#22 - Wakeboarding

The posting for this  entry and #23 were delayed a week due to some technical difficulties.  Both these adventures occurred last weekend. 

I was originally going to count #22 as "Lake McConaughy, Nebraska," but I decided that wakeboarding at the lake was actually a more exciting adventure.

Lake McConaughy is a huge (22 miles long) lake in western Nebraska. We have friends who camp there every summer, and this year we decided to join them.  Since our trip was rather last minute, we only had the full day of Saturday to spend there, after driving there Friday evening.  As busy at Saturday was, I'm not sure I would have survived two days on the lake! 

Our friends (and their friends---there was a group of roughy 25 people) were all very generous in sharing their water toys with us.  They had boats and jet skis, and we spent the entire day playing in the water.  While I had water skiied before (albeit about 25 years ago), I had never tried wakeboarding, so I jumped at the opportunity. For those of you who are not familiar with wakeboarding, it is essentially snowboarding on the water as you are being pulled by a boat.

I was not overly confident that I would do well, since I stink at both skateboarding and snowboarding.  So, you can imagine my pleasure and excitement when I actually make it into a semi-standing position on only my second attempt!  I probably stayed up for a whopping 3-5 seconds!  I was so excited.  Victoria was quick enough on the camera to capture my victory!

Unfortunately, my excitement was short lived as I never managed to get on my feet again.  I was so frustrated and angry at myself. However, my experience was very typical for a first timer.  Victoria, Aubrey and Hunter all gave it a whirl, and Craig tried waterskiing.  Of all of us, Hunter was the best,  managing to get on his feet twice, and I came in second.  All of us struggled with learning the proper technique for actually getting up.  That's quite common.  But, we didn't let it get our spirits down.  The kids have already decided we MUST return to the lake next year, so we'll give it another shot then.

The trip was magnificent overall.  The water termperature was perfect.  The sun shone all day (yep, we all burned despite sunblock) and we had an absolute blast. We all got to ride jet skis.  The kids had the chance to go tubing, and we enjoyed tormenting our little shih tzus in the water (yes, they CAN swim, but they just don't really enjoy it). Thanks Carla and Mark for including us in your vacation.