We joined 11 other friends of Bills and spent a week on his timeshare houseboat at Lake Powell. This was the 5th or 6th time we've done this trip and it always delights!
We left our house for the last time on Monday morning but couldn't fit everything remaining in the truck without a separate trip to the RV in storage to drop off some remaining items that will go with us when we hit the road. So it was then back to the house to do the final load. We headed to Boulder City, NV to drop off stuff in our boat storage garage and to check on our boat repair.
On our last trip to Lake Mead in June we were still experiencing problems with the fuel pump. We took it to a boat shop in Boulder City with hopes that it could be fixed in time for our Powell trip. We were told it was fixed but we wanted to put it in the water and test it ourselves before towing it all the way to Powell. We put the boat in Lake Mead at the Las Vegas boat ramp and ran the engine for 1.5 hours on a very windy day. Luckily the engine ran fine and we could bring our boat to Powell.
We relaxed in the Henderson area on July 4th.
On Thursday, we had to hit the grocery store to buy the food items for our night to cook dinner on the houseboat, get gas, and pick up the boat for the drive to Powell. Our friends left Tustin at 8 am in a caravan and we had the luxury of being 4+ hours ahead of them so we had a more leasurly morning and left around 11 am.
The drive to Powell was beautiful through Arizona and Utah. We made a short stop at Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado river and walked to the overlook.
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| Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ |
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| The parking area and trail to the overlook. |
After our walk back to our truck in the parking lot, there was an RV parked next to us and the people had locked themselves out. It was very hot and it was a young man and his parents. We tried to help them by finding another way in to their RV but it didn't work. We locked ourselves out of our RV in Norway and Al was able to crawl through a locker and under the bed to get back in. We were worried about his parents in the heat. After talking with them a little, we found out they were from South Korea. We gave them some water and a wet towel. They kept bowing to us as a thank you. Hopefully their wait for the RV company was not too long.
The crew all arrived at the boat yard without issues. Some of the girls went food shopping while the others loaded the houseboat with all our stuff. We spent the night on the houseboat in the yard.
At 5am the next morning it was wake up time to launch the houseboat and 2 ski boats. Al and I were in charge of launching our ski boat and parking the truck and trailer in the parking lot at Wahweep Marina launch ramp. Luckily there were open trailer parking spots and a van from the houseboat service gave us a ride back to the launch ramp.
It's amazing watching the service launch those huge houseboats! After all our boats were in the water, we all set off. After we passed through a tight area on the lake (Castle Rock Split) we connected the two ski boats to the back of the houseboat. Then it was time to relax and enjoy the scenery as we all cruised down lake and into the San Juan River arm. It was about an 8 hour cruise and one of my favorite parts of the trip. Just sitting on the top deck enjoying the view and hanging out.
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| Al chillin |
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| Captain Bill steering from the top deck. He's in his element. |
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| Castle Rock |
Once we got close to our anchor spot, we sent a ski boat out to scout a location. We came back with 3 suggestions but wanted our captain, Bill, to make the final decision. He chose a nice cove off Wilson's Creek. The other ski boat was disconnected and the guys parked the houseboat and ran the lines to secure us to shore. Al and his famous knots were key to the tight lines holding the houseboat to shore to avoid problems when the winds pick up.
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| Our spot for 4 nights! |
Over the next four days we spent the mornings with ski runs for those slalom skiing. Then it was back for breakfast and then back out with others wakeboarding and kneeboarding. There was also a jet ski and four paddle boards available for more fun.
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| Nancy |
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| Al |
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| Bill skiing on his late friend Dave's ski. |
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| Joe and Dan |
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| Joe |
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| Christina |
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| Jeff |
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| Sams Backflip |
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| Maureen & Christina |
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| Jeff & Sam |
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| The kids hiked the rocks in our cove |
One morning Al & Bill got in some barefooting. That's always fun to watch.
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| Jenna helping Bill put on his booties. It's been a long time! |
I'll have to work on uploading the videos of the guys.
Each night a different team was responsible for cooking dinner and cleaning up. We had lasagna, tacos, steak, more tacos, spaghetti & meatballs, and hamburgers and hot dogs for our dinners. Al made his requested cilantro rice and fresh guacamole on our taco night. We certainly did not starve all week!
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| Jenna making her enhanced margaritas |
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| Enjoying happy hour on the top deck |
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| Joe making French toast |
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| Girls first before the guys and everyone before Dan! |
On Wednesday we unhooked the houseboat and headed back towards Wahweep. There was some trouble getting the houseboat out of the cove once the lines were disconnected and it took a ski boat to help pull the front of the houseboat away from shore. I was in our ski boat outside of the cove so I didn't witness the events but it was pretty crazy. Finally the houseboat was underway.
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| The guys after disconnecting the houseboat. (Joe, Joe, Dan, Adam, Jeff, and Al) |
We had the two ski boats out ahead of the houseboat so people could ski and wakeboard. Once we hit the main channel we connected the ski boats to the back of the houseboat and cruised to Last Chance Bay. Again we set a ski boat out to scout a spot for the night.
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| Houseboat underway |
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| Scenery as we're cruising down river |
We got all tied up and got dinner started. Then a huge wind storm arrived just after luckily getting the jet ski secured back on the top deck by using a hoist. The storm was really rocking the ski boats and we were really lucky our friends boat was tied up behind the houseboat instead of next to it because the storm was hitting us from the side and the ski boat would have been banging up against the houseboat real bad.
The ski boats were tied up good but rocking with the waves and at one point the two swim steps collided and our friends swim step was damaged on one corner. It was a stressful time but we were all safe and the houseboat lines all held strong. Phew! Desert storms can be dangerous.
Very Early the next morning all the boats set out separately for the 1.5 hour trip back to the marina. Al and I got our boat back on the trailer and helped get our friends ski boat back on their trailer. The houseboat company picked up the houseboat and then we all went back to the boat yard to unload the boat.
Most of the group spent the night in Mesquite, NV but Al and I went all the way to Boulder City. We had time to unload all our gear and wash the boat in a self serve car wash and put the boat away in the garage. We spent the night in the same hotel as the beginning of our trip.
The next morning we drove back to California after breakfast.
We went to the Reforma Street in downtown and saw the angel statue that we climbed up in our last trip here two years ago.
