For those who stayed away for fear of heat or storms: “ya’ shoulda’ come!” It was a fantastic evening on the water, but only 4 of us were in a position to know that first hand. Along with Jay and Joyce, who cheated by zipping around the lake in a boat with substantially more horsepower. But more on that in a minute. My car thermometer read 96 degrees when I got on the freeway leaving Fort Wayne, but it was down to 84 when I arrived at the launch. Mike, Dan, Rob, and I inserted our craft at the public launch and plied our way across the waters towards Lake James. Mike and Dan got in a head start, but then lo and behold they came across a couple of kayakers playing hooky with their power boat (and two grandkids). That allowed Rob and me to catch up. After a brief visit, we all agreed to head over to the Lake James swim beach for some in-water refreshment. It was a bit entertaining getting to the beach, as Lake James had a significant number of power boats running amok, including a surf generating boat that about tossed me out of my outrigger with the wave (I had hoped to surf it, but an outcropping forced me to take the wave full-sideways). Once at the beach, we had a great time hanging out in the water and visiting while Jay’s granddaughters kept us entertained by doing water stunts and messing with grandpa. When it came time to head back, we caught a couple of very light, brief showers on the way, but then the sun came out, temps dropped further, humidity dried up, and it was a perfect evening to even just hang out at the boat ramp. Many thanks for Mike for calling this one!
Steve
