Camping With “The Six Pack” – Part 2

So Saturday night’s dinner was awesome. It seems like all we did was eat and figure out what to eat… ha ha!

The rest of the evening was pretty low-key. We sat around, talked, listened to music, and wrote in the cabin’s journal. Betsy’s co-worker owns this cabin and decided that in order to put it to best use, they would let others use it as well. The owners of the cabin keep a journal at the front of the cabin for the guests to write in, they are very particular about that. They want to know what we did, if we had a good time, so that they can look back and know that the cabin has been put to good use. Rest assured, we let them know about our fun little adventure about almost running out of gas.

As the night got darker, Chad and Andrew went outside and started a bonfire. I wasn’t in the mood to smell like smoke, so I turned on some B.B. King on the boombox and did the dishes… Faith and Betsy helped me. Then it was time to start packing up (as we would be leaving later on Sunday) and start going to bed.

Sunday
We got up early on Sunday since we had a reservation with Gilligan’s Boats for a pontoon boat at 10 a.m. So we spent most of the morning packing up as much as possible and had a fairly small breakfast before heading off.

We had originally reserved the boat for Saturday, but after checking the forecast, we decided that Sunday would be a better day… fortunately, our gamble paid off. It was GORGEOUS out, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect day: clear skies, no precipitation, 80 degrees… ahhh, thank you JESUS!

After stopping by the marine shop to pay for our boat, we headed off to the lake where they were getting our boat ready. The staff gave “Captain” Chad a 5-10 minute overview of boating safety and operation and we were off! We went around the lake a little bit before finding a spot to anchor down and relax for a bit. I was itching to go for a swim, but waited until everyone else was ready. We spent a good portion of time talking and hanging out before preparing for lunch.

In order to make sure our stomachs didn’t get sea-sick, we decided to move the boat to an area that wasn’t as frequented, so the wake wouldn’t rock our boat around. We mostly stuck to basic picnic food: turkey sandwiches, macaroni salad, potato salad, etc. It was a pretty good lunch. After allowing our stomachs to settle for a bit, I decided to go ahead and jump in… the water was perfect. Shortly after, I finally got the rest of the crew to dive in.

Betsy, Faith, and Chad are training for a triathalon, so they did a little more swimming, I just tried to enjoy myself as much as possible. After we were done swimming, we decided to just boat around the lake for a while… all of us taking turns. Faith had the worst luck driving the boat, first she lost a cup that fell in the water and then the pirate’s hat flew right off her head and into the lake. Whoops! Now before all of you try and judge us for littering in the lake, we did go back and try to recover the cup and the hat, but couldn’t find them.

The rest of the time on the boat was uneventful, we laid out, read our books, enjoyed the peace and quiet… it was a good time. Around 2:30 we decided it was time to head back. The ride back to the boat rental place felt like a long time, so I’d guess that we went farther out that I had previously thought. But we finally arrived and in typical Chad fashion, he smacked the corner of the boat right into the dock. Fortunately there was little damage… phew!

Once Chad did his final walk-through of the boat with the rental company, we headed back to the cabin to pack up, clean up, and leave. I had finished packing up the entire car when I walked back to hearing whispers, “Hey Kiel, go get your camera!” Without asking questions, I ran to the car and grabbed my camera which was buried among the girls’ stuff. When I came back, I was pleasantly surprised to see a doe taking a nap in front of our cabin.

I got really close, but unfortunately a leaf was blocking its face. When I went to move the leaf, the doe decided to get up and leave. Either way, it was nice to see one of God’s precious creatures.

We finally said our goodbyes to the cabin and headed for home. We decided to take a different way home, which would give us all highway. We were doing good until we got to Louisville and I see Andrew swerve to get off the interstate. Apparently I was so focused on singing that I totally spaced that our exit was coming up. Ha ha!

After making a u-turn, I got back on I-65 N and tried to catch up with Andrew… and tried to catch up to him for the rest of the two hour drive. There were a couple points when I was within two miles of him, I know this because I was able to make radio contact with our little walkie-talkies. But for the most part, despite my NASCAR driving skills, I never caught up… sigh.

So overall, it was an awesome weekend. We enjoyed eachother’s company, enjoyed the great outdoors, but also got to spend plenty of time relaxing. It was a weekend we will never forget.