Jackson Ranch in the morning, and more on our first house

Photos

I took these photos yesterday morning, after having a cup of coffee, and before paddling. It is 7am and the fog hasn’t lifted yet. The horses are headed to the hills to get some sun, the dogs are long awake and have been playing outside, and I just got a good 8 hours of sleep. Emily, Dane, Nick, and I will be headed to the river for a good 90 minutes of paddling, returning at 9am for a full day of work, plus some. This time of year it is working on the final touches of our 2007 business plan, making sure that our new boats are going together just right and looking like a million bucks, and enjoying being in one spot for a while after a long season of travel. Kristine is busy making the team travel schedule for the 2007 Fun Tour. The Jackson family is on the team, of course, so she is making our schedule too. The schedule starts in March and ends in October as usual. It is the middle of December already, meaning less than 3 months before it is back in the RV. The RV is home to us too, and it by no means something to complain about. We enjoy the entire country, waking up in a different place every few days, seeing our friends in all of our stops, and kayaking, of course.

For now, it is a different life for the Jackson family. We are in our first house, ever! In 1988 when I married Kristine as a slalom racer and waiter at Armand’s Pizza in DC, we were lucky to have a room in a house, and there were times we didn’t even have that! (like when Kristine was pregnant with Emily). Over the years I managed to put together a more promising kayaking career, owning a kayak school, becoming the east coast sales rep for Wavesport, opening up the east coast for them in 1995, and being on the USA Freestyle and Slalom team. We managed to rent a house in Brookmont, a very cool neighborhood in Maryland, but struggled to make ends meet. In 1997 we uprooted, cutting our expenses and ties to the normal life, moving into our first RV. Life was greatly improved for the whole family. This was our life for the next 6 years until we we bought our first property here in Rock Island, knowing that this was where we would eventually live. Kristine’s mom was in Florida and no longer self supporting, so we chose to buy a double-wide trailer and have her live in it, and us share with her until we could one day build our new home. Finally, this past February, we broke ground on our first real Jackson family home. A few days before thanksgiving we completed it, and now we are all enjoying our first house, 18 years after we were married.

For the first time, Emily, now 16, has her own bedroom! She is more than just a little bit excited about that. Dane wasn’t so sure about sleeping by himself, since he had never done that before. He bed is on the floor and he gets three dogs to sleep with and that seems to work just fine. Kristine has her kitchen, and loves to cook. She designed it herself, and made it wonderful. The whole house was a culmination of 18 years of dreams, and growing up, and changing our vision of what we wanted. In the past 5 years we have been very much settled on our dream house and what it would be like in every room. Today, we live a dream, in our dream house, and it is still hard to believe.

We have 4 horses in the fields, dogs running the grounds, and playing in the house, a fireplace that is the setting for much of my work that can be done here with wireless and a cordless phone. I even have a garage in the basement for pulling the truck in and unloading our kayaks, and hanging gear. This is the first time since 1997 that I haven’t had to wake up to cold, wet, or frozen gear in the winter, Hallelujah!

Here are a few photos of our place. You are welcome to visit.

I want to thank those people who have made a difference over the years, and allowed me to get to where I am today. Thanks to Kristine for her year’s of support, always letting me be me and supporting my life as a kayaker, never suggesting that I need to get a real job. My dad and mom for their upbringing, my coaches for believing in a young kid from New Hampshire, and my partner, Tony, for believing in me today, allowing me the freedom to build a kayak company, for kayakers, that is more than a business, but a part of the boating community.

🙂 EJ