"Hey Jesse, did you get your eye fixed?"

-Question from 9 year old Cole, son of the ranch manager.

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.