Last Water Ski Trip of the Year

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We made it back to Boulder City, Nevada and spent the night at the Elks club again in preparation for our last trip to Lake Mead.

Maureen drove from Orange County, California and Bill came from Prescott, Arizona and they met us in Boulder City, Nevada where we ate at our favorite barbecue restaurant in town called Fox Barbecue.  Then we all caravaned to the Temple Bar Marina area of Lake Mead.

Normally we go out of the marina and make a right and ski either in the Narrows section or further down in Greg's Basin.  On this trip the water conditions were so great from just outside the marina and to the left so we skied that direction which if we kept going around 20 more miles it would take us to the Hoover Dam.

Great water conditions for skiing!

Al

Bill

Nancy

Maureen

We've been taking our lunch breaks on the boat out in the bay instead of coming to shore and setting up a day camp.  I created a sail to give us more shade while eating our sandwiches.

Bill and Nancy

 We had some interesting weather and clouds on this trip.  

 

Our truck and boat

1997 MasterCraft ProStar 190

 Again Maureen rented a fishing cabin so we parked in front and dried out all our gear every afternoon when we got off the lake for the day.

While all our gear was drying out we cooked and ate dinner inside while enjoying the air conditioning. 

We had some amazing sunsets during our week!

Temple Bar Marina and Temple Bar

On our last morning on the lake, I took a bad crash on a slalom ski.  We don't know what I did but the ski stopped and threw me pretty hard into the water.  As I was in the air, I felt my left foot was the last thing to leave the ski.  When I surfaced in the water, I knew my foot was injured immediately.  I couldn't even go looking for my ski while waiting for the boat to come back and retrieve me.  I gave the "all done" signal to the boat crew so they knew to pull in the rope.  My foot didn't hurt at rest but I was unable to put any weight on it.  I was able to get myself up on to the swim step and into the boat where I immediately iced my foot.  I was done for the day!  The other three took ski runs and then it was time to pack up and head home.  I was not able to help at all as putting any weight on my foot hurt really bad! 

Bill and Maureen were so helpful to Al in getting the boat packed up and then they followed us to Boulder City where they helped wash the boat and get our camping gear and the boat put into storage for the winter.  I pretty much just sat and directed everyone!

That evening we went to Urgent Care in Henderson where they took x-rays and it showed no broken bones.  I just had to do RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) until it heals.  They wrapped my foot and gave me crutches.

My foot never looked bad and on different days it would show some bruising but it hurt like crazy if I tried to put any weight on it.

Unfortunately there was lots of laundry to do  before we left Boulder City for the winter.  It was no fun trying to do laundry on crutches and it took me so long!

Trying to elevate my foot between loads of laundry!

It was a great water-ski season this year and we were lucky to all be retired and able to do our ski trips on Tuesday-Fridays while the lake is even more quiet!

Now we're making our way to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta at the end of the week.  Hope my foot heals because there is going to be a LOT of walking at the Fiesta!


Some photos in this entry are courtesy of Maureen!  Thanks, Maureen!