Diary of a madoutdoorsman from INDIANA: Bonus Erie trip and Vacation double issue

Here's the bonus: The week before I went on vacation I made a solo trip to Erie. The first part of the day went pretty slow until I trolled out to the flotilla where I found cleaner water and fish that would bite.

This was the week I was supposed to go on vacation but moved back a week.

My vacation started at 3ish in the am, I got the car packed and was on my way. When I got 45min to an hour away from my house I pulled over for my first fill up. I put my card in and it was declined, I went inside and told the clerk what happened grabbed some ice and handed him the card and again it was declined. I then went out to my car and called the card company, in the process I noticed that the card I had was expired. Well, crap, so after trying to get the card turned back on just for June I faced the fact that I had to go back to the house and get another card. Halfway home I remembered I had a can of Sea foam tune up on the trunk, needless to say it didn't make it home. After I was on my way again I decided to hit the same gas station to see if the Sea foam had rolled off against a curb or something. I got back to the gas station filled up my car and got ice and when I left out, low and behold the can was in the middle of the parking lot right next to a storm grate, and it was still intact. WINNING.

So I picked it up and after the 3 hour waste of time I was finally on my way North.

So I am in Wisconsin and am in need of another fill up, I pull into gas station and do the tap thing. That didn't work it told me to insert my card. So I do then it says to see the attendant. I go inside and explain that I just want to get gas. She says to go ahead and pump and then just come back in and pay. OK, not a big deal, so I pumped, paid and was again on my way North.

Skip ahead to the next day and I'm at the tackle shop ready to buy my license. I hand the cashier my card and.... it goes through, awesome, so I look around a little more and find a split ring pliers that I want. The cashier rings it up, and my card is denied. I didn't bring my phone so the cashier dials the number and lets me use his. After talking with customer service and found out it is just a fraud alert and it could take 2-4 hours. I asked for a manager, she let me know that this is just procedure and a code was sent to my and all I have to do is plug in the number. After I go to Rick's and insert the code I'm back at the Tackle shop buying the split ring pliers.

Whew, I'm ready to go fishing...... and to that here are the pics.

let this 20 incher go

choked it

foggy

So at this point in the week I decided to drag some bait, I hadn't caught a walleye in a day or 2. So I stopped at the one stop on the way out to the lake to get some nightcrawlers. I remembered that I had saved an allowance card from work to use on vacation. So I pull it out and go to pay for the nightcrawlers, hit the credit button and the lady told me the card has expired. So now I had to go through the rigamarole of getting the card replaced. Which I did and all is good, but holy cow did I have card issues this trip.

This is the only walleye I caught with the nightcrawlers

The next picture is a blow up

There's a bear at the base of the stop sign

I was coming in from fishing and saw this bear on the road going from right to left. By the time I got my phone ready to take a pic, yogi realized what I was doing and took off for the ditch.

I used the drift sock Rick

That was kinda my trip to the Falls I got to spend time with my Aunt and Uncle and do some fishing. The whole week was pretty windy and or rainy but it was still a really good time.

Pelicans

From the Falls I went to Cloquet for the rest of my vacation. One of the first things I noticed was the evil twins. 😈

Yes, this is actually how they look and my parents don't think there's anything wrong with them 😱. The good news is they are right below my the window of the room I stay in..... no happy dreams for me.

So, I hung out with my parents, hung some stuff inside the house for Mom. Dad and I set up his air gun, he got a good deal on a package deal unfortunately the scope was trash and that is where it ended up. He's good to go now. I also got to dig holes for 2 trees and sink 8 posts to put wire on to keep the deer from eating them.

Corey and I had set up Saturday as the time to go fishing, since he sold his boat and was working on my Aunt and Uncle's cabin. He said we could use the pontoon boat to fish. So Addy, Logan, Corey and I head out for an afternoon of fishing. It kinda turned out like I thought we all caught some small perch and I caught some pike that were the size of the pike pictured above. Then Addy and Logan wanted to go back to the cabin to get some supper, which left Corey and I fishing.

Then this happened....

So... yeah that happened

After I realized I had a hook in my hand I asked Corey if he knew the string trick(youtube it), he didn't. So I kinda talked him through it, that didn't work out that good. First off we didn't have any good string but I had some paracord and when he went to pull it he didn't snap it because he didn't want to hurt me so he just kinda pulled it. Which hurt like hell, so now the days done and I gotta go to the ER because the only people that I have to help me are 10 beers into a good night. All my cousin Kris kept saying is I've got some pliers....

I quickly realized it was in my best interest to seek sober medical attention.