McHenry County Blog

They came to row on Crystal Lake from as far away as Upper Arlington--a suburb north of Columbus, Ohio. That's probably a 6-7 hour drive.

Both the regular parking lot and the one across Lake Avenue from the Main Beach were filled with cars, trailers and buses.

My guess is that more than the 300 people attended, probalby over 1,000. They didn’t have a very good view of the race (as you can see tomorrow when I’ll publish a series of photographs of this race won by women from the Lincoln Park team). It was like watching a football game from the end zone…except the “playing field” was a lot longer than 100 yards.

The only sign of a political agenda was a faded Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker in the parking lot.

And, I didn’t see Mayor Aaron Shepley either, but I was there toward the end of the heats. Maybe he was present in the morning.

There were no television news reporters in sight. This, after all was a real sporting event, not the “don’t you dare mention the real reason for opposition to the Gay Games” meeting of the Crystal Lake City Council Tuesday night.

The modern reincarnation of the pagan Asherah poles the Israelites destroyed when they conquered their Promised Land were missing Sunday at the regatta.

Also missing was front page coverage in the Northwest Herald. In fact, Recreation Superintendent Jack Sebastian, found emptying a garbage can (and with no overtime), said that he had not even seen a Northwest Herald photographer.

With this amateur event attracting at least twice as many cars as the Gay Games’s spokesman first said people would attend its event, one wonders how many will appear in July, along with the bevy of TV cameras. (Now, they are saying that 300 folks will attend their mid-July regatta, surely, a gross understatement.)

The two races I watched were won by these men of Loyola Academy of Wilmette (seen in the parking lot after their race) and the women of the Lincoln Park club.

The best view, unless one has a boat, was from Lakewood, on the south shore of Crystal Lake. There were very few spectators, however, as the boats raced from Gate 21 to Gate 3.

Some concern was expressed when a boat not associated with racing officials was seen crossing the course.

“At least they had the good sense not to make a wake,” one official said.