Chapters 7 thru 9

Welcome to Chapters 7 thru 9

Chapter 7

This friend of mine (Tom) and I decided to go on a canoe trip for two weeks. We made a couple of trial runs on the Peace River to see what to expect. Our trial runs were over weekends. Everything went smoothly on our trial runs, so we planned our 2 week trip. We were to be picked up, downstream, 2 weeks from Friday. So, if we got there early, we would have to wait. We packed in our canoe: a 2 man tent, 2 sleeping bags, a coleman stove with 1 gallon of fuel, an icechest that was the width of the canoe, fishing rods, small tacklebox, shotgun with 1 box of shells, 10lb. bag of potatoes, 1 bottle of wild turkey, about 10 gallons of water, plus other staples. We left on a Friday morning heading to the Withalacochee River. We were going to head out on Saturday morning. Decided to leave Friday afternoon. Went about 10 miles, made camp, ate great. Had all kinds of food. We got up Saturday, started paddling slowly, we were going with the current. The river is wide, so there is not much chance of running into any logs or rocks. It was unusually warm for November. Just went with the current, watched nature in silence. Fished some, no luck (but who cared, we were on vacation). Weather was good, just hot! Made camp Saturday night. Ate well again, slept well. Got up Sunday, just as the sun peeked out from behind some clouds, a light mist rising from the water. Decided to stay here, one more night. It was a beautiful place to camp, big huge oaks, lots of shade. We were in no big hurry. We just layed around, fished some, not much luck, and swam in the cool water. Taking in the beauty of nature is very tiring. Ate well again, slept like a log.

The next couple of days we realized that we did not have enough water, and our food would not last, because of the lack of ice. We planned that we would start boiling water from the river for non-eating activities. We meandered down the river slowly. After the first week, to the day, we ran out of our cold foods. All we had left was a cooler full of water, Ahh water. We saved it, boiled it for drinking. Saturday night we had a meal of just beans, and some stale bread. Sunday morning, we decided to hunt up some grub. Off went Tom, the great white hunter!! I fished while he was gone. No luck, we both came up empty handed. If you have never been without food, you just can not relate to our situation. We did have potatoes, so we cooked them on a burner of the stove, on low. Took about 2 hours, but it tasted better than a raw potato. Monday morning, I fished most of the day. Caught 2 little fish, but enough for dinner, with potatos. Monday night, we ran out of fuel for our stove. Now we had to depend on the ole campfire.

Now, when you are in need, you save everything. Tuesday morning, I again fished, while we floated down river. Tom was armed with the shotgun, looking for food. As we near a shore, a shot rings out, Tom had shot a squirrel. Then he gets another. He ends up getting 3, so we clean-em, and stick sticks through them and cook them over our camp fire. I felt like a hobo. What a picture, 2 guys huddled over a fire, twirling blobs of squirrel meat, in anticipation of eating. Wednesday, I changed my fishing tactics, started thinking small. Caught a few small fish, and Tom shot a rattlesnake. We had a pretty good dinner, considering. I thought rattlesnake was tough, but that night it tasted like filet migon. We had 2 potatoes left. Thursday, Tom fished, while I watched for any movement in the wild, for a shot at dinner. The rain came about noon, a cold front. We had to make camp early. We were only about 10 miles from our pick-up point. No fish, no game, we ate our last 2 potatos, under cooked, because we had a hard time keeping the fire going in the rain. But we figured that by five tomorrow, we would have plenty of food. Rained all night, and most Friday morning. It was miserable. Cold, howling wind. Raining so hard it hurt. The pick-up point was a little country park, used only by locals. When we got there, we saw no-one. Our driver did not show. Tom shot a couple of crows and 1 squirrel. We had crow for dinner. Not much meat on crow or squirrels. We were starving.You get hungrier when you don't have food.There was a water spigot, but the water was brown. We had to run it for an hour, before it started to clear up. Boiled it first, I was not taking any chances. Spent Friday night cussing our driver. Called him all kinds of names. Saturday morning, I caught a 3 pound bass, yes, we can have lunch. That was the best fish, I have ever eaten. Tom shot and cleaned an armadillo. I never knew how much fat an armadillo had under it's shell. We figured our driver would be here around five, but we were taking no chances. Guess what we had for dinner? Yep, you guessed it, armadillo. Tasted like chicken!!! Just not much meat. Spent the night, again cussing our driver. Sunday the river was really running, because of all the rain. Fishing was out. Tom went hunting. No luck. It was around three o'clock, and we were hungry. We hear a truck coming down the road, we mosey towards the dirt road. We wave our hands, and the truck stops. Inside is the most beautiful young country girl in the world. She says"Hey, I'm LeAnn, I'm early, how was your trip? Our driver had sent his girlfriend. Complete with a pair of Daisy Duke shorts, with holes in all the right places. How could you cuss out such a sweet thing. Guess all guys aren't dumb. We loaded up the truck, drove to town in silence. At the first small country store we came to, Tom utters,"Could you please stop, we could use a snack". She pulls over, and we half run to the door. We bought $30.00 worth of junk food. All you could hear was crunching and the sound of ripping plastic. We wolfed down some 2 week old sandwiches, ate chips by the handful, gulped down some soda, and started on a bag of cookies. We did not talk much. We arrived at our truck, loaded up, and watched LeAnn walk back to her truck, (I can still see that walk). She waves and shouts" Ya'll come back now, ya hear". We start the engine, look at each other, and we laugh like a school boy at the prom. We survived. Let's get home. This was some trip. I'm glad I finally grew up, I'm so mellow now. Well, I want to wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING and Be Safe Until We Meet Again.

