Waiting For Harry

And it's hard, oh so hard.

I ordered the book from Amazon months ago. It came Saturday, as promised. I tore open the smiley faced little box and held the long awaited book in my hands, turning it over and over, looking at the front and back and fly leaves, ruffling the pages, but not peeking.

You see, I'm going to be traveling a whole lot in August and spending a week up in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho in a 100+ year old trapper's cabin (fortunately much refurbished.) The family does this every year. The Engineer and his Twin spend most days fishing. I love to fish, but not like they do.

The Doctors Demento (they have matching PhD's) don't consider it fishing unless life and limb has been risked.

This is Birch Flats, one of their favorite fishing holes.

To quote their annual joke, "There's no birch trees and it ain't flat." Then they laugh uproariously.

They scramble down the baking, black rock cliffs to the river, wade through the rushing current, swimming when necessary, to get to the productive spots, then they fish. They carry Motorola radios with them. Whenever one catches a fish, he radios his brother to taunt him - especially it it's a big fish. They take lots of nice Utah beer (next thing to water) with them to drink so they don't get dehydrated (and I know they pee on the fishes' heads to get rid of it, I've been fishing with them.) When they've either caught their limit or run out of beer, they head back to the car (usually a Cadillac referred to as "the rental heap") after stuffing any fish they've caught into their day packs and pockets. (Guess who gets to do the laundry for both of them at the end of vacation.)

To facilitate their ascent, they have a favorite culvert that's been well colonized by poison ivy. They use the poison ivy vines as climbing ropes. Oddly enough, one or both of them ends up with that particular rash every year. Since they have no nerve endings it bothers them not a bit.

So, no, I don't go fishing with them. I enjoy nature and the tumbling creek beside the cabin, take some photos and read.

I'm saving Harry for Idaho. Don't dare tell me how it ends!