Despite heavy pressure from a dear friend in Michigan of the Dave Burgess kind, I’m skipping the Great Lakes Grand Prix in Michigan City, Ind. Instead, I’m in Northern Maryland for the 22nd annual Thunder In The City Poker Run. The decision was easy.
The Thunder In The City Poker Run in Maryland is happening this weekend. Photo courtesy/copyright Shane DeFries.
Because correspondent Eric Colby will be on scene for the Michigan City affair, as will photographer Pete. Colby and Boden have combined to produce the most comprehensive and consistent coverage of the sport for years. Their remarkable work for speedonthewater.com is unmatched.
Nothing else comes close.
So I get light duty this weekend.
I covered Thunder In The City for first time last year and loved it. I covered the Rockin’ The Harbor Poker Run—another well-known annual Maryland happening—earlier this year and loved it.
They’re very different events, no doubt. Rockin’ The Harbor has an old-school poker-run vibe. Thunder In The City has a more casual vibe.
Both are excellent.
My daughter, now Anna Trulio Rowe, got married in Annapolis a couple of months before the Rockin’ The Harbor event. Plus, she went to college in Maryland. The state doesn’t feel like home, but it does feel comfortably familiar.
Courtesy of Deep Impact Custom Boats concierge and transportation services manager John Wittenberger and company owners Mark and Eileen Fischer, my ride for this weekend is 399 Sport center console. Though I’ve spent many hours on one of the company’s 499 models, I don’t know that I’ve spent more than a few minutes on its smaller sibling. I’m looking forward to learning the similarities and differences between them during the next three days in Chesapeake City.
Meanwhile, Colby and Boden will be covering the second event of the Race World Offshore-produced event in Michigan City.
Divide and conquer, that’s how coverage of two go-fast boating affairs on the same weekend works. When I told Burgess I was coming here instead of Michigan City, he teased me.
“You need to make better choices,” he said.
All apologies , my friend, but I made the right one. Colby and Boden have Michigan City covered.