I had the other boat for 10 years. Wow! I thought I had it for about 7 or 8 years, but when I got the title out so I could list it for sale, I titled the boat 10 years ago. Where does the time go?
Anyway, Mr. W and I were talking after this purchase and realized that this makes our 4th boat we have owned since we have been married and next May we will have been married 40 years. We did not purchase the first boat until we had been married about 7 or 8 years. As you can tell, we tend to keep boats (cars, trucks, rv's..........well, pretty much everything) for long periods of time. I told the kids that the next boat is going to be out of their pocket. But, if we keep this boat as long as we have kept the other 3, they will have about 10 years to save up!
We have never bought a boat new. Mr. W could never justify the cost of a new boat vs. the amount of time our family would use it. We use the boat a lot during the summer months but then it sits in storage for about 7 months. I will say that Mr. W is great at looking and looking and looking until he finds a used boat that he feels is the "right" one. He can d-r-I-v-e me crazy with all the looking, but in the end, I'm glad he did. One thing I have learned over the years is that Mr. W will look and look and bargain and bargain. But, when the deal is done and until he picks up whatever it is that he bought, he worries, second guesses himself, lists all the things that are wrong or could go wrong with the item, thinks about calling the deal off, talks about it constantly and gets stomach aches. Once he picks up the purchase, that usually all goes away. I am then the one that usually has the stomach ache after listening to him for days until he picks up the item! Geez!
The same scenario happened with this boat. After he picked it up, brought it to the lake, cleaned it up, put all of our "stuff" in it, went fishing in it, had me pull him on a slalom ski, and went riding around the lake, he told me that he really liked the boat and was happy that we bought it. Then, I couldn't hardly get him out of the boat. Men. They definitely are from Mars or Venus or some place foreign to me!
Anyway, most people kept asking me why I was going back to Texas in July. A boat is part of the answer. My family LOVES to do things that revolves around a boat and water. Mr. W learned to ski when he was 5. My kids learned to ski when they were 5 or 6. They grew up riding water towables every summer. Mr. W loves to fish and now the grandkids are liking to fish. They too LOVE riding the water towables and Boy-child has learned to ski. He is counting on learning to slalom next summer. The grandkids will also climb in the boat after they have been pulled around and around the lake and play pirate ship or navy ship or whatever kind of ship. Mr. W is still ski-ing and he will be......well, let's just say OLD next year. Daughter is determined to be the oldest female in the family to still water ski. I think the last time I skied I was 46 and it was on 2 skis and I did it once that summer. I have a niece that still skis and she is pretty close to that age. So, if Daughter can keep ski-ing til she's 50, she may hold the record. Son loves to ski and to ride the towables with the kids. I love to take pictures of them doing all the hard......I mean fun stuff! ;)
There is the answer to why I come back to Texas in July. My family has so much fun which means that I have so much fun and we make a lot of great memories. Isn't that what retirement is all about? Heck, isn't that what life is all about? So, here's to the "new" boat and may it help make many new memories of fun times in the hot July sun in Texas.
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