[February] March 1999 [April]

Tuesday 3/02
We got up early and went out fishing. That is after we got the frost off the boat. Boy is it cold. The water temp. is in the 50’s. We went up river again and fished very hard, we threw crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, rattletraps and we only caught 3 bass and 1 carp. Not a very productive day. We rented a boat slip for the next two days so we won’t have to fight the crowd at the launch ramp early in the morning. We are camping in the highland marina parking lot, we have an electric hook up and we go get water every couple of days. It works out great for us. The campground was full so this is all they had. We can live anywhere. When you close your shades you never know where you are. We went to register for the tournament, then went out to eat. We needed that quiet time to ourselves, when there are no fishing or business items around. Then we went to the partner pairings and met Dan's partner for tomorrow. He seems like he may know how and where to catch some fish tomorrow, so Dan made a deal with him that they will work together, and any places they find together tomorow they will share and both of them can go back to them the next day. Since this tournament is a pro-am format, Dan is not required to make a deal like this, and without it his partner is not allowed to go back to the spots they fish together. Since Dan has had very little practice here, and his partner knows the lake well, he felt it was in his best interest to get as much help as possible by offering a deal like this. It is kind of a gamble, going to your partner's supposed fish, so we'll find out tommorow whether he was full of bologna. This almost invariably turns out to be the case, whenever you take a chance like this.

Wednesday 3/03
First day of the Everstart tournament at West Point Lake, Georgia. Dan was boat #97 at take off this morning, 7am. He is due in at 3:40. When I got up at 8:30 it was pouring rain and howling wind. It got to a high today of about 45 degrees, and felt a lot colder with the wind chill. Dan’s fishing: He let his partner pick the spots today. They were all very close to the marina, fortunately, with the bad weather. In the first little pocket they stopped at, nothing. In the second pocket, right away, BANG! His partner has got a big fish on! They get him in the boat - it’s a 5 pounder. Then BANG, Dan has a fish on. He’s smaller though, and won’t measure to 16 inches, the minimum for largemouths. Both of these were caught on a spinnerbait, in the first half hour. Things are looking good. They work this pocket hard, and as they’re doing so another boat comes in behind them and catches a keeper largemouth on a Rattletrap. Both Dan and his partner get other spinnerbait bites but miss the fish. Eventually both end up catching a keeper spotted bass (12" or more). Dan ends the day having caught 6 fish, but only one keeper, for 1½ lbs. His partner caught 2 fish all day, for 6 lbs., and is in 9th place after the weigh-in. Apparently it was just an early morning bite, but at least Dan has a place to run to first thing tomorrow morning. After the weigh in Dan met his partner for tomorrow. His name is Rob Newell from Florida. He did not weigh in any fish today. He seemed very nice. It is so convenient camping right at the weigh in. We were back in the camper by 5:30. We cooked out on the grill again. We cook on the grill about 90 percent of the time, unless it is raining or we are traveling.

Thursday 3/04
Fishing: Dan and Rob ran first thing to yesterday’s early morning hot spot. It’s not hot today. Fished it two hours, first fast, then slow. Nobody home. Spent the rest of the day running around in the lower lake, fishing rocky points. Both guys caught a number of 14-15 inch largemouth, which would be nice fish anywhere else, but not here where they have a 16" minimum. Well, that always seems to be the case - you can always catch a bunch of fish that are just a half inch short. Here’s the funny thing: even though they had not caught a keeper fish all day, the weather was finally warming up, and they were on a little hot spot and were having such a good time that they just kept on fishing right through their check-in time. They said "What’s the point in racing back when we aren’t weighing any fish? Let’s just stay and catch some more of these little ones." These guys are sick. They’ve been up at 4am and out on the water in below freezing conditions for days on end. Dan is complaining that he needs a break and doesn’t even want to be here at this tournament. They haven’t caught a keeper fish all day. They’re due in at a specific time and people will worry about them if they’re not, and what do they want now? Stay out and FISH! We stayed at the campground overnight seeing we don’t need to race to another tournament and we will just leave in the morning. We actually stayed up until 11:00 and had a very enjoyable night without the hustle and bustle of getting ready for another fishing day.

