THE GHEENOE - AT LAST; ESCAPE!

Today is a great day! Today I am again able to explore the magic of the lakes. The Gheenoe has arrived and I have tested it out on Melton Hill Lake. I really missed the ability to escape the noise and confusion of traffic and gobs of people. I missed the photo opportunities that nature provides. As a matter of fact, at the bottom of this blog entry I was rewarded with an unexpected treat. It caught me off guard and the camera wasn't ready but I snapped off a few shots of a swimming deer. Not unusual but sort of different as it was noon. The Gheenoe is of the custom variety and is powered by a 25 horsepower four stroke Honda engine. With only me and an empty boat the top speed is 29 to 30 mph in slight chop. Loaded with all the stuff I like, the speed dropped to 28 mph with an occasional 29 mph showing on the GPS. She has an 11 gallon inboard tank in the bow and I am proud to say the needle barely moved in three hours. Wow! I can afford to run it. Today is just a test run but full scale camping adventures off this little boat are coming up. By the way; the cliff on the lake is the same one that my Golden Retriever, Douglas, stepped off onto from the government boat in the story "The Storm" that I wrote two years ago. He was six months old then. That story is on the blog in the achieves. I almost ran into that cliff in dense fog during a terrible storm that Douglas and I got caught in a year later.

SCRUFFY

I haven't been on this site in quite awhile. That will change this weekend. I'll have the new boat on Friday and the lake trips will start shortly after. It will be great to be back on the water and away from cars, noise and civilization. I took on a new dog friend. I was told about him two days ago. His owner has to move to an apartment and Scruffy was slated for the pound and scheduled to be euthanized. I told them to hold everything and that I would get him out of there. I did and his pictures are below. He will be living with my little family here with me until a permanent home can be found. Of course he has visited the vet and got all his shots and neutered. What a friendly, sweet little guy he is. He's ten years old but acts like a pup. Scruffy is up for grabs if anyone wants to adopt him. He is great with cats and other dogs. His face appears to always be smiling.