The houseboat trip officially started wednesday the 28th of July. My dad, cousin Dianne, Aunt Brene, husband Troy and daughter Rhiannon met my Aunt Jana, her son Dane & Casey and daughter Alyssa in Page at my Grandma Nan's house. My sister Tina and her friend Christian also tagged along.This would have been enough people to fill our boat, but the more the merrier right???? My nan's neighbor and four dogs all got on the house boat and took off from the docks at antelope.
From what Robyn and I heard, the weather on wednesday was pretty ruff. High winds, blowing sand and choppy water made it impossible for water sports, or even houseboat to houseboat visiting.
Thursday morning I woke up with a terrible stomach ache. I figured I was hungry, so before heading off to work I grabbed something quick and went to work. All day thursday I the hardest time finding the modivation to work. Several times I found myself at my desk with my head down, just trying to rest off this stomach issue. In the back of my mind I knew it was the stomach flu, but with us leaving for Page that night I didn't want to except it. The day slowly rolled by and finally at 4pm I left for home, with the hopes of getting on the road before traffic got to crazy on the highways. When I arrived at home Robyn told me that her head hurt and that she wanted to take a nap. Usually when its time to leave on trips I get really antsy and want to hit the road ASAP, but I took that time to rest and relax.
Around 6pm we loaded up the car and started or trip. For some reason or heads weren't on straight because we forgot several things and had to return home again, but we were on the road. I'm always nervous about the I-17. Either is backed up where the 101 and the 17 merge or there's an accident, something always causes a back up on that road. As we neared the turn off Robyn and I were glued to the traffic report on the radio as they's been talking about a traffic delay on the I-17. Was this going to slow down travel? Surprisingly and for the first time ever the accident was south of where we got on the I-17. The freeway was a ghost town, just us and the open road. Robyn mentioned several time that she felt bad for the people trapped behind us, but I didn't care!!!!
The trek to Flagstaff went smooth and quickly. We talked, listened to News talk radio (thats a sign that we are aging!) and played music from our Ipod. Lando our little trooper did great in the back seat. We ate at Wendy's in Flagstaff. Both of us did the healthy thing and bought salads, come to find out mine had more caleries than a double cheese burger, YUCK!!!
The sun had set by this point and we continued on to Page. Nothing special happened north of Flagstaff. There were cops crawling all over the roads because of the holiday weekend, so I set the cruise just over the limit and allowed the tail wind to push us down the freeway.
We arrived at my Nan's house around 10pm. Unloaded the things we needed for the night and went to bed.
Friday morning we were up with the sun, and the smell of a poopy diaper. After getting some breakfast and loading up our stuff we drove to antelope and waited for our ride out to the house boat. My second cousin Clyde brought my dad in with him to help out with loading our equipment and help with Lando duty. While we were waiting for Clydes son and girlfriend to arrive I noticed a loose bolt in the boats wakeboard tower and mentioned it to Clyde. Good thing I did too!! The loose bolt gave way on the way in to pick us up, and dropped there surf and wake boards in the lake with the rack they were in. Clyde made a quick call to another family member and the hunt for the missing boards began. Fortunatley after 15 minutes or so of searching we tracked the boards down and continued up the lake to our camp.
To read more, visit http://robynandanthony.blogspot.com/2010/06/16-people-4-dogs-houseboat-family.html.