Friday 3/05
We didn’t get off to an early start, but then again we are in no hurry. We drove to Atlanta and boy I am not a city girl. It is just so very busy. I am sure I would feel different if I was in just a car, but we have the motorhome which I follow and I have the truck and boat. We are spending the day here and from the looks of it probably the night. We must of course go to Bass Pro Shops, and we hit a couple of malls also. Oh yeah I treated Dan to lunch at Hooters. What a nice wife I am. On our way to Atlanta I asked Dan on the radio "Do you think we will see anyone we know here?" and he said "no". Well in Hooters we ran into John Ladd (a bass fisherman from NC)and his dad. They were in there watching the basketball game. We spent a few hours in Bass Pro Shops and as I was leaving to go outside and cook dinner I met up with another couple we know, Judy & Abby Isreal from FL. So much for not seeing anyone we know in Atlanta! Well none of us have had much good luck at the past two tournaments, so we are all taking a short fishing break to get our mind and body ready for the Walmart FLW tournament on Lake Lanier in a couple of weeks. While Dan spent hours in Bass Pro Shops I was cooking dinner in the camper, there was a knock at the door and it was the manager of the store. He came to tell us we could camp here for the night if we needed to. I was psyched. I closed up the house, set the table and we stayed up until 11:30 watching a movie.

Saturday 3/06
Dan woke up and sent out a few email letters. We are having a very relaxing morning. Wouldn’t you know it though, before we can leave yet another person we know, Earl Shultz (SC), comes over to say hello and visit. We packed up our stuff and moved to a mall parking lot. It was a great two story mall. We went and did errands a good part of the day. Dan is researching digital cameras still (he can never just BUY something, he always has to research the technology first, until he knows more than the salesmen), and I went to get my haircut. I was in the mall so long that Dan went out to the camper, got onto the internet for an hour (more camera research), had lunch and took a shower. He was ready to call the police looking for me (for real). My hair now just has the last bits of blond left in it. When we finished up here we got on the road again. We drove about 1 hour and have arrived in Gainesville, Georgia. This is where the Walmart FLW tournament is going out of in 10 days. We set up camp in a very nice campground called River Forks Park. We went out to do groceries after we hooked up the motorhome and Dan wanted to run to another store and check out more cameras. I shopped for 1 hour with no sign of Dan and then checked out. Still no sign of Dan outside. I called his cell phone from a phone booth. No answer. Well now it is my turn to worry and think about calling the police. He showed up 15 minutes later because he had gotten very lost (so he says). We went home and he cooked a great dinner of ham and mashed potatoes. I sent out some emails, called Katelyn and went to bed.

Sunday 3/07
Total time in a new state before we had company----13 hours. Jerry & Terry Farmer (TN) came over to visit this morning. They are only here for the weekend practicing. We cooked omelets for breakfast and took care of some paperwork. Dan started organizing the boat and lures that he is going to start out with on this lake. I went out to do laundry because we had no more clothes. While I was gone Dan had more company, Dwayne Horton from TN stopped by on his way in. It will be continuos now. We cooked out on the grill, and watched the weather forecast on TV while eating. As usual it does not look good; 20’s overnight, high around 50, then rain or snow for tomorrow night and Tuesday. This makes it four weeks in a row in which the temps were below freezing and we had to go fishing. Dan’s fingers are cracked and bleeding from the cold.

Monday 3/08
Cold in the morning, with a north wind Dan stayed in much of the day, got a lot done on the computer, and had some excellent phone conversations. Ranger Boats had left a message on our voice mail saying that the new boat is ready, could we drive out to Arkansas to pick it up. This we do NOT want to do. 1200 miles round trip, back roads, Ozark Mountains, winter weather. We worked it out instead that Guido Hibdon, out in Missouri already, will tow the new boat here this weekend, we’ll trade, and he’ll use the loaner boat for the next few weeks. Dan also talked with the folks at Aqua Vu, makers of an underwater camera currently being marketed to serious fishermen. We now have a verbal agreement to be put on their pro-staff. We’re very excited about this, and will tell you more when we actually get a camera to use. Finally, Dan had a great conversation with Mike Surman from Gambler Worms. He had sent Mike a resume’ last month, and Mike had talked to us two weeks ago at Lake Murray about getting on their pro-staff. The two guys had an in-depth discussion tonight on the phone, and it looks like we now have a new soft-plastics sponsor. Dan did get out in the boat today - he decided he’d try something new. With this bad weather and a big, new lake that he has never seen, he spent 3 or 4 hours just driving around the lake and looking, and never even touched a fishing pole. There are so many places to fish on a lake like this, that it makes sense to try to narrow it down some without wasting time actually fishing it. The guys are starting to show up now at the campground - we were one of perhaps three here two nights ago; tonight there are probably 20.

