La Petite Roche

I don't remember the whole story or how to spell La Petite Roche, or Little Rock as the French keel boaters called it, as they traded their wares along it's shores, but it looked like I was destined to live there. My consulting job became my day job and I found myself working in a reasonably disfunctional non-profit, figuratively and literally, corporation in which I really couldn't make a difference. I knew I wouldn't be there long. Why did I abandon a consulting business that had become successful in its first year of existence and go to work for someone else? It wasn't the first mistake of my career and I'm sure it won't be the last, although my age will soon protect me from poor career decisions. The phone always is an inconveinience that bothers me and sometimes I just don't answer it; that's what machines are for. I answered it this time. Coach Patrick told me one time as he prepared to leave Miss State. I had become angry with him for leaving, how could you leave for the Univ of Kentucky. "If you don't take your career opportunities as they come, you only have yourself to blame". It didn't make me feel any better but it made a impact on my career path as the year's went by. I had just moved into the last home I would ever build; it was number six and the year was 2001. It's 2007 and this one is number 11. Number of houses are directly proportional to the number of careers or marriages, I guess. But I was about to own another home, this time in Arkansas. My consulting and new job had thrown me into an industry I didn't know much, anything, about. However, I made friends and the "make like you know what you are doing" concept was working. The phone conversation was short, "would you like to run a business for me in Arkansas". "Yes... what kind of business"? I was on my way to a new career and number seven. Detour is at home at the Demopolis Yacht Basin. 140 or so miles from Jackson by land, you can't get there by water, and a little over 1100 miles from La Petite Roche by water.