Casting and Untangling

The Yellowstone River is the longest river in North America.

I have been mad at the world and every time I sat down to write a post, I would begin cursing and threating everyone in this administration and everyone that voted and supported this administration. So in an effort to try and save whatever is left of my sanity, I would stop writing and go do something else. Right now there’s nine posts on my draft folder that I will try everything I can not to post. They are insulting, childish and all around horrible.

With that said, I’m done with civility.

On a much happier note, we are in Montana. I just had local beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon and horse radish, in a hotel and restaurant that was built in 1890. The Grand Hotel in Livingston. The word ‘excellent’ wouldn’t do it justice. During this trip, there was no weddings, no family members, no aunts, no friends and no additional events. Just us and the Grandparents. We are leaving tomorrow and 2kicks is laying with her grandmother, crying that she doesn’t want to go home. While heart breaking, it’s nice to know that the kid loves her grandmother. It was a great trip.

It had been raining for the first part of the trip, which made the level rise, so we coulnd’t get to the river. But the grandparents took us to a place that belongs to the National Park Service about ten miles north of Red Lodge. There’s bathrooms (non-flushable), picnic tables (where you have to pick everything up, because of the bears), grills, handrails on some of the hiking trails, and a big huge pond, where the fishes get replenished on a regular basis. It’s meant for tourists and older handicapped people that still love the outdoors and fishing, and little kids. Because the fishs’ favorite bait is cheese.

We had a picnic, hiked the ten feet to the pond, and we fished. The grandparents had gotten 2kicks a little kid’s fishing rod last year, that she used for about ten minutes. This trip she tried for longer, but 2kicks was mostly interested in saying hi to all the other kids around and feeding the cheese to the fish. When Bebo caught a fish, 2kicks would help reel it in. In the meantime Beba sat back, and I played with her fishing rod.

As I played with her fishing rod, I found it more and more interesting. That’s when the in-laws informed me that I needed to get a fishing license before I pulled any fishes out of that water; that the park rangers were in the park, and that they could ask to see the license of anyone at any time. Failure to have one, comes with a hefty violation. Lucky for me, I didn’t catch anything. My father in-law also informed me that a bad day fishing is still better than most days. He made a very compelling point. Later in the week, my mother in-law got me a two day fishing license.

I’ve been fishing before, but I’ve never been fly fishing.

Remember that movie, A River Runs Through It? That was filmed in Montana, on the Yellowstone. The husband has this thing that he says, that growing up, he had outdoors abuse. His dad took him and his siblings on the river, pretty much every weekend. The husband is amazing with outdoors stuff. Yeah, the computer science engineer can build a fire, set up a camp ground, fish for the purpose of dinner and most important, go down the Yellowstone River. Like a boss. All of them are. Double O just got back from hiking the Glacier National Park. The last day of the trip we took 2kicks down the river and Bebo was giving me lessons on fly fishing. I really enjoyed fly fishing.

A very important skill to master in fly fishing is casting the line. That’s when you whip the line on the rod, with your wrist, and send it flying on the river with a snap. Another very important skill: untangling said line after you’ve whipped it enough times.

This wasn’t meant to be a great post. It barely counts as a good post, but we had a great time… as usual.

picture credits: the husband