Eatin’, toobin’, fishin’ and rainin’

Friday evening I went to CompUSA and picked up a new 4th generation 20GB iPod. I couldn’t wait until the mini sold. The new iPod is great (I’m setting myself up for something). I charged it for two hours, it charged completely and my computer recognized it immediately. I loaded it with a couple gigs of music and hit the road.

I loaded up some lawn chairs and headed over to John and Christine’s for the beginning of an eventful weekend. John grilled steaks and ears of corn. I cooked mashed pototoes. In attendance were John, Christine, Allan, Elise, Marc, Cindy, Rowan, Alfonso, Janeen, Evan Shadel, Ella, Brandi and yours truly. At around 1 a.m., Elise and I called it an evening and went home.

Elise had to work Saturday morning. I slept in. Elise got home around 10:30. John, Evan and Allan came over around 11 and we all headed to New Braunfels to meet up with the rest of the gang. Along the way we met up with Carlo, Erin, Toni and Phillip. We made it to the river around 1:30 and met up with the group from the night before along with Adrian.

We did that whole float down the river in an inner tube with lots of beer thing. We all had a blast. At one point, Janeen, Alfonso, Evan and myself found ourselves in deep existential conversation about something really deep, important and memorable. This conversation was so involved and
important that we all neglected to see where we were supposed to get out of the river. Adrian finally caught up with us to let us know that we had floated a mile or so too far. Seeing how our satellite group and been engrossed in an exhaustive, important conversation that took not only and emotional and psychological toll on us, but also a physical one, it was very difficult to walk upstream in knee high waters. I know for a fact that drinking many beers while sitting in the hot sun all day had no effect on any of us.

When we finally met up with the rest of our platoon, we summoned the bus to come pick us up and take us back to our cars. The majority of us went to Clear Springs Cafe for some great fried catfish. The road home was a long one. It was still relatively early in the evening but we were all
exhausted. John dropped Elise and me off at the house and we immediately went to sleep.

Elise had to work Sunday morning. She and Rodney (one of her catering employees) sold food at the Coppertank during a viewing of highlights from Lance Armstrong’s 6th Tour de France victory. I was going to stay at home all day but decided to join Elise and Rodney and watch the footage on a large screen. Rodney and I got to talking and I asked him when he was going fishing again. He replied “Today… wanna go?”

So Elise and I went home, loaded a cooler, changed into our swim suits, hopped in the Jeep and headed to the lake. We got to the marina just in time to help Rodney net some minnows. Rodney has a 26.5′ Wellcraft 2600 Martinique that boasts 320 horses. It’s a really nice boat but when you get up close and take a good look, it’s not much unlike a 12′ jon boat that is oar-driven. Rodney and I paddled out to a nearby cove while Elise sat in the back of the boat. The three of us fished for a couple hours and didn’t get a single nibble.

The sky started rumbling and bright flashes of lightening could be seen over the hills. I decided it was time for us to head back to the dock. Luckily we headed back when we did because not but a few short moments after we got out of the boat and after Elise and I put the top (sans windows) up on the Jeep, the bottom fell out of the sky. We sat under the covered walkway around the marina and fished for another half hour or so while the rain kept coming down.

Elise and I ran to the Jeep, loaded the cooler and headed home. We drove back to the house with water on the floorboard up to our ankles. The whole ordeal was pretty funny.

We came home and I grilled chicken fajitas. We had a really good weekend.