Gone Fishin'

Had a great weekend! My buddy David, my youngest son Aaron and myself drove up to Lake Keowee in South Carolina and spent the day boating. The weather here has been hot without a drop of rain. It was definitely time to get on the water.

The drive up was uneventful except for all the drivers thinking they owned the road. It seems like everyone around here thinks they have to get there first! It makes for some dangerous situations. We stopped for breakfast at our favorite place, Cracker Barrel. They do a very good breakfast in my opinion. On rare occasion, however, the staff can be overly perky which is annoying until you've had your coffee.

After breakfast it was onto the lake with a short stop for fuel and sandwiches for lunch at a Flying J truck stop. Checking out the sandwich selection while David fueled the van we discovered the only sandwiches available were the kink my mom 'warned me about", namely, tuna salad, chicken salad and egg salad. I had the sneaking suspicion there were a lot of turkey, ham & cheese and chicken sandwiches going down the road in other peoples coolers and we were left with the sandwiches other people's mom's had warned them about. So, it was choose the "safest" one or go hungry. Beef jerky for lunch is not a happy prospect especially as I had a tooth extracted earlier in the week. I chose the chicken salad and picked up a bag of vinegar & salt potato chips as a possible antidote. Well, in any case I knew they would be good. We paid up, saddled up and away we went. The remainder of the trip to the lake was uneventful.

Once parked, we began the job of loading up the boat. Actually, we began the job of uncovering the boat and storing all the covers, etc, etc. A bit of a pain in itself. Once the cover was off and stored we could begin to load up not that we had brought that much with us. Loading or unloading with a teenager means giving explicit directions every time something is to be loaded, carried or generally dealt with. So the loading process only took about twice as long as it should have. Not bad.

The last item to be loaded was David's dog, Page. She's a sweet little Boykin Spaniel going on five years old.

-Page-

The only "problem" with Page is that she never settles down much on the boat. She wanders back and forth, jumps up in your lap, then down again with all this to be repeated many times during the day. Her best moments come when we stop at a beach on one of the islands on the lake. She then loves to play fetch with David by swimming after tennis balls or a floating ring. It's a great thing to see although it does remind me of that scene from Jaws where the young man is throwing a stick for his Lab to fetch and then the dog no longer returns...

One of the highlights of the day is when Aaron caught a Channel Catfish. I think it surprised him and I think it was the biggest fish he has ever caught. We measured it to be 16 inches long and probably weighted about a pound and a half. After the required picture taking we threw it back and it disappeared like a shot out into deep water. In any case, "well done, Aaron."

The rest of the morning was spent cruising the lake and enjoying the day. Being on the water made the usually hot day seem quite nice with the wind blowing as we cruised down the lake. We stopped a couple of times to try our luck with fishing but didn't get even a nibble. It being around Noon it didn't surprise me as the fishing was predicted to be best at early morning and evening.

For lunch we pulled into a cove where a waterfall enters the lake. The cove was absolutely full of other boaters having a good time. Good time being defined as everything from quietly having lunch to loud music with beer and bikinis on the side. WooHoo! The first place we tried to anchor didn't work out so we moved to a little further up where we were isolated from all the other boaters. Cool, it worked for me. There we fished a little before eating lunch. No luck on the fishing by the way. Lunch as welcome as we were all ready for it. Including Page. She, like so many dogs, thinks anything at her level is at least partially hers and the cooler I parked my sandwich on was at her level. I spent a fair amount of energy convincing her the sandwich was mine no matter what level it's on. In the end she was quite happy to do crumb-detail and clean up whatever hit-the-deck. She also managed to score a potato chip or two from Aaron by staring him into submission which is a sneaky dog trick.

After lunch it was time to cool down in the lake. Now did I mention this part of the lake is fed by a waterfall? The water temperature was a great deal lower than I was expecting as I climbed down the ladder on the aft of the boat. Dang! I found myself taking it very slowly and splashing water on myself to slowly get myself used  to the temperature. Once in the water felt very refreshing as I drifted around the boat. Aaron joined me in the water and floated around on a seat-float crafted especially for the lazy Summer days on the lake. After about twenty minutes of floating and talking it was time to head back to the marina. Twenty minutes also turned out to be just long enough to give me a sunburn on the top of my head as I currently have a short, Summer haircut. Ouch!

On the return trip to the marina I begin to realize something. This trip is killing my back and not doing my jaw any good where I had the tooth extracted. I begin to contemplate taking pain medication when we get back. This day on the lake has been the roughest to-date as there have been many big boats on the water and a lot of general traffic which makes for a lot of having to deal with wakes.

Aaron spent most of the trip back trying to shade himself under a large beach towel. Unfortunately he left his legs out. I had asked him earlier about sunblock and in his best teenage reply he said "I don't sunburn!" Well, some lessons are best learned the hard way. I had done my Dad-ly duty and tried to get him to use sunblock. What happens from there is on him!

