I Didn't Want that Anchor Anyhow

I wasn’t up until almost 8am. I was surprised that I slept that long, I could’ve slept even longer but also didn’t want to sleep the morning away. As I exited the tent, Mindy asked that I make her some coffee. Poof, you’re coffee! The water spigot just across the ay was inoperable. I had to fetch water from the nearby restroom. While there, I brushed up/cleaned up. While getting coffee going I listened to a little radio. Mindy got up around 8:45 – about the time that I was ready to head off on my run. The temperature was a little cool, especially for mid-July. I’ll bet it wasn’t even 60 degrees. The sunshine warmed things in a hurry, however. My run went well. For the time being, it looked like it was gonna be a lovely day. After my run the kids and I took a hike in the woods, back around the cove and into the pine forest. It was quite lovely. Everybody found themselves a hiking stick. Back at camp, I phoned my dad to see if he was coming up as implied Monday morning. He was just preparing to depart his place and figured to be an hour or so. We decided to head out on the lake and advised ad to phone once near. We headed out for some boating fun. We cruised the south end of the lake – around the public beach – and then back to the camp beach a couple of times. Mindy & Bella tubed together for quite a while. Mindy tubed alone some too. Neither kid would tube alone. Dad phoned from the camp dock while were just the other side of the Cheshire bridge. We offered up that he meet us at the camp site. While waiting, Mindy and Bella tubed a little more. We pulled up to our campsite ten minutes later. While I was out looking for my dad Bella took a spill off the swim platform and hit her leg on the engine. She let out one heck of scream. Scared me. Thankfully, after a band-aid, she was fine. We pulled away from our temporary tie-up and once again hit the lake. Right away, Mindy skied. She did good, and after two bouts she called it a day. I went next. I skied for about ten minutes until my legs and arms were feeling stiff. The last thing I wanted to do was injure myself. I asked for a cut after doing some decent wave jumping. I had thought that I might try to slalom but decided against it. I had enough fun. We headed back to the swim cove just south of route 36. The kids swam and played on the tube while were anchored in the cove. They held their usual noodle battles. Afterwards, the kids fished. I helped Bella while my dad and Mindy helped Jacob. Bella caught two blue gills in a hurry. I was surprised that she was willing to try and remove the hook. However, each time I had to do the deed. Mindy eventually caught one for Jacob. He was a tad impatient doing it himself. We played until 4 or 5pm. Jacob said he’d tube out of the cove but one we got out on the open water he freaked and begged out. Mindy was miffed at her son’s lack of courage. Mindy & Bella tubed again before we had to pull in and cross under the Cheshire Rd bridge. Back at camp, Mindy started preparing for our meal. I lit the grill and then Jacob and I drove to the shower house to get cleaned up. Dad stuck around long enough to enjoy dinner- cheeseburgers, fruit and baked beans. He left for home, and to walk Ykraps at approximately 7pm. During the dinner hour we got hit with another light and brief shower. No harm, though. Our neighbors phoned soon after dad departed and advised that the forecast called for rain beginning early morning. They called again to share that the Weather channel just said the showers would move in around 9am. That pretty much sealed the deal. We decided to pull the boat in right then rather than wait until morning. Mindy & Jacob would meet Bella and I at the dock. Bella did a nice job helping me get the boat out of the cove. We showed up at the camp dock just as Mindy & Jacob were pulling up. Good timing. Mindy had the trailer nearly attached up by the time that I secured the boat to the dock. I left Bella on board. The pull out went as planned. The boat was dirtier than expected from lake scum. I also noticed a dangling rope behind the boat. Crap! That WAS our anchor rope. I forgot to pull up t he anchor before we left the cove. Somewhere along the cruise we severed it. We lost the anchor, but aside from that experienced no damage. My guess is that the prop cut the rope. The anchor wasn’t too deep at all. Probably no more than 5 foot. The depth drops off in a real hurry in the cove. Even though there was no damage, I was deeply bothered by the fact that I forgot to check the anchor. I just can’t be making such foolish blunders. Back at the camp site I pulled the Trooper with the boat attached into the camp site right next door since no one was using it. Jacob asked if he could fish. I figured why not, and fetched his pole from the boat. I didn’t say it, but pretty much expected something to go wrong in a hurry. He and Bella weren’t gone three minutes when they retuned with a tackleless pole. I went to try and find what they snagged and lost, but couldn’t locate it. Back at camp I replaced the tackle and handed him his pole. He no longer wanted to fish citing a likely repeat. OK. Earlier, both kids along with dad sought out some additional firewood to complement the wood we brought from home. We had about ten decent logs but no kindling. That changed. They gathered oodles of it. We had the fire ready to go once the sun set. We got a rip a roaring fire going. And once again, the kids were eager for some smores, but we made them wait for the good coals to develop. That didn’t take too long, of course that’s easy for me to say. :) After the kids had their smores and I had a few beers we called it a night. I couldn’t help but notice that our starry night had already turned completely cloudy. Yuck! Also, the kids at the neighboring campsite broke camp early in the morning, but unfortunately, another group of rowdies arrived. There must’ve been about 12 of them. This group was louder than the youngsters. Mindy and I had to deal with the kids getting in and out of their tent a couple of times after they were woken by the noisy neighbors. I couldn’t complain too much. After all, that was me 15 years ago. Good night clouds! BTW: We learned from brother Tommy that Mom's surgery went well.