Memorial Day Weekend at Clear Lake – doesn’t get much better. Plus, we got our first taste of honest summer weather, without it being so hot that we were miserable and sweaty. When I reserved the site months ago, I was assuming heat, but the nice thing about this place is that it offers a rare waterfront location, with full hookups.
I was able to get away early on Friday and we pulled in to our site mid afternoon. That gave us plenty of time to just chill before dinner. Blue Apron was the plan for Friday and we had a delicious asian rice dish, with snap peas and sweet bell peppers.
Saturday Richard went for an ambitious bike ride around the lake. The loop was about 65 miles all told, and I went along for the ride. In the car. Now I’ve got a better idea of the layout of Clear Lake and I checked out another campground in Lakeport that might be nice for future visits. He and I met up every so often until the last leg. Then I went ahead and got Squirt ready for a paddle. It was really really windy and the lake had some pretty good sized chop. It was fun, like riding some very mild rapids, but I didn’t get very far. Eventually, I got tired and just let the wind carry me back to shore. Richard went and retrieved pizza and we both went to bed zonked.
Sunday weather was in the upper 80s and the lake was smooth and calm. I made two loops around Rattlesnake Island, pausing in between to give a tour of Dory to some prospective Altoistes. The lake was a-buzz with speed boats, some pulling big inflated rafts. Every time one went by, I got to bounce around in the wake, pretending I am a serious kayaker. I discovered that if I put my phone, which is tethered to me by the strap of a dry bag, down the front of my life vest (the cleavage, if you will), then I can whip it out quickly to take a picture. The Advanced Elements inflatable kayak is really pretty awesome. It is super stable and very maneuverable. The company has great customer service as well. I broke a strap on my deck bag a while back and inquired about getting a new one. They sent me back two, for free. Nice.
Sunday night’s dinner was an experiment of crescent roll dough, filled with ham and cheese, and baked in the Omnia for 20 min. Yum! I feel we have opened up a whole new world of crescent cuisine.
Monday we reluctantly broke camp and headed home. This site is still one of my favorites, though I will say we were lucky because they didn’t have a record of our reservation. Our email confirmation sufficed, but it was nice there wasn’t already someone else in our spot. I can also imagine that there are times when the boat launch might get icky. That part of the lake seemed to be the eventual destination for many floating things – like algae. But, for full hookups and a place where you can toss your boat in the water from your site? That’s a rare thing! And I don’t think I will ever tire of watching the sunset on a water feature.
Total miles: 143.3, 16.7 mpg, 3 hours 21 min. Site 36, full hookups. Wifi from the park and good LTE for both of us. We brought our extra long dump hoses, purchased during our last stay, so that we could spin Dory and still reach.
