A Change of Plans

This weekend was supposed to be the launch of our summer "boating" season.

One year ago, we bought a boat with two other families... kind of a co-op thing. It's been great because boats are really expensive and no one in our group has enough free time to use it enough to get the full value of the investment out of it. We really had a great time learning all about being boat "owners" last year and discovering the world of wakeboarding. It is sooo fun! This year, we got a new stereo and speakers to put in the boat because the old speakers were literally falling out at the end of last summer. So, two weeks ago, the men got together and replaced the stereo system. One family was going to take it out Friday and we were planning to take it out Saturday. We'd just had major repair and maintence work done on it, but there was still the potential for a leak that we wouldn't be able to assess until it was in the lake. Cory and Lynette took the boat out on Friday with their kids (day off from school for no apparent reason!) and didn't even get past the dock. The engine was leaking way more than it should be. Darn! So, Eric ran to the boat dealer Friday after work and brought home the part to fix it. He looked up the procdure online and got to work on it. Just before this, I got the reminder call that it was our turn to clean the church on Saturday morning. Ugh! But, naively, we thought we could still fix the boat, get the church cleaned and hit the lake on Saturday by lunch. Yes, we were very naive. We had to make 2 more trips to the boat dealer to get more parts and Eric spent most of the day like this:

The boat wasn't fixed until dinner time. It was discouraging, but it saved us another $300 in repair bills. We took it back to our storage place last night and for the first time, I drove the car towing the boat behind. I've towed stuff before, but for some reason the boat intimidated me. Maybe by the end of this summer I'll get brave enough to try backing the boat trailer down the ramp into the water... I think I can do it, but not on the first try. It's harder to back than you think... and there's always a line up of people waiting for you, so that adds tons of pressure!

So the maiden voyage will now be this Saturday - all six adults are going out together without the kids! This is by far the most fun Saturday we'll have the on the boat all summer... at least from the adults perspective... I know the kids won't agree! But, I for one, can't wait!!! Here's our destination of choice: