{"id":786,"date":"2005-10-02T21:47:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-02T21:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cleek.lunarpages.com\/blogs\/?p=786"},"modified":"2005-10-02T21:47:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-02T21:47:00","slug":"lake-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=786","title":{"rendered":"Lake George"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were at the beach all last week, (Emerald Isle, NC, specifically) doing all the things people do at the beach: drink, play cards, drink, play Yahtzee, drink, play bocci, drink, swim, drink, lay out and read, drink, drink, eat, drink, etc.. One day, between drinks, a few of the guys hooked up with the father of one of the women (who is also the father-in-law-to-be of one of the guys) and went fishing on his boat. We cruised up the sound, past Morehead City and Beaufort, and out Bouge Inlet<\/a> to the ocean, where we bounced around on 5 five foot seas for a few hours, trolling for whatever we could catch; entire haul: one tattered plastic bag, and a sighting of the bouy put out above the wreck of Blackbeard's boat<\/a>. Though overall a fun time, the wave action and exhaust fumes got to me after a while, and I was pretty green until we pulled into the calm water on the sound side of Shackleford island for lunch - which I just nibbled at while my belly did flips. Eventually, we got back to fishing, but things settled down internally when I remembered that it helps to watch where the boat is going and anticipate the waves, rather than to just get tossed around passively - fuck the fishing poles, let the other guys watch them. Shoulda thought of that sooner.<\/p>\n

And, on the way back to the marina I was thinking about Lake George<\/a>, NY, where I spent many summer days working, when I was in high school. It's a big, deep, cold, historic<\/a> lake surrounded by mountains; and since it's about halfway between NYC and Montreal, it's always mobbed by tourists in the summer. I used to fish there a lot, mostly from the shore, but sometimes in boats, and I remember the only times I'd see any big waves was when the big tour boats<\/a> went by. At the time, there were three of them: the Minne-ha-ha, the Mohican and the Ticonderoga (I went to a prom on the Ticonderoga). They did tours up and down the lake all day long; and when they went by, you could watch the wake slowly make its way across the lake, till it ended up as few two or three foot waves - and then it was back to lazy ripples.<\/p>\n

Sadly, a tour boat full of elderly people on Lake George turned over today, killing 21<\/a> of them. The CNN story I read suggested it flipped in the wake of the Mohican. But the local paper's website says something else:<\/p>\n