In the early spring,  I asked my brother-in-law, Gerald, if he’d take me out in his boat.   Since I had about 60 other “little boats” (kayaks) to think about shortly thereafter, we didn’t  go until this week.   We picked what we thought would be a perfect day.  It was going to be 70 degrees and sunny.    It did turn out that way, but we left at 10:00 am  and for some reason, the fog hung over later than usual so most of our time was not in the sunshine.   Instead it was a gray, silvery morning on the lake.    Very pretty.   We’re getting ready to launch in the picture below.

I was the helper who got to hold the boat.  Gerald backed it down and then went to park the truck.   My job was to stand on that slim little ramp with a cord both keeping the boat from floating off and keeping it from hitting the ramp which had some rough metal sticking out that would scratch it.   I did not tell him but I wasn’t paying attention and almost fell off the ramp.  What if I had fell in the water and let the boat loose?   I would have had to make up a story that a bear got on the ramp and pushed me in.

I’ll be super careful next time!

Everything went well, and off we went.   We both had sweatshirts on so during the cooler morning.  The water was so pretty.  It was warm at 75 degrees.   It takes a while for this much water to cool off, and just last week, our temperatures were in the 90’s.

Here’s the Captain.  I suppose I was the first mate.  I was Gilligan.

Just like on Gilligan’s Island, here’s a deserted island.  I’m glad we didn’t capsize because there appears to be no Professor, Maryanne, Ginger or Mr. and Mrs. Faust.   There was no tv crew.   The only picture of me was my feet.

Look how pretty the water is.

We had a Garmin which showed us where fish were, allowed us to follow the same path back and displayed the depth of the lake.   The deepest place I saw on the Garmin was 214 feet.   This is very important as the water is low as we approach winter and if you’re not careful, you could end up in a shallow area and tear your boat up.

This is the famous 421 Bridge.  It is so pretty and , back in the day, I know people who have jumped from that bridge.  Me?  I jumped from the Nordyke Bridge in Mendota.  It was so shallow I had to wear tennis shoes because I knew I’d hit the bottom.   The people who jumped from this bridge didn’t have to worry about hitting the bottom.

In the picture below, this is a pump station where Bristol gets drinking water.

So…about 2/3 of the way into the trip, the sun finally showed up.

Look at the Holston Mountain in the background.   It was hiding in the fog just minutes before I took this picture.

There is lots to do in our area.   We have lakes and rivers and mountains.   Feeling lucky.

Pretty homes.

It was over too soon.  The sun was really nice as we left.   Getting a boat out of the water is interesting.  If the propellers aren’t running, you can’t steer a boat, so you actually have to drive it up the boat trailer and hope you center it.  Gerald did a good job.  We then made sure everything was hooked up and tied down and took off.

A very fun day!  I did learn, however, that when you are hauling a boat, you better not need to go through a drive through and eat.  No one accommodates boats!