Friday, July 29, 2011

2011 Season Finale

Dave Writes...

The FLW Tour regular season is el-dunno and not one lick of trouble from either truck, lots of miles and hills. We had to have the hydraulic fluid changed in the diesel, it gave us a warning that we had about 3000 miles left, which I thought was nice. Our oil change was due at the same time, so we stopped at a dealer in Alabama somewhere, piece of cake. I wouldn’t trade that brake system for anything in the world when towing that big camper, it makes a huge difference…huge.

We also had a new message yesterday from the diesel that told us to keep driving while it cleaned the exhaust filter, so we did. We’ve been having a little air-conditioner trouble in the camper, so a little extra time in the Chevy ice box isn’t all that bad, lol. We have a guy coming to work on our air conditioner tomorrow, we think we need a new one, which stinks, but you goota do what you gotta due, especially when it 102 degrees every day.

The family and I are staying down in Hot Springs for our week off before the cup. I think it’s the right decision. The realitor keeps pushing the closing back on our house, so we have a little unexpected extra time now, and driving 15 hours home and back again would cost a lot in gas and take 4 days from us. We are happy and in a great area with a bunch of things to do, and we’re near a pool, which makes the kids extra happy.

The last event on Pickwick Lake went…well…not so good. I’m bummed big time. I still made the Cup, but always look forward to a top 10 in Florence, not this time. Although I did have the bites to finish in the money, I just couldn’t find a big fish spot away from the crowd. Every place I found turned out to be “known” making it was an extremely irritating tournament to say the least. I finished the 2011 season in 19th, not bad, but I missed the Texas Bass Classic by 4 spots, only the top 15 from both Tours get to go, so I’m out. This is the very first time in my career that I’ll be sitting home, not fishing something I tried to qualify for. It’s humbling, but we have a lot of stuff to do back home getting ready to move, so it may be a good thing guess. Texas is a long way from Erie, PA.

Randal Tharp and I went fishing on Lake Hamilton this morning and jacked them on a frog shallow, it was so fun. We only fished about 3 hours, until it got too hot. We’ll probably go again tomorrow, we were even thinking about fishing a little local event just for the fun of it, who knows, we’ve got 10 days to mess around, lol. We had 20 bites and landed a couple big ones…you can’t beat that!

Well, I’ll talk to you in a couple weeks after the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita. Hopefully I’ll be $600,000 dollars richer!!!


Anne Writes... 

Hi everyone! We had a great time at Pickwick Lake in Alabama. The kids and I rode our bikes everyday and swam with our friend Janice Lackie in her hotel pool. We stayed at McFarland Park which is so beautiful. The staff are very friendly and helpful.


Our puppy Isabella learned how to swim in the pond behind our camper. She was a muddy, stinky mess! She has a life jacket she wears in the boat which is good because she always jumps in after Dave's fishing lures! She is such a funny dog.

Mitchell worked the Fun Zone this tournament for OFF!. He dressed up in the OFF! costume and walked around handing out stickers. When he was done working his 2 days, he went straight into Walmart and spent all of the money he made. It was burning a hole in his pocket. He was a trooper and worked very hard. The Fun Zone was in the Walmart parking lot. Needless to say, IT WAS HOT!

Our trip wouldn't be complete without something going wrong with the camper! This time (of all things) it was the air conditioning. We made it through by buying a window unit for the bedroom. It doesn't cool down the whole camper but it is making life tolerable. We are at Lake Hamilton for our time off before the Championship. Luckily we have someone coming to fix the air on Saturday. We can't wait! Until then, we are spending a lot of time in the cold Suburban with air conditioned seats, they rock.

Macy is doing well. She catches tons of creepy, crawly things and puts them in her bug catcher everywhere we go. The only things she is afraid of are wasps. She said when she grows up she wants to work at the Butterfly Palace (in Branson, Mo). She is very excited to start pre-school which makes me happy. She loves to do school work.

We took the kids out in the boat the last day before the off-limits on Lake Ouachita in AR. We found a cute little island, dropped the kids off and rode away. You should have seen their faces! We only idled about 100 yds. from them. They loved it! They were pretending to find treasure.



I hope everyone is doing well. We are looking forward to the Championship and we'll talk to you then!
Take care,
Anne