Thursday, September 29, 2011

We Ain't Boat People

Well we didn't go to Hawaii but we did have an adventure.

We got up furry early and headed for the highway.


And we ended up at Eddy Creek Marina....

And back at Echo Charlie's.




Isn't the view amazing!?!?!

Mollie I must agree!

Well our big adventure surprise is a boat day. Last time we were here momma checked into it and decided we were going boating. Here is the attendant getting our boat ready.

But before boating we had to have breakfast.

Momma got a grand breakfast. YUM!

And we even got to order off the menu. Yummy Scrambled eggs!

Scrambled eggs atop blue buffalo kibble. I'm in heaven!!!

And we got to eat breakfast in our strollers. What fun!!!

We donned our life jackets, took a quick pee break...

...and headed for the dock.

The skies were a bit cloudy we feared it would rain.

But we have a pontoon boat with a top so we decided if it rained we would be ok.

But before boarding the boat we had to get checked in.

Grandma you all right in there.

Then grandma got the low down on the boat.

Then we had to board the boat. Thats an awful big gap.

AHHHHH!

Bobo tried to run away and grandma had to grab him. Please note he was not hurt in any way.

They gassed up the boat...

...Grandma got behind the wheel...

...and we were off!

We got to look at all the fancy boats. We even saw one that had an indoor area with sliding glass doors. Furry cool!



As we turned the boat to head for the Kentucky state prison we stayed going slow as we were in a no wake zone. When out of nowhere a speed boat cam zooming by and made waves and our boat started rocking. Me, Bobo and momma literally all hit the deck. All three of us were spread out on the boat floor. Grandma almost fell off her seat laughing at us. It was scary!

This is our post "hitting the deck" bewildered look.

Once we got used to the rocking of the boat, we began looking at the scenery. There were many beautiful birds.

And we even caught one mid flight in this pic.

We couldn't believe there were so many houses along the edge of the water. What a pawsome view to wake up to every morning.

We even spotted a few houses high up on a hill.

This is the view from the front of the boat as we were heading out to the Prison.

It was a little nippy so we stayed bundled up for part of the trip.

After about 45 minutes we arrived at the prison. Wow. A truly pawsome sight to see from the water!!!

Grandma decided that we would now cross the lake, go up the other side, and head back to the marina. We planned on putting in a lunch order, boating around the no wake zone and such.

Once we got on the other side Lilac wanted to try her hoof at boating. She did very well.

But preferred her safe place, our diaper bag.

Now this is the part of our adventure where things get a little out of paw. See we began heading up this side of the lake. The wind gets going and the water begins to get very choppy. Momma is not happy but we trudge forward. Then the boat stops. She really begins to panic. But we get going again.

To one side we see some more pretty houses....

But the side we are closest too has nothing but trees. boring!

We do see a few fun things floating in the water.

This one even had a big ol birds nest on top.

Then the boat dies again. This time we see that we are kicking up mud. So we just turn everything off and float a bit. We sit by this sign for the longest time. We try several times but the boat won't go so we call the marina. They send out a rescue squad. After 1 ½ hours they didn't arrive and we couldn't tell them where we were because there were no land marks, so momma starts crying. She is stressed beyond belief and about to have a break down. Then we noticed that we had drifted quite a ways from the sign and try to start the boat again. It works. We go full speed, with the lakes waves crashing into the front of the boat.

We keep going thinking that soon we will arrive back at the marina. But we never do.

All we see is trees and small islands but no marina. We had been in contact with the rescue squad all afternoon but they still couldn't find us. They had been all over the lake.

Finally grandma decides to dart across the lake to the side with the houses. She decides we are going to go up and tie the boat to the dock and get help. As we are crossing the wind picks up even more, the waves are crashing into the boat and making a horrible sound. Then we see a barge coming right at us. We looked at the options, go in front of it and get squished or go behind and be knocked around by the waves its making. We decide to go behind it and see a small inlet with three houses and two docks. The first house has a nasty sign that reads "Do not dock boats here", we pass it by. The second house looks nice, has a dock, so we park this thing and grandma goes up. Momma pings us with her phone and sees we are at Windward ln. and calls the marina to let them know we are docked here. The lady there says we are 12 miles south of the marina, almost in TN. Thats no good! They gave the rescue squad out location and they headed out. Meanwhile grandma got up to the house and the lady was very nice and let her use the bathroom and gave her the address. Grandma returned to the boat and we told her where we were. YIKES! She was stunned! Then the lady who lived here (we didn't get her name but called her the Angel in the Pirate shirt) came out and asked if we needed food, water or if the dogs needed anything. How nice! We talked for a bit but then she said she had to head back inside. We said thank you and she was gone.


We waited a good 45 minutes or so and then the rescue squad pulled up. We had been saved. YIPEE!

They said to follow them but grandma said "OH NO YOU DON"T! You are driving us home!!!" So Steve hopped on board and drove us home. Steve put the boat in high and zoomed us back. As you can see we were scared going that fast but we held on! Then the boat engine kept dying. So we would stop, wait a few minutes, then start again. We did this for the entire trip back.

As we were headed back Steve told us all sorts of things the marina people should have told us. Like for starters to stay between the red and green buoys. That is the safe channel to drive a boat in. We stayed so close to land we could have hit bottom, a sand bar, or anything. Then Steve said that if you are outside of the channel, like we were, that there are trees just below the water and that could have destroyed the boat. YIKES! As we neared the marina we saw how we got off track. For new boaters it quite confusing. Finally we got one last spurt of engine power and got into the marina. We ran off the boat straight for the car! We never wanna do that again!

We slept the entire way home.

Then once we got home we slept some more, got up ate dinner, and slept again. Then on Sunday we took naps all day. We had been so stressed all we could do was sleep. Momma and grandma both had sore legs from sitting all tensed up. We have finally recovered enough to blog about it.


To top it off when we got home ya know what was in the mail box? Sailor suits for an upcoming Howl-o-ween pawty. Coincidence? HMMM!

Anyhoo our motto from that experience is "WE AIN'T BOAT PEOPLE" and I think I am going to embroider that on my doggie bed!



Wags and Licks,
Mollie Jo and Bobo
*Not Boat doggies*