Today's Perfect Paddle

It was a perfect day. No wind, no clouds, no one else on my lake. As it should be. I've shared it all summer, but enough is enough.
At first I thought I would follow my usual one hour route, a circle through cottage country, into the village, back along the eastern shore and then cross the mile or so to the put-in. All was going perfectly. Not a soul on the lake or even on the shore line. Perefect! It took about half an hour to get to the village (the geese are still there), half an hour up the opposite shore, then I knew I couldn't stop. It was too perfect. Even though 70 bales of bedding were being dumped off outside my wife's barn, I just kept on going.
Two and a half hours into my paddle I was at the end of the lake - a distance of roughly 11 miles at an average of 4.6 miles per hour. Not bad for an old guy, perfect, in fact. I headed home. One hour and 45 minutes to the dock, roughly 6.5 miles for an average of 3.7 miles per hour. Was I getting tired or was it the not so perfect headwind that set in during the last hour or so? Mmmmm... must have been the wind. That gives a four and a quarter hour paddling average of 4.2 miles per hour for the whole lake tour. Not bad I suppose for an old guy. I used to be about 15 minutes quicker in the same boat a few years ago. I guess the wind was more than I realised. Maybe it's all the scratches on the hull. I wonder...
I saw all these sailboats pulled up on the beach at the Camp for Handicapped Children. Wow! I was so impressed. Are these kids training to be future Para-Olympians perhaps? I hope so. That would be perfect. I think if the camp hadn't been closed for the season, I would have landed and volunteered on the spot. That sight alone, made my paddlejust that much more perfect. I'm glad I share my lake with others! I'm glad I'm slowing down to see things along the way.
Oh ya. It wasn't much fun getting the bales into the barn. I must be getting old. I'll sleep like the dead ce soir...