Welcome to Richland Chambers Video, tell us what you think!

This is our new "Welcome to Richland Chambers" Video.  Let us know what you think, we appreciate your comments!  Email us below...

johnteelremax@gmail.com or  julieteelremax@gmail.comjulieteelremax@gmail.com

Boat Show Fun!

Good Friends, good times at the Dallas Boat Expo!

Last Friday was the first day of the DFW Boat Expo otherwise known as the Boat Show at Market Hall.  It is always free on the first night so we headed up to Dallas With some neighbors and friends, John and Judy Baker.  

Here is a www.dallasboatexpo.com/

Funny thing was the first time we ever met these guys was at the boat show 9 or ten years back. We quickly became fast friends because we share the same love for all  things related to fun, lake and boating and so we thought it appropriate to go together since the last two times we went, we ran into them and hung out.(Evidence of small world stuff)

We had a booth at this same boat show for several years when we first opened our office at the Lake and it was always curious to us that there were so many folks that did not know the location of Richland Chambers Lake and that many had never heard of it before. Those folks are really missing out!!

This is probably due to the fact that no entity  has ever promoted the Lake at the boat shows other than a  few developers, Oak Cove (in the early days)  and a few real estate brokerages  along the way including yours truly.   

It has been a couple of years since we attended the boat show.  The last time we went was in 2105, we became the proud and blessed owners of a 2015 Bennington Red Tritoon boat!  We had owned a 2001 Bennington prior and knew that we needed a  new one  after  breaking down in the middle of the lake on a hot summer afternoon with temperatures soaring at over 100 degrees.  I’ll never forget our embarrassment nor  the lucky guy who happened to be our client and passenger that day who was not exactly thrilled and was smoldering in his seersucker slacks and polo shirt(Not exactly boat attire.)

It was not a great day but it did lead to beautiful memory shortly thereafter when Ruby was delivered all bright and shiny after our trip to the boat show that year.

2015 Bennington 

We have a history of taking advantage of the boat show “specials”.  
We have found the deals are always better and I am frugal by nature.  

When we first opened the office, we were invited on a Seadoo Sunday outing with some friends we met at the lake.   We had never ridden a jet ski and so we borrowed a Kawasaki

From some friends, the Woods.  John and I started out that day with excitement and anticipation.   The 10 of us would ride from boat house to boathouse saying hi to other friends and hanging out along the way.  We ended up at our first stop that day over at some friends, the Capallos.  As we approached, we slowed down, John made a small shift in direction and bloop, we both ended up in the water. (My Chanel sunglasses are still at the bottom over there if anyone needs a pair.). That was just  the first of many pair to lose in this lake!.  Long story shortened,  I was like a beached whale trying to get back up on that Kawasaki without a step, so our good friend and neighbor, Dan Wilkie was kind enough to let me up on his Seadoo (it had a step) with him and I could easily maneuver myself up on it!  

Richland Chambers Veterans

I will have to say that motorcycles scare me to death so I was shocked and surprised that I fell in love so quicklywith jet skiing and particularly the Seadoo!   It was the following weekend we went to our first boat show and I became the proud new owner of the  Seadoo of my choice……. A beautiful Red Wake 155.  Shortly thereafter, John also got his first seadoo, the Wake 255.  We decked them out with REMAX logos and ran all over this lake delivering contracts and meeting up with buyers to see properties and houses.     

2018 Seadoo 300 RXT-X

Many years have passed, and recently we have been on the look out for the color red to replace our older and tired models.

It has been very difficult to find the right colors,  Seadoo has been manufacturing all these funky new colors and no red ones!  Well last night at the boat show, we wandered around for a couple of hours trying to find red ones.

Interestingly enough, red is still hard to find but we were able to find some pretty cool gray ones with red trim 

So we are now the proud and excited owners of our second set of Seadoos!  This time we bought the 300 model.

So, see you on the lake this year!  We will be coming by to say hi on our spiffy new Seadoos and we are so excited.

Parker having a good time!

Oh and…a word of warning.  Do not go to the boat show unless you want to have a great time and be tempted by all the wonderful things of water!   

Trying to get John to sign on the bottom line

Good looking ride!

Life at Richland Chambers

It’s January on Richland Chambers lake.  Time to implement those New Years Resolutions.  Move your body more and swear off sweets, booze and all things toxic for your body for a season.

You may be wondering, what is there to do at the lake to keep you active?  Well, there are so many things that you can do to keep you in shape. 

There are ladies that carpool to Corsicana for Yoga and Zumba class.  These classes are great but I can’t do the travel time and join these fun ladies since I’m still working. So we run down to the clubhouse (we live in The Shores) for a workout. On those occasional beautiful winter days we just take a walk or bike ride in the subdivision.

