JB0704
I Gots Goats
Several years ago I drove across the country to catch some salmon in Oregon, then I drove back a completely different direction. For a guy who had never been west of the Mississippi, that was an eye opening experience. This country is very, very big and there are places out there which can never been explained in words or pics. While on that trip all I could think about was taking my kids out there some day so they could see it too..........and with that, the idea of making a round the country road trip with my son, Buzz, his High School graduation present began.
I have always told him that he should figure out where he wants to live, and find work there instead of finding work where he lives. That way he will always be happy with his environment, and that makes a huge difference in quality of life. This road trip was intended to show him how big and amazing this country is, and that there are some really awesome places to go for a person who is adventuous enough to get out there and experience it. Add in the fact that he is leaving home for college in a few weeks, I thought it would be awesome to end his childhood with a bang! I am very proud of him, and it's going to hurt a lot when we move him into his dorm, but, I think I squeezed as much out of fatherhood as I possibly could, and this road trip was a "grand finally" for us both. It ended up being absolutely epic, a truly once in a lifetime adventure that I am so blessed to have experienced with my son.
That being said, two years ago I was hanging around in the billy threads and watching a fishing show of fella catching trout all across western lakes, and it occurred to me that my son's road trip should also be a fishing trip. I told the Billy crew about it, and got started planning.
I spent two years, and hundreds of hours mapping the trip out, scanning charter boat websites, figuring out hotel arrangements, saving every single penny I could, figuring out how we could see all the things a kid from Ga only sees on TV while also catching fish we may never catch again. The idea was to fish in between the sightseeing locations. I built a schedule which laid the trip out in 100 mile "checkpoints" so that I would know each day that I was on schedule. The problem with a trip like this is that if you fall behind, or get off track, you run the risk of not seeing something you had hoped to see, also, I had paid deposits to charter boats all over the country and wanted to make sure we got where we needed to be.
Through all the planning, Buzz and I picked several spots that he wanted to see (Washington DC was off the list because he spent a week there last summer for those who wonder why we didn't go there), and then picked locations to fish along the way. With that, we booked 7 charter boats and plotted a 10,000 mile road trip which would take us around the country counter-clockwise across three weeks. We wouldn't touch every state, but we would definitely touch the majority of them. We didn't see everything there is to see, and, I don't think anybody really can see this whole country in one life time. And, there is no really good way to describe it either.
AI had a few friends as well as my brothers and their sons who wanted to join the trip along the way. Working out the logistics of being at airports at certain times while keeping the road trip on schedule was tricky. None of the pics I am going to post include them because I haven't asked their permission to post them up online, but I will mention them along the way in this thread as I go through all the days.
My initial plan was to "live blog" the trip, but with the forum not accepting my cell pics, and the crazy schedule we had planned, I really just couldn't pull that off. But, I promised those I know that I would do a recap. The only way to do that properly is to make each day it's own post, which is what I will do here.
In all, we caught tuna, bonita, mahi mahi, cod, haddock, pollock, wolf fish, halibut, atlantic mackerel, striped bass, coho salmon, lake trout, walleye, white bass, rock fish, ling cod, flounder, brown trout, kokonee salmon, and redfish........there were a few other species along the way that looked like mutant fish and I can't remember their names.
AS far as wildlife goes, we saw whales, buffalo, 100's of whitetail deer, mule deer, blacktail deer, antelope (they are EVERYWHERE out west), moose, elk, black bear, big horn sheep, wolf, coyotes, western ground hogs and squirrels counterparts (at one spot they called them rock chucks but were yellow bellied marmots), phaesants, many different species of ducks and a road kill porcupine. There were some places where the elk seemed to be everywhere you looked, and others where there was nothing but antelope. At one point, in Maryland, we wondered how they kept any crops in the field given every one we passed had a whole herd of white tail in it. I'm sure I am forgetting some critters at this point. The issue we had with spotting critters is we were usually too far away to get good pics with our cell phones. My one great regret of this trip was that I didn't bring a proper camera with me, only cell phone pics. And, as far as that goes, many of the pics I post will be of me and Buzz, or of just Buzz.......it was a father son road trip, so I insisted on a ton of selfies. I will try to keep them to a minimum, but there are more of them than there are of just landscape pics.
