Vanessa, Al, Valerie and Layne arrived just after noon on the 12th. We’d bought a little kids water fun toy and put it up for Layne. He had a great time playing in the water and getting wet. A couple hours later, we heard a knock at the door. Matt and Angela had arrived a day early. What a good surprise! We played some more, talked and had paninis for supper. Everyone had to get to bed early because we wanted to be up and heading for the lake by 0830 the next day. Surprisingly, we met our target time.
We got to the lake and I put my boat crew to work. Everyone had a job to do to get us ready to launch – cleaning the pontoon; gassing up pontoon and waverunners; packing coolers; loading towels, snacks, PFDs, etc.; hooking up the truck to the pontoon and the Kubota to the Waverunners (WRs); and driving them across the road to Dexter’s ramp. Dexter was around and helped us get launched. Matt and Al got on the WRs while the rest of us took out the pontoon. We found a little cove and anchored the pontoon for awhile. We swam and the kids took turns riding the WRs. Layne went swimming for the first time and did real good. He liked sitting in a tube and playing splash. After that, we headed to Budweiser Beach. It’s down Big Sandy (a creek feeding into the lake) near the powerlines. It used to be a big party place (thus the name) but the TVA decided to outlaw alcohol there. Now it’s a family area. It’s about the only place on the lake that has a sandy shore – perfect for little kids to play on. Everywhere else has sharp rocks. We found a nice place and beached the WRs and pontoon. A little bit later, Vanessa launched a sand throwing war involving her, Al, Matt and Angela. They were covered in sand and had welts on their skin. Silly kids. We old folks and Valerie stayed out of it. A storm was brewing to our west so we had to head back to the barn early. Dexter was waiting for us when we returned and had the trailers in the water. We quickly loaded the boats and retired to the barn. I’d brought sandwich makings so we had sandwiches for lunch. We headed to Dexter’s house just before the storm hit so lightning wouldn’t get anyone. He gave all the girls magnetic necklaces and they enjoyed playing with them. Once the storm passed, we packed up and headed home. That night, Papa (Neil/Dastel) broke out his new Margarita machine. We had Margaritas, super nachos and other snacks. After some TV viewing, talking and relaxing we all went to bed early.
