One nice thing about playing on the water is that there is something for everyone. You can swim, wade, ride in the boat, fish, ski, tube, and take photos. This is why everyone seems to be gathering at the lakeside every night while the weather is good.

Our friend Andy has arrived for a few days, and tonight my brother and Caroline popped by to take the boat out. Our Vermont friends Kristi and Zsolt and their three kids came over as well, bearing fresh picked blueberries from the local farm.

With all the people, it was a wild scene at the beach. We hauled down platters of Brie cheese and crackers to the Tiki Bar, the kids were busy chasing each other and collecting stones, and nearly everyone got in the water at some point. The breeze was blowing in from the lake and once we dipped in the water, the air felt absolutely perfect.

Then the games began. Andy was the first, bravely volunteering to be towed around on the ski tube by my brother. I say “bravely” because my brother is known for terrorizing people with this tube. Emma loves the abuse as the tube bounces on the waves and water splashes into her face, but most people find the experience to be challenging, to say the least. Andy survived without injury, which is more than we can say for other newbies. (A few years ago the tube jostled a friend so much that he went home early, exhausted. The next day he was in the hospital with a kidney stone that apparently been dislodged by the fun.)

Carolyn is the best wakeboarder in the crowd. She’s been goading me to keep trying it. But I was a miserable failure the one time I tried snowboarding, and I’ve never learned to ski downhill, nor waterski. For these reasons, I don’t regard myself as the most qualified candidate, but as it turns out wakeboarding is not all that hard. Only three sessions and I’m already getting up on the board reliably and having a reasonably good time. The muscle aches afterward aren’t that bad, either.

OK, let all those who say I am never pictured in the blog, be silent! Here I am, sporting a fine “farmer’s tan” and attempting a fancy trick that I call “DON’T FALL DOWN”. This is about the limit of my abilities on the wakeboard at present, and even this trick fails from time to time. But it’s still fun, and I’ll probably try again. Maybe with practice I’ll be able to do some wakeboarding on Lake Mead (NV) or Roosevelt Lake (AZ) next winter.

You might wonder, with us parked so long this summer, “Is this full-timing?” Why, yes, it is. See, the definition of “Airstreaming” or “full-timing” is up to you. Most full-timers I have met have long ago come to realize that it’s not all just travel. Sometimes the best use of the RV is to stop somewhere special, near family or friends, and stay a while. We’ll be traveling again in three weeks, but in the meantime I’m glad we are stopped here to enjoy the fruits of Vermont’s summer.