On the Lake

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I blogged for a while until Ken called. The truck is fine; it was just the fuel filter. Must have picked up some bad gas. While he was waiting, he met an ole’ guy named Gary. He was having work done on his vehicle. He started talking to Ken (or more likely vice versa); He owns 16 acres near the North Rim and is trying to sell it. His wife died 6 months ago and he is so, so lonely. He has family back in California. He is going to move there; although he hates California; but his loneliness is more than he can bear. How sad. Ken asks him if would like to go get some lunch while they wait. He said he would be glad to take him~~he packed his lunch. He takes Ken to pick up a Subway and they go back to the Ford Dealer to eat. It makes me think (although I don’t like to think about it) how I don’t want one of us to die and leave the other; I want to die together or at the most one day apart. Doesn’t Pooh Bear say that to Piglet?
Ken picks up the boat and then picks me up. The boat launch area is right across the street from our campsite. We load up the cooler and head over. Now in my past, I never had to help with things like ‘launching boats’. At least one of our sons was always there to help with these ‘man’ duties. I’m a bit nervous as once Ken backs the boat trailer in to the water, I have to get in the truck, move forward a little bit and slam on the brake to ‘push’ the boat off of the ramp. I had success on the second try. Now I have to drive the truck and trailer and park it. Never have done this before either, but had no problems. Ken picks me up on the dock and we are off. It is so beautiful. We have a huge party boat! We could have taken y’all as Kimmy would say. We explore the lake for awhile and then Ken ties a tube to the boat and slowly pulls me around. When he increases speed, the tube wants to flip, so I scream for him to stop! It was very relaxing and fun. He tosses me a beer and I just sit back and enjoy the ride. The water temperature is really nice; not near as cold as Slide Rock; Minnie, you could handle it.
Ken decides he wants to fish; he goes to his brand new tackle box and……..the fishing dilemma continues. He had put a small container of 3 in 1 oil in it so he could ‘grease’ up his old Johnson reel and it has leaked all over the box….and he forgot the bait again. So…once again, no luck at fishing.
The boat does not have an anchor, so to stop the boat from drifting; we try to get close to the shore to ‘beach it’. We want to swim. It would work, except the current is so strong, as we successfully beach it, the back of the boat drifts around to the shore, which is obviously shallow—we don’t want to get stuck or damage the boat, so he gives up. We move out towards an open area; we are going to try to snorkel; the waves and wind have calmed a bit. I jump in with my snorkel and immediately, I am being pulled, very quickly away. I have been snorkeling many, many times in the Caribbean and Hawaii and have experienced ‘drifting’. This was different. It took all my strength to swim back to the boat. It was too dangerous to snorkel. Ken spoke to the guy we rented the boat from and he said when they open the dam to release water, the current becomes very dangerous. Apparently an average of 6 people die on the lake every season. We cruised around the rest of the time. It is a very beautiful lake. Now—it’s time to bring the boat in. I decide, I will be the one to bring the truck/trailer down to the ramp. I don’t want to try to maneuver the boat unto the trailer-that would be disastrous. I decide to watch a few people before trying it myself. The worst part of it is everyone is going to watch you do it. I did pretty good…had to straighten it up a few times back not too bad.
We head back to our site to freshen up before taking the boat back; we’re going to go out to eat…too hot to cook.
After taking the boat back we drive around Page to look for a place to eat.
Page is very small and kind of a depressed area. We drove through some neighborhoods and they are very poor; but many have boats in the front yard. We find a restaurant called “Ken’s Old West’ Steakhouse and feel obligated to try it. It’s just OK; we find more and more we only enjoy our own cooking except for a few favorites in Tucson. Picky, Picky. We have to stop at the Safeway to pick up a few things. The store is old and dirty; they are out of 2 percent milk. One entire side wall is filled with Budweiser and Miller Lite. I’ve never seen so much beer! There is an ice cream shop (Big Dipper) next door; since I didn’t eat much for dinner, I decide to get one. There is one guy running the place; the line is 6 deep. I wait a few minutes, scoping things out. Now don’t criticize me, but my psychosomatic tendency kicked in. The worker has a real attitude; he does not want to be there; the first guy in line orders 3 milkshakes! I look at the worker and he has really, really bad acne. That does it for me; I’m out of there. We go back to camp and sit and talk for awhile. So enjoyable to do this.

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