A Fishing We Will Go…

Woke early with a new pain. About one week before our trip started, my left knee was giving me problems. I have arthritis, Rheumatoid, with a capital R for sure. I don’t know why it decided to flare up in my knee. In the knees is Osteoarthritis. It has not made this vacation pleasant at times. But I have had this disease going on 38-39 years. It doesn’t keep me down. It does, however, remind me I am not as physically fit as in my teen years. Anyway, after a busy Tuesday, I woke with a new distraction, hip pain. Don’t know what I did but that’s how RA works.

Typical me, it can’t keep a good woman down. I got up earlier then everyone as usual. It was overcast for the morning so I put my long pants and jacket on. I had been wanting to walk the road to the left of the driveway. So this morning I grabbed my walking stick, sun hat, glasses, and walked. It was so pretty and quiet except for the river rushing next to me and a car or truck across the river whooshing by on the highway. I took a couple of pictures but used an actual film camera. I know, antique way but it’s all I had to capture the moments.

When I arrived home it was still quiet on the western front. Steve had made sausages, the kind form CostCo filled with apple and chicken stuff. Before I knew it, everyone showed up in the living room. It was one of those “fend for yourself” breakfast. Everyone had something different to eat.

Steve, Salome, Christopher, Lizz and I headed off to town for Internet access, cell phone service and empty the trash. We don’t have a trash can so we carry it to the dump. We actually had recycle saved up, but it turns out they can only accept glass, plastic, and plain cardboard only. Lizz was not too happy. In her class last time, she learned all the proper recycling information. I tried to explain that even though this was just a transfer site, at least they were recycling something. It takes time for people to catch on. We all need to catch on so our generations ahead of us will still have beautiful places like this to vacation to. (bad grammar, but you know what I mean)

While in town, Steve and Lizz made appointments for a massage. Steve had promised Lizz that we’d go to Reno for her birthday. She’s been wanting to go to Reno or Lost Wages (Las Vegas) to see a show for her 21st birthday. Since we are here, LV was out but Reno is only 1-2 hours away. They checked the Internet to find only one show and it was not the show type she was looking for. I’ve been to at least one dinner show where there were comedians and fan dancing women. It was very classy. But the kind that was available were the burlesque, show everything ya got type. When Lizz saw the massage therapy sign she decided she’d rather have that. Right now she could use it. The appointment is for 10 am today, Thursday. (I am writing this at 7:30 am.)

We walked through town, which isn’t that far, got ice cream and sat on the bench next to the grocery store. Across the small two lane road, up on the second floor balcony, sits a parrot in it’s cage. They told me of this bird a few days ago. Sure enough, as we sat there enjoying our treats, the bird talked, “Hi. Hello. I’m only a bird.” He says several simple phrases. There was one that Lizz couldn’t understand. Ya have to understand, as Lizz hears creatures talk, she mimics them back. So when she didn’t understand the phrase she couldn’t repeat it. Having years under my belt I figured out that it was saying, “in a gilded cage”. How cute is that! I’m only a bird in a gilded cage. We sat there for some time and then decided since the fishing gear was already in the van, they’d try some fishing by the bridge.

We tried one spot behind town. Lizz and I aren’t avid fisherwomen so we after about an hour we decided to walk through the town again for something to do. As we crossed the bridge, I looked down into the river. Holy Moly, there they were, shiny things swimming around. We ran back to get Steve & Salome. We didn’t want to yell, “Hey, there’s fish here” just in case others were thinking the same. After we moved to the new location, tackle boxes and all, nothing. In fact, they kept catching snakes, water snakes! As we are sitting on the shady rocks either fishing or resting, a guy across the river holds up a fish and boasts of his catch. We politely nod and congratulate him over the noise of the river. He reloads his bait, tosses the line in and within a few minutes he’s caught another. How rude! After about the 3rd, he is kind enough to tell us the bait he is using. Turns out Steve and Salome are using the same kind. After the fourth fish, Salome and Christopher head over the bridge to the other side. After the 5th fish Steve, Lizz and I head over to the other side of the bridge.

At first, we caught another snake. Now mind you, it’s not with the fishing line and hook. They catch them by grabbing the tail. After they play with it awhile, it gets tossed back in the water but not where we are fishing.

Salome’s line was in the water when the nice gent told them about the bait he was using. It was the same as they were using but pink. I didn’t know the fish could see color. Off she went to the tackle shop leaving Lizz to hold her pole until she got back. She was gone a few minutes when there was a tug on the line. Our first fish caught! We stayed there for quite some time and only caught one more fish and another snake or two. Steve taught Lizz how to gut the fish.

What would the day be like without someone doing something silly. Today was my turn. The gent and his family had left after catching 8 trout and we only had our puny two. Salome had arrived back from the store with different but fresh goop (bait), Lizz played in the water, Christopher was checking out the rocks, looking for gold I think, Steve was in the water up to his knees fishing while I was just hanging around watching and taking it all in. I looked over at the water to see what I yelled out, “there’s a creature in there!” I didn’t realize how funny it sounded funny at the time and they made fun of me. I saw a larger body than the snakes we had seen but I only saw part of it and it’s tail diving back into the depths of the water. I backed up further onto the shore while they laughed until they saw it too. It turned out to be a fresh water otter. Along with the snakes, these are enemies of the fish. No wonder they weren’t catching any. It was later in the evening and these “creatures” were now coming out to feed for themselves. I guess they didn’t realize we had a family of 9 to feed. How selfish of the otter!

So now Lizz knows how to gut a fish and is excited to get a day permit. We got back to the house, unpacked, showered, and at dinner. No, leftover spaghetti. Today, Thursday, they will catch more. I left Steve, Salome, Jeffery, Amy & Destiny parked by the fishing hole. I drove Lizz to her massage appointment and parked in front of the Yuba Theatre, where at least 2 other cars are parked with their laptops open and checking internet. Besides the sheriff station and a hotel these are the Internet hot spots. If we go to the sheriff station we can also get cell phone service. So we aren’t totally away from our real lives.

I’m looking forward to our last day here with a fish fry dinner to end it. Hope you are catching your fish and eating it too.
C