Tuesday 3/09
Dan was up early and deep into his business by the time I got up at 9:00. The temperature was around 30, and the rain was freezing into ice pellets before it hit the ground. None of the fisherman went out today. We had company all day. Also, we found this journal on the ESPN web site for the first time - that was very exciting - we sent out letters to all our family & friends so that they can follow us. Dan did some more sponsor work (phone calls), then went to run errands, get boat gas, drop off dry cleaning, and pick up the mail we had forwarded here. I stayed home and cleaned out some drawers, made phone calls, and sent email. John & Laraine Hobbie are camping right next to us and they have a black Labrador retriever, so whenever we let Cooper out he goes visiting. He loves having a friend around. John & Laraine are from east TN, and are very nice; we think of them as our road mom & dad. They always make sure we are in from the lake safely, and check to see if we ever need anything if they are going into town. We are going to their house for dinner tonight. Oh yeah, there house is also a Fleetwood Bounder motorhome, identical to ours. Dan asked me tonight if I would like a foot massage. I said no. I figured he was too busy to do be doing this for me. He then got mad at me because (he claims) I always say no when he wants to do something nice for me. We compromised - we scheduled a foot massage session for 7:45. Well, it was wonderful, and I will NEVER say no to this offer again! Mom (Annie's) called and so we caught up on hometown news, then I got Jeff on Instant Message so we talked for a while. I emailed the kids letter and we were in bed by 9:30.

Wednesday 3/10
Today’s journal is for all of you out there who think this is an easy, leisurely career. We woke up once again to freezing temperatures outside. It eventually warmed up to where I could get by with only 2 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, a wool sweater, a jacket, 2 hats, and 2 pairs of gloves. As you can see I was going for warmth and not fashion. We ventured out determined to fish hard, but still I had to fish with a pair of gloves on. I threw what’s called a finesse worm (5", straight tail) with a 1/8 oz. sinker in 15-30 feet or water, which is just what all the books and people tell you to do here. Well I have news for them: IT DOESN’T WORK! I felt good when we came in though, because we fished hard, even though we didn’t get a bite. We found out also today that the length limit on this lake is 14 inches. That does not make things any easier (the limit is usually 12"), but Dan says it’s better than the 16" limit we had last week. We came in around 5:00 and went through the mail that was forwarded here from NH. We ate, then made some phone calls. A friend of Dan’s, Alan Rusk, who lives locally here and is helping Dan out over the phone, said tonight that he was reading this journal and had to laugh when he got the part about my belly button piercing last month. Apparently his wife Gail went through the same thing not long ago. Next we sent out a bunch of email, including one to Jeff, whose progress report from school we just received via email also, and who needs to WORK HARDER IN ENGLISH, JEFF! Annie is now up watching her ritual Wednesday night TV shows, 90210 and Party of Five. We don’t always get good TV reception, but it’s great here!

Thursday 3/11
Dan went out fishing this morning by himself. He said I didn’t have to go, but I feel guilty if I don’t. I feel like this is our career and we are in it together, and therefore I should be out there working hard with him. He argues that, on days like today when you have to dress for the weather every time you move the boat, he can move a lot faster and cover more water without me. Since I’m not very effective with the finesse worm or Carolina rig anyway, I agreed to stay home. I don’t really mind, seeing that it’s in the 40’s. I paid our bills, went out to do laundry, shaved cooper and started scraping some stickers that were peeling off the motorhome. I also watched a very interesting TV show on being a parent to teenagers. I got quite a bit out of it; a great deal was relevant to us at this very time, and it’s nice to see that all parents of teenagers go through pretty much the same thing and have the same issues. Dan came in from fishing and reported another tough day. He didn’t want to talk much about it; instead he quickly asked me out on a date - out to eat and to the movies. I just as quickly said yes. It was a wonderful night out. We saw "Analyze This", and were home at 9:30, at which time Mike Watson stopped over for a visit and stayed until 11:00. This is a very late night for us!

