One of the things I miss the most about my husband being a paraplegic is that we can no longer go boating. We sold our boat after our car accident when my husband became paralyzed. Camping and boating were a huge part of our lives, and I sure miss the boating part.
So memories just come flooding in like the tide - and come so fast that it is like a movie in fast motion. So I am going to share boat memories for those of you who love boats!
We bought an OLD boat when the kids were younger. It was very unique in that is was a deep V tri-hull. Boats could be Deep V - which meant that the bottom was designed in a V shape - easily to cut the waves and get up speed. The other popular boat was a Tri-hull - with three sort of V shapes - very stable but slower. Then some brilliant person came up with the idea of a Deep V tri-hull - which ours was. It had a deep V that then turned into a Tri-Hull! It was old - kind of a yellowy color, and the most awful faded yellow cushions you ever saw. We used it that way for a year or so, and then overhauled the inside. We did the work ourselves - and the only time I ever saw my husband high! We put down indoor/outdoor carpeting which required lots and lots of this stinky glue. It was also horribly hot - in the 100's, and no breeze what so ever! We worked together and suddenly realized we were laughing hysterically at nothing at all. Seems the fumes of the glue we used cooked our brains! We crawled out of the boat laughing hysterically, and finally got our brains aired out. BUT it sure looked good - that nice carpet. Put in new seats, and had new front cushions sew up - BRIGHT yellow! And boy did we fly on the lake. The Deep V and Trihull combo let us fly through the water like a bird! And since we are both speed demons, we rarely putt putted around!
Again - the nice thing about a Deep V tri-hull is that we could be on the lake in bad weather when most of the scaredy cats split for shore. The V hull made slicing the big waves easier, and tri-hull made us stable. Quite an adventure!
So now for boat stories! As I mentioned - we could be out in stormy weather longer than most. WHICH means that my husband stayed out until I thought we would be flipped into the bottom of Keystone! Had such a storm come up once, and hubby did finally say we should go in! (you think ????) Just as we got to shore to load the boat, we realized our backup gear went out. I pulled onto shore to let him hop out and get the trailer. NOW I NEVER EVER put the trailer into the water. I looked like a drunk person zig zagging down the ramp. So now there are BUNCHES of people waiting to get their boats out and I have no back up gear to back up the boat and line it up to the trailer. Charley hollared at me to try to walk it around by the rope, but it was too deep. Next thing I knew, men were swarming over the boat, pulling it around and getting line up for the trailer. I goosed it, got on the trailer, men hopped inside and pulled up the motor (remember - really old boat and no electric motor to tilt up the engine), had it tied up and Charley was pulling me out in minutes. So Charley parked our boat, hopped out and helped the other men get every single boat out of the water, onto trailers in waves and wind gusting somewhere around 35 mph. It was incredible - everyone helping everyone else so we could be safe!
I have a feeling this is going to have to be a 3 part blog. Just too many memories.
The next one will make Moriah and April hysterically laugh. Our kids ALWAYS had friends with them when we camped at the lake. And we enjoyed them so much. So our rule was that if you went on the boat, you had to prove to me or to Charley Sr. that you could swim very well, before we'd let them jump off the boat into the deep water. We pulled up on our favorite tiny island - think the size of a long skinny bedroom - and prepared to give the swimming test. Charley's friend, Dustin, passed with flying colors. The WHOLE time he is proving to me he can swim, Moriah and April are about to pass out from hysterically laughing. I really couldn't figure out what was so funny - it was a rule, and we enforced the rule. So it was time for Moriah to take her test. She swam out to the deep part, and swam back - really a good swimmer. I was satisfied that she could indeed survive in the water. Now while she is swimming, April continues to laugh until she is red faced. Finally, I was kind of ticked and asked her what was so funny. In between gulps of breath and laughing, she told me that Moriah was on the EHS swim team and had won countless competitions. OOOHHH - well, was my face red! I was reminded of that incident a LOT in the coming years!
One of the banes of our camping trips was the peace and quiet of the lake shattered by the really really loud speed boats. HATED them! On this particular trip, there was a really, really old boat puttering around the bay area - think a really old Thunderbird, pink! It must have been 20 years older than ours and ours was OLD. Teenage boys were laughing at the boat, pointing at it, making typical smart alec teenage boy remarks. So they take their fancy, schamcy speedboat out, roar up and down and up and down until I think all of us campers were ready to shoot out their engine. Then it got strangely quiet. About half an hour later, here comes the OLD pink boat - TOWING - the speedboat back to shore. Indeed - the entire people on the beach and in the camp cheered and applauded - while the teenage boys slumped lower and lower in their fancy boat. It was hysterical!!!!
Plugs are put in a boat to keep the water OUT of the boat while playing in the water, and then you take OUT the plug to drain what water is still left from the bilge pumps. We always were super careful to put that plug in before we put the boat in the water. Not sure what happened this particular time - probably a brain fart! We unloaded the boat, hubby parked the trailer, I picked him up at the shallow end of the ramp and we proceed to move out into the lake. Something didn't feel right about the boat. It was really sluggish, we couldn't get up speed. We looked at the back end, and it was WAY down in the water. Charley asked me if I put in the plug - I didn't remember so I asked the kids if they had. Seems nobody did. So we literally wallowed like a whale back to the ramp, let hubby out, pulled out praying the whole time that we wouldn't sink before we got the boat on the trailer. The bilge pump worked its little heart out, but even it couldn't keep up with the water coming in. Put it on the trailer, drained it, put the plug back in, and went back out. Trust me - we NEVER forgot the plug again!
OK - guess this is enough for part 1. More stories later including gremlins, skiing, eyeglasses and baby DJ.
Smile - its getting to be spring, enjoy the sunshine, flowers and bird!
