EVERYBODY
ALWAYS
BY BOB GOFF
A Beaver needs to be going fifty-two
miles an hour before it will lift off the
water. If you try to take off when you’re
going only forty-eight miles an hour,
the pontoon floats will dig into the
water and slow you down, and you’ll
run out of lake and hit the trees. If you
wait until you’re going seventy miles
per hour, you’ll run out of lake and hit
the trees. Adam knew the stakes, and
I reminded him to keep his eye on the
speed because what he did would
determine where we’d be spending the
next few days.
We would need every inch of lake to
get up and over the trees at the far
64 • Solutions
end. Sometimes prayers are spoken,
and other times they are said in our
actions. Adam put his hands on the
controls and threw in all the throttle.
I said, “Amen.” I had one eye on the
speedometer as the plane picked up
speed. Adam got us to thirty and then
forty miles per hour. The plane skipped
across the surface like a ski boat. He
kept increasing the speed while the
trees at the other end kept getting
bigger in the windshield.
When the plane passed fifty-two miles
per hour, I started anticipating liftoff.
Adam knew what to do to get us off
the water. Adam pulled back before