R.I.P. White Lightning

so long, good friend.



who knew a big piece of metal could mean so much?

White Lightning was my steed

and so i drove. no surprises, the destination was made.
so was the journey.
lots of long, flat, flat. thought of explorers, of lewises and clarks, crossing the land. i knew there were mountains ahead, and beyond that a sea. they knew neither. how did they keep going? White Lightning was my steed and she rode true.

not far into it i wish i had more time. to explore, to look at that and that. will come back to do that.

first stop, Jackson Hole. in a meadow there runs a creek. in the creek in the meadow there are trout. i had stepped into this creek before and when i left it i had not had the pleasure of catching success. the last time i stepped into this creek, i knew it would be hard, and i knew not much else. this time i knew the game better, knew the opponent and his ways, his lair. i had a game plan. a parachute hopper was my bait. and he would eat it. and he did. we danced until he was tired and i netted him, admired him and let him go. a fish called redemption and/or unfinished business finally finished. good feeling.

great friends awaited, two a bit older, two a lot younger. good evening! hugs from the big ones and goodnight hugs from the little ones. water and fish awaited early anglers. went there, no fish. went there, no fish. went there, fish. Boss spots. thanks Boss.
missed fish, bad casts, tangles. laughs. love fishin with ya Boss. brain saucin'.
Boss asks, 'what did i do wrong?' thanks for asking, but you know more than i do.
drive. a lot. fourteen hours White Lightning flies. a friend awaits. talk fish, fishing, life.

fish. arrive by dark, when the steelers are active. for our flies they are not, on this day. no matter. laughs. fishing.
drive. more friends. four older, one younger, one negative.

ahh, campfire. i see you wherever i go and you are always welcoming, intoxicating, full of wonder. and laughs.
fish. want to catch for the little one badly. the little one in her fishing headband, sweats and sandals. fickle fish!
would like to have seen this thing blow up:
drive. destination in sight. arrive by dusk. road fatigue.

the back yard:
some birthday fish! enjoyed the flies i tied for them:
many, many thanks for all the birthday wishes! still love my friends and family. always will. will see you soon.

driven

i currently sit in the living room of liz and ben in Denver, Colorado. the voyage west was successful and i now am a short five hour jaunt from the welcome gate of the 4UR. this trip's itinerary: searsmont - portland - brooklyn - charlottesville - charleston - cashiers - denver.
got to stay with Jerms and BJ in summerville. went offshore with Ricky and filled the coolers while getting my farmer's tan on. boated close to 20 different species that day in the southern sun. then Jerms poled us around on an early low tide for reds, who weren't as cooperative.
from charleston, rolled west to cashiers, nc where Boone waited on us. had a good ol time at the mountain house. lots of laughs had by all. floated the tuckaseegee and had one of the best days of all three of our angling days, landing ~70 fish over the course of a very leisurely 9 hour float.

took a little jaunt into the waterfalls of the headwaters of the horsepasture river, landed a couple beautiful wild rainbows and played around in the water, smalls falls/baxter state park style. first time swimmin since last summer!

and then the real driving began. Lucas and i left north carolina at 10 am on wednesday and got into the denver city limits around 9 am the next day. very happy to see that Colorful Colorado sign when we finally got across kansas and then we were greeted with this weather:
White Lightning braved the spring storm with ease and i got my long awaited nap on the couch once i made it to vine st. off to the ranch in a couple days. Goose Creek here i come!

ROLLOUT EAST 2 WEST 2.0

White Lightning freighted. Basstards appropriately showed off. Here we go. Is everybody in?

BOOM.

anticipation, princesses

last day of work in Maine for a while. White Lightning is back from the mechanic. bags are being packed. clothes and furniture are being left behind. the pedal is about to hit the floor. friends have been notified: be there soon, leave a key. Lucas joins. the Basstards together yet again.

had some great friends over last night: Reid, Jessica, Will, John, Miriam, Iris and George. lotsa good pizza and a buncha laughs. when Miriam had tired of basketballs and skateboards and boy things, she came up to me and softly asked, with a look that no one could ever say No to, "do you have any princess toys?" Ben and i looked at each other and then we knew we had the perfect remedy. back in december, some other good friends left us with a housewarming gift that would please the masses last night: Snow White & The Seven Dwarves PEZ set. the star: Snow White, of course!

about to rollout. more lower 48's to check off. lotsa freedom. Snug tuesday night. stay tuned.

