The weather was beautiful last weekend… a fitting official start to our summer. I say official, because for us Summer begins when we put our boats in the water. Doug and I launched our jointly owned pontoon on Friday evening. We put it in the water for insurance. Since we had a boat that would run… we didn’t have any problems with the houseboats starting up after their winter vacation. Our houseboats have quite a bit of age on most of them. Ours is a 1998 model, so there is always things to do in the spring and you never know how hard the winter storage was on them until you turn that key.
Mine started up and I got it safely tied up at the dock. That doesn’t mean there are still no problems to deal with. I took one of the outboard engines off this winter for service. It had to have a new lower unit. Unfortunately, when we launched it Saturday, I had no forward gear. It went to the shop because the reverse gear was out of it. We are pretty sure it’s an adjustment issue and plan on dealing with it later.
Thanks to Bob Smith and his little dump truck our crew launched seven houseboats on Saturday. It was a full day, at least for this old boater. Sunday, Jeanine, the girls and I got the ole girl in serviceable shape. She wintered rather well and so far, it has just been cleaning, rearranging and putting things back together.
We won’t be able to do much next weekend as our adopted granddaughter Sierra is getting married. It will be another busy weekend, as the wedding is in the Kanawha Valley. Jeanine will go down early to help with the preparations. I plan on arriving after work on Friday. The ceremony is mid-day Saturday, so we hope to be back before dark. If we are not too exhausted, we may venture to the lake for a little R & R.
Sierra, on the other hand, will be flying to Florida with her new husband on Sunday. She graduated earlier this month from nursing school. She has lived with us for the past 3 years while she finished her schooling. Her husband, Josh, is a grad student in chiropractic school in Florida. To make her life even a bit more interesting, she starts a new job in the nursing profession on Monday. It has been a good experience. Jeanine and I consider her one of our own and found it very rewarding to think that we played a small part in helping this young woman become an amazing adult. We are very proud of her.
So, assuming we survive the wedding, I am looking forward to some peaceful time on Sutton Lake!