We were under strict instructions to leave the house by 10am, in order to arrive at the lake house in time for lunch. However … it seems we were all suffering the after effects of a late night. Needless to say, we were agog to find out were Ree had gone with Julie and Jonathan. Alas, she could not remember … though she did remember trying various cocktails. ‘Nuff said.
When we eventually did hit the road, the traffic was appalling due to road works on the Interstate. We were glad to be travelling in the air-conditioned comfort of Morgan’s Chevrolet Tahoe. Pleased that John was acting as chauffeur, Morgan and Ree dozed in the back, while we tried (unsuccessfully) to decipher the incessant beeping and squeaking of the radar detector. We arrived shortly after 1pm.
The weather was perfect for a weekend by the lake. A holiday atmosphere prevailed. Three other couples had joined Fred and Diane for a day on the water. After a quick bite to eat, Diane persuaded Ree to take a spin round the lake on the back of a jetski. (Now, either Diane looked a safer bet than Dad or Fred, or Ree just reckoned that water would be a softer landing than tarmac. Nothing was going to get her on the back of a bike!) Anyway, we all took to jetskiing … it was even suggested that Brigid’s beach hut was just about the right size to store a jetski at home!
We would have been quite content with the delights of jetskiing, but Fred decided we ought to have a go a ‘tubing’. (Tubing is basically hanging on to a vast inner-tube, while being pulled around the lake at break-neck speed by a homicidal lunatic in a powerboat!)
I am not sure who enjoys this activity more: the person clinging to the tube, trying not to drown laughing, or … the lunatic (in this case Fred), driving the boat, trying to shake them off the tube!
At some point in the late afternoon, Diane produced a lethal concoction known merely as ‘Slush’, and the day faded gracefully into a mellow evening …