FLASH: Repo survives the woods!

I made it through another week at Christie Lake.

We had a great time, which included some very excellent fishing. I caught a very large bass ( I will post a picture confirming this story when its developed), but my son and daughter caught bigger ones. Evelyn was the "bassmaster" landing a 17 1/2" monster. It tasted great, by the way. Joe suggested that he really didn't want to eat a fish that he had seen alive.

There was one new twist to the Christie Lake experience, though. My daughter, who just turned 13, seemed to draw a lot of attention from the large group of teen-age Canadian boys whose families share our week at the lake. According to Evvy, the boys believed that I looked "annoyed", "worried" and/or "mad", that they were hanging around with her. I may have been scrutinizing her actions more than usual, I don't know.

Bob Ayotte was everyone's idol as the true outdoorsman. He caught and cooked fish, killed snakes bare-handed, chased away skunks, and had all the necessary tools to rescue us less skilled campers, such as spare anchors, battery chargers and jumper cables. He also introduced us to the joys of horseshoes. He's good at that, too; we have to practice for the rematch.

Overall, however, this year the vacation was more restful than usual; I actually "got away from it all" in my mind. I lost track of the days and did not really worry about the office. I was sorry to come home, especially when I got to the border.

The trip back was one of the worst ever. We had a two hour wait at the border. I understand the need for security and the fact that high, holiday-weekend traffic volumes make for longer waits. what annoyed me was the incompetent direction of traffic by Thousand Island Bridge Authority (TIBA) personnel. There were several of these guys just basically standing around, rather than effectively managing the merging of traffic across the bridge and to the toll booths. As a result drivers moving along shoulders were able to cut the line (and save at least an hour) with impunity. Also rather than having one smooth merge point, there were several unmanaged ones which added to delays.

Anyway, I'm glad to be home and I'm ready to blog again!