I’ve counted myself as a very lucky kid.  My grandparents had the foresight to buy a cottage on Lake Wawasee in north-eastern Indiana in the 30’s.  They planned well.  I spent every summer weekend of my life at the lake with all my uncles, aunts and cousins.  I learned to swim, to sail, to fall off skis, to drive a power boat, to enjoy a close family.  The fun I had all those summer weekends will never dim in my memories.

This past Saturday a friend of ours called and invited us to christen their new-to-them pontoon/patio boat and play on their wave riders.  The call of the water was a siren call we couldn’t resist.  The plan was meet them at their house around 11, pull the toys to Lake Oroville’s after-bay, play for 2 or 3 hours, then they had their daughter and son-in-law coming to play into the evening.  We had so much fun, we lost track of time and we all spent the whole day riding those wave runners.  Including a trip to the boat ramp to pick up the kids.  We all stayed until the sun went down.

One important lesson we learned, check your gas levels.  We started with the wave runners topped off, and the boat was supposed to have a full tank thanks to the previous owner.  You may have spotted the key word in the previous sentence “supposed”, if you didn’t now you know what came next.

After running the wave runners down to their reserve tanks of gas, we decided to call it a day and haul out of the water.  After securing the wave runners to the sides of the boat, we took off on a little tour of the after-bay.   Downwind things went swiftly, turning around and headed back to the ramp we were into the wind.  It was slow going with 6 adults, 2 wave riders, and a pontoon boat with the canopy up.  It got a lot slower when the motor sputtered to a stop about half way back.

Luckily, there was enough gas in the wave runner to tow the boat back to the beach we had been on all day.  There was also enough gas to get the runners back to the boat ramp for a quick run to the gas pumps, while some of us stayed behind on the patio boat.

We had a wonderful day.  At one point as I was speeding down the water my mind went back to those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer at Lake Wawasee.   What fun we all would have had on these wave runners!   I also had to laugh when I realized just how much damage would have resulted . . . . . . . . . .