Our Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend and the weatherman said it was going to rain.  Nothing new there, we usually are out in the camper with a down pour pounding on the roof.
  

This weekend is Coeur d’Alene Half Marathon weekend, so we are staying home.  Linda has been training for her first Half, and she is way ready for this weekend to be over.

Saturday morning I loaded up The Boat and Ryan Edwards came over, we hitched it up and took it out to Hayden Lake for a little fishing.  Everything went real well for us.  The wind died and the sun actually came out as we tossed lines hoping to catch some bass or crappie.  The fishing was real slow and we had only caught a couple bass by about noon.  Two good old boys motored by us and hooked up on a pike, so we rigged up the pike plugs and started trolling for the big uglies.  Within about ten minutes I hit a 24 inch monster, it fought pretty hard and as we lifted it into the back of the boat it shook loose and bounced around finding its way back into the lake.  We moved on and about fifteen minutes later we hooked another one.  It was much smaller and we were able to get it on board and released without a fumble.

We fished on enjoying the sun.  One o’clock rolled around and the Minkota electric motor started running down, so we switched to the kicker and trolled on.  At about 2 pm I was watching the fish finder and it blinked once and shut down. Hummmmm that was a bit strange.  Then I sort of noticed that the steering was getting a little bit lethargic, but I wasn’t concerned.  Then at about 2:45 pm I shut the kicker down and went to fire up the big motor and nothing!  The battery would not turn it over.  Using the kicker and the fish finder had run the juice out of the battery.  Well actually, going fishing twice using the kicker and the fish finder ran the battery down.  I remembered that when Mike Anderson and I fished, we didn’t use the big motor either. 

Linda checking out the finish line!

We fired up the kicker and chugged home.  When we arrived at the dock I remembered that we could not lift the big motor without power so Ryan and I had to get the boat on the trailer and hope that it didn’t drag the bottom of the engine as we pulled out.  We were lucky and the boat came out without getting close to the cement launch ramp.  Once again I learned a lesson about my new boat.  We had a great time and as soon as we got the boat back into its resting place next to the garage, I plug it into the battery charger for a good nights rest.

Sunday morning came very early.  Linda woke me at 4:30 am so that we could arrive at the race start by 6 am.  Wow, I hope other support teams got to sleep in a bit later than I did!  We arrived at Riverstone where the race began and Linda immediately went to the restrooms. This continued right up until the race started at 7:30 am.  I followed her around talking to numerous folks as she obsessed about whether to wear her tights or run in her bare legs.  With less than a minute until the start, she ripped off her tights and went with the naked leg look.  I packed the rejected uniform away, gave her a kiss and walked to a place where I could watch the start of the mayhem.

Two hours of running makes you thirsty, hungry, and bored.

Once the massive crowd moved out, I walked over to the near road and was able to find Linda and take a picture before she disappeared for the next 12 miles of fun. I immediately turned and walked directly to the nearby Starbucks, where I was herded into a line and allowed to buy a coffee and egg muffin type thing. I popped out the front door of the coffee shop took a right and found a table in the sun.  Linda was projecting a finish some time about two hours and twenty five minutes and I had used up about twenty five of that to get my breakfast.  With two hours ahead, I settled in and opened my book. 

After about an hour I made my way back to the Jeep and picked up my chair.  Caring the chair and Linda’s gear bag I found a spot where I could sit and watch the crowds walk back and forth in front of the race participants, it was sort of like watching Frogger without anyone getting killed.

She is happy now!

At about 2 hours into the race I started looking for Linda.  She had projected a finish around 2 hours and 25 minutes, so my attention turned to the faces of the runners.  At 2 hours 10 minutes Linda appeared, ran past and turned the corner to the finish line.  She was well ahead of her goal time and I was pretty excited.   I picked up my gear and walked towards the race end and met her about half way there.  She was excited and a bit tired.  We walked back to the Jeep and found our way back home.

We ended Sunday by getting together with John and Loretta Sutherland and going across the lake to have dinner at Eddies at Arrow Point.  e had a great time, the meal was very expensive and just so, so.  They have changed their menu and upped the prices.  Lowest thing on the dinner menu was $15, I had a $17 pot roast plate that was good but not worth the bucks.  We really enjoyed the evening and d the boat ride.  Mostly we enjoyed sitting at the dock in the boat just talking.  The weather looks like it is holding for the better. Tomorrow could be another great day!

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Quick Update

Let's see, where do I start, went fishing Sunday with Mike Andersen. We launched at Hayden Lake's Sportsman access. Fished about three hours and caught a nice mess of crappie. On the way home we noticed that the turn signals on the right side of the camper and boat were out. I got everything put away by about 11 pm and hit the sack.

