1-20-2012

    these are photos of the monticello 3 in coshocton , ohio on what remains of the ohio erie canal. the monticello3 is a replica of the canal boats that used to traverse the canals of ohio between portsmouth, ohio, and cleveland ohio. this happened in the early 1800's  and was the major form of transportation till the trains become more popular and a faster way to move freight and passengers in bulk. this is a great one tank trip loaded with tons of history and historic roscoe village nearby. 

   
           well onto to tonight's story i had planned . and it is my dads last fishing trip. in his later years he was having a harder time getting around , and requiring us as family planning events out for him . he was wanting to go fishing , and that posed some problems. his health was failing as he was getting old and not able to walk well. needed some place with near level access, and under some shade, as he couldn't take heat to well. my friend peggy of rocks and stuff had some riverfront property behind her business allowed me to bring dad down there as she had an area where we had cleaned along the banks in preparation for bringing him down.
        the act of actually getting him there though tedious was well planned including cooler,worms,  fishing poles,  walker , and a cell phone in case i needed to call 911. first i escorted him down to the riverside , and i sat him down in a lawn chair while i assembled the rest of what we needed. i grabbed a cooler and got him something to drink and almost immediately he was taken by my friend and started in a lengthy conversation completely oblivious to me as i continued stringing and baiting poles to get into water. occasionally i would interject in to their conversation inquiring if he needed anything, and the day was warm and the river lazy with good clean water floating lazily by.as they were talking almost immediately dad got a bite on his pole and i said something to him but he had missed it because he was jabber-jawing. so he had a moment if intense watching till he got back onto the conversation and i was really glad that peg was there. she definitely kept him busy. and again he had a bit and again he was to slow to do anything but reel the line in. and then i  baited the hook and cast it out again , all the time watching my line that was beside his and both reels were similar in appearance,and then it came to me that if anybody catches a fish ,dad will. as i will just give him my pole and he would never know the difference. he wasn't paying any attention to fishing anyhow. so no sooner had i decided to do that my pole bent over and i grabbed it real quick and yanked up on the tip not real hard but firmly, set that hook,

        i  yelled at dad , i said 'here dad you better grab your pole , i think you have a bite on there'. and the fight was on. dad grabbed the pole as he never thought once and shut his mouth as he was going to show me how to land that bad boy. the fish broke water and i could see he was a carp about 2 foot long and a good fight as he belly flopped back into the water. dad looked at me with a big smile on his face. he kept working him  in and finally had him close to the bank but still the fish was not just belly flopping onto the shore with him. so i needed to help him get it up on shore. not having a dip net i grabbed the line and carefully worked him closer to shore and was just reaching down to grab the big boy and he lunged away and snapped the line i was holding , leaving me nothing but air as he flipped and  flopped into the water and swam away hook and all.
       i looked at dad and dad  had this god awful pissed off look on his face as he scolded me .
"now what did you do that for?'
      i looked at him in disbelief knowing it was my pole and my effort that got us this far and still it was never enough for dad. then i laughed and just that quick as old age blesses us he forgot what he was mad about and went back to talking to peg. i was never enough for that guy, but i am alright with that now. because even i have let myself down at times. but this wasnt one. i was content knowing i was taking him home and not the other way around. i have plenty of time to make life right.just have to do it one day at a time.