Stranded at Sea!

We had spent a very fun day Friday with some friends at their Lake Burton cabin. As the sun was setting, we decided to take one last boat ride out to the middle of the lake to watch the sun set. As we floated about, we continued to chat, and an old country gospel cassette was played. Warren turned the key to start the engine for the cruise home, but it wouldn’t turn over. He tried several times, with no success. The boat had been working fine all day, and though he had mentioned troubles with the jet-ski and smaller ski boat, no problems were mentioned about this larger vessel. The sun had dropped far below the north Georgia mountains, and as it got darker and darker, I wasn’t sure whether a cell phone was brought on the boat. We were stranded!

Lake Burton isn’t too bad a drive from our house, and we didn’t get up early, but still arrived before 11:00 am. The other family invited up arrived shortly before us. We spent the day riding in the boat, taking turns being pulled on the raft. Anna and Matthew were hesitant at first, but quickly were asking to take more turns. Anna almost fell off her first time, but Ceil was able to pull her back. Lynn McCray, the baseball team mom, got bounced off the raft and turned upside down…but she held on! Luckily she wasn’t hurt.

We also hung around the boat house and watched the kids swim and fish. Anna and Matthew caught their first-ever fish. Matthew was so excited that he quickly handed Jacob the pole and ran up to the cabin to tell Ceil, shouting the whole way. Will caught several fish as well. Will and I both rode the jet-ski as well. We saw the cabins owned by Vince Dooley and Fran Tarkenton, and grilled out burgers and dogs. The McCrays left around four, for their ball game.

Out in the middle of the lake, Warren was checking the engine, and no one had considered how serious the situation was. But with few boats out, we discussed almost jokingly whether we should wave down another boat. It didn’t take much waving…daughter Audrey had barely started waving when the first boat by slowed and turned. A young family stopped (the code of the lake), and gave us a quick tow back to shore.

After eating up most of the leftovers and relaxing some more, we left for home after 10:30. No one had trouble sleeping on the way back.

Perhaps I should write for the National Inquirer…

Other stuff…
…Last night I watched some of Hanks on Inside the Actor’s Studio.
…a dad has copied video DVDs of Matthew’s championship game, and it appears he did it up right. He writes “The video is actually on two DVDs that are approximately one hour each. I have created a menu for each DVD – which breaks it down into chapters for Batting Practice, Each Inning, “The Catch”, Victory Celebration and Awards. I have also added captions, credits and music where it seemed appropriate. The DVDs are on DVD+R media, so you will need a player or computer that can read that format.”
…Sunday: We went to the 10:30 service…I let Matthew sleep late, Ceil and Anna went early to work in her class. The van was conking out at lights, so on the way home I put in some fuel injection cleaner, and it seemed to do the trick. I may have run the tank down too far last Sunday, when I put in over 16 gallons…the most ever.
…Saturday Ceil painted the kitchen and TV area. I cleared stuff out of the way, and did more organizing in the school room. We also have a ways to go.
…Sunday we ate at Moes and went to see Eight Below, missing the Braves game.
…You used to could always count on the Mets to collapse, but it appears they are growing more confident, the more they win. Hopefully the Braves can turn things around and compete for the wild card. Perhaps they’ll try and repeat last year, and bring up the 1B/OF guy from Richmond, and play Betemit more.
...I think the movie will be more understandable/interesting have read the book. Did you re-read the book, or was that the first time? Perhaps they’ll make movies out of Dan Brown’s other books, which are supposed to be good as well. My in-laws have Angels and Demons on CD, hopefully I can listen to it this summer during my commute.