Lake Mead 2015

What a trip.

This past weekend, a couple of my high school friends and I took a house boating trip to Callville Bay, Lake Mead, Nevada.

Prior to going to this trip, my friend Mark, who planned that trip about a month and a half in advance, asked me if I wanted to go. There was a little money involved and with the amount of money I was paying for it, I was skeptical that it wasn't going to be all that great. Either way, I told him I was in.

The entrance to Callville Bay, Lake Mead

Mark got 8 of us to go and we left on Friday around 2:30 a.m. after I got off of work at Fox Sports. The drive was a little bit further than to Las Vegas leaving from the South Bay. After making a pit stop at the Primm Valley Resort and Casino and a Walmart just outside of Las Vegas, we finally made it to the lake.

We unloaded all our luggages in a crate and made our way over to the houseboat we were going to rent out for 3 days.

Before we got out to the lake, we had to go through an orientation listen to direction on how to operate the boat. Our instructor gave detailed instructions but I couldn't even understand anything because he was trying to explain everything at a fast pace so we can go out and have fun.

We also rented out a speedboat (Thanks Anthony and Marissa!) so we can go tubing and get around the lake at more of a faster speed since the houseboat could only go up to 7-8 MPH.

Shot of the mountains from the deck of the boat. The white
on the mountains indicates were the water level used to
be at.

The worst part of the trip was finding a cove to dock the boat on to because we didn't want the water to be too shallow so that the propeller wouldn't get damaged. Once we found a place to dock the boat, it was all fun from there.

We went tubing, barbecued, drank a ton, drove around in the speedboat, camped around a fire at night, went for a swim and fished. just imagined that in a 48 hour span.

One thing that struck me during this trip was how bad the drought is. Not just in California, but also in Nevada.

Most of us don't mean to at times, but we waste water without noticing.


According to the U.S. Geological Survey, we waste about 76-95 gallons a day per person by drinking water, doing laundry, using the bathroom, washing dishes, etc.

As I sat on the deck and looked at the mountains, I thought about all those times I left a bottle of water unfinished and drained the rest of it out on the grass or when I would have the sink running when I could have had it off for a couple of minutes. All those times I can't get back so I have to make a better effort in myself to try to conserve as much water as I can. Although one person can't really make a difference in this situation.

But biggest thing that took a 360 for most of us was that there was no internet connection or lack of it. The only time we had some kind of connection was in the middle of the lake where there was some random hot spot for data service. It was good for us in the long run because forced us to be creative on things to do instead of play games on our smartphones and also forced us to have conversations instead of texting or looking at some kind of social media through a screen.

On the speed boat on Lake Mead. Missing one guy in the
picture that was sleeping on the houseboat before we left.

For most of the trip, I had my phone on me because I took pictures since no one else really did on this trip. Then one of the times when we were out in the middle of the lake, I noticed I had service and said, " What the! I have service." Not even a second passed by and I saw every one take out there phones like it was some kind of drug and was tapping away on their screens.

This trip was a eye opener for me.

I realized that we get away from society by being on our phones and forgetting what's really around us. We don't cherish those moments enough.

Next time when your hanging out with your friends, take some time away from your phone and enjoy what surrounds you.

Live. Laugh. Love



Jun


Shout out to Mark Yamashiro for planning the houseboat trip for the 7 of us. This was a trip of a lifetime and hopefully there's more to come.