Thursday and Firing Up for the Big 4th Weekend

Wellyesterday was a good day . Got alot of little jobs caught up and then spent an hour or two on THE WALL with Joy and Dale talking boating. We even got a picture of us signing THE WALL for posterity. Got a call from our friend Mark Davis who owns the diesel company and who did the work on our boat along with Ben Seidel...Iwill check this spelling...anyway we went to Mark's house for the evening. Boy did we have a good time. Mark is an excellent cook especially on his own design grill. He made beer can chickens. One was seasoned with lemon pepper and the other with Slap Ya Mama . They were both delicious along with a baked potato and Butterfinger Cake for desert..spelling. Before we ate he took Jan and me along with Peanut the dog and his daughter Nicole for a pontoon boat ride on the Black Warrior River. What a beautiful nite for a nice slow cruise. He wanted to show us a good fishing spot where he had caught a big blue cat the nite before . When we got to the spot it was set up beautifully for fishing or at least it looked that way. While we enjoyed his fishing hole he looked up and said I am getting ready to get crosswise with someone up there on the river. We all looked up to see two people in a boat just a couple of 100 yards up the river. So Mark started driving that way saying that they were running his trout line. That is something you do not do ,especially in the South and on the river. As we got closer we were all relived to find out it was his neighbor and friend who helped with the line at times. He had his wife of 54 years with him both with life jackets on and telling us of loving the river and of being 74 years old. They also had one big blue cat in their boat from the line they were running. I was surprised to see him baiting the line with goldfish. Yes goldfish about 4inches long. Peanut goes crazy over fishing so she was having a great boat ride. Walking on her hind legs so she could see better over the pontoon's rail. What fun. After the boat ride it was back to his house right on the river so we could eat and discuss THE FOURTH and future boat rides both on his ski boat , pontoon, and our boat......that he laughingly refers to as that yacht. So The Fourth is going to involve three bands up the TTB at Rattlesnake Bend on a sandy beach, city fireworks across the river from the marina, fireworks at Mark's house, accompanied by ribs and a brisket. Stay tuned I will let you hear of the festivities. One more good thing happened yesterday...Nate my son texted and said he was going to be able to sneak in a visit end of July or beginning of August....awesome. Thank you for reading along Tom P S the tender gets tested for leaks today