They sure do love each other. They had so much fun together at Fenton Lake.
They played in the water...
They did "up downs"...
They wrestled...
They watched that dumb deer wander around our campsite...
They played Hannah's parachute game...
I don't know how he managed it but he found a Princess playset at the baitshop where he bought our fishing licenses. Only Dwayne would find that...
What a great time!
When we go to Fenton Lake we usually see deer near our campsite. This last trip there was one browsing near our tent. It was 9 am and she was out there just chewing away....
We ambled over and started taking pictures so she thought she would take a low profile...
Uhhhhggg...just a little farther....
Mmffffttttt.... a little more.....
Okay... no one can see me now, right? I'm good, right? Whew!
I remember briefly learning to fly fish as a teenager. I remember going with my brother Al, playing around with the rod in the driveway, practicing casting. But mostly I remember getting caught up in the branches a lot, giving up early and sitting on the bank looking at the water, reading or doing something to otherwise occupy myself while Al finished up fly fishing.
A few months ago I read the book Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis and I became interested in it again. Our friend Don fly fishes and I asked him if he wouldn't mind showing me how on our next trip up to Fenton Lake and he agreed. Even better, after a practice afternoon in the river around Fenton Lake we spent a whole day fly fishing in the beautiful trout streams in the Jemez Mountains.
We started in a slow-moving area on the Cebolla so I could get my casting down. I was unprepared for the horseflies that practically carried me off as we walked to the stream. Thirty seconds into it, I was running towards the car in search of the DEET but was all good after that. Yes, I know Don is a lefty and I'm doing things backwards but I'm getting my grove going here.
An hour or so later we move downstream a bit to where the water was swifter, rockier and wider. We had moved up to the Guadalupe and switched to dry flies. It was actually my favorite part of the day. There were more trees to pay attention to but Don caught more fish, I hooked a few, missed a few and generally had fun. It was a great learning experience and Don didn't have to pick my line out of TOO many trees, rocks and other lines.
My patient and extremely knowledgeable guide, Don:
We then went to the third spot of the day, which was some tough going. Don said it was hard for an experienced fly-fisherman and it just wore me out. Big slippery rocks, deep swift currents, steep banks... I spent most of my time concentrating on not falling on my ass. I'm not sure if that it was tough terrain or that we had already been fishing for about six hours but I totally hit my wall down in that stretch of the Guadalupe. We climbed out of that canyon after about 45 minutes and headed home.
What an awesome day, and a great experience! I was just so happy to be out there, learning something new, having fun, being outside. What a blast.
It's a busy day here at Casa Frijole.
I am finishing up details on a NICU flight that's going wheels up at 0630 Monday. I'd just as soon have all my ducks in a row so there are no early morning surprises for anyone. This kid is pretty sick, and I want to make sure everything is smooth for the transfer. Since I'm on call until I get to work tomorrow morning I'd like to do the work now and hopefully sleep tonight.
I'm packing/organizing/cleaning in preparation for our trip to Fenton Lake tomorrow. I'm going into work in the morning, then will hopefully leave a bit early and meet our friend Don out there. Can't wait. Hannah, meanwhile, has decided she likes my sleeping bag better than hers and has been holed up in it for awhile.
We had a mini-fathers day celebration this morning when Dwayne got home from work. He was home late after he needed to go down to the cath lab at change of shift to help with a critical patient. It was the whole enchilada: arrhythmias, defibrillation, intubation, pulmonary edema, plummeting blood pressures, going pulseless, etc. Dwayne came home and said "yeah, that patient was bad ass but I did all that stuff last week in the back of an ambulance. This guy didn't scare me." Flight nursing has a way of making you more confident in your skills even when you are at the bedside.
I gave him a margarita with his breakfast burrito. He deserved it.
