This morning Argy and I got up early and drove to Bar Harbor to have breakfast with our son and his girlfriend before heading back to Ellsworth to pick up my new Lund at Branch Pond Marine. We got the paperwork filled out and wrote the big check before getting the walk through on how to make everything work. After going over all of the details we drove back to Union. After a short break at my desk I began fitting the boat out with the required safety equipment and handy items that I like to have on board.
Spring in Maine is marked by a number of outdoors shows and exhibits. Over the weekend I attended two of them and as always it was great fun to visit with old friends from around the state and in different aspects of my business. Saturday I attended the LL Bean fishing expo at the new hunting and fishing store in Freeport. They had a good turnout with lots of interesting seminars. I spent a half an hour or so watching someone else teach flyfishing which I found extremely helpful. There is nothing like watching a different approach to teaching an activity.
Last Saturday was the annual kids ice fishing event sponsored by my neighbors in memory of their son. It was a great success with a great turnout. It was one of those events where I was thinking there was not much of a turnout. When I was way out on the ice setting a tip up for a child I turned and looked back and realized that there were easily a hundred people on the ice. We had an eagle watch the proceedings for a good part of the day which added to the positive atmosphere. I have not heard the final tally of attendance but apparently we went through 20 pounds of hot dogs.
