My Day Out

My daughter Jessica surprised me today with an offer of a day out fishing. To say I was tickled was a bit of an understatement. Her fiance, Jason, joined us for our outing. A day out with my kids, fishing on a gorgeous fall day? Oh, YEAH, that's what I'M talkin' about! We went to Deep Landing, a place my Daddy took me fishing and hunting when I could barely carry my own fishing and hunting gear.

As I recall, Daddy didn't offer much variety for food or drink. If it wasn't vienna sausage and crackers, it was fried egg sandwiches. You have to understand, Daddy just ignored all the heat markers on the stove buttons except "OFF" and "CREMATE". When Daddy fried an egg, it stayed fried. Crispy, even. Then he'd put the crunchy eggs on fresh bread and start piling the egg sandwiches into a bread bag. After throwing 4 or 5 sandwiches into the bag however they happened to land, he'd tie a knot in the top of the bag, thereby sealing in the heat and steam. Are we all on the same page here? Think crunchy, soggy and just plain old, "Ewwwww!!", especially after 3 or 4 hours when we finally got around to eating them. Yeah.

For beverages, you generally had 3 options. A Thermos jug of instant coffee strong enough to put hair on your chest or make your toenails black, according to which old wives tale you subscribe to, a refreshing drink of ditch water, or the ever popular "nothing."

You might understand that I learned how to cook at a young age, and I very willingly took on the task of preparing the refreshments for our fishing and hunting trips as soon as I was capable.

Yes, just visiting our old stomping grounds brought back a lot of memories, and I am so enjoying making new memories with Jessica and Jason as we revisit some of my favorite places that my Daddy took me as a child and teenager.

Now, on to the pictures, if Demon Blogger will cooperate. Once again, my slideshow hosts won't let me upload to a slideshow for some reason. But, as Dick pointed out, at least this way you can look at each picture as long as you like.

**DOUBLE CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTOS**Got my coffee, my rod and reel, my gear and my worms. I'm set.
Got my line in the water...
You'd think there ought to be a big catfish in there somewhere.
The view upstream.
I like the reflection of the trees in the water in this shot.
You can see a little Fall color here.
The view across the ditch.
My girl fishing.
If you'll double click, you'll see Jessica fishing downstream.
Jason silhouetted against the blue Autumn sky.

We only got a few bites at Deep Landing, so it didn't take long for the kids to get bored. We packed up and went downstream about 10 miles to Snowden's Landing to try our luck. It's another place my Grandpa and my Daddy took me, and
Grandpa used to have a house on stilts out on an island out from Snowden's.
As you can see, the trees have a little more color at Snowden's.
Did I mention it was a bit chilly today? High of 55 degrees, and Jessica got cold.
We fished off a wooden bridge and it was a tad airish over the water.
The rusty colored trees behind them are mostly cypress trees.
Heading towards sunset, and the shadows are getting longer.
A wider shot of Jessica & Jason fishing off the bridge.
Almost sunset.

Altogether we probably fished for close to 4 hours, and the only fish caught was a tiny perch that probably got in trouble for straying too far from his Mommy. Jessica caught that one and then dropped the poor thing on the bridge trying to throw him/her back in the water. I hope he made after the probable brain injury. I didn't see him belly-up anyway.

I've mentioned here before (see #43 & #44) that I really don't like to walk across wooden bridges, because even though I'm a hefty girl, I might fall through one of those cracks, y'all. Jessica made sure she pointed out every broken plank and every extra wide gap between the boards, then, she jumped on the loose boards just for good measure. I was about to wet my drawers, and she and Jason were laughing like hyenas at me. I will say, though, that Jason told Jessica to quit being mean to me. He's such a good boy, he is. ;-)

After we left Snowden's we came back here to Chez Mom's for homemade chili. Jessica and Jason enjoyed the chili, and I think Peanut did, too. At least Jessica didn't bring it up for another look, thank goodness. :-)

And then....And THEN....We went riding around, y'all! Two of my most favoritedest things, all in the same day, and with some of my best loved people to be with. I've been in hog heaven all day, y'all. We picked up Lamar at my sister, Zztop's and my brother in law, Johnny's and filled up the car with gas, got us a Coke, and just set off to get lost. Between the four of us, we know the gravel roads close to home pretty well, so we had to drive a fer piece to get lost. It was clear as a bell tonight. Cold and clear, and the Milky Way looked close enough to touch. No, not the candy bar, the galaxy! I'll tell you one thing, we went to some places I've never been before, and I'm not sure I could take you back there in the daylight. We followed one gravel road until it had grass growing down the middle of the road, and we backed out and turned around when another had a gumbo mudhole all the way across it. Gumbo is a kind of clay found around here in Northeast Arkansas, and it would take a tractor to get a car out of a hole that big. Bad news, even for doofuses like us.

Starting out on our joyride.
I had Jessica take several pics of me and Lamar for this post,
and I regret to inform you that this one is the best of the lot.
Sad, ain't it? LOL ;-)

We had a grand time together riding around, as we always do. This has been a great day for me, as you might can tell by the teeniest bit of bragging I've done here. If you enjoyed this even a fraction as much as I did, it was worth the price of admission.

I'll be back later on Saturday afternoon for my Sunday Dinner post, Lord willing. Have a great Saturday, y'all.