The wonderful thing about ROFF is the folks that you meet all over the
country. I've done a bit of traveling since I first posted to ROFF and
everywhere I've gone, I've found ROFFians that will either take me in
or take me fishing. This weekend was no different.
Last weekend I had to blast back to Bal'more from Omaha to prep the
house for the movers and pick up my vicious hound Topaz and the even
viciouser cat Izzy and drive them out to Omaha. Together, jammed in
the cab of my truck, they equalled 26 pounds of furry fiends.
After almost 80 degree weather on Friday, Saturday morning I headed out
through torrential downpours and even snow in western PA. This after
shredding my knee and pants falling down in my driveway (hey, you knew
it had to happen somewhere in my story). My destination for the first
night was beautiful Indianapolis. After determining that Geo Metros
should not be allowed on freeways with 70 mph speed limits, I arrived
in Indianpolis and was welcomed into the home of Wayne Knight and
family. Topaz and Izzy were also greeted by Wayne's dog Mike and
Mike's pet, Ralph the Wonder dog. Topaz was game, but Ralph out
weighed him by about 90 lbs. Izzy wasn't into the welcome wagon
routine and hid in the bedroom.
Wayne is not only a gracious host, but he does indeed have one of the
largest collection of fly rods in existence. I was going to try to
back my truck up to the mother load and fill up, but then I also found
out that he likes pump action shotguns. You'ld be amazed at how loud
the sound of a little three inch shell being jacked into a chamber can
be.
After a wonderful evening, we all turned in. Unfortunately, Izzy was
bored. At 2:30, he found a wonderful toy, the spring type door stop in
the bedroom. The concert lasted on and off till about 5:30 a.m. Do
NOT try to spend the night in a room with a cat and dog who've been
cooped up in a car all day.
Headed out at about 7 a.m. Noticed Wayne chasing me down the street.
Thought he found out about his daughter's Mini Cooper hiddend in the
back of in my truck, but he was waving a black cat at me. Darn.
By the way, thanks again to Wayne, Renee and family (after all day on
the road, I forgot your daughter's name). Any one willing to put with
me and my animules is okay by me. We will be fishing together.
Oh, in Iowa, I found out about an interesting way to hunt geese out of
season. On I-80, I was going over a bridge next to a flooded corn
field and noticed a silver Sebring stopped in the middle of the lane.
There were a couple of cars stopped behind it trying to help out the
driver. I slowed down and passed gingerly on left shoulder. The
Sebring's airbag was deployed and the windshield was smashed. There
was a bloody goose imbedded at the top of the windshield, another in
the right front grill and a third underneath. The only thing I can
surmise is that a flock of Canada honkers were skimming in low to hit
the corn field (there were a couple of hundred about 300 yards away
when I passed), flew over the road and got nailed by the Sebring. I've
seen bird stike damage on aircraft before, but this is the first time
I've seen serious damage to a car. Rather Hitchcockian.
Frank "Back in Omaha" Reid