4/24/16 Boat Show On The Water Was Awesome?

    Today (Saturday), we went out to Lake Travis over in Hudson Bend to attend the Boat Show On The Water event.  It was light on people, but a feast for the senses.  I absolutely love being out by the lake, on the lake, even in the lake, we don't do it nearly enough.  The event was first class all the way, people are just treated better when the crowds are well-to-do, and they have more than a couple nickels to rub together.
    We got going around 3:30pm, we do like sleeping in on the weekend.  As usual, Chubs was complaining he was hungry, but I was kind of in a hurry, because stopping to eat can distract Chubs and Wife pretty easily.  I basically told them to wait and we would eat there if there was food or wait until afterwards when Chubs refused my offer of a gas station hot dog.  It had been awhile since we had been out there, but there were just enough signs to point the way.  I loved that the parking was free.  How many times do you head somewhere only to be accosted by the sketchy dude asking for $5 or $10, just to park at an event.  Even better, there was a "roach coach" cooking up sausage wraps, pulled pork sandwiches and even some beef sandwiches.  They also had different sodas and even beer and chips.  Everything was pay a donation to the Firewalkers Association.  I can't remember going somewhere and the food be pay by a donation of your choice. 
    But the boats is what the event was about.  My goal for going was to sit on a pontoon boat and feel the bobbing up and down.  I think I could hang out on one, they felt pretty stable when I walked around.  The pontoons we checked out were very high end.  One of them had a second story with a slide.  One of them had a 300HP engine, which is just crazy to me that a pontoon can hit 40-50mph.  The price tags were hefty as well.  One of them was $90,000.  Anything that had a realistic price was used.  We didn't see a single boat priced under $30,000, even used.
    Wife and I did fall in love with one particular boat, a Meridian 441, which had a price tag in the $800,000 range.  It was the first boat we have ever walked on that had a working A/C where it was nice and cool.  It had two big beds plus a sofa in the salon/galley area plus another large padded area on the very top, which was also being air conditioned even though it was enclosed with plastic zippered walls.  There were at least four televisions and even two bathrooms.  This would be the reason I would love to win the lottery some day.  First thing I would buy.  There was a bigger boat in the 50 foot range that was in the $1,000,000 range, but it seemed packed every time we walked by it.  There were a couple big boats with enclosed areas with potential air conditioning that were not running, one was a 2005 SeaRay brand which looked new.  I told Wife it looked reasonable at $169,000 after seeing the other boats and their price tags.
    I got out of the event exactly what I wanted.  We saw the lake, we walked around for a couple hours, there was some live music, free food (well, with a donation), free parking, dreaming about buying a big boat, and even Chubs said wow a couple times.  He has gotten into a habit of complaining of not wanting to go places, then thoroughly enjoying himself.  This was one of those occasions.