Lake Powell 1993

 

There was already a post about Lake Powell memories ... featuring 1982 and 1984. This trip was about a decade later. While this year doesn't have a ton of pictures, we do get a peek at Dad's diary and recounting of the trip ...

Before hitting Lake Powell, Dad/Lamar, Mom/Margie and Derek had gone down to Moab to see the arches. Gray and Jen were in Moab for a Blackham Family Reunion, but hooked up for some hiking and then joined the family for Powell play. Wendy and Rick and Shane (who had stayed to finish up some school) met the family in Moab, unfortunately having car trouble along the way.  This did get its own blog post ... Off to the Arches. After the arches ... it was on to Lake Powell!

04 September (Saturday) We got up early, having to leave by 7:00 to make our scheduled rendezvous with Sharon and Kent at the Bullfrog Marina at 10:00. Jen and Grayson joined us around 7:00, and we had been out trying to resolve the problem with Wendy's car. We had Shane and Derek join with Gray and Jen and head out to meet Sharon and Kent. After about half an hour, they walked back to the motel, having had a flat tire. They got it all fixed and we had Wendy's car towed to the Chevron station, where someone would look at it on Monday. Then we took in Wendy and Rick, and we tooled off toward Lake Powell, with two cars jammed full of bags and people. We had called to leave a message at the marina that we would be late, 12:00 instead of 10:00. Then the trip took longer than we had anticipated, and we didn't get there until about 12:15. We couldn't see anyone there, but we left a few notes on the bulletin boards, and read a few notes and tried to locate the Amanns by land. After awhile, they came into the marina and took all us stragglers in on their boat, along with a really full boatload of bags and other equipment. We motored over to the houseboat. Alyson and Brian and their two boys, Brandon and Daniel were there, and my sister Diane and her friend Randy, and Ryan and his friend Jeff Larkin. One group of skiers went out, and did some late afternoon skiing, but a windstorm and thunderstorm came up. Shane and Wendy and Rick and Grayson got to ski. We had a nummy meal of salmon that night, cooked by Kent, who had caught it earlier on his trip to Alaska. We all got situated in our sleeping places, and we had a little rain, but it didn't amount to much, which was a good thing, as most of us were out under the stars without a lot of overhead protection. We had a pretty good night's sleep. 

05 September (Sunday) We played around the houseboat, and on the shore, and took some nice hikes up around the slickrock. We also did some fishing. I had brought one outfit, and we ended up catching four different kinds of fish: carp (about 5), bass (2), catfish (1) and bluegill (about 5). We did a lot of frisbee throwing, and swimming. Kent tried to resolve some of the houseboat problems; one engine in the ater and not startable, the potty full and not working well, some of the pontoons full of water. We tried to pump out the pontoons, but there was apparently as much water coming in as was being pumped out. Then Kent decided to head over to a place closer to the marina, since he'd already made plans for them to pick up the houseboat at 7:30 Monday morning for the necessary repairs. We tooled up on one engine to the potty pumper, and got the potty problems fixed, and then went to an inlet nearby the marina. We had a nice barbequed chicken dinner, and settled down in our new home. We slept pretty soundly again, without the storm threats of the prior night.

06 September (Monday) We got up quite early to get the houseboat over to the boat dock, where it was hoisted up onto the truck and hauled ashore. We unloaded all of the bags and stuff into the cars, and then reloaded the boat with what we needed for the day's water activities. Marge opted to stay with the houseboat in the repair area, while the rest of us went back to where the houseboat had been parked to get in some more boating and waterskiing. Shane, Wendy, Rick and Grayson all had turns up on the skis while Derek and Ryan and Jeff stayed on shore and hiked around and did some beachcombing. Then we went out with the smaller kids and Derek tried the skis, and was able to get up with some help from Wendy in the water. We tooled around the bay twice before Kent dropped him off in front of our swimming hole. Ryan and Jeff rode the kneeboard. We returned to the houseboat where we cleaned up everything. Then we hauled all of the stuff back to the boat ramp and unloaded, and got the stuff into the cars.  Our two cars headed back North about 2:30 with the same crews as to Powell from Moab. We stopped in Price at the Pizza Hut for dinner, and then continued on to good old SLC. We got home about 9:00. Rick's car, parked in our driveway wouldn't start. We jumped it to resolve that problem. We'd had enough car problems for a while!