Friday 3/12
I did not have to go fishing again today because I had to do some business. I had to change boat insurance because we are getting our new boat this weekend and I had to go find a fax machine to send the insurance company the new information. I also went to the grocery store and had to mail some packages. It was a pretty nice day on land today, but windy and cooler on the lake. Dan returned home from fishing at about 6:00. He had started out fishing that little finesse worm again, but when he switched over to a ¼ oz. jig he got bit on his very first cast. He took this as a good sign, and fished that jig hard for hours afterwards, but got only one other bite. When he came in everybody was saying the fishing is very tough, so as much as it stinks to not be catching fish, it makes you feel a little better knowing that everyone is struggling. We ate dinner and went over to visit Glenn Rogers and Ken Ellis, who have pulled in to the campsite next to us.

Saturday 3/13
Dan was planning to go fishing early today because we are supposed to be getting some bad weather starting this afternoon, but when we woke up it was already so cold & windy that he didn’t go out. We have seen only one person who went out today and stayed out. Glenn tried, but was back within 2 hours. We had a lot of company. John & Laraine Hobbie came to visit for a while, then Jerry Farmer, and Jack Hodges. John was going to the sporting goods store and asked if Dan needed anything. Dan had him pick up some glass beads and worm rattles. They are a couple of little things that seem to make a difference on this lake. I called my mom and started making plans for our trip to NH in 12 days. Kate emailed us all excited that her boyfriend Alfred’s hockey team won the state championship. She updated us on the past three games and how Alfred got hit & needed 5 stitches to his head. That is our exciting update from her. Ask her about anything else and there is no reply unless it has the word "Alfred" in it. Email from the boys only indicated that they are happy that it’s a weekend and there is no school. Finally, I was cooking a stir fry for dinner, and was defrosting two chicken breasts on the counter. Well, we had to go out and run an errand. When we came back there were no more chicken breasts - Cooper had eaten them. He is now tied outside to a tree with a sign that says "Free Dog" (just kidding). We have no idea how he got to them, but he is definitely "in the doghouse" now.

Sunday 3/14
It is so windy and cold that no one went out fishing again. We got the loaner boat ready to bring to Guido, then ran a few errands and went over to the resort that they are staying at. Guido and his crew got into town around 6:00; they had had all kinds of bad weather to travel through. The new boat looks good, though it was dark out and could not see the sparkle. We transferred all of our equipment from one boat to the other, and just as we finished it started raining. We stopped at the Evinrude/Johnson service trailer - we need to get our foot throttle installed. There was no one there so we have to go back first thing in the morning, which takes away more fishing. We picked up a pizza on the way home and got in around 8:00.

Monday 3/15
Dan left at 7am to bring the boat to the Johnson service truck so they can fix the few things that still need to be done to the boat. John Hobbie came out to say that if they were not there he would help Dan with it. John also said he would go fishing with Dan today. It was so windy last night that the camper was rocking, but that wind has now calmed down some and is starting to warm up. Dan got back from the service trailer at 12:00, and everything is now ready to go. John and he went out fishing, and I removed the rest of the stickers and wrote to the kids. They had so much snow last night that school got canceled today. Jeff’s friend Kyle Chalmers also wrote to me while I was online and we chatted for a bit. I wrote letters to some family & friends that we haven’t seen in a while. Cooper disappeared for a few hours and we finally found him relaxing next door in the Hobbie’s motorhome. Dan had had a terrible night’s sleep last night. He has been up since 3:30am. I think it is due to stress. We received a very disturbing email from Katelyn late last night. She has been pushing for us to quit fishing, quit traveling, and return home permanently to NH. We have one day of practice left, and haven’t caught one keeper fish yet on this lake. Somehow Dan has to focus even harder on fishing, and deal with this family situation at the same time. He was up until after midnight tonight responding to Kate’s email.

