By Joe McCauley
March 19,20, Kingsland. The Bluebonnets are in bloom and the air is cool-50F on Sunday morning at 11 AM on the water. I arrived at Meatball’s outboard palace Sat. afternoon, his new classic outboard acquisitions never cease to amaze. 
Along with the 17′ 1965 Powercat hydro that Darrell painted for him was a 15′ 1965 Powercat and also a Chrysler stacker, plus a Bonneville mid section and two extra gearcases. I overnighted at Motel 6 in Marble Falls, Meatball met me Sunday morn at Super Taco and treated us both to Mexican omlette (alias Huevos ancheros). Mighty tasty fare! I launched the Glastron at the Kingsland park, put on my headband and began my cruise. 
I first went north and passed through the boulders about 10 yards from the west bank, watching boulders beneath the water as I idled through. North of the boulders there are boat houses and boats again, and there were fishing boats at Ink’s Lake Dam. The water is swimmable at about 65F, I saw a wake boarder in swim suit on the way up.
On the way south to LBJ Dam beyond the confluence of the Llano and Colorado a herd of cattle grazed on the north bank. The wind was up and the water was rough but the Glastron loved it! The Feather Craft would have loved that water too. I cruised two hours mainly at 4000 RPM, opening the big Johnson up to 6700 RPM a few times, and only burned 5 gal. of gas. All in all it was a fine visit with Meatball and a soul-cleanser to cruise LBJ. The pain was in the 5-1/2 hr. return to Houston, bumper to bumper from the Austin airport through 6 stoplights south of Bastrop, and then stop and go on I-10. I will attempt to avoid Sunday returns to Houston in the future.
Please check out this link to see the rest of the photos from Joe’s trip to Meatballs: http://www.texaschapteraomci.com/gallery/a-weekend-with-meatball-and-cruising-lake-lbj/