For a Sunday morning I was up early, getting ready for the day trip with Eric, Ashley, friends Pavel and Alena, and our hosts Karen and Alan who were taking us all to a lake near Mt. St. Helens for a day on the water. A little after 8 am Pavel and Alena arrived and we all piled into their car to drive over to the meeting point at Eric and Ashley's church.
About 8:20 am Alan and Karen pulled in with their Expedition and were towing a 20 foot motorboat. Walkie talkies were passed out and the route to the lake was discussed. Soon we were on our way to southern Washington state. Once we turned off I-5 onto back roads, the drive was on a curvy two lane road which was very wooded, mountainous, and scenic.
Upon arrival at the boat landing at a state park, we got in line to put the boat into the water. A little after 10 am we were on the water and pulled away from the boat landing. We spent an hour cruising the perimeter of the lake with the engine wide open. It was chilly even in the sun cruising and I wondered if anyone would take the plunge into the cool water before the day ended. We spent another hour motoring slowing up the river channel before returning to the open waters when Eric announced that he was ready to get in the water to go skiing.
I had never seen Eric water ski before and wasn't sure what to expect. He popped right out of the water and skiied well before trying to go outside of the boat's wake, where he found choppy water and himself on his butt. He got up a couple more times and skied. Then Ashley took her turn at attempting to slalom, something she hasn't done in over a decade but she at one time was pretty good at. She didn't have any success getting up the first three or four attempts and by then was too exhausted to keep trying. So she resorted to two skis and did well until getting too tired to continue.
Next it was my turn and I had no problem at all getting up despite having only water skied a few times in my life. I decided quickly to crisscross the wake, and had no problem going out to the left of the boat. But when I crossed back over the boat's wake and entered the choppy water to the right of the boat I lost it. I got back up again and made a second attempt, only to have the same result. Soon I realized that my left leg just didn't have the same strength as the right leg as a result of not using it, and it was causing problems dealing with the choppy water outside of the boat's wake. So I skied behind the boat for awhile until my legs were too tired to continue.
Pavel stepped up to the plate next. Now this Czech had never even been on a motorboat before, much less tried to water ski! But there he was in the water with me, and I gave him some pointers and helped him get the skis on before swimming back to the boat. When he was ready and we powered the motor to pull him up out of the water, he was able to get up and ski on the very first attempt! Granted, he was a little shaky and didn't have sound technique holding onto the rope, but he skiied for a couple minutes before getting gutsy and trying to go outside of the boat's wake...at which time he promptly made a big splat in the water.
Alena decided against trying to water ski and I don't blame her...after all, she too had never been in a motor boat and it was a lot to take in for a first experience on the water in a fast moving boat.
After Alan made some unsuccessful attempts to get up to ski, we decided it was time for lunch and we motored back to the boat launch to find a nice picnic table in the shade. Karen had prepared quite a spread and we had our fill of sandwiches, chips, watermelon, cherries, and brownies for dessert. After our leisure lunch we returned to the water for another round of afternoon skiing.
Eric, Ashley, Pavel, Alan and I all took our turns in the water. My foot was holding up well at the incision point but my legs were too tired to do much water skiing and after one long pull I decided to call it quits for the day. Next we prepared the float raft that was pulled behind the boat. Alena volunteered to be the guinea pig and we pulled her along for awhile. Alan began doing "S" turns with the boat which quickly got Alena off the raft and into the water. Next Eric took a wild ride then Pavel and Ashley got their turns on the raft. I declined to take further abuse on my body and watched from the safety of the boat.
By the time all the water activities were done it was nearly 5 pm and we headed back to the boat launch where we dropped off Pavel and Alena to get back home to their newborn who was cared for during the day by Alena's mother.
Eric and Ashley and I helped Alan and Karen with boat duties getting it ready for transport back to Portland, then got on our way with another round of sodas and brownies for the trip back home.
When we were dropped off around 7:30 pm, we were tired from the day in the water and sun. We ate at the house then everyone dispersed to do their own thing on the internet. Eric had the most fun playing a computer game called Half Life, which has a strange similarity to the show 24....lots and lots of violence and watching your back....seems Eric really likes that kind of stuff. Does he really work for Intel....or is he a secret agent? Does he lead a double life? Hmmm....we may never know.