Tuesday 3/16
We left early and went fishing together. This was my last chance to go out in the new boat for a while, since the tournament starts tomorrow. The boat is great. Dan is still breaking it in, but so far so good. We fished until 4:00. Dan caught one nice fish on a Carolina rig, with a finesse worm, and he had about 5 other bites. I did not catch a fish, but I sure did try hard. We came home, wiped down the boat, showered, changed and ran out of the house by 4:45 to go to the registration meeting. We registered and ate at the cookout they provided. A little bit of socializing, then the partner pairings. Dan got boat # 49 for tomorrow and his partner is Beverly Little. She is one of the three or four women who fish the non-boater side of these events. He has never fished with her, but has been paired up with her husband, Al, in the past. Later, Dan worked on his equipment and re-strung line on his rods outside until 10:00. I made him lunch, and called my sister-in-law back who had left a message earlier. Apparently my brother got hurt at work and is home for the week. She called because she knows I want to be kept up to date on things that happen - I don’t like to find out weeks later. I sent some emails, and paid the entry fee for the next Walmart FLW event on Beaver Lake in Arkansas.

Wednesday 3/17
Dan left by 5:30 am to go to the lunch ramp. I spent the day doing laundry and making reservations for our next Everstart tournament at Santee Cooper, South Carolina. Dan was due in at 3:20 pm and he weighed one fish: 1 lb 13 oz. He had a total of 10 bites, but most of them were short fish. The good news is that there was 26 pros who did not catch any fish. We still have a shot at making some money, so I will spend the night praying. It is bound to happen soon. I keep thinking that. We put in lots of practice time and I keep thinking that it will reward us soon. We are going home to New Hampshire next week, and we really need the break - we are both getting extremely stressed. Maybe after a week away we can get a fresh mind and start over.

Thursday 3/18
Dan is boat number 117 and due in at 4:00. The weather is beautiful and I pray he is catching fish. I had to pack up the campsite, which was a disaster, and move to the Walmart parking lot. We will camp there for the next couple of nights, while Dan drives an ESPN camera boat. It is easier on us, since Dan has to be at Walmart early in the morning and I don’t have to drive him this way. I went to get lunch with Elaine Smith and Laraine Hobbie and we ate it at the weigh in site, while waiting for our husbands. Dan came in with 3 fish weighing 3lbs. 12oz., which made his total weight 5lbs. 4oz. for two days. It took just over 9lbs to get a check today. It sounds easy - catch 9lbs of fish over a two day period, after a solid week of practice, but it isn’t. Just ask any of the 90 other pro’s here who couldn’t do it either.

Position Available - Professional Tournament Angler: Huge expenses, no pay, no insurance, no retirement plan, no paid vacation, work outdoors in extreme weather conditions, spend weeks or months at a time away from home. Minimum 5 year commitment, with family and friends who don’t understand what you’re doing, and crying the whole time for you to quit. Qualified applicants call now!

Friday 3/19
It was a pretty easy morning since we are already in the Walmart parking lot, which is where Dan had to meet the camera crew & fisherman at 6:15. During the day I washed the boat and truck and cleaned them all up. I made campground and boat slip reservations in Arkansas for the next FLW tournament and wrote out some business letters on the computer. I also had to go talk to the Lowrance people, Dan’s newest sponsor, about getting some logos and graphics to put on the camper. My brother Charlie called: my niece has a school play going on while we are home, and they wanted to be sure I would be there. Dan’s mom also called to wish us a good trip home. At the weigh-in today for the top 10 anglers, Dan’s fisherman (Mickey Bruce, the one he’s following with the camera boat) made the cut and will be fishing again tomorrow in the final 5. We went out to dinner with John & Laraine and Jerry & Carol, another fishing couple from Texas.

Saturday 3/20
I was up all night with a very upset stomach. I tried not to wake Dan up knowing that he had to be up early again. He is getting very tired and we have not been spending enough quality time together. It is going to be nice having a couple of days off before we fly home. I called Jeff and talked to Kate on email, they are very excited for us to come home. By 5:00 today the weigh-in was over, and it was a good one. Mickey Bruce, Dan’s fisherman, won with 15 ½lbs. Dan said he was a real nice guy, and we are glad he won. Dan is exhausted and we are staying the night right here at Walmart so he can catch up on some much needed rest.

