Lake Richard B Russell

Lake Russell is on the SC/GA boarder between Hartwell and Thurmond. We were invited to spend some time on Russell by friends who are in the process of making an old boat like ours water ready.

Blog of bringing his boat home.

 We have been to Hartwell

and Thurmond

but this would be our first trip to this Russell.

It had rained for a couple days before the planned departure and I was worried that I'd not be able to get Big Duck across the lawn and around the house to the street. I even had traction problems in the wet grass and leaves backing up the van to get the trailer attached.

My dog, Merlin says, "The yard is very slippery."

Later that evening  I got the mower out and blew the leaves away from the path out, in hopes the lawn would be more accommodating the next morning when we headed to the lake.

Eliminating the leaves made things easier.

The trip to the ramp, about 100 miles from home, was challenging due to traffic. We diverted off the Interstate because the GPS showed an hour delay due to a wreck, but the back roads added 45 minutes to the run. When we got to the ramp we found our friend Nicky and crew waiting to help us launch. I readied Big Duck and got Suzy aboard.

Suzy has MS and can't negotiate the steps so I winch her up via a homebuilt Suzalator.

With Suzy and Merlin aboard, Nicky backed us down the ramp and into the water. We hung around the ramp until he parked my rig and joined us with his wife Janet and her sister, Donna out on the lake.

Nicky and crew aboard their Sea Ray, Early Times

We all had a great time together, exploring the lake, getting together for meals and listening to the Clemson Tigers beating Florida State.

Jeff & Suzy eating fish, hush puppies and french fries, compliments of the ET crew.

Janet and Donna in the middle of our freshly fried fare.

Nicky getting the soup and cornbread ready.

Mmmmm! Janet's carrot cake - with ample frosting.

Merlin keeping watch on Big Duck.

Keeping watch wears a puppy out - time for R&R

It was cold but we kept each other warm.

Sunday morning we had breakfast and leisurely headed back to the ramp. Nicky jumped off at the dock and backed his trailer down while Suzy, Merlin and I watched as Janet drove Early Times up onto the trailer.

Then Nicky backed my rig down and I put Big Duck on the trailer. It was a little cold getting the boats road ready, but we didn't mind one bit, it had been a glorious outing.

Almost ready to hit the road.

Notice all the room on the trailer in front of the Sea Ray. Nicky has bunks there for his jetski.

This crisp Fall outing got me psyched up for a Florida run in December. More on that later.

Oh and a final note:
Merlin set a new record. He prefers to swim ashore to go potty but we have a 'grass' mat set up on the aft deck that he uses when we're not letting him off the boat. His previous record was 36 hours before using the mat. On this trip he was aboard for 48 hours and waited until we were back on the trailer to go down the steps and do potty ashore!