To Busy to Fish!?!?!?!

Cold outside!

Well, that and the cold weather has really put a damper on the February fishing, uffda!  Last week was spent in Anaheim California at the MD and M (Medical Device and Manufacturing) Show.  We exhibit at this show every year as it is the largest show in the country featuring Medical products, which we do make at work.  Sunday the 4th was the SuperBowl and every year my neighbor Tim has a spectacular party so we went to that.  I had to leave on Monday morning, the day after the big event, and was reminded to get to the airport 3 hours early.  Well it wasn't that bad but luckily I have a lifetime membership to the Sky Club so it's a nice place to relax, get something to eat and surf the internet.  The prices for flights out of Minneapolis was crazy so I decided instead of flying into LAX I went into Orange County otherwise known as John Wayne and/or Santa Ana airport.  Either way my flight took me through Seattle with a 2 hour layover  that turned into a 4 hour layover.  Ah the joys of flying.  Landing in Anaheim at 8:00 PM my friend Mike Schubert picked me up and we headed to my hotel.  From -5F when I left to 70 degrees in California, it was sweet to ride around with the car windows down.  When flying one of the things I like to do is get a handle on whats going during the flight.  Preferring window seats allows me to keep track of where we are and the changing landscape below us.  The  picture is one of the flight data while on our way to Seattle,  Notice we are flying at 36,000 feet and it is a cool -81 below zero.  At that temperature the plane was definitely leaving our mark on the sky in the form of contrails.  My tickets were in First Class and I had the pleasure of sitting next to a lawyer from New York, who had been at the Super Bowl then heading to California. He was a liability lawyer and it was interesting to hear about his business. 

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility

After the show was done on Thursday, Mike suggested I check out of the hotel early and stay at his house for the night.  It seemed like a good idea and was looking forward to stopping by his American Legion Post in Newport Beach.  It is the largest post in the United States boosting over 4500 members.  As I entered the Legion hall it suddenly dawned on my that my coat was left in my room.  Quickly calling the hotel they called back and said yes, we have it.  Well, in California it sometimes takes an hour to get anywhere so I just had them send it to me.  Worried because of the money that was in the pocket, well it was too late for that.  As a surprise it arrived at work on Monday with everything still intact.  After enjoying a nice prime rib at the Legion we headed to Mike's drank a bottle of wine and the next morning left for the airport.  My flight would take me to Salt Lake City then back to Minneapolis.  The desert intrigues me as we flew over what appeared to be a huge solar collector where mirrors are focused on a concentrated solar collector to convert heat to electric power.  It was kind of interesting as one could barely look at the 3 units in the desert just southwest of Las Vegas as they were extremely bright, like a welding arc.  Further investigation shows that it is called the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility and is the largest of its kind in the world.  Check the link out as it is quite interesting. Salt Lake is an interesting town as it is bordered on the east by mountains and on the west by Great Salt Lake.  Finally getting home was nice after a week away, although the weather in California was nice, it does seem to get boring after a while!  When boarding the plane out of Orange County Airport the flight attendant saw my American Legion hat and it's reference to Newport Beach, he exclaimed, Going the wrong way aren't you?  My response was that I missed the cold weather and needed to go ice fishing.  It is interesting to show my colleagues pictures from Red Lake, they think we are all crazy up here............maybe they're right!

My next trip is to the APEC conference in San Antonio, TX.  This year we've got a trip to fish the prespawn largemouth bass on Lake Fork Reservoir, east of Dallas.  It is famous for their big Largemouth Bass as they have stocked the Florida Strain of bass and the Texas state record of over 18 pounds came from Lake Fork.  Compared to Minnesota where the state record largemouth bass is only 8.5 pounds, it should be interesting.  We were thinking about going to the gulf to fish however my friends Joe and Matt claim they still have not recovered very well from last summer's hurricanes. Although its really fun to fish the saltwater, maybe I can get something larger than 8 pound and have a graphite reproduction made, that would be nice.  As well, it's simply a pleasure hanging with my friends from Texas and truth be told, if I never caught a fish I'd still be happy.........we'll catch fish though!!