4UR weather at 7:00 am this monday morning:
ha!

Goose Creek is separated into 15, ~1/2 mile beats. saw this sign while en route to station 15:
ranch horsies:
speaking of horses, on sunday, Boone and I were in the White Lightning, en route to fish, when we came around a bend in the ranch road and saw a horse just chowing down on some nice green grass in front of one of the ranch cabins. it was out of the pen, where all the other horses are. i stopped the car and we both looked at the horse, then at each other. "is that horse supposed to be out of the, um, pen?" i asked. we did not know the answer to this question. "it's eating all that nice green grass! aren't we supposed to be making the grounds look real good?" "yea, we should tell someone about that." it's a common theme at the ranch that while everyone has their specific duties that they are definitely responsible for, if something needs to be done, and you see that it needs to be done, you do it. being our first week at the ranch and all, we turned the car around and looked for a higher-up to report our findings to and see what we should do about the situation. it seemed like something should be done soon. we spotted the ranch manager's wife and the head guide's wife walking down the road so we drove up to them, put down the windows and said in a somewhat urgent voice, "hey! there's a horse right over there! out of the pen! what should we do?!" we received the strangest looks, followed by "ahh, yea, that horse is just eating... it's fine." Boone and i looked at each other. "oh, yea, ok," we said and then drove off. we've been imagining the conversation that followed between the two ladies:

"um, were they serious?"
"east coasters. probably never seen a horse before."
"yea, they should really just stick to fishing."

in other news, i went for a run today and did not make it over the last hill before home without walking. that mountain air! i did beat the ranch managers' kids in H.O.R.S.E though.
haven't seen a single Celtics game since i got to Colorado. OT loss? bah.

"i have many things planned"

hello! meow! a lot has gone one since i left the west coast. i worked my way up the east coast, seeing close friends all the way.

the final city route went like this: los angeles - los olivos - berkeley - san francisco - seattle - portland - charlottesville - nyc - hartford - boston - portland - searsmont (town, not a city).
i saw a lot of places and things i hadn't seen before. saw some friends i hadn't seen for a while, seeing more and more as i got closer to maine and portland. that city still feels like home for me, not in any small part due to the fine, fine folks that live there.
while on a train from virginia to new york city i became friends with a nice young woman who was headed to the city as well. we told many stories, had many thoughts and many laughs. when Nealin was in college she told me that she went on a kick of accepting date invitations to whoever offered. one one such date, upon meeting the gentleman she asked what he wanted to do and he replied, "i have many things planned." an interesting beginning to a date i suppose but also somewhat appropriate for the conversations we shared and also this little thing called life.
i have many things planned.
the last time i wrote i did not know what was next. now i do. what's next? the 4UR Ranch! i was offered a position as a Fishing Guide for the summer on the ranch. i'm pumped. all this fishing i've been doing here and there i'll put to use on Goose Creek and the Rio Grande this summer. in regards to angling, i strongly believe that the more and varied angling one does makes them a better angler. i have done a good amount of angling for a fairly wide range of species. it'll be a whole new ballgame in SW Colorado this summer. it will be challenging. but i am up for this challenge. much more on this to come...
White Lightning is packed and awaits me outside Captain Lane's apartment here in Arlington, MA. i'm off to Brooklyn and the big apple here shortly and then the rig turns west where the next stop will be Denver. unfortunately i'll have to ride hard to make time to Colorado, but that's what it is. at any rate, i will be updating the blog more often this summer.
i've heard from a fair amount of people that they have enjoyed following this here web log while i was down under. i very much appreciate all your kind words. i hope you can keep reading while the freedom continues to be sought. i also encourage you to make comments on the posts - questions you'd like answered, things you'd like to see pictures of or just a "hell yea!"
one of the many things i have learned since departing Maine last October is that i love my friends. i am truly blessed with a cast of unbelievable characters that make up my group of friends and i would be lost without them. countless couches i have slept on, countless drinks shared and and even less countable number laughs shared. thank you everyone. i love you all.
i had a lunch date with my grandmother while at home and at one point she asked me, "so jess have you found any place better to live than Maine?" i thought about the question for just a moment and while my response is true i guess i hadn't really said it to myself before. "not yet, grandma," i said, "not yet."
the above fish, a fine St. George brown trout specimen, took 7 fly changes before rising to my fly. the harder the fish, the better it feels to catch 'em.