Posted: Tue, 26 May 2009 08:06 AM - 11,290 Readers

By: Foti Kallergis

The weekend’s rainstorms didn’t put much of a dent on the low lake levels at Lake Travis. Boaters dodged peninsulas and scrambled to find parking at dock-side restaurants and bars.

“You know the lake level does affect our business,” said Carlos and Charlie’s co-owner Pete Clark. “We don’t have enough places to park customer boats. So anytime we get about to this level, we lose some of that parking.”

The restaurant’s boat parking is all dried-up. Clark said the restaurant has reserved spots for his customers at marinas further away from the restaurant. Clark said boat customers account for 30-40% of his business. Yet at dusk, the bar area was packed with customers and few tables remained empty.

“It’s usually pretty packed out here,” said long-time customer Eric Hallas.
“From what I see, it looks pretty busy.”

Customers like Amy McCool and her friend Nikki said leaving the marina nearby Saturday was dangerous.

“We were out here yesterday and one of our friends broke his prop on his boat trying to get out of the marina,” said McCool.

“It’s been worse, and there’s still a lot of water out there. You need to be cautions out on the lake ‘cause it gets smaller in a drought.”

Clark said that also means less space to dock boats, but he said as long as there is water in the lake, customers will find their way to his lakeside patio. Clark said overall, this Memorial Day weekend sales have been comparable to other years. He said business will begin to slow down beginning Monday then will pick back up for the next busiest day of the year, Forth of July weekend.