Jeff Hoefling met Stephen Miles when Miles painted Hoefling’s 42-foot Fountain (above), and their friendship has led to what will be a Lake Barkley-Kentucky Lake poker run this June. Photo courtesy/copyright Melanie Martin.
Through the renovation of his 42-foot Fountain sportboat built in 1999, Jeff Hoefling of Evansville, Ind., got to know Stephen Miles of Owensboro, Ky., about two years ago. Hoefling owns a machine shop called Lively Machine Company, as well as a detailing business for upscale motor coaches and powerboats. As for Miles, well, pretty much everyone in the high-performance powerboating community knows him as the man behind Stephen Miles Design, one of the top graphic design and painting outfits in the go-fast boating world.
Hoefling and Miles became fast friends, as well as business associates as Hoefling also helps maintain machinery used at Miles’ paint shop.
“Steve is a Picasso with boat paint,” said Hoefling. “And he’s a hard guy not to like. He’s a ton of fun. OK, I pretty much love the guy.”
The feeling is mutual. “Jeff is just one of the best dudes I know,” said Miles.
During one of their many conversations this winter, Hoefling floated the idea of a poker run on Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake, a pair of connected Kentucky waterways, and Miles loved it.
and then