Once Spring is upon us, in just a short while, John and I will take the kayaks out for adventure.  We cruise the shorelines and enjoy the nature.  Now THAT is a great upper body workout with many benefits.

John and Kelsey on a winter day 2015

When the weather turns a bit warmer, we will get out our paddle boards. Talk about a workout for your core! Standing up on those things is a chore for this girl but I will go as long as I can and then just sit on them and use a kayak paddle to navigate.

Another sport we love is jet skiing! Those things will work you out too. You don’t realize how many muscles you use on a jet ski until you ride one a few hours without stopping.  

But one of our best favorite activities is tubing! (Ouchy Wawa!)

That is like skiing for the old folks! I love seeing my friends in their 60’s water skiing but that is a sport that I could barely do in my twenties.  

So probably not in the cards for this girl at this ripe old age of 54.

I will have to say one of my favorite water activities (if you can call it one) is blowing up our big 8 person float and just float down the cove or tying  it to our dock when it is warm and sunny and just soaking up the rays and the good conversations with friends and family.(I know. Not many calories expended there) But still a personal fave!

Regardless of your fitness level or sporting fortitude, there is 

Something for you at Richland Chambers!  ....Julie

Summer fun!

The Shores Clubhouse.
(This is an older picture, a couple of the machines are different now)

Update: Fuel the FireFighters!!

Members of 287/RC Fire and Rescue VFD cooking burgers

The Fuel The Fire Fighters Fund Raiser is gaining momentum and shaping up to be a great event! Our community has already donated more than $16,000 in cash and silent auction items as of today to support the lake shore area Volunteer Fire Departments.  We are having people calling and offer to volunteer to help on event day and lots of people pre-registering to make the Poker Run.  (By the way if you would like to pre-register just come by RE/MAX LakeSide Dreams to fill out the form and get your wrist bands.
We are very excited about this year's event and are looking forward to this Saturday!  Last year's Poker Run had 111 Poker hands played and 4 8's took the winning prize.  The best thing of all was the community donated almost $23,000 in cash and an $8000 boat lift to "Rescue the Rescue Boat".  We had people from all around the lake come together and a good time was had by all.

It looks like the weather is going to be good according to the latest NWS forecast. 89 degrees for the high with 5-10 mph winds.  So everyone be safe on the water and remember it's not a race, just a chance to enjoy the lake, meet some new friends and draw for a winning hand.  See you there!
For details check out  www.FueltheFireFighters.com 

Fuel the Fire Fighters! Poker Run and Fundraiser

Save the Date! Saturday September 2nd

Alright, Alright, Alright!  We are very excited to announce our 2nd Annual Poker Run and Silent Auction on Richland Chambers Lake! This year benefiting Lake Shore Area Volunteer Fire Departments!   These Volunteers are our Community's First Responders. Come on out, bring your friends and let's bring the Richland Chambers Lake Community together to: Fuel the Fire Fighters!

We need Donations, Silent Auction Items, Poker Players and Volunteers!!

Check out the website at www.FueltheFireFighters.com  for Information, Sponsorship and Donation forms, and Registration Forms.  Also you can come by the office on 287 in Eureka to pick up forms and drop off donations and Silent Auction items.  Thank you so much for your support!!

What about the Green Boat?

I blogged last summer about the "Green Eyed Lady of Richland Chambers".  It's a 1978 model, lime green "The Deck Boat, Gatesville, Texas".   I acquired it very cheap and now I see for good reason.  But nothing ventured, nothing gained right?   So what about it?   Well as Paul Harvey used to say "and now, the Rest of the Story..."

Old boats are not always what they are cracked up to be.  But the coolness factor is very enticing.  I have great memories as a kid running around in these kind of things with my dad at the wheel.  He always had some old boat he was working on. We would launch on Lake Arlington, Ray Hubbard or Lake Dallas (now Lake Lewisville) and have fun.  Plus retro is in these days so what could be cooler than a vintage 70's model boat (one they don't make any more) running around on Richland Chambers?   Sounds great, right?  Yeah, well all true if the boat is worth the effort.  Most old boats are not worth a lot, of course there are exceptions, but if you want an old boat I bet I can find you one real cheap!

Saying all of that, the saga of the "Green Eyed Lady" has come to an ignominious, inglorious end.

