After our morning constitutional of coffee and Irish Cream, we piled into the truck and returned to Ruth’s for a ride on Lake Norman. It turns out that Ruth has a craft called a pontoon boat that seems to be an ideal platform for relaxing in the shade while watching the world go by. It is docked not far from her house so it was not long before we had boarded and were on our way. Ruth mostly cruises at very reasonable speeds but there is a big black but remarkably quiet Mercury outboard attached to the back end and once in a while she would demonstrate that the craft will actually zing along but mostly she stayed in relaxation mode.
There is a big canopy on the boat that shades the comfy, couch-like seats that line the periphery of the boat and it turns out that there are few more relaxing activities to engage in when it is hot than cruising around Lake Norman. The houses along the shoreline appear to be owned by corporate execs and race car drivers (remember- we are in the middle of NASCAR country) and they are stunning. It seems these folks need substantially more space to live than we do because the houses were almost universally enormous. Architects locally have done good work because all the houses don’t look similar or identical. The lots are big and there are very few fences, even around swimming pools.
Partway into our cruise, Ruth took us to a place called the Blue Parrot which offers excellent food at reasonable prices, a great drink selection, shady patio dining and the ability to drive a boat right up to their dock where their flunkies will fuel your craft while you dine and drink. It is a great place to eat while viewing the goings-on on the lake and one can depart with the tanks topped off.
Ruth was bad and fed us again after providing us with entertainment all day. We were forced to deal with barbecued chicken and cheese tortellini and we left quite full. We are still running our GPS to find our way home because this place looks different in the dark.
We got a few pix during our boating. Click here