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!

back down south

crossed the state line into virginia yesterday and spring literally said WHATS UP FELLAS?!

south of the border now and we'll be here for a couple days. on the water tomorrow...

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.

tarpon,

swimming away.

The Grass

so it's april now, and in Maine that means the beginning of spring. and the beginning of spring in Maine means one or two more snowstorms of winter. but, knock on wood, i think we've gotten past those last few winter weathers and should be able to take "spring" seriously now.

been working. sitting on my ass in an office. getting paid. paying bills. trying to, anyway. this off-season has seen me in a couple temp jobs. neither of them very fun, or extremely lucrative and pretty far from satisfying. did some temp work for Leon Leonwood and met some nice people there. but in this current job, i might venture to say the most satisfying part is when the paycheck comes in. pretty sure that's it. but i'm not here to complain. the grass is always greener on the other side of the street.

maybe it's about sacrifices. i have a shitty job, but i get to see my friends all week long. pretty damn hard to catch a trout in Maine in february, but i get to ride around on snowmobiles on the ice and eat breakfast sandwiches in an ice shack. ain't no ice fishing in New Zealand in february. i said it before, but whenever you do one thing, you're not doing another. that's obvious, but i think about it. too much maybe.

maybe i've been daydreaming too much. my "to-go-to" list is the longest it has ever been. thing about that grass is that you don't get no home, no neighbors, no local pizza shop and bartender who knows your name. get that apartment and you can't fish a new river, can't drive a new road, can't put any checks on that list, every day. stay on the road and watch that bank account drop. stay put and wish you didn't.

so where's the compromise? i want it all! i want a trout stream out back that i can fish every evening. i want a week-long vacation every other week, a six-month adventure every year. i want everyone i know and love within an hour. i want a house. i want an old friend in every city i've never been to. i want a campervan. i want a fat paycheck. i want the grass i got and that grass over there.

only one thing on that list i can't get. so what good is wanting it, when i can't have it? shit, i want to be in the NBA but it just ain't happening. guess i should be more thankful of the grass i do have. it's pretty nice grass.

t-minus a month and Loocoos and i roll west. might go a little south first though. then lucas is headed up to AK for the summer and i'm headed back to the 4UR and Goose Creek. yea, lookin' forward to that grass, boy. got my boy Chrismass playin in town this weekend and i'm gonna shake what my momma gave me. got some homecooked dinner with some friends tonight. got me a good forecast and some lines to wet on saturday. got me a week before i dance with some big fish down Florida way. got me some good grass here.

and whad'ya know, there's even some Grass outside!