friends and we hope that they will join us many times along our journey.