Chapter 47

Tina and Gloria had both wanted more time water skiing and Darius was glad to take the boat out for them. Ken suggested he should stay behind, because we didn't want to leave the houseboat unattended. We had all agreed that was probably a good idea. That left Kelli and I alone with the two jet skis.

Between the whine of the engine and the sound of the jet skis hitting the water as they went skipping side-by-side across the water like synchronized well thrown stones, there wasn't much opportunity for conversation. The Kawasaki models we had were '3 passenger' Ultra SLX's. Their four stroke engines were a lot kinder on the ears than the two stroke single passenger models, but still too noisy for talking while riding.

We road north and east, crossing the lake to the western shore which had a much more irregular coastline than the eastern shore. We played follow the leader for about twenty minutes before I pulled in to a little shallow deserted beach for a break.

"That was fun!" Kelli said as soon as we'd killed the engines.

"That it was!" I agreed. "I could see that being a lot of fun if we had three or four more of these."

"Even one more would be nice," Kelli said as she found a spot of beach that was more sand than gravel and took her life jacket off to sit down. I took mine off too and sat beside her.

"This would be fun as a two day weekend where we got all the water sports we could stand during the day and then we could do more relaxed stuff."

"Yeah, a designated driver would be nice so we could have a beer or two once we were done skiing. Sitting here right now makes me think of those Corona commercials."

"Oh, I know the ones you mean," she ooohed, "the couple sitting in beach chairs on the sand by a palm tree, watching a sailboat slide by off in the distance, and they clink their Coronas? I love that commercial, and yes, that's exactly how I see the end to an exciting day on the water too."

"We've still got a lot of summer left," I said leaning closer. "Maybe before its over we can arrange something like that. Some friends, a houseboat or something, skiing and jetting for a couple of days?"

"I think that would be great, and I like these people, they'd be fun to do something like this with. I've got some friends who'd love to do it too. How many people would be too many?"

I laughed. Here I was worrying about whether she would think we were close enough for such an idea, and she was completely bought into it already. "Well, that depends. I prefer salt water to fresh water usually, how about you?"

"Oh, I prefer salt water too, but the lakes do have their advantages. Cleanup is easier and there are usually less problems with waves and such."

"Salt water would be harder to do in a houseboat. At least getting the boat to someplace away from the crowds would be. I'm knd of surprised we haven't had as much company here on the lake today."

"I think its a lull between the Memorial day and fourth of July holidays. This place was probably crazy Memorial weekend, and will be almost as bad for the Fourth. People tend to stick closer to home for the Fourth, so its not usually as bad."