Chapter 8

The only casino gambling here was at the Seminole Indian Reservation. You could play poker, but the pot limit was $10.00. They had a jackpot for a royal flush. If your royal flush was in hearts, diamonds or clubs, it paid $100.00. But if it was spades, you got whatever was in the jackpot. 50 cents out of every game went to the jackpot fund. They also had mini tournaments, it cost $45.00. If you won you recieved $175.00. I entered a mini tournament and sat at the next to the last seat. The game was 7 card stud. When I play, I never look at my down cards until the fifth card. About half way thru, I was in about third place. After throwing the first two cards down, my first up card was the ten of spades. The second up card was the jack of spades. The third card was the three of spades. I looked at my down cards: The ace and queen of spades. I needed the king of spades. I was afraid to look at the jackpot board, for fear of a jinx. The sixth card was the six of hearts. I was still sitting on a flush. I looked around the table, I saw no kings at all. The last card is thrown, I rub it on the table, somewhat hesitant to look. The guy sitting next to me had folded, so I showed him my cards. I lift the corner of the last card, it's the.......KING OF SPADES. My first and last royal flush. The guy sitting next to me jumps up and starts screaming. I glance up at the jackpot board, it reads $5,700.00. I had just won fifty seven hundred dollars. I also won the tournament. I tipped the dealer $675.00. I took the cash and went into the casino. I went to a computer slot machine, planning to play with a hundred dollars. I was still playing the 25 cent machine. I was down to 25 cents when the siren sounds, and people come running. The jackpot was worth $5,000.00. I walked out with ten grand, cash. My kids had a great Christmas.

