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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

1988 Rinker Captiva 206

Well while we were up at the North Higgins Lake State Park we ended up buying a boat. My brother in law told me I needed it like I needed another hole in my head which I agreed that he was probably pretty accurate but we bought it anyways. We actually went up there to look at another boat a 1976 Century Raven which was a 19' closed bow runabout with a Mercruiser 255 engine which in case your not familar with boats like I was when we first started looking at them that is the small block V8 most older Ford trucks had in them. Ended up the guy didn't tell us everything that needed to be done to the boat so shortly after I had allready made all the reservations for the park I found out from the Marine that worked on the boat for the past 30 years that it needed about $2,000 work on the outdrive and George the seller was at 2,000 for the price of the boat too and wouldnt budge which after everything we would have had a 76' boat that all we could do is hope an pray to find parts on that we had $4,000 into and the boat would only book out at maybe $2500. So after we got up there since we couldn't cancell the reservations since it was to late we took it out on the lake and it wasn't running right really sluggish and took about a quarter mile to get up on plane (come up out on top of the water) which with that much motor and that small of a boat it should be up and skimming the top of the water in the first 10ft. So George, Camille, and I ran it over to Old Point Comfort Maine which we found out that when they spring prepped the boat from it being winterized they forgot to put 3 plug wires back on. So back to the lake we go which this time it ran sweet could hear the groul of the V8 lots of power. But while we were at the Marine we saw another boat a 20ft 1988 Rinker which was quite a bit higher than what we wanted to pay but we put in an offer with Bonnie the owner of the Marine along with her husband Jerry and she put it thru to the owner of the boat who came down quite considerably to our suprise. So we slept on the whole situation and came back to the Marine Sunday morning to take the Rinker out for a test drive with Jerry (2) a mechanic there @ the marine. Which the boat ran sweet it had a few minor things wrong that I knew I could fix so I wasnt really worried about it we used that as bartering power and ended up getting the boat for about a $1,000 bucks under what it was actually worth. So it seemed like a pretty safe oppurtunity to own a boat so we towed it home. The blue boat is the Century we test drove and the red and black is the Rinker we now own. It was a fun weekend we met alot of nice people and everyone at Old Point Comfort Marine were extremely personable and looking out for the customers best interest I would highly recomend them to anyone who is in need to have there boat repaired or looking for advice or getting a different boat. Tell them Chad Wetzel sent ya and talk to Jerry or Bonnie. Now we just need all the fun stuff like ski's, tubes, ski rope, etc. always something....


Higgins Lake Excursion







Camille and I went camping this past weekend at the North Higgins Lake State Park it was pretty decent except our camp site was right by Old 27 which you can see in the background in the pictures where Camille is sitting by the fire . Other than being by a major road the campsite I choose was pretty nice only one side had another family camping the side oposite of the picture where you can see most of our SUV it was all open and there isnt even another campsite there for a few hundred yards and we were right accross the path from a bathroom/ showers. Any who we left Friday night about 6pm and stayed thru Sunday evening. The picture of us standing by the statue is accross the street from the campgrounds which was a State Nursery for trees was pretty interesting how they farmed the trees. The informational guide there was nice enough to take out picture but not nice enough to wait until we were ready evidently :).

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Fishing @ Lake Interstate


This is the huge bass I caught about 9:30pm Tuesday night June 6th. My lovely wife is the one taking the pictures for me. Of course since I had not been fishing in so long I didn't know if it was in season or not I knew any bass that you keep needed to be over 14" long which this one was. Of course I didn't have anything to measure or weigh it. But proportionally from the picture I think it was about 16 1/2 inches. decent size keeper. But I ended up letting it go since I didn't know for sure if it was in season or not. Oh well the one that got away or maybe I should say let go. To no amazement I have been fishing that same spot for the past week and a half using the same lure trying at the same time and different times and cannot find that fish again. At least I got pictures so its not just a fish story.
I think that's the first bass I caught that was a keeper since I went fishing with Phil Bickel way back when I was about 16 or 17 I think. Haven't really been into fishing since then but am realizing how much fun it is, and quite relaxing to boot. Oh yeah I caught that thing on a floating yellow fly.

More B93 Bash Pictures.....



Muriel & Keith & Red Lobsters Mascott (Left)

Camille stylin' and profilin' as you can tell we were pretty tired and burnt from being in the sun all day.

B93 (93.7 FM)






Recently Camille and I went to B93's annual concert they have. This year it was in Iona, MI they had several different country music singers there which Sundays presentaion included Little Big Town, Eric Church, Jake Owens, Jamie O'Neal, & Blake Shelton it was quite a bit of fun it was on the fair grounds and there were about 50,000 people there Sunday we elected to go Sunday instead of Sat. since it was a 2 day event because there seemed to be more bands we wanted to hear Sunday and Camille's brother Zeke and sister Hannah had there graduation part that Sat. Zeke graduated from Maple Valley High school and Hannah finished up her associates degree at Lansing Community College. Below are a few pictures of Sunday at the concert, Camille & I met up with her other sister Muriel (Sorry Mur if I spelled it wrong) and her boyfreind Keith. Anyways here are the pics.