We met some really cool folks along the way in every corner of this great country, even in the Jersey shore and New York City. Almost every charter we booked was top notch. I Couldn't have hoped for it to have gone any better. I will try to give details with each day instead of bogging down this one post with details, so here goes................Tour 'D 'Murica road trip recap:
I have always told him that he should figure out where he wants to live, and find work there instead of finding work where he lives. That way he will always be happy with his environment, and that makes a huge difference in quality of life. This road trip was intended to show him how big and amazing this country is, and that there are some really awesome places to go for a person who is adventuous enough to get out there and experience it. Add in the fact that he is leaving home for college in a few weeks, I thought it would be awesome to end his childhood with a bang! I am very proud of him, and it's going to hurt a lot when we move him into his dorm, but, I think I squeezed as much out of fatherhood as I possibly could, and this road trip was a "grand finally" for us both. It ended up being absolutely epic, a truly once in a lifetime adventure that I am so blessed to have experienced with my son.
That being said, two years ago I was hanging around in the billy threads and watching a fishing show of fella catching trout all across western lakes, and it occurred to me that my son's road trip should also be a fishing trip. I told the Billy crew about it, and got started planning.
I spent two years, and hundreds of hours mapping the trip out, scanning charter boat websites, figuring out hotel arrangements, saving every single penny I could, figuring out how we could see all the things a kid from Ga only sees on TV while also catching fish we may never catch again. The idea was to fish in between the sightseeing locations. I built a schedule which laid the trip out in 100 mile "checkpoints" so that I would know each day that I was on schedule. The problem with a trip like this is that if you fall behind, or get off track, you run the risk of not seeing something you had hoped to see, also, I had paid deposits to charter boats all over the country and wanted to make sure we got where we needed to be.
Through all the planning, Buzz and I picked several spots that he wanted to see (Washington DC was off the list because he spent a week there last summer for those who wonder why we didn't go there), and then picked locations to fish along the way. With that, we booked 7 charter boats and plotted a 10,000 mile road trip which would take us around the country counter-clockwise across three weeks. We wouldn't touch every state, but we would definitely touch the majority of them. We didn't see everything there is to see, and, I don't think anybody really can see this whole country in one life time. And, there is no really good way to describe it either.
AI had a few friends as well as my brothers and their sons who wanted to join the trip along the way. Working out the logistics of being at airports at certain times while keeping the road trip on schedule was tricky. None of the pics I am going to post include them because I haven't asked their permission to post them up online, but I will mention them along the way in this thread as I go through all the days.
My initial plan was to "live blog" the trip, but with the forum not accepting my cell pics, and the crazy schedule we had planned, I really just couldn't pull that off. But, I promised those I know that I would do a recap. The only way to do that properly is to make each day it's own post, which is what I will do here.
In all, we caught tuna, bonita, mahi mahi, cod, haddock, pollock, wolf fish, halibut, atlantic mackerel, striped bass, coho salmon, lake trout, walleye, white bass, rock fish, ling cod, flounder, brown trout, kokonee salmon, and redfish........there were a few other species along the way that looked like mutant fish and I can't remember their names.
AS far as wildlife goes, we saw whales, buffalo, 100's of whitetail deer, mule deer, blacktail deer, antelope (they are EVERYWHERE out west), moose, elk, black bear, big horn sheep, wolf, coyotes, western ground hogs and squirrels counterparts (at one spot they called them rock chucks but were yellow bellied marmots), phaesants, many different species of ducks and a road kill porcupine. There were some places where the elk seemed to be everywhere you looked, and others where there was nothing but antelope. At one point, in Maryland, we wondered how they kept any crops in the field given every one we passed had a whole herd of white tail in it. I'm sure I am forgetting some critters at this point. The issue we had with spotting critters is we were usually too far away to get good pics with our cell phones. My one great regret of this trip was that I didn't bring a proper camera with me, only cell phone pics. And, as far as that goes, many of the pics I post will be of me and Buzz, or of just Buzz.......it was a father son road trip, so I insisted on a ton of selfies. I will try to keep them to a minimum, but there are more of them than there are of just landscape pics.
We met some really cool folks along the way in every corner of this great country, even in the Jersey shore and New York City. Almost every charter we booked was top notch. I Couldn't have hoped for it to have gone any better. I will try to give details with each day instead of bogging down this one post with details, so here goes................Tour 'D 'Murica road trip recap:
You could've took in the pro football hall of fame in my home town of canton. It would have been a good 1/2 day out of your way though. Looking forward to: the rest of the story
