Canoe fun!

Picture: I think we finally figured out the people in the canoe. Gail's in the bow, John's in the stern. But, we have no idea who is in the middle.

Aunt Lois and Uncle Dave live on a chain of five lakes. Dallas is the largest where people could even water ski. The other lakes are Witmer, Westler, Dallas, Hackenberg, and Messick Lakes in the Indian Lakes chain of LaGrange County, Indiana. It's a very small town as you can see from the Wikipedia info below.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolcottville is a town in LaGrange and Noble Counties in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 933 at the 2000 census.

My mom is the youngest of five kids. Since we were always the babies, we missed out on a lot of the fun. Or at least we thought we did! The highlight of any campout was to be deemed "big enough" to do anything that the older cousins did! Canoe trips or water skiing were at the top of the status pole! The canoe trip would last all day starting right after breakfast. And you'd better do your part paddling or you were going to get very wet (which was worse than getting yelled at!)! We would head for the dam. It is so quiet and peaceful there. Except the the SWAT! OUCH! SWAT! SWAT! SWAT! OUCH! The deer flies had found a free lunch! And did that bite ever sting! We would have welts the size of peas! Yes, we used the deer fly spray. that just seemed to attract them more. Once past the dam and park, it was time to get down to some serious paddling. We'd wind around the different lakes and eventually around noon stop for a picnic lunch if you were lucky enough to go on the looooonnnnnngggggggg canoe trip. Then more paddling - did I say my arms were very, very, very, tired and sore by now? I didn't complain (much). By early afternoon we'd reach Dallas Lake. The water skiers would be in full force by then. If you weren't careful you'd catch the wave just right and tip. Once down the channel, it was only about an hour's paddling until we reached the dock. We'd pass white and pink lily pads floating in a sea of green leaves. Then under the bridge, around the curve and home! It was the best trip ever! More on "the bridge" in another post.