8/16/02- It is 2:56pm. I had to get up at 8:30am today. I thought I was going to feel like crap, but I felt fine. Weird. Had a some eggs and toast, and then go ready for the boating adventure. We had a reservation at 9:30am. It wasnt till about 9:50am that we were actually on the water. We had to get the tube and life jackets, and hear the same "watercrafts don't have breaks" deal. Well, because I had done it before I was the first to go. It was a perfect day except for some haze. 80 degrees or so. I hopped into the tube. My dad had never driven a boat before, but he is smart so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. This boat we got was only two months old and really fast. Well my dad started out slow. I got bored so I gave him the signal to go faster. It would seem he took it personally because he went plenty fast. It felt like 100mph. Water from the outboard was shooting in my face. It was still fun mind you, but crazy. Well my dad slingshot me a couple times across the wake, but he still wasn't sure how to do it. I want you to be able to picture this. I was sitting in the tube with my feet out in from of me. My hands were holding on to the handles. The key is to not let your feet hit. If they do your screwed. You may water ski barefooted for a good .5 seconds, but after that you are gonna hit the water, and hard. I had just jumped the wake going from left to right when my right foot pushed into the water. I closed my eyes after that but I could feel myself doing some sort of barrel role. It stung like a mother...... I wasnt really sure how fast my dad was going, but the boat had a 60mph speedo. Well. I was hurting pretty bad, so I decided to come in an give my sister a shot. I climbed in to the boat and asked my dad how fast he was going. He said "About 50." I had gone tubing with Chris S before, but I didnt remember it hurting that bad. My leg was still stinging. My sister was up next and it was decided that we would go a little slower for her. My sister had a good ride. She stayed on for a long time. My dad decided to her a good whip around and made a sharp right shooting her out left over the wake. It was good for a while but then she started hopping. We went over the wake from another boat. She held on for a while but over one wave she got about a foot off the ground and got launched off. She was ready to come in. My mom decided to try driving, and my sister decided to go back out. Well my mom did not have time to learn how sensitive the throttle was. My sister had asked her to go nice and slow because she was still warning out from the last run. My mom was quickly up to 45mph and Alex eat it pretty bad. The tube flipped over and she got smashed. My mom felt terrible, but what can you do. I wanted to try my hand at the wheel. My dad decided to go next. We developed a system. Raise your left foot meant slow down, and right foot meant speed up. I turned out to be pretty good at driving the thing. I didnt do anything too quickly. My dad stayed on for a good while. I found that about 3100rpms was the best, or about 35mph. At that speed the rope would stay out of the water, and I could still make sharp turns whipping the rider from one side of the wake to the other. That was where the fun was. Sling shooting back and forth was great. Trailing behind the boat at 50mph and then eating crap was not as fun. My mom decided to go next, but she wanted me to drive. She knew I would be a little gentler than my dad. I would later learn how right she was. My mom was a bit nervous but she ended up loving it. She probably stayed out on the tube the longest. Maybe 10-15 minutes. I had pretty much mastered the turning and correct speed for a good ride. After my mom came in I decided to go one more time. My dad would drive. It was fun but crazy again. He would slingshot me so far to a side that I would catch up to the boat on the side. This would cause slack in the rope. I would watch as the slack quickly disappeared. I would come to a complete stop and back up to 40mph again. It hurt my neck a bit, hehe. Well after one specific wake jump I let my foot hit the water again, but I was able to compensate and push back. I compensated too much and slide off back. It didnt hurt much but it pushed my life jacket up onto my head. I quickly climbed back onto the tube and was ready to go again. Now sometimes the rope would get caught in the wake, because the tow tether was pretty low. My dad accelerated very quickly but cut the throttle for some reason letting the rope get caught in the water. It turned me around so that my back was to the boat. I knew this wasnt going to be bad. My dad gave it a lot of throttle and the rope snapped me back around so that I lost grip of the handle and slid my feet into the water. I think I did about 3 flips before coming to rest. Well I came back in and drove my sister again for another ride. We had about 15 minutes left to get back without being charged a late fee. Smoke from the Oregon fires had made everything hazy. We could tell how to get back to our pier. We saw two shiny things that we remembered seeing before. We gave it full throttle and headed back. Our point of reference was correct. Our two hours ended at 11:50am. We pulled in at 11:50.53am

I took pictures, so when I get home I will update. Unfortunately I only got a pictures of my sister tubing because I was driving for my mom and dad, and no one could work the camera to take a picture of me.

All the people that had been helping us with the sea doos and boat were clearly foreign. One guy was Australian, one was from Dublin, Ireland, and then our waitress at the restaurant at the pier was polish. Eventually we learned that Tahoe has a student exchange program. People from Europe can come here and work during the summer. Cool little info.

Well, it is now 3:35pm. This is still the same entry but it has taken me about 40min to type all this. We were thinking about leaving tomorrow morning for our now 8 hr drive, but because the condo is so nice, we might leave as originally planed, on Sunday. We will just have to see. I will probably update again later today. Adios.

Well it is 8:52pm.  After having such an exciting morning we decided to stay in the condo for the rest of the day.  I only left to check out the pool  and to go get some steak to BBQ for dinner.  Watched a little golf and a little football.  I added a new page to my site, The Review and Review page.  I might delete the mistakes and celebrity look a like page.  I am going to make a poll if I can so people can vote whether to delete one or the other, or both.  It was crazy.  It looked like some guy was flying a kite why walking in Lake Take, but the kit was pulling him on a knee board.  It was pretty sweet.  I just wondered what would happen when the wind stopped.  If you were in a kayak or something it wouldnt matter as much.  My family is debating whether to come back tommorow or Sunday.  Looks like Sunday, but wo knows.  Other than the lack of night life and friends ( tears) it is kinda fun here.  Too bad the 8 hour drive will suck.  It will help me sympathize with my CAL friends who are driving( Dwight)  I might upate this entry one more time if I get bored tonight, otherwise, I look foward to writing tommorow.  One more thing.  My dream page and movie review page would greatly improve with viewer interaction and submissions.  Dont forget about the lets make a story page either.  Thanks everyone.  Goodnight.