We arrived a good time later at the marina after a lot of rough moments dealing with wakes. I was definitely going to medicate at this point. One of the highlights of the trip happened on the way into the slip in the no-wake zone. As we idled in we say a DNR boat coming out. We both waved as is the custom. The next thing we saw was a jet-ski with three people aboard shooting out of the marina, in the no-wake zone, at very high speed. The ski was spotted by the officer on the DNR boat who proceeded to come about, hit the lights and catch the ski before it escaped. I think he had done this before. We all had a good chuckle as we watched the  people on the ski listen to the nice DNR man as he explained why he had detained them. Hee, hee...more lessons learned. What a day!

Once we got the boat in the slip we got it moored properly. I tied the same knots that were on the boat when I untied it earlier that morning. David has never forgotten his Boy Scout training by the way and I could not fault him in any way on his knots. Aaron and I carried our stuff up to the van while David zipped up the boat. After getting the boat "put to bed" it was time to go home. It was at this point I decided to really take my pain med.

The ride home was fairly easy as far as interstate driving goes. David and I spent a lot of time talking business concerning his website: BlueStarPhotos. He's been shooting and marketing a lot of his photography. He sells "regular" pictures and HDR's of the many places he has been. I find his photos appeal to a wide range of people which is key when trying to build up clientele.

The pain med I took earlier was now working it's magic. I was feeling much better and was able to relax. One funny side effect I have when taking pain med is I get very "chatty." I just go on-and-on which is not like me at all. I even told David about my first pet dog and a pet duck I had!

It was good to get home after such a good day. I thanked David profusely for inviting us for a boating trip that proved to be so much fun and relaxation. We both needed it for sure.

Early Summer

It looks like Summer is not going to play around this year! The temps hit 90 and went up from there. Here is where I would usually say "Well, it's Summer in Georgia. What do you expect?" True enough!

What does "Summer in Georgia mean?" It means the Farmer's Markets are open again. Wow, that's certainly a good thing. Locally grown veggies....Yum!! And there doesn't seem to be a much better lunch item than a tomato sandwich made with locally grown tomatoes. And for a lot of us, there is a certain way the sandwich must be made for it to be "Right".

First, you must start with a locally grown tomato. Picked out of your own garden if possible. Then, you must use the right bread. As a boy, we always had Wonderbread, that beautiful, white, concrete forming bread that was so common in America in the way-back. But these days it's whole wheat bread that is so necessary in the endless search for fiber in our diets. Next, and this is a "must", you have to use Hellmann's mayonnaise. I've tried other brands and no others seem to do the trick. I'm not sure what it is about this particular brand but to my taste, this is what brings the proper tomato sandwich together. Now for the tomatoes. Did I mention locally grown? How big should the tomato be? I've had good sandwiches made from tomatoes large enough for one slice to cover the entire piece of bread. This is not often the case however. Usually it takes two slices of tomato to cover the bread and make a proper sandwich. The "take away" here is that tomato size doesn't really make the sandwich although it can affect the consumption thereof.

The tomatoes must be ripe. Ripe means they are "going toward soft but still firm." This is probably a personal preference thing but, for me, the best results are obtained when using tomatoes at the aforesaid "proper" stage of ripeness. The tomato should be sliced about a quarter inch thick. Much less and you're not getting a proper helping of tomato. There are at least of couple of ways to build a tomato sandwich. The first, and least efficient way, is to build the "Over-lier". This sandwich is created by putting the first tomato slice in the upper left or right hand corner of the bread. The second slice is place in the opposite corner at the bottom of the bread. The tomato slices usually overlap and you end up with a sandwich thick in the middle which means lots of juice when bitten into. The next way to build the sandwich, what I usually do, is to place the first tomato slice in the upper left hand corner of the bread and then slice the tomato in the middle to the proper thickness and then slice the resulting two halves from the tomato. These slice-halves are then arranged to fill in the empty spots on the bread. Hey, were almost ready to eat...

Mayo - How much to use? Dang! Almost forgot! Firstly, both slices of bread must be spread with mayo. It's important. You have to use a good amount of mayo on both slices to be sure your sandwich will be up-to-par with what it should be. Mayo, spread about an eighth of an inch thick, give or take, on both slices of bread should do the trick.

A very personal choice is how to season the sandwich. I use salt. I use a good amount of salt. Less than a "good amount of salt" and the sandwich is not "right." Some people also use pepper on their tomato sandwich. I have tried this and found it to be acceptable but I don't regularly pepper any tomato sandwich I make for myself. Once properly seasoned the top slice of bread may be added and you're almost ready to eat. The last step, and this isn't negotiable, you have to "squash" the sandwich. Yep, just give it a good squash with your hand to made sure the tomatoes are "seated" in the bread. Then, and only then, is the sandwich ready to go!

To eat the sandwich you'll need napkins, towels or whatever as this will be somewhat of a messy experience or at least it will be if the sandwich is made "right." A messy tomato sandwich is always to be enjoyed!

Now this post started out talking about Summer. In my part of the world Summer is linked to tomato sandwiches and visa-versa. For my two-cents, don't even try to make one in the cooler months using “foreign” tomatos. Trust me, it just doesn't work! You have to have Summer, and that's all there is to it!