This is my first fly fishing trip out of state, a winter retreat. Greg watched something like "The Great Outdoors" telling about the spectacular fishing at Lee's Ferry. The Colorado Flows out of Lake Powell, big, deep and wide. You have to rent a boat, and spend at least 30 min traveling up river to get to a sand bar or some form of inlet to fish. As you can see from this pic of Greg, the red rock is spectacular. This river is a lot like the Green in Utah, but it's bigger, actually a lot bigger, and deep. As the sun enters the "sweet light" time around 6:30 or 7:00 the canyon walls glow red, and the water's deep green pulls you in. For me it’s a real adjustment to fishing a river this big, because you can't just wade along the banks, it's too deep.
The funniest part of the trip is playing poker at night with the boys. Robert’s son, Landon is about 12 or so, and is a good little “Mo” boy so there is no way he is even going to consider playing poker with a bunch of men. That is until we explain that it’s not for money, but for “Slave for the day.” Which means that the one with the least amount of chips after an hour of play has to serve the one with the most chips for the entire next day.
Landon is about as green as you get, he doesn’t even know what a pair is, let alone a full house, straight or flush. But really I want to make Stockton, Greg’s son my slave. It will really kill Stockton to serve my every whim. It makes for a great time; the rule is the master snaps his fingers, and the slave is required to comply with his commands—within reason. It includes things like tying your shoes, making you a sandwich, fetching you a beer etc. Back in the day Johnny Tabish and I would do this with chess games, it was great fun.
I almost feel bad doing this to them, we are about half way through this game, and I have a good enough margin to let them feel like they are at least close. Cutting to the chase, Landon gets about 5 pad hands in a row, ending with a straight flush to end the game and my lead. No shit, I spend the next day schlepping root beer and ham sandwiches to this punk all day—too funny. Landon keeps forgetting about it, until Stockton reminds him.
One Fun Trip!
ReplyDeleteThis is one piece of the Utah river scene I have never been to. I guess that I am a Grandson of good ol' John Doyle Lee. This is where he hid out after Brigham Told him to lay low, because the Fed Government was investigating the Mountains Meadow Massacre. He was picked up later after being snitched out by his Adopted dad (guess who?) as the scapegoat, and the Feds popped a cap in his ass, standing him in front of the coffin, so that he would fall back into it. Nothing like good old fashioned frontier justice!!
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