In the next journal entry back home, Dad mentioned feeling woozy (like he was still on a boat) and that Derek was sick that first night home. Still rocking! Wendy probably has a pretty good write up (I/Jen checked my journal ... I wrote before and after this but didn't get around to writing about the trip. We do have a few pictures from before, in Moab so I'm not sure why I didn't get some pictures at Powell). Wendy did though!

Lake Powell Memories

Dad/Lamar's sister Sharon and her husband Kent were big fans of Lake Powell. They had a houseboat, and a boat for waterskiing, and jet skis. The Westra clan was invited on a few trips to Lake Powell over the years ... Mom/Margie recalled one early trip when Jenny was about three years old; "I remember her missing and I was sooo panicked that she had maybe fallen overboard! Then came to find out she had gone in the speedboat with others to the shore." 

So while this may not be a complete collection of trips and memories ... it's a start!

During the July 1982 trip, baby Derek was just a few months old! Mom/Margie says he slept in a little cardboard box by their bed on the houseboat. Thanks to Wendy's journal, we have a pretty good recap of everything (you can read it here).  There was a lot of water skiing, jet skiing, cliff-jumping and the big log (pictured above) was a lot of fun. Wendy mentions she, Chris and Dad spelled "Westra" with rocks and took a picture (couldn't locate said picture though). She mentions a group picture at the end too. In addition to our family and Amann's, Burgeners had come up (Grandma Lucille, Vic and Karen), Ricky's girlfriend, Alyson's boyfriend, and another girlfriend.

Wendy mentions pulling the tumbleweeds from the water. Jen remembers this too ... little fish had gone in them to hide, and then would flop out as we pulled the big, round branches from the water. After they dried out, they were burned in a big bonfire! There were fireworks and sparklers too. A storm the first night, and lots of gnats!

And then there was the catfish incident, but that was the NEXT trip ...

We went to Lake Powell again a couple years later. Wendy's journal isn't quite as helpful for this trip ... written in retrospect a few months afterward, and mainly focusing on some of the teenage boys that came along with the Amann family (Kent's nephews and an exchange student from Germany).  More cliff-jumping and skiing. Wendy was able to get up on one ski, and cross the wake. 

And the catfish incident. Grandma Lucille recounted the event in her history ...

I went to Lake Powell with my daughter Sharon and family and my son LaMar and family and daughter Diane. Sharon was recuperating from a broken and sprained arm (she had been knocked down while roller skating). The doctor said she could get in the water. While she was out floating, LaMar was fishing and caught a large catfish. He unhooked it and flung it out in the water and the catfish hit Sharon in the thigh and hung on. She was bitten and the ranger took her to the doctor's office for a tetnus shot. Later when she was in Hawaii, she scratched her leg and found a tooth of the catfish.

There were more trips ... exact dates and details weren't quick to appear. 

This can be updated if more information/pictures come up. 

Jen has some additional Lake Powell memories too ...

• I remember we went "hunting" lizards with BB guns (not very humane, I know!)
• Sleeping on top of the houseboat under the stars ... so much brighter than back home.
• Ricky and Randy had bottle rockets, and lit them and aimed them so they went underwater. There would be the whistling as they were in the air, then silence as they hit the water and were submerged, then a muffled "boom" and flash under the water.
• Once Uncle Kent was driving the boat trying to get someone up on water skis... they fell, and Uncle Kent shouted "I'll save you" and jumped out of the boat. One of the older boys got up and took over the driving of the boat ...
• There was a card game we played ... we called it "The Lake Powell game" and I remember it was a lot of fun.
• Gray and I went once after we were married. Grayson remembers Uncle Kent called him "Killer" ;)