Oooooooooooh man. Excellent day today (July 3rd. It's past 12 and technically July the 4th but it still feels like the third to me) folks. This morning the sun cooked me out of my tiny one man tent and into Danny Tal's back yard. We camped out and had marshmellows and smores and loads more delicious fattening American Traditions. Btw Happy 234th Birthday America. I got up, went home and kept Jibbles company for awhile, then left the house at 1:30 to bike 7 miles to Monroe.Thats where the fun began. I never realized how rural our part of New Jersey is. I mean, I had driven down the roads I took today before, but biking down a road and driving are infinitely different. Its like walking and running. In the car you fly by everything, and you miss all the little details. But today on my Schiwnn I did the 14 mile trip at a very easy pace and soaked up everything there was to see. An especially awkward Mr. Hoffman would have probably said something like "Way to suck the marrow out of life, Chris!" Followed imediately by creepy grin/stare.
Now usually on long bike trips I take main roads and the cars flying by me kinda suck me into rushing and pedaling like crazy and exherting a tremendous amount of effort. But today the road was tiny and narrow, and the entire way there only 3 cars passed me. It was very flat and smooth too, and there were no hills to battle. It passed through a lot of farmland, and to my left and right for the majority of the way I was surrounded by green fields and rolling hills. One farm seemed to go on for miles, ending finally amid soft green hills and a bleak distant treeline. It was really spectacular. And not even 5 minutes away from my house. This green narrow road snaking through farms and forrest was like an escape from Manalapan. Seriously, I passed ranches with names like The Rising Sun Ranch and Green Fields Farm. I felt like I was in Georgia or Nebraska or some other place open. Going down that road with my avaitors on, wind in my face, Ipod singing in my ear, and sun shining down was one of the best trips out of this town I've taken in awhile. You should do it sometime. 15 Miles only takes half an hour on a bike. Great workout too.
Now, for the reason I took this Journey. If you read the first post on this blog you know I love craigslist. No money hassles or waiting for shipping like ebay. And all of your search results are local, and very cheap.
After catching those Blues with Dan on the Miss Belmar, I decided to start saving up to build my own rod and reel setup to use on party boats. After some research I found a guy selling some reels that were perfect for use on a boat like the Miss B. And at only 7 miles away I decided to bike since my folks werent home. So I took the trip and met John Hagan, a very nice old man who fit the job description of a person you might see with a Santa beard sitting on a chair in the mall around December. He was very nice and showed me all his antique fishing reels, some that went back to the 30's. In all he had maybe something like 200 reels in his house. Pretty cool. After some conversation and delicious Ice tea I bought a Penn 209 from him, and he even gave me a free rod. I said goodbye and went home.
Around 3 I met with Khomenko, and after Jason's grandma kicked us out for being present, we decided to go fishing on the golf course. We both spent the first 15 minutes casting and hoping. No fish. Dan was saying something about going to a different pond when a nice 1 pounder hit his lure a 2 feet from the waterline. They always hit when you feel like they'll never come. We took that fish back to my house and put him in the freezer for dinner later. We caught 5 fish in total, including a nice sized 2 pounder. When we finally got back with our catch it was 9:20 and pretty dark out. I went to work filleting, becoming a stinking mess in the process. And after all the fillets were off the fish we sliced them down to size and fried them in a beer batter. D E L I C I OU S. Never had bass cooked so awesome before. Usually they taste pretty bad, but we nailed the recipe this time, and Dan, Pat, Nick, and myself ate like kings. It was a awesome fish fry to end and equally awesome day.
Here's our catch in the sink.
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