I have a week off of work, and we are doing a sort of "Staycation". The first two days we have set aside for a short camping adventure with the kids. There is a campsite nearby that is open only to military families, with a nice lake that is stocked with trout.
Well, mother nature decides to turn up the heat here in the normally gray Pacific Northwest, and the temperature is pushing 100 degrees. The cute little cabin that looked so cozy is now a freaking sauna.
I know that some of you folks will laugh at complaints about heat in upper 90's, but we aren't acclimated, the bugs are seemingly mad with thirst, and the wife and kids are cranky.
To top if off, my six year old boy manages to somehow take apart his little spincasting reel while he is practicing his casting with a plug on the line. I can't find the acorn nut that holds the crank arm in place. There are no repair parts, and my efforts to fix it with a hunk of wire from a bread-bag tie are futile. He's in tears.
Well, even though it's a two night excursion, and I don't plan to shave, I couldn't resist bringing along one of my vintage Gillette travel kits "just in case". I look at the stud that the crank arm sits on...about 10-32 or so. Out comes the stubby little travel razor handle, and my kid now has the only Zebco rod held together with a Gillette handle in the state, possibly the country and perhaps on the planet.
The nine-year old accuses me of trying to combine shaving with fishing. I can see he's a little jealous of the jury rigged rod. I promise he can use it too.
We spend a sweaty night in the cabin. It's hot enough I have uneasy dreams about being in Iraq.
After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, bug bites and misery, it's off to the lake. The Gillettezebco rod brings in a small trout, we land a much bigger fish on a "boring" (my son's description) regular rod and decide only insane people sleep in ovens when they can avoid it and head home a night early.
Oh yeah, one of the first things I do when I get home is shave...Proraso cream and Aqua Velva from the freezer. It helps, even when the weather report says tomorrow might bring a record high of over one hundred degrees.
Before we put him to bed, the youngest wants to know if we can leave the "Razor on the fishing pole".
I'll have to think about it.
Well, mother nature decides to turn up the heat here in the normally gray Pacific Northwest, and the temperature is pushing 100 degrees. The cute little cabin that looked so cozy is now a freaking sauna.
I know that some of you folks will laugh at complaints about heat in upper 90's, but we aren't acclimated, the bugs are seemingly mad with thirst, and the wife and kids are cranky.
To top if off, my six year old boy manages to somehow take apart his little spincasting reel while he is practicing his casting with a plug on the line. I can't find the acorn nut that holds the crank arm in place. There are no repair parts, and my efforts to fix it with a hunk of wire from a bread-bag tie are futile. He's in tears.
Well, even though it's a two night excursion, and I don't plan to shave, I couldn't resist bringing along one of my vintage Gillette travel kits "just in case". I look at the stud that the crank arm sits on...about 10-32 or so. Out comes the stubby little travel razor handle, and my kid now has the only Zebco rod held together with a Gillette handle in the state, possibly the country and perhaps on the planet.
The nine-year old accuses me of trying to combine shaving with fishing. I can see he's a little jealous of the jury rigged rod. I promise he can use it too.
We spend a sweaty night in the cabin. It's hot enough I have uneasy dreams about being in Iraq.
After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, bug bites and misery, it's off to the lake. The Gillettezebco rod brings in a small trout, we land a much bigger fish on a "boring" (my son's description) regular rod and decide only insane people sleep in ovens when they can avoid it and head home a night early.
Oh yeah, one of the first things I do when I get home is shave...Proraso cream and Aqua Velva from the freezer. It helps, even when the weather report says tomorrow might bring a record high of over one hundred degrees.
Before we put him to bed, the youngest wants to know if we can leave the "Razor on the fishing pole".
I'll have to think about it.
. 
