Go Cowboys - Go Cubs

Goodbye Mark A., you'll be missed

I got up & out of bed at 6:45am. Once again my throat was dry and sore and my head clogged. It took a few minutes for my sinuses to clear. Mindy asked that I get her up by 8:00am. It was a beautiful clear morning but the temperature a little cool, especially given that today’s the first of July. It was in the upper 50’s.

After exercise, walking Ykraps, and fast cup of coffee I got ready for a run. I wore back-up running clothes since my regulars were already packed. And because it was so chilly, I wore a long sleeved running shirt. It was a lovely run. I stayed within the confines of our lovely subdivision. By the time I returned Mindy had bacon in the oven and was in the shower. She let me know that Ashley called while I was running but that she missed it.

Jimaken dropped the kids sometime around 9am while I was out watering (soaking) the flowers. Ashley called again at which time Mindy informed her that I’d be on my way momentarily to fetch her and Olivia. Ashley couldn’t drive over as her new used car was broken down at a friend’s place. It’s always something! I took the van since the boat was attached to the Trooper. Jacob went along for the ride.

We were back by 9:50am. It looked like our planned departure time of 10am was in jeopardy, but that was never in concrete, just a target. I spent the next 30-40 minutes loading all of our gear. Most of it went into the Trooper save for fishing gear an tools which I placed in the boat. We were ready to leave by 10:45am. We left Ashley some cash, reviewed the watering routine, and exchanged some hugs. I walked around the rig before heading out just to double check that everything looked good to go.

As we waited for the light to turn at the freeway entrance, dad turned in front of us headed north onto Wilson Rd. We waved acknowledging each others presence. At my prompting, Mindy then gave him a call on his cell just to let him know that we would be out of town and to invite him out if he so chose. He thanked us for the invite but also let us know that he’d be busy tending to Uncle Kenny after his knee replacement surgery tomorrow. We were on our way.

Things went smoothly as we cruised east on I-70 across town and beyond. The morning weather couldn’t have been prettier. Somewhere just east of Newark I happened to catch a glimpse of the boat cover flapping like a flag out one of the side view mirrors. A rest area was just ahead so I calmly took the exit yet nervous about what I might find. I worried that the tube and other stored items might have blown out. At the same time, I wondered how such a thing could’ve happened. Mindy and the kids jumped out to take advantage of the rest area restrooms. I went back to check on the boat cover. First, all the gear was still in the boat. Unfortunately, the severe flapping of roughed up the rear edge of the cover quite badly. Still, I was able to make use of the snap fasteners and reattach it to the boat. It occurred to me that I had never fully reattached all the snaps before leaving home after placing a few items in there for the trip. My screw up would cost me yet another repair. I did my best to shrug it off for the remainder of the drive out. It certainly could’ve been much, much worse.

We arrived at Salt Fork around 12:45pm. It was 100 miles exactly to the parks entrance. We made out way to the lodge which sits 6 miles back into the park. As expected, our room wasn’t ready. We asked anyhow figuring there was no harm in asking. We verified that it was still OK to use the lodge marina. Down past the cabins we went where w pulled over to prep the boat for the water. I was just a bit nervous for having never navigated these waters and the topology appeared similar to Lake Cumberland in that it’s a winding lake cut into a valley of hills. And furthermore, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was still a little burnt over the torn boat cover incident.
All that aside, we got the boat in the lake with little if any trouble. By 1:15pm we were pulling away from the dock into the great wide open!

Not knowing the our way we relied on instincts as well as other boats that seemed to know exactly where they were going. We found our way to the NE part of the lake after cruising through a large winding ski zone. We eventually anchored in a no-wake zone so that the kids could play and swim. We hung there for close to two hours before heading back to tube. After last Tuesday, I was certain that Jacob would be undaunted by the strange new waters, but that wasn’t the case. He hadn’t tubed for more than a minute before the tears came. He complained of a sore neck and begged out. Mindy let us drag her around a little before we headed back to the dock and eventually to the lodge. Judging from the lake map we had, we saw about one half the lake. We promised ourselves that we would explore the southern half on Monday along with letting Mindy ski. We docked the boat at the docks exclusively for cabin and lodge guests. We left the boat uncovered knowing that we’d be back down after checking in. We dropped the trailer along side the marina in the grass and headed up to the lodge.

Check-in was a breeze. We were given keys to room #261. The room had two double beds, a fridge, and a balcony that faced the woods and the southern portion of the lake – a very lovely view. Almost instantly the kids were treated to some of the parks wildlife. There were five does hanging out just off of our balcony begging for food. The kids took numerous pictures with their disposable cameras. After getting settled, Jacob and I took a drive back to the dock to fish and cover the boat. In the meantime, the girls went swimming and eventually ordered us a pizza. We fished for about an hour or until Mindy called alerting us to the food’s imminent arrival. We covered the boat and headed back to our room. We didn’t catch any fish.

The girls returned from swimming with a large pepperoni pizza. We each had two large pie shaped pieces. I sat on the veranda enjoying mine along with a cold frosty beverage. While relaxing my cell phone rang. It was my old friend John Vidosh. I hadn’t talked with John in almost a year. Unfortunately, he had some sad news to share. A longtime friend, Mark Adams, passed away over the weekend. The details were unknown. Mark and I were very close for a few years in the late 80’s early 90’s. In fact, he played a large role in my ultimate career change. He’ll be missed.

As the sunset and the evening wound down, we all hit the sack fairly early. We watched a little TV before heading off to sleep.