vernon

Happy Birthday!

I'd shoot that snake lookin' thing!

Thanks - I will! What kind of shape is it in these days? Always looked forward to playing there but like I mentioned it hasn't worked out for two or three years now mostly due to the flooding. And as you know flooding and me kinda go hand in hand...... We played Hidden Valley once about twenty years ago and had a great time. Not too sure why we've never gone back as it was a lot of fun. We went over to Payne Stewart one time but they were closed for a tournament. Must have driven past that place at least a couple hundred times over the years and it always looks busy.

I've got an older Aqua-Vu - not sure what model but probably ten years old or so. I haven't used it in quite awhile but it worked great when I did. Was on a secondary point in Big Indian one boring afternoon and dropped the camera down in about twenty feet of water among the stickups. Drifted around for a few minutes and saw a nice Kentucky just off the bottom. Dropped a centipede straight down the camera cable and watched her inhale it. Set the hook and brought her to the boat! Most importantly I never felt a thing and the line was tight and vertical. Also used it to find crappie in brush piles off and on. It has infrared lights on the camera which work great in deeper water. In fact most of the time in clear water with decent light the monitor picture is in color. The downside is the wires and cables are a bit of a nuisance and the batteries are heavy and attached to the monitor and kind of a pain to maneuver around the boat. Then every time you decide to move you have to wind all that crap back up and stash it away until you start over again. But they're pretty cool if you don't mind the hassle and I would imagine the newer models have addressed some of those issues. Might have to see if I can find mine since there's not much else to do in the dreaded month of September!

You'd enjoy them. All are really good layouts and are always in superb condition. The scenery is great and the customer service is over the top. We usually go to Mountain Top (which is an amazing 13 hole par 3 course by the way) for breakfast or lunch beforehand and make a day of it. We've done the aerification recovery deal several times now and all but once the greens were already so good you could barely tell that they'd been punched. Nonetheless I admit that it's pretty hefty price tag for a round of golf but we really enjoy it. And we justify it due to the fact we only do it a couple of times each year and most importantly we're old and going to be dead soon so why not? Don't know how many years we have left to be able to this stuff at all so we figure we'd best do it now. I honestly don't know what most people down there that like to play do for golf. Branson Hills is up to $139 now and I'd rather go bowling than play The Pointe, Holiday Hills or Thousand Hills. And I don't bowl. We used to drive up to Rivercut once per trip but it seems like the last three or four years it's either been under water or hosting tournaments. And by the way I apologize for hijacking your excellent post!

Ozarks National, Buffalo Ridge and Payne's Valley. All three rounds are during the aerification recovery period so the prices are a bit more palatable. A bit. Still outrageous but better. IN FACT, we BOTH stand to save $265! EACH! You know the deal - the more you spend the more you save!

Well, now talk about danged if you do and danged if you don't! Even when I'm right I'm wrong! I'm tellin/ ya there's just no pleasing you people sometimes. Vernon, please don't come. Vernon stay away. Vernon please go home. Vernon please make it stop. Vernon, Vernon, Vernon! I could go on and on. Tell you what. I'll see what I can do about getting you a little rain tomorrow night but no promises. I can't just flick this thing off and on like a light switch ya' know! HOWEVER, I do have tee times booked for a week from Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday so that'll be a bit of a challenge.🤷‍♂️

Don't tease me. We're heading down next Friday for a week and I absolutely HATE fishing in September. We've been doing it for a hundred years now though simply because Kathy loves it and the water is still warm enough to swim which of course means absolutely nothing to me but........ Catching fish down there in September is usually enough to get me on the golf course an extra day or two. Oh, and in case y'all were wondering I have no intentions of conjuring up my typical weather event(s) this trip. Kind of a Death Takes a Holiday sorta deal. You're welcome.

I've been retired almost ten years now and can only think of three times that I got bored. In each instance a nap took care of everything!

Good shootin'!

It was 30 or so years ago but my brother and me were at Greer's Ferry when the water was way up (probably fifteen to twenty feet high) and we caught REALLY nice walleye (and everything else for that matter) all week long on the old Bass Pro Shop's Uncle Buck's buzzer in the flooded grass fields. One of the best and craziest weeks of fishing we've ever had. Got probably six or seven more inches of rain that week and the lake just kept risin' but the fish just kept bitin'. Had a similar experience one trip to Stockton when again the water was way up and the wally's were in two to three feet of water. Dem's was da days!

My dad was kinda the original Tim the Tool Man Taylor so we actually DID have a battery charger and pretty much every other contraption ever featured in Popular Science or that you could think of. If mom needed a new toaster dad would first have to take it apart and see if he couldn't figure out a way to make it toast better or faster or both. Unfortunately I inherited zero parts of his creative and mechanical skills.......🤷‍♂️

Yep that's it. Actually occurred to me yesterday when I was out mowin' where I do most of my best thinkin', memberin' and philosophizin'!

That's pretty cool but you're still making my back hurt! All I can think looking at those pictures is how bad I'd need to stand up and stretch!

Now you got me thinkin' which ain't usually a good thing! In the early '70's we had a white aluminum V bottom that dad and me bought from Walmart along with a 2.5 horse Eska motor. Use to carry "extra" gas in an old Listerine bottle which would last at least a couple of weeks. I also bought a trolling motor that was green and black but can't remember the name of it now. Seems like it might have been a Signature whatever that was. We would leave the boat flipped upside down at the little lake we fished (the snakes seemed to like it best that way) and would haul the motor, troller and battery back and forth. Along with a .22 for the snakes....... Some of the absolute best times of my old life!

Yep. Still have some in one of dad's old tackle boxes. And some Stingray grubs! Blackberry was a favorite for night fishing.

Diggin' the hat as well! I think I had at least a dozen of those in a couple of different colors. Jellyworm's were da bomb.

We had a little over three inches here although I had absolutely nothing to do with it nor am I involved in what's happening down there currently. Was a chilly 61 degrees this morning as well with a forecast high of 67 and going down to 49 tonight. However, it's STILL twenty more days until the days start getting shorter so there's that.......

Quit bein' such a bunch of whiners. Look on the bright side - it's still twenty four long days until the days start getting shorter! Am I a glass half full kinda guy or what?

With so little understanding I guess an element of forgiveness is out of the question.....😢

This thing has been known to go off in my own hands on occasion. Well, actually a lot of occasions.🤷‍♂️

What was the question? 👴

Et tu? What'd I do? I'm just sitting here minding my own business looking out the window at a potential two and a half inch downpour...... Glad I mowed yesterday. ⛈️

Man that's a great job but just looking at that thing makes my back hurt. Oh to be young and have working body parts! Hope you get lots of great use out of that baby.

Don't look at me!😇