2006 marks the third summer that we have owned our boat and what a blast we have had.  We have met some really great people and created a life full of camping, boating, wakeboarding and sharing time with friends.  For me, all of this time was never without Tate.  While he took the boat out with the guys without me, I had never taken it anywhere without him.  As duties go, I spent the first summer in the boat learning to drive it on and off the trailer.  The second summer was spent in the truck learning to back the trailer down the ramp and launch the boat.  This summer, I spent some time actually driving the truck while pulling the boat to the lake and getting used to the extra length.  Feeling pretty comfortable with my abilities, I decided it was time for ME to take the boat out on my own with just the girls.  I am so lucky to have a husband who is also comfortable with my abilities as he was totally fine with me going out without him.

So, I invited some other wakeboarding women out and ended up with a mixture of experienced wakeboarder’s and those who wanted to learn, one of them happened to be my mom .  We left early Saturday morning and met at Lake McClure outside of Modesto.  The trip down was smooth with no issues.  Unfortunately, once we arrived and launched, the water was choppy due to excess wind and a bunch of other boats.  This made wakeboarding, even for us more experienced folks a total pain in the butt.  My mom tried her hand a wakeboarding and did REALLY good!  Being a former waterskier, she was very comfortable in the water.  She got up on her second try and then stayed up on her third try!  She rode until she was tired and then let go.  Mom was so excited that she now wants to get herself a pair of “Boogie shorts” or as us normal people call them, board shorts.  She can’t wait to try it again.    

After all of us took one set of wakeboarding, we went back to Robin’s houseboat to eat and hang out.  We played on the slide, swam and chatted for a couple of hours.  Later in the afternoon, we decided that the water was still crap and wasn’t worth trying to ride again.  So we headed for home. 

Now, of all the things that I CAN do with the boat, there were a couple of things that I still needed help on such as pulling the boat out of the garage and putting up the tower (it’s really heavy and if I drop it, I ruin several thousand dollars in speakers).  Tate helped me that morning and our friend Tom was supposed to come help me that night and put it all away (Tate was at work).  On the way home, I got to thinking that perhaps with the help of my mom and Kim, that I could put the tower down and back the boat into the garage myself…. So I told Tom that I was gonna give it a try and that if I needed him, I would call.  The tower came down pretty easily with two of us holding it.  Backing the boat into the garage however, wasn’t so easy.  Making it even harder, there were two cars parked across the street which were in my way!  It took MANY tries with my mom and Kim guiding me but eventually, I got it done!  The boat was put to bed safely without damage.  J

So now that I know I can do it all by myself, I am looking forward to the next trip.  If YOU would like to be a part of the next one, let me know.

Here is a link to pictures of the day (there are more pics coming so check back soon:

 http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/litlone873/slideshow?.dir=/7a2dscd&.src=ph