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Ship's Log 6.28 Buffalo to Mentor Harbor

 After a great road trip and Buffalo visit, we leave the docks to head into Lake Erie. We pull into a gas dock to fill up before the crossing. A boat from Mississippi is at the diesel station, looking like it spent the night there. The dockhand shows up as we are trying to figure out how to knock on the door of M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I...He asks us how long they've been there and we shrug, not really sure. In the commotion, two men emerge and say they need to gas up. Supes. They slowly fill three tanks, then say they need to do a pumpout. To be clear, these things can be done at the same time. They were not. So we're filling up the water tank, giving the children lots of chores (Mason's response: I'm listening...I'm hearing you....my ears are open..." Mr. Funny guy.) Thirty minutes later, they're still pumping out and announce the gas tanks did not fill. The dockhand says, "Oh, we have issues with this pump all the time." Whaaattt?? Load up kids, we out! We give a wave to the dockhand, quickly untie, and figure out the next marina we can make it to. 

We have a smooth ride all the way to Presque Isle, a lovely state park island with beaches and a river in the middle with a gas dock. The lady there does not like the look of us at first, but Wm sweet talks her a bit and she warms up. At first look, people make assumptions about this boat, and then the ragtag fam comes out, and they recognize good ole family bonding time (and all the endless joy that holds lol). We have some pushpops at the dock, and I whip up some sandwiches while the tank fills. The lady now wants to know all about our trip. No one understands how we got this far from Charleston. Wish we had time to explore Presque more, but Wm has conference calls, and we are hoping to make it to Cleveland today. 

The ride across Erie is pretty uneventful, and we make it to a place called Mentor Harbor. Here we have a manmade lagoon with a club of sorts up front and a campground ringing the back lagoon part - Quite an array of folks at this stop. A nice man in a sailboat helps us tie up (apparently, cut out armpit holes are a real look for boaters). Right after we get the cord plugged in, we realize we want to swim. Unplug and untie, friendly sailor looking at us like we've lost it. We yell that we'll be right back, just going for a swim, and he says there's a boat shuttle to the pool. Thank you sir, but we opt to continue out to the lake for a plunge. 

Lake Erie is seriously calm and warm. We all dive in (even me), Mason opting to leap from the flybridge. No one has to stay on the boat, because there are no waves and no current. We do laps around the boat for some exercise. The children stick with us part of the way then start dolphining about. Mason swims under the boat, springing up next to us, while Meade dive bombs us from above. It's pretty awesome.

We head back in and repeat our plug-in process. Wm breaks out the grill and cooks up some Italian sausages. I make some rice and lima beans from our freezer (should have gone with the peas in retrospect). As we're cooking, the fishermen that were spaced out on Lake Erie, all start coming in for the night. We see a few Alumacrafts filled with Amish folk headed to the back of the lagoon and wonder about the rules on boat engines.

It's a quiet, peaceful evening with a few stray fireworks (those were fireworks, right?). 

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