Headed out on the Lake!

Here's the ride. It is a 26 foot Playcraft pontoon that we bought a couple of years ago. As the grandkids got older, the speed boat didn't provide enough room and security for the kids. So with tears in my eyes, it had to go. This is an RV, just not a camping RV.


This will hold all the family and all the grand kids at once. It doesn't cost hundreds of thousands and it has a Honda outboard motor that sips gas instead of guzzling it.


Looking back at the house. Ours is the one with the green roof. It is two story with the lower story being against the concrete wall. It looks like a one story from the street side. Our hills here are quite steep, and this is the type of construction that is required. It is an overcast day so the pics are washed out in color, so we have what we have.





On down the Lake we arrive at Atlantis Island Go look at the fancy web site.

This is the second year that this project has been under construction. It is a massive undertaking. This was known as Hawaiian Island for years and years, and had an old restaurant on the back side of the island.

But the marketing boys got a hold of things and it is now Atlantis. They asked for a bridge to connect it to land, but were dramatically told no. So it remains accessible only by boat.

The artist rendition of the project has eight buildings of thirty condos each. 240 Units. And one boat to get back to shore. Hope you are not in a hurry to get home. There are three buildings up at this time.


I went around to the back side, or the North side of the island. It is in an entrance to a cove that goes about 2 miles back from the main channel. So there are no really bad views. The front buildings will be able to see for miles up and down the lake. (River)


The big tall structure is the water tower. It is a well system, that will need to supply the 240 families, and all at once on big holiday weekends. They built the sea wall all around the island starting last summer and finishing in the winter. It was done when we got back from Texas.


This is the ferry system that will take the residents from the island to the mainland. So far it has ferried all the construction trucks to the island with all the concrete to build what they have done so far. We wonder if there will be any ferry left by the time the project is completed.


The project has been a bureaucratic nightmare for the regulators here in Miller county. It is out in the county, and is not regulated by any city. The county folks seem to have little idea how to regulate such a thing. At one point all construction and sales had to completely stop because there were no dock permits for the island. The bankers shut off the money and the newspapers were abuzz.

No one was being paid for their billings and my buddy, that sold me the pontoon boat, was selling them fuel. He didn't get paid for weeks. Needless to say they don't get fuel from Ted anymore.

Once the technicality, of the dock permits was solved, most of the summer had passed and sales for the year went in the tank.

So we watch the project this year to see what will happen next. They have residents in finished units and the ferry must run. The developer is using money, that is provided by the banker to run things since there is only a hand full of dues paying folks to provide income. And the interest bill for the project runs on and on.

Units sell for 245K on the front top side and 190K on the lower back side. I wonder how low they will go in order to get the place full of HOA dues paying people.

It is a novelty, as our tourist excursion boat, the Tom Sawyer, goes around the island on every cruise.


Not many people on the boat today! It seems to never be anywhere close to full. With diesel approaching $5 on land, I wonder what they have to pay for it on the water. At least .50 more.

If you click on the picture and make it big, they seem to be looking at us with as much curiosity as we were, looking at them.



We got hungry and came back to the dock and had lunch. Then other projects came into play, and the pontoon is still waiting for us to return. Hey lets get back out there!

Tomorrow?