Sunday 3/21
We didn’t leave Georgia until 1pm. We had to sleep in, then get all our stuff organized, and the boat hooked up and ready to travel. We are driving to Columbia, South Carolina, for the night - about 200 miles. Also today we are trying to plan our week home - it is already stressful - trying to schedule everything and make sure we spend time with everyone we need to. Kate starts playing school tennis next week, Jeff is starting track, and Chris is getting ready for baseball. Myself, I want to try to find a house to rent for the summer next week, but I feel this is just a dream. We are both going through a difficult time right now. We feel like we are working very hard trying to make this career work. We gave up our home and our life in NH, now live full-time in a camper, and don’t see our family nearly as much as we would like to. We keep thinking that it has to pay off, that our time is coming, that we are just paying our dues. Well, time is running out for us, and it is getting more and more difficult to stay optimistic. But hopefully, this low period will be over soon and we can move on. We are camping for the night at a Flying J truck stop, which is very convenient for us. Here we prepare the motorhome for dry camping (no water or electric hookups) for a few more days by filling our water tank, getting gasoline and propane, and dumping our used water tank, and it is all done at one service island. Dan then called the kids an had long conversations with them. I wasn’t very hungry, so Dan cooked himself a little dinner, and we watched the Oscar awards on TV then went to bed.

Monday 3/22
We hung around the truck stop until about noon. Dan worked on the boat and I made plane reservations for my cousin Jill’s wedding, which we are going to in May. Our travel schedule is so busy that Dan and I had to sit down this morning over breakfast to compare our calendars. It was pretty funny - there were times when Dan had us in Alabama and I had us in South Carolina. Today we are headed to Sumter, SC to the house of our friends, Glenn & Sharon Rogers. We met them last year on the fishing circuit and have become good friends. They are letting us leave our motorhome, boat and Cooper dog at their house while we fly home to NH for a week. They have a dog named Hammer that Cooper gets along great with. The two of them, as well as a neighbor dog that nobody knows, have already been swimming in the pool (the "cee-ment pond", as Glenn calls it). They have a little girl, Caroline, who will feed Cooper until he can’t eat any more - we will not have to worry about him while we are away.

Tuesday 3/23
Dan did some paperwork this morning. Sharon let me catch up on our laundry at her house. I gave Dan a haircut, then we both gave Cooper a haircut, which is an all day process. Also, I actually found a ½ hour to lay out in the sun by the pool! We thought we would be relaxing for a few days here, but have found that we have so many little things that need to be done. Dan spent a good part of the day organizing his new boat and arranging his tackle. Glenn came home and it didn’t take them long to decide they’ll go fishing tomorrow. Last night we were all talking about how depressing the fishing has been lately, and now 12 hours later its back to "Hey, lets go fishing"! I guess that’s when you know it’s in their blood. It’ll be good for us though because our next tournament is here on the Santee Cooper Lakes, two weeks from tomorrow. Glenn is a local on this lake, and the lake is real low right now. By going out now, they can see the structure that will most likely be under water during the tournament. We ate with Glenn & Sharon, then Dan went to bed early, because they are going fishing in the morning. I wrote email to Kate who is trying to plan her weekend, to make sure she spends time with us.

Wednesday 3/24
Dan & Glenn left this morning and went fishing for the day. I stayed home and finished the laundry, found our suitcases and packed. I am ready to go! Dan on the other hand has to pack tonight. I tried to get his stuff out, but he will still have to go through every drawer in the house. But I am done! Dan & Glenn got home around 6:00. They had a beautiful, warm, sunny day for fishing, but they didn’t catch as many fish as they thought they should have. They found some areas with big fish on beds though, so they know what to look for when we come back next week. We had a big cookout with Glenn & Sharon and then we went to bed.