Over the years, I have had 4 fishing partners. You have to like your fishing partner, because you spend alot of time with them. Fishing in tournaments is hard work. It is also very costly. Just to gas up the truck and boat costs around $50.00 and you haven't made a cast yet. We split everything 50/50 except meals, thats pay as you eat. Tracy and I had fished together for about a year. We were in a club called Cracker Boys Bass Club. Club tournaments have around 25 boats and the payoff is about $600.00 for first place. One day while reading the newspaper, we found out about a professional series coming to Florida. The entry fee was about twice as much, but we thought we needed a bigger challenge. We sent in our money for the Orange-Lochloosa lakes. These lakes are connected by the legendary Cross Creek (have you seen the movie?). The tournament was on Saturday, but we left on Wednesday. The only days prior to the tournament you could fish was Thursday and Friday. Wednesday we ate dinner at the famous Yearling Restaurant. The food was great and we ate there everynight. We fished in Lake Orange on Thursday, but had little luck. Friday morning we again fished Lake Orange, but we only caught a couple of small ones. Over bologna sandwiches for lunch we decided to go over to Lake Lochloosa. Cross Creek isn't very long, but it is extremely shallow. You have to idle thru it. Upon entering the lake a Bald Eagle slammed into the water, plucking out his dinner. Good sign? Well, we fished until dark and had nothing to show for it. The fish would follow our lures, but would not strike them. So we decided over dinner to return to Lochloosa and hope those fish would be hungrier. This tournament had over a 100 boats. The morning of the tournament was a humid October day. We zoomed across the lake towards Cross Creek. We had thrown out a marker the day before, so we would know where to start. I guess one of the boats ahead of us ran it over, because it was blowing across the lake when we got there. We just stopped in a spot that looked good and started fishing. Bam, a fish, on the first cast. We caught fish after fish after fish. I caught so many fish, that the lure I was using had no paint left on it, but I wasn't going to change. Some of the other boats near us wasn't catching anything. A dream come true. As the time grew near to go and weigh our fish, we stopped at one more place. I caught our biggest fish here. We put on our life vests and guess what? The battery was dead and the motor would not start. We only had about 10 minutes to weigh-in. We jerk off the battery cables, then I just hold them to another battery, that's used for livewells. I recieve a shock, but the motor roars to life. We put that 200 horsepower motor to the test. We arrive at the dock, with one minute to spare. We wait until last to weigh our fish: 5 fish weighing 26.8 pounds. We look at the leader board. We WIN by about 5 pounds. We did it, we beat some of the best fisherman in the state. We had no idea that first place paid $6,000.00. When we got the check, we were so surprised. One thing left, a polygraph test. I was so nervous, that Tracy took it. PASSED. We trade in that big placard check for a real one. I was so nervous and excited, that I was sick for days afterward. We had caught over a 100 fish. Another great memory. Be Safe Until We Meet Again!!!!

Chapter 9

Let's Call This Chapter
Childhood Pranks

When I was a kid, we had to make our own entertainment. We had...bowling, putt putt golf, drive-in movies, and bars!!! Even though I live in Florida, I had to walk to school. I did not have to trudge through any snow, nor was it uphill. Well, we could not get into the bars yet, so we invented some games of our own. The first one involved hub caps. You see, there was this stretch of road that had one of those famous dips, you know the one, you're driving along and all of a sudden, wham, you hit the dip. So, at night, we would collect some of the hub caps that had already come off, then when a car hit the dip, we would roll the hub cap down the road, clang, clang, clang,. Then the driver would hear the hub cap clanging down the road and stop to look for his hub cap. The fun was watching him find the hub cap, only for it to not be his. We learned a whole new language on this little stretch of road. The funniest time was when it was my DAD. ROFLMAO. The second one involves the same stretch of road, but we used sterno. If you are not familar with sterno, let me explain: Solid fuel ( mostly used now at buffets to keep something warm). It was sold at the 7-11 store. We would smear it across the road, wait for a car to show up and ignite it. The fun here was to see the driver stop and try to put the fire out with their foot. The fuel would stick to their shoe and they did a few new dance moves. The funniest time is when it was my DAD. ROFLMAO again. This next thing is a kids dream come true. We found this small travel trailer stashed in the woods. We were thinking, instant clubhouse. Someone suggested that we bury it and dig a tunnel to the door. This worked out great, except for fresh air. So we rigged a vent pipe to have some fresh air. We now had a place to go after our little pranks. So, we decided to skip school and hang-out in our new clubhouse. After missing school for 3 straight days, we were sitting in our new clubhouse, reading playboys and smoking cigarettes. A knock on the door startled us. I opened the door, smoke bellowing out, and there stood my DAD. Guess it was his turn!!! My jaw dropped to the ground. How did he know? He yanked our butts out and took us to school. I never skipped again, well... a couple of times, but never more than one day at a time. I guess parents do know more than they let on. Take care, and Be Safe Until We Meet Again.....

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