Hi friends,
Well, this time of year for many, many years our family would head out on Sunday for our favorite little paradise, Lake Ocoee, in East Tennessee. Since I am currently in India with no opportunity to ski I have to just take a trip down memory lane. When I first moved to Cleveland, Tennessee in March of 1980, one of the first people I was introduced to was Doug Jones, who flew a King Air for his father and their company owned the hangar next to ours in Cleveland. Luckily for me, as a ski enthusiast for all of my life, Doug was also a skiier and since we were also both pilots, we spent a tremendous amount of time together at the lake. Doug was single, but I had a very understanding and often participating wife on our trips to the lake. Many is the night we slept in tents or friends cabins and would ski until darkness shut down our program and often we were the first ones on the lake in the morning. Doug had his own Ski Supreme and we skied with that for many years. When he moved to Atanta, I had to buy my own boat and this was the second boat we owned from 1991 until 2006. I sold this boat to friend Mickey Turner and he has completely gone through and restored it beautifully. I would love to see it. Before that, we had a black one just like this from 1986 to 1989. Doug has married and moved to near Loma Linda, CA, where Brad is now and he still skies with my son out there whenever they get a chance. In fact, just over a year ago, we all went out together and did a little skiing just before I left for India. As you can see from the water, this was a great place for skiing, if you timed it right. So many of our friends had cabins and boatslips at the marina. We chose to keep our boat in the garage and trailer it to the lake so that it stayed clean and because our boats often had idiosyncracies that meant they really shouldn't be kept in the water while we were away. My son Brad and I often joke about all the things you had to know in order to drive our boat all day without some big issues, but we always had a good time, even when we had to be rescued or had to paddle for 30 minutes to get back where we could get the boat out.
The way I saw it, if we had the boat, no matter how much trouble it was, the party was under our control, and that was a huge thing with two kids growing up in our house. The second picture is one of Brad and his best buddies at the lake just a few years ago. Now all those guys are married with their own children and are well on the way to their careers as professionals. Matt, on the left, is an orthopedic surgeon in Chattanooga, Nick is a nurse anesthetist in Naples, Florida, Scott is in the long term health care business in Cleveland, TN and Brad (my son) is an MBA working in Southern CA while his wife finishes her pediatric residency. I flew for Scott's grandfather for many years when we first moved to Tennessee. All of these guys are like my own kids and we often had skiing and wakeboarding outings when schedules and weather cooperated. Growing up together, wakeboarding together, going to the same schools, going to the lake, these are all great memories of these kids.
And, the first picture is one of my daughter Shayna and our little Bichon Friese, Lacey, her best friend growing up. Lacey loved the lake, as well, and would beg to get in and swim a few strokes when it was hot, but always came out in a hurry, as it was cool with her thin fur. I am currently in India to save up for my cabin on the lake for my retirement. I am always happiest when the water is lapping at the side of my boat and not far from where I sleep. Ideally, I would have a place on the lake that would be located on an airstrip. There is a place I am thinking about down in Milledgeville, Georgia. Too bad these people are so proud of these places, but maybe something will work out. You have to have dreams, right? Karen likes the Asheville/Hendersonville, NC area so I will maybe go looking for water there. Don't have your real-estate agent call me, I still hope to be working here for several more years. If I had all the money I spent on boat and car gas to get to the lake, I could have already retired, but then I wouldn't have these priceless memories, so this is a good tradeoff. Plus, now if I need an orthopedic doc, an anesthetist or a nursing home, I know some people!!
Hey, this had nothing to do with India and that was exactly the purpose for just a few minutes.
The rope is tight so "Hit it."
Dan
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