TOWBOAT TO THE RESCUE

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS COURTESY OF KIM NYMAN

Eric Nyman plays with his son, Rowen, during the tow home

Playing games kept spirits up

TTowBoat Lake Martin turned a potential disaster into an exciting adventure that the Nyman family could retell for years to come.

“We were cruising to The Landing for dinner one Saturday night in August with six hungry adults and four toddlers, but we broke down about five minutes away,” said Kim Nyman, who moved to Lake Martin fulltime with her husband, Ned, five years ago.

The Nyman’s have three children and eight grandchildren. Their son, Eric, and his wife and children were visiting from Marietta and one of their daughters, Becca, and her family were visiting from Denver.

“The Landing is everyone’s favorite spot, so we saved it for the last night of their visit,” Nyman explained. “We were passing the Willow Point Golf Course on our way there for dinner when we heard a clunk; and then, the engine kept conking out.”

They later learned the water pump on their Chaparral had failed. As the family was heading out for their evening meal, the sun drew closer to the horizon, and the children – ages 3, 2, 1-and-a-half and 1 – grew ever more hungry.

“My husband and son-in-law looked at it and saw that something was really wrong, so we called TowBoat.

We’ve had a membership for years, but this is the first time we’ve had to use it,” Nyman said. “Capt. Jackson

Kelly was there in about 15 minutes, and he towed us all the way back to our dock in StillWaters.”

The tow home took about an hour.

“We found two pretzel sticks in a purse to help with the hunger a little bit. But everybody was hungry. To keep the kids entertained, we sang songs and played games all the way home. We told the kids Capt. Kelly was like

Superman,” Nyman said.

Eric kept baby Rowen laughing on the way home with a taste of the wind in his hair, and Becca snapped a selfie of the whole family taking the tow in stride.

Nyman discovered Lake Martin on a lake-finding mission while she worked for The Home Depot’s catalog division in Atlanta.

“I had worked for the company in St. Louis, but when The Home Depot bought the company, they moved it to Atlanta. So I had an apartment in Atlanta while Ned was still in St. Louis. I would go look for a lake to retire on,” she explained. “I loved Lake Martin. The water was so clear and beautiful. The people I met were very nice.”

So they bought a home in StillWaters and love to host their family all year.

“Eric and his family are close, so they come pretty often. The girls are in Denver and can come two or three times a year,” Nyman said.

Eventually, the family discovered their favorite place to dine – the Landing at Parker Creek – in the lake’s northwest area. All during the family visit this summer, they looked forward to their special meal there on the last night.

“We never got to The Landing again before they closed for the season,” Nyman said. “When our TowBoat captain delivered us to our dock, the kids had leftovers and mac cheese, and the adults called Niffer’s, and that was very good. We missed our last meal at The Landing, but we got to have a great adventure.”