
Well, it finally came! The annual fishing trek to Valentine, NE, for northern fishing. Jon, myself, and Jon’s father-in-law Mel, all set out in Jon’s Oldsmobile pulling the boat Jon got last year.
Well, much like the trip of ’05, we got to about Fremont (just 45 minutes into the trip) and Jon’s transmission started slipping. Memories of the Honda and being low on fluid two years before entered our minds immediately. We limped the car into Fremont and checked the levels and they seemed to be fine. Jon tried calling a couple places about a rental, but no luck, so….
I called Emily and told her to clean out the van and pack a bag for Tanner. There was no way I could leave Emily with all three kids, but without the van. Three car seats in the back of the Buick Regal just doesn’t work…so Tanner got to tag along after all.
We dropped the boat in Fremont and Mel stayed there with it while Jon and I drove the Olds back to my house. We transferred everything over and set out again, this time at about 4pm, with Tanner and the van.
We picked up Mel and the boat and headed to Merritt Reservoir where we were camping…we got there about 10:30pm and setup camp in the dark and in a light rain. Needless to say we were exhausted.
Unfortunately the trip out was more exciting than the fishing. It was a really slow bite, and really windy. After the first day, we were lucky if we each caught two fish. The second day wasn’t much better.
One bright spot was that Tanner had been dangling a lure over the edge of the boat all day and in an odd set of circumstance, actually hooked into a 24 inch, 2-3 lbs northern! What a treat for him! I had to do the reeling, but he hooked it all by himself. He thought he was stuck in the weeds.
Jason & Tanner


