The fishing trip that wasn’t meant to be

An Outdoorsman’s Journal

Hello friends, This week’s column includes a lot of what I might call plans that simply do not work out. Read on and I think you will understand.

Monday, Aug. 14 High 72, Low 50

My original plan for this week was to camp on the Mississippi River near Lansing with my pups and fish for bluegills and perch out of my 18.6 War Eagle. I was going to leave on Friday and come home on Sunday. On Thursday night I got a call from my good buddy Gregg Soley that he had a wagon of hay for me. In other words, I had 120 bales of hay to load into my truck and trailer which would be two trips and I needed to get it the next day as Gregg needed the hay wagon. That delayed my trip until Saturday, and I was fine with that.

I had just backed into my shed with the last load of hay when Sophie Chiaro pulled into my driveway and asked if she could spend the weekend. Sophie, who is 17, is Michelle Chiaro’s daughter. Michelle was my life partner and she passed away last June. Sophie and her sister Kailey and brother Johnny have been through hell since their ma passed and now their lives are about to get better as they were moving to California to live with their aunt and uncle. Without hesitation, I said yes to a girl that I consider my daughter and thus my fishing trip was delayed until Sunday.

I was driving to Lansing, and I am passing through Stoddard when I decided to fish at Stoddard as I had never open water fished this area. The last time I ice fished there myself and two friends rescued a man that fell through the ice three times. Long story short, I gave fishing my best shot for six hours and was having no luck, so I decided to trailer my boat and drive down to Lansing. I was about to launch my boat when I saw that something was leaking out of my truck, and it looked to be anti-freeze from the 2-inch hose going into the radiator. It was Sunday and I made the decision to drive to La Crosse and get a new hose. I figured all I had to do was watch my temperature gauge as I had plenty of water and anti-freeze along. Four miles from LaCrosse my truck lost power and would only go 20 mph at best. I knew I was in trouble but made it to a parts dealer and, upon closer examination, saw that the leak was my transmission coolant line that is very close to the hose that I thought was leaking.

I put three quarts of transmission fluid in the Chevy Hotel and a bottle of stop leak, purchased extra fluid and headed home. I knew as soon I left the parking lot I was doomed as my truck would only go 15 mph. I made it to the Onalaska Walmart and went inside and asked the mechanic in the auto shop where he thought I could get it looked at the following morning. I was given the name of a business and, for the first time in my life, I made the plan to sleep in a Walmart parking lot. Folks let me tell you Walmart parking lots, at least this one, come to life at about 10 p.m. with travelers pulling into sleep, high school kids and homeless people. I laid with a hammer in my lap and did not sleep.

The following morning, I unhooked the War Eagle and attempted to drive to the auto repair shop which required interstate driving at a max of 20 mph. I was helped out, paid $90 and told my tranny was shot and this shop did not do transmission repairs.

I have a very good friend in La Crosse and his name is Mike Brown. Mike is one of the vice presidents of Kids and Mentors Outdoors. I am the president and we have done excellent work together for at least 10 years.

Mike helped me get my truck to a shop, lent me his truck and I had a difficult decision to make. Do I stick $4,000 in The Chevy Hotel? I cannot buy a truck this year or make the payment on a truck, so I went with the rebuilt tranny idea.

None of this was fun and it really was a very crazy 36 hours, but we all have stress come in a lifetime and I am well aware of that.

Sunset