Thursday 3/25
We drove out of the driveway at 7:30am and left Cooper Dog behind, pawing at the gate. It was sad, although we know he’ll be spoiled during the coming week. We had to take 3 planes to get to New Hampshire. One stop was at the Baltimore airport where we saw Attorney General Janet Reno get on a plane with her Secret Service agents. That was our excitement for the day. We landed in NH at 4:30, my Dad picked us up, and we had dinner with my mom, my dad, my brother and his family. We stayed up late talking, catching up on things. It’s nice to be home.

Friday 3/26
8am: We took my mom to work so that we could use her car for the day, then we met our friend Roger Fournier for breakfast. Roger is a member of the Manchester Bass Club, where Dan got his start in tournament bass fishing. Afterwards we drove up to Lake Winnepesaukee to the family lake house, where we had left our car for the winter. The car is a 17 year old diesel Mercedes, which we affectionately call "Hilda". We should have known that old Hilda, after spending the winter unattended in a garage in below freezing weather, would not welcome us with a warm and enthusiastic start-up. It took about an hour, with jumper cables and the engine block heater to thin her oil, but we eventually woke her up. Later, I went to see my niece Kaitlyn at her 1st grade school play, then we picked up Brandon, her brother, at the babysittter. I spent a few hours with them, then left them with my parents and Dan and I went to pick up his kids for 5:00pm. We went out to dinner, and dropped off Kate at her boyfriend Alfred’s house. This was our first experience meeting "the boyfriend". He was very nice. The rest of us returned to my parents house, where we hung out and played games, and at 11:00 I went back to pick up Kate from Alfred’s.

Saturday 3/27
A beautiful sunny day, around 50 degrees outside. Kate and I went to my cousin Jill’s bridal shower at 11 and got home around 3. Dan and the boys went out and played first some basketball, then baseball, mini-golf , hit balls at the driving range, and then more basketball. He said to me later "Remember last year how out-of-shape we were when we played sports with the kids? Well, we’re much worse this year!" In the afternoon I took Kate out driving old Hilda. She drove 10 miles by herself. I found out I’d better get her a radar detector for her 16th birthday - she has a rather heavy foot. Later we dropped her off at a friend’s house, and she was spending the night at yet another friend’s house. This is our first time dealing with her dating and with her high-school social life. It sure keeps you on your toes, but we got to spend time with her, and she also got to see her friends, so it all worked out.

Sunday 3/28
It was freezing rain when we woke up, and the entire day was cold and raw. I picked up Kate up at her friend’s house at 9:30, and we just hung out for the day, watching TV, playing computer games and bumper pool, and looking through real estate books for a house to rent this summer. My mom is so sweet - she did not see the kids on their birthdays, so she got them a big cake and we celebrated today. Then, since we’ll be gone for Easter, she gave them each chocolate and made us a big Easter basket. We took the kids home for 5pm, then met my brother & sister-in-law for dinner.

Monday 3/29
We are so busy, this is crazy. Starting at 8:00am, we took off in different directions. We both ran errands all day. Dan had to pick Kate up from school for a dentist appointment, then bring her to tennis. He found some time to play a little baseball with Chris. We met at mom & dads at 5:00 and we all ate Easter dinner together since we will not be home for Easter. Then Dan did work on the computer and talked to Jeff. Mom & I went out shopping until 9:30 pm.

Tuesday 3/30
Dan had to bring mom to work because I was not ready. We worked on our taxes in the morning and he had to pick Jeff up at school for a dentist appointment. I ran errands all day. We are meeting at moms house at 5:00 and going to dinner with Katelyn & Alfred tonight. Kate finds out today if she makes the tennis team!

Wednesday 3/31
Kate made the varsity tennis team! We had a great night out with her & Alfred. He was very polite and treats her well. I called Dan’s mom & dad and updated them on our past week with the kids. They were excited to hear Kate’s news. Dan got email today from a guy who reads our journal. He read that we are going to Beaver Lake in Arkansas soon, and this is his home lake. He offered Dan information that might help us out. If there is anyone else out there who wants to help, we’d appreciate hearing from you. You can email us at Daniel_Keyes@msn.com. We are on the plane right now heading home to our camper, in South Carolina. We are due to arrive in Charleston at 9pm, then we have to drive 100 miles to Sumter where our motorhome is parked. I’m sure it will be a late night, but it sure will be nice to be home and see Cooper dog again.

Link to: April 1999