When we first got it we cleaned it up and took it to TJ with Lakeside Boat Service. He checked it out and made sure she was somewhat lake worthy.  So one afternoon we put it in the water and ran around the cove a few times.  All was well and heading towards what seemed to be a fun project with a lot of coolness factor.  Feeling confident, Julie and I headed out one afternoon last fall.  We took off out of the cove and headed up the Chambers arm of Richland Chambers.  Julie was on a Seadoo with a tow rope just in case.  I got some interesting looks and comments from some friends on their docks along the way.  We made it up as far as the pump station and decided to head back.  After a few minutes all of a sudden she lost power.  I turned and looked back saw  smoke coming from the engine compartment.  Of course I shut her down.  I now know I had spun the connector between the engine and the outdrive.  Good thing we brought a tow rope!  We made it back to our dock, tied her up and the next day went to see TJ.

Being towed in 

back to the shop...

To shorten the story a bit, back to the shop, new engine connector some other things and early last March back in the water.  Our son Parker and I took off again.  Same thing, around the cove a few times and then headed out to the open water past the jetty.  We didn't get very far and I turned around to come back in.  Then the same thing happened, we spun the motor connector.  After a lot of paddling and somewhat favorable winds we made it to Northshore Marina and tied it up in a slip.

Towing her to the ramp

this turned out to be the final inspect

The bottom line turned out to be the condition of the boat itself.  A lot of older fiberglass boats have a considerable amount of wood in them surrounded by fiberglass.  We knew there was some wood rot in the transom and now feared it was in really bad shape.  We could tell by the 'play' in the transom and the fact that the motor connector had failed twice.  When TJ opened it up the whole transom was basically nothing but mush.  He did some checking around about repairing it properly (so it and yours truly would not wind up at the bottom of Richland Chambers Lake!).  However, it turns out to repair the transom and surrounding hull properly was going to be very expensive.  All of a sudden the "Coolness Factor" diminished dramatically. Funny how it works that way sometimes.

So now I've gone through my grieving period and headed off to the next thing.  But I have to say we all found a little bit of joy in the whole idea and for me, the very short time I drove it around I did feel really cool!

Lake Adventures on Richland Chambers

Osprey nest in Mattie Caston

On Mother's Day the weather was great and Julie and I found ourselves at home with little Mother's Day fanfare so it was time for a SeaDoo adventure.  So we loaded up and took off.  We decided to follow the shoreline from our dock heading northwest as far as we cared to go.  We explored every cove and creek we could find and took our time taking in the sights.  
First to Northshore Harbor, then around Moonlight Point to Collins Lane and White Rock.  We headed north under 287 bridge to Oak Cove Marina.  We came around to Paradise Bay and talked to some friends, Brent and Brenda and then on to Hidden Oaks.  Vista Ridge was next and then up the creek in Lakeview all the way to the 3140 bridge.  We came out of the creek, after slight technical difficulty, and headed into Mattie Caston. 
Mattie Caston Cove is kind of tough to navigate in a boat as there is a lot of timber in the water.  We took it easy and slow and made it all the way in.  We came across a huge Osprey Nest with a pair of Ospreys patrolling and defending the nest from overhead.  We saw a lot of homes and docks we have never seen from the water.

Here is our course:

Central Area of Richland Chambers Lake

Our former Bennington

We continued on north through Starcrest and then under the 2859 Bridge around to Hide Away Harbor.  Hideaway Harbor is named very well. This quiet neighborhood is tucked away just north of the bridge.  We came across our old boat tied up to TJ's dock, in good shape.

2859 Bridge, think the blue spot means anything?

Our adventure had started about 2:30 so by now we started thinking about heading back and actually had a couple of destinations in mind.  The first stop was to go find a big nest in the trees we knew about north of Hickey Island and check it out.  The lake was perfect, the wind was fairly calm and the sky was beautiful.  Our Seadoos were running great.  Julie's is a 2009 Seadoo Wake and mine is a 2010 Seadoo 215 Wake Pro.. We bought both of them new and they have been very good machines.

Osprey nest close to Hickey Island

Julie in action, just off of Hickey Island

Our next stop was Hickey Island.  We made our way in to the south side of the island, beached the Seadoos and had a picnic. The seadoos have plenty of room to carry drinks and snacks.   The Island is pretty large (maybe 300 acres?) and we found a pretty nice, small beach area.  Hickey Island is completely grown up and there is all kinds of wildlife running around on it.  We didn't venture too far from the shore, just enjoyed the view and took it all in.  Next we shoved off and headed south.

   

Picnic on the Island

The last big adventure of the day was to visit the Oil Derrick south of the island off of Vista Ridge.   The rig doesn't appear to be functioning, but then again I'm no expert.  There was another big Osprey nest up in the rig and the pair were circling around while we were close.

Osprey nest on the Oil Rig

It was getting late in the day by now so we headed on back to The Shores and docked the Seadoos.  It was a great afternoon!