ness

Probably a good idea to leave them at home when fishing. Of course, I wasn't planning on going in the water. The clothes I was wearing were about the worst possible for that fiasco. Fortunately, I alway keep a couple trash bags in the car. That's a holdover from when the kids were young. More than a couple times I had to bag them up to get them home without trashing the car. So, the inside of the car was kept pretty clean and dry. I'm happy about that because I have a couple dignitaries coming into town this week from Milo, MO, and I wouldn't want the car all stinky smelling

Do you get the crazy sounds when you're near moving water with them? I mean, turn your head a bit and it sounds like a tornado, turn the other way and changes completely.

The sheer number of places to fish, and ease of access, is really impressive. That said, I did see some places posted that were not before. And then there's the head-scratching signs

I forgot to mention we did e-bikes one day. Decorah has a loop trail that's about 15 miles. It goes through rolling hill farmland, along streams, forest and a little bit on the edge of town. A really pretty trail, and the e-bikes make it a piece of cake. Those e-bikes are sweet!

Ding ding ding!

We had Kathy's mom in town week before last, so we schlepped her back to Iowa and spent a few days in Decorah. It has rained a ton up there, and there was a lot of standing water in the fields and overflowing creeks. The first 2 days it wasn't even worth trying fishing, so we knocked around the area. I did drive up into Minnesota to a stream I had fished before, and it looked like it would clear up soon so I popped for a license and went the next day. It's a pretty little stream, and it had cleared out, but I got skunked on the ½ mile that was not posted. I hit a couple places near Decorah too, but it wasn't working. And I was getting bummed. Things started to pick up the next day though. I fished on one of the handful of streams that Iowa DNR manages for South Pine Creek strain of native brook trout. I managed to fool one, which was pretty much the highlight of the trip. Things began clearing up and slowing down, and I was able to get in some decent fishing the last couple days. One of my favorite spots was treating me pretty well, until the cows came home. IMG_3065.MOV The last evening we headed down to the hatchery area to see the eagles. No luck on that, but I did fish the heavily stocked stream there. It was crazy, stupid stocker rainbows hitting my stimulator without giving it a thought. Kinda fun ...until the last one. I was bending down to net him and slipped and fell into the stream. Full submersion, and there were witnesses. Just beautiful. Flailing around in the water trying to get my footing, all the while the fish is swimming around me and tangling the line up more. I got out with everything except one of my hearing aids. BUMMER! That was an expensive slip up! Back at the room, I took off my jacket and the hearing aid dropped to the floor. Somehow it had lodged in the jacket and made the trip to the car/hotel/room without falling out! Neither suffered from the water either. Anyhoo, it was another fun trip up there and we'll do it again. A few random pics from there: Pretty cool museum we did on one of the rainy days. There continues to be a strong Norwegian identity in the area. Rooster and a hen on the side of the road. Dad high-stepped across, and mama slid back into the brush. Maid-Rite loose meat sandwiches. They're pretty good, but Nu-Way in Wichita does them better. Little tiny stream fed by Dunning Spring, just above the Iowa River. I've caught brook trout in here before, but nothing going this trip. One of several beautiful churches we saw. Anyone speak Norwegian? There are a lot of beautiful, well kept, prosperous farms and barns in Iowa. This one is across the road from Luther College, and is likely part of the school.

We're eating a lot of salads here. This cool spring with plenty of moisture has our lettuce, spinach and radishes doing very well. Oh, and peas too.

That sounds like a pretty cool presentation. I'd bet there are some pretty interesting stories about those steamboats sinking. We've got a cool museum here in KC with artifacts from steamboat Arabia that sank in the Missouri River east of KC in 1856. A few guys figured out where it was and dug it up. The river had changed course and it was buried under a farm field. They've been cleaning and cataloguing stuff since 1988.

Absolutely! and… ”As God it my witness…”

Can’t not think of this

First album is a cool thing to talk about. For me, Toulouse Street by the Doobies. I still love Listen to the Music, and the Doobies, especially early, pre Michael McDonald stuff. South City Midnight Lady, China Grove, Long Train Runnin, Rockin Down that Highway, Another Park Another Sunday, Eyes of silver. Too many to type

I love the Cars. Have you ever had that feeling where a song or artist strongly reminds you of a time in your life or a place? For me it’s the Cars and college. My Best Friends Girl, Just What I Needed, Since You’re Gone, Let’s Go.

dun

Hey @Phil Lilley, I like what you guys are doing with Christian Action Ministry. Face-to-face engagement and helping folks with needs, with no strings attached. I think it’s so much more impactful than a monthly ACH from Uncle Sam. Can you share a link where I /we can set up a recurring contribution? I am reviewing where I give and would like to include CAM going forward.

Well, if there’s room I’d like to be added to the no-ad group please.

What are talking about exactly? A separate forum category with no ads?

Perfect description of that one. One of those is plenty too.

It seems to vary a lot for me. There has been a lot of what I'll call male-oriented click bait but not seeing it today. But also a lot of outdoors related stuff and stuff I've done searches on. See tons of outdoor clothing ads from KUIU

Of the half-dozen or so forums I look at with some regularity, this is one of the better ones as far as ads go. And I'm using plain old Safari phone and desktop.

Have you been cooking anything lately? You always have interesting things, especially Asian. (Trying to breathe some life into this thread too.)

When I was a kid, the ultimate in fancy breakfast was Eggs Benedict. My mom never made it, but my sister, brother and me always jokingly asked for it when we went out. And, in those days, going out was very rare. We do it now occasionally as kind of a special treat. Occasionally because the Hollandaise sauce recipe has a whole stick of butter in it We do a blender Hollandaise that is really easy. Anyhoo...

Linguine and clams

This was based on the Ball Canning Blue Book recipe that @BilletHead did a few years back. Pretty easy and you can tailor it to what you like. We like the Napa cabbage and carrots.

Made some more kimchi. Pretty tasty stuff!

Holy crap! I don’t know where that guy went to so the missus and I are gonna need to do head-to-toe inspections tonight. It would probably be prudent to do them very frequently! I’m grateful to my OA buddies for helping me get in front of this eminent danger.