lost track for a bit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60765236@N00/5021405623/in/set-72157625037415924/

Lake Powell photos

Roswell, New Mexico, home of the alien museum which we have toured in the past. somewhat cheesy, but always a treat.
Something street fairish going on here this weekend, hard to find a place to stay---could have camped at Bottomless Lakes, but since we will be camping the next 2 weeks, thought we would get a room. Motel 6, basic but good.
Wanted to go thru Carrizozo as in the past there was this great little place to eat lunch, La Brewja, but no longer open, so we will head north to Vaughn and I-40, then west and north to Blanding and spend another night in civilization before heading to Halls Crossing and launching.
chuck wants to eat at IHOP tomorrow, all over that root tooty fresh and fruity, and it is open 24 hours, so we will get up early and walk that way, get an early start on a 9-10 hour drive.
Stopped at a mickey D's in Fort Stockton and 2 guys hauling a boat asked us where we were headed with our boat--we said, lake Powell, and turned out they were going there too. they had been thinking and planning to go for 15 YEARS!!!. I guess we just sort of jump into things. We drove over the Glen Canyon Dam about 6 years ago, and that was it, we were going as soon as we could. Have been the last 5 years.

Lake Powell, dude.
Leaving for the Lake tomorrow. There are lakes and then there is Lake Powell. Not your typical lake with trees all around, which is one of the reasons we like it so much. Red rocks, and more red rocks. And red sand, and the occasional mud.
Our plan is to put in at Halls Crossing and cruise up to the San Juan Arm. We'd like to go all the way up to the waterfall below Clay Hills Crossing, which is where we took out the time we floated the San Juan River, but who knows if the lake is high enough for that?
The messabout is next Saturday, and we will be back at Stanton Creek for that. Funny how all these place names bring up certain visions.

fishing

fishing. i used to go fishing with my dad when i was little. he had some bamboo rods for my brother and i, and we threaded worms onto the hooks and swung the line out and we caught little sunfish and were thrilled. sometimes he let us use his rods and reel, but we inevitably got them messed up and tangled, and he was not at all mechanical, so that was usually the end of that. have done very little fishing since--a few times while we lived in Montana after chuck and I got hitched. We lived up in the Highland Mountains for a couple of years, and we fished for trout in Fish Creek, which sounds like a no brainer, but you really have to know what to use to catch the fish, and we never really did. one time, Chuck went ice fishing with a friend who did know what to use, and he came home with about 50 beautiful little trout. He had no idea how to clean them, but luckily, I did, so I cleaned them and put them in the freezer, and they were delicious.

My plan is to fish on the next TX200--would love to be able to catch something to eat each night, but I am going to have to find out what to use--lures or bait. Our son, Bonham is becoming quite a fisherman--he just sent a photo of himself with a big redfish in one hand and a big flounder in the other. He has promised to help me. He does tell me that this is the best time to buy a fishing license, as one bought now will last until the end of next August. I am also interested in crabs. I used to go crabbing with a neighbor down at Freeport when I was in High School. We would get a bunch of chicken necks and some string and a net, and go down to some canal and catch crabs. Then, because we had no idea how to cook them, we would give them to someone else who was crabbing in the same area. Would not do that again--would cook those babies and eat the meat. Probably could not get Chuck to eat it unless I got all the meat out for him though--he has never been interested in working for his food.

boat plans, a theory

We have a whole bunch of wonderful boat designers whom we represent, and sometimes we feel bad when plans don't seem to move very well. I have given this a good deal of thought, and I have a new theory. Please be aware that this is strictly my (Sandra Leinweber) opinion, and does not constitute any sort of fact or even mean that Chuck agrees with me at all.

A homemade boat can be a thing of great beauty, and nothing is more satisfying to me than having someone ask where I got one of my boats--they have never seen anything like it. I say, "We made this from plans."

Many people do not even realize you can buy plans to build boats.

So here's the theory: If you are going to build a boat, you don't want it to look like a boat you can buy. Our most popular plans have that special little something--a line, a shape, a component that sets them apart from all the other boats on the lake. It is really that simple.

I know that there will be some builders who WANT their boat to look like all the other boats of the same type, but I think they are a definite minority. I am not saying that boat builders are iconoclasts, but I suspect that many are. I know I am.