Yesterday, Monday, I moved the boat and camper to their parking spots next to the garage. After that I started out checking the turn signal issue. The truck lights were ok but the right signals and breaks on both the camper and the boat were out. I called Mike Wassmuth, my technical advisor, and he suggested checking for a bulb blown out. I quickly checked the camper turn signal bulb and it was good. We thought that maybe they were wired in a series and when one was out it affected both.

I moved into the truck and found the fuse box. Did you know that they fuse almost everything in a Dodge truck! I pulled a few fuses and found on that was gone. Raced to the auto part store and bought some new fuses. Sped back and replaced the old one. Lights on! No blood, no shocks, and no swear words!

Getting Familiar

Recently I had the opportunity to go fishing in the new boat all by myself. When I had my bass boat, I went fishing solo most of the time, but that was about 17 years ago and my bass boat was nowhere near as deluxe as this boat. I figured I would be a bit rusty and really didn’t want anyone to see me goof up with the boat.

It all started at about 7:30am, I gathered up all my gear and placed it in the boat. I ate breakfast and made myself up a couple of Deano-McMuffins, some hot water for coffee and grabbed some fruit, no bananas, and headed out the door. The first adventure came when I had to back the truck with the camper up and hitch the boat up. I have a secret way of making sure I don’t run into stuff when I back up. I walk to the back, measure the distance using my feet, and then I get into the truck and spit on the ground right where I can see it. Then I step off the distance back from the spit mark and spit again. I get back into the truck and slowly back up until the back spit mark is directly down from where I am sitting. I stopped and put the break on, jumped out and sure enough I was right over the ball of the hitch. It works almost every time. Oh yes, you can use rocks or sticks if you don’t want to spit.

I drove out to Higgins’s Point and backed the boat down the ramp to the water. There was a real nice fellow there and we talked about fishing, his retirement, his boat and the fact that this was my solo fishing trip. Everything went very well with my launch and I didn’t have any problems getting the boat in and tied to the dock. I took my time getting everything ready to fish, the sun was out and there was not a bit of wind.

Once I was ready I motored out to the middle of the lake and set the rods up with lures. I used the kicker motor and pulled the gear about 10’ off the bank as I scooted along at about 1.7 mph to 2.3 mph. Not super fast and that was good because I had to get used to the troll-eze steering system. I cruised into Blue Creek Bay and caught my first Smallmouth Bass. I thought there would be a lot more panic when I hit a fish, but I just put the boat in neutral and reeled the monster in. I caught another fish a bit later and of course I lost the biggest one of the day because I didn’t set the hook enough. I stayed in the bay for an hour or so and then tooled out and along the bank into Wolf Lodge Bay. I didn’t catch anything there, but it was real good practice because the wind had come up and I had to learn how it affected the boat.

The wind brought darker clouds and it started to rain so I took the gear down and zoomed on back to the dock. My first solo docking went was smoother then I thought it would. I figured the wind would push me all over the place but it didn’t. Once I docked a real nice sheriff walked down and inspected my boat. She was fun to talk to and I let her know that it was my first time pulling the boat out and that it was ok for her to laugh when I fell into the lake. She offered to help, but I said I had to learn to do it myself so she walked up and sat in her car waiting to come save me. Everything went smooth as silk. The only problem was that when the trailer is in the water deep enough for the boat to be pulled up easy, the camper hangs out enough that it forces you into the water to get onto the trailer to hook the boat on. I got my feet wet but there was no way to avoid it. I’ll pick up a pair of hip waders and that will solve that problem.

I drove on home, cleaned out the boat and put everything away. Kobi and I cleaned the fish which gave me four nice fillets. After I buried the fish guts in my garden, I took the fish and made a late lunch of fish tacos and a cream soda. It really doesn’t get much better than that, wouldn’t you say!

First Fish

Went fishing with Alex today and the boat was super. John Sutherland gave me a auto steering device for my kicker. Last week I installed the troll eze, a hydrolic steering device. We used it all morning and it worked great.

We fished all morning and caught one fish, but it was my first and a good sized one.

Linda's Bloomsday Results

Results for Bloomsday 2011


Linda R Bennett

Finish Time: 1:07:35

Overall Place: 5,696 out of 50,611

Ran with a pace of 9:03 per mile

The average pace for 52-year-olds was 15:03

Placed 72nd among 756 people the same age

Placed 55th among 730 people from Post Falls, ID

Placed 535th among 5,436 people from Idaho

Placed 10th among 66 people with the same last name

Placed 1,714th among 30,568 females

Placed 14th out of 479 among 52-year-old females

Placed 82nd out of 2,278 people in your age group