Friday night I drove out to Dave’s again.  His wife was still in Hawaii and wasn’t coming home until Saturday night.  So, the boys had one last day of freedom.

We stayed up until 2am or so drinking beer and watching Howard Stern On Demand on Comcast cable.  I can’t say that i’ve been a Stern fan in the last 10 years or so–all the commercials on terrestrial radio really turned me off.  However, since he’s made the switch to satellite I must say that he’s the best he’s ever been.  I don’t think I’d spend the cash on a Sirius receiver and subscription…  but, there are other ways of getting the show…

Saturday morning we drove out to Lake Camanche again.  This is a beautiful time of year at that lake.  The days are warm, but not yet scalding hot.  In mid-summer it’s well over 100 degrees every day.  Saturday it got up to the low 80s.  After the morning fog burned off it turned into a breezy, cloudless day.

Once again, we could see the bass in the backbays and shallows.  The water temperature was in the low 70s and it was sooo clear.  In places where our sonar read 20 feet deep we could see the bottom.  So we could see the fish swimming around the boat.  However, getting them to bite was another story.

I managed to catch a nice bass on a red and black speckeled Gulp! plastic worm.  No weights, just dead-stickin’ it.  Every once in awhile I’d twitch it, mocking a dying or injured baitfish.  The bass hit it pretty hard and gave a good fight.  It was probably 2 or 3 pounds.  Not my biggest, but still fun to catch.

We packed up and left around 6pm.  I was worried about traffic in Stockton, until Dave reminded me it was Saturday.  I never know what day it is any more.

Have you ever seen those little taco trucks on the sides of roads and on street corners?  Dave stopped at one just outside of Stockton.  Let me just say–it was boomin’.  Delicious.  Awesome.  I had those little tacos on those little corn tortillas with lots of pickled radishes and carrots.  Al pastor.  The best.

Finally back at Dave’s house we spent 15 minutes or so cleaning up the boat and putting her away.  I love that thing.  Last summer we had a blast–sometimes fishing 3 or 4 times a week.  With summer right around the corner those days will soon be returning.

I can’t wait.

What a great week! I’m finally home after romping all over Northern California. It’s kinda weird to be here, although I did manage to sleep for almost 12 hours last night.

On Thursday Dave and I went fishing out at Lake Camanche, which is about 45 minutes east of Stockton. It was an absolutely beautiful day. It was about 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. The water was clear and surprisingly warm in the back bays and shallows. We could see the fish swimming around under the boat but we could not get them to bite. It was very frustrating. I did manage to catch a nice largemouth bass on a blue and purple jig.

On Friday night we hooked the computer up to Dave’s widescreen HDTV. His wife performed at the Merrie Monarch festival, which is the Super Bowl of hula. Her kuma (like a hula coach or master) is Mark Keali’i Ho’omalu, best known for his work on the Lilo & Stitch soundtrack. It is a great honor to be invited to Merrie Monarch. Unfortunately, her halau (the hula squad or team), The Academy of Hawaiian Arts, did not place. Since they are not actually from Hawaii, and Mark is somewhat of a maverick in the community, it was over before they even began–they had no chance.

I managed to talk Dave into letting me use his old Motorola MPx220 cell phone while he’s not using it. It’s a Windows smartphone. I’ll never use half the features. At any rate, my ringer works again! (My old cell phone brokeded).

Sunday I went up to Truckee and spent a couple nights at the cabin. On Monday night I we went over to the Boomtown casino for a little craps. I played for a couple hours and walked away with a couple hundred bucks profit. I love that game. It’s soooooo fun! I’ve been really lucky too. Every time I’ve played craps I’ve won. Blackjack I’ve never, ever won, not even $5. Slots I’ve gotten lucky a few times, but it’s just not very fun–slots are kind of monotonous. But craps? That’s my game.

So now I’m home. Click here to see the pics.

Katie wanted to know where the picture at the top of my webpage was taken: Bodie, CA.

Official California State Historic Park Website for Bodie

Just a few pictures from when I was there a few years ago (at bottom of index)

Bodie is a damn cool place. It’s an old ghost town that’s actually pretty well preserved. When I went, it was the middle of the summer and the middle of the day, so it was over 100 degrees. So I didn’t stay as long as I should have.

It’s kind of a creepy place too. When I was exploring the ruins I thought about all the people who lived and died in such an awful place. Looking through the windows into the old houses you could see piles of dirty clothes, ragged children’s dolls, wallpaper peeling off the walls. In the saloons there were still old bottles of whiskey and beer on the counter, and chips on the roulette wheel.

So anyway… Bodie. A California State Historic Park. Cool place.