We closed up our cabin in Northern Minnesota. Every year we talk about doing stuff on our way up or back. We never have. Something always comes up.
I bought a bunch of fly fishing gear years ago. Off and on, I have fly-fished but never really understood how to do it. I wanted to find out if I liked it since being semi-retired I need a hobby. Last year, we went fly fishing on the Provo River and had a blast with an old trading buddy of mine even though we didn’t catch many fish.
Driving across America gives you the opportunity to talk to a lot of people. Most of the time, we are chatting with people from small towns. Small-town people are seemingly a lot nicer, and chattier than city people.
I have a buddy here in Las Vegas who enjoys fly fishing more than golf. I pinged him and asked him where I should go. He quickly said, “Craig, MT, and Dutch John, UT”.
I had never heard of them.
I fished with CrossCurrents in Craig, and Trout Creek Flies in Dutch John. They were great. We fished out of a boat which I had never really done before. I liked fishing out of a boat, but really enjoy the wading part of standing in a river.
As my old Chicago buddy who loves to fly fish says, “If you dressed up in weird clothing and stood in the middle of a river holding a stick people would think you are crazy. But, when you tell them you are fishing they think you are perfectly acceptable.” That line of thinking fits me better than Norman Maclean’s magical and poetic lines about a “river runs through it.”
We loaded up the pickup truck with the dog and took off. We were totally loaded. It turns out that the entire way from Grand Marais, MN to Provo, Utah had to be driven on two two-lane highways. Uff Da. My dog goes berserk when he sees animals and we saw a bunch. We hit up the Badlands and Teddy Roosevelt Park in North Dakota. What a crazy place. It seemingly goes on forever.
We ran into elk hunters in a small North Dakota town that only had gravel roads. They were buying bags of ice at this very small grocery. A hunter in a pick-up next to us dropped the head of the elk on the ground. He got it with a bow the night before.
The whole way across the state of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana we only saw Trump signs. Here is a bull elk keeping his ladies in line in Craig, MT. My wife was walking the dog and a bull moose ran behind her on the road.
When we arrived in Craig, MT we went to get something to eat. There was a local Democratic Party group having a “fire-up” party before the election. Jon Tester has a brutally tough race there and I hope he gets his butt kicked. He will if the Montana Republicans run a sane candidate. I didn’t engage with them but thought it was funny that the local Democrats had signs that said if you wanted lower taxes, vote Democratic. What a joke. It’s not even close to the truth.
Our fishing guide told us about his story. He grew up in Montana. Historically, Montana had been relatively Democratic. Montana is not exactly a “red state” though it went strong for Trump. Our guide was living the American dream and bought a house. The property taxes were manageable. As Californians have relocated, they have driven up prices. His house is worth more than 3x of what he paid for it. His property taxes jumped accordingly. They might price his family out of his house.
Property tax caps are good for people and good for the government. We have them in Nevada and didn’t really have them in Illinois and noticed a huge difference. Texas ought to reform its property tax system and to highlight how hard it is, Texas is supermajority Republican and they can’t seem to get it together. Theoretically, when you think about gains on your home and producer vs consumer surplus, capping the producer surplus helps the consumer out.
The fishing that day was super windy and tough. They also use barbless hooks, so even though I got a lot of bites my inexperience caused me not to land a lot of fish. We caught some beautiful rainbows on the Mighty Mo.
We headed to Yellowstone. More two lane and all of Yellowstone is two lane too! Yellowstone has a lot of construction now, so it’s not a breeze to drive through the park. It is Yellowstone, and words can’t describe it. If you have never been, go.
One year, I am going to fly fish in Yellowstone.
Dutch John, UT is by the Flaming Gorge Dam. The drive from Yellowstone is through rural Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. It is frigging beautiful. Amazingly, in the town of Dutch John we saw one Biden flag on a flagpole. The rest of the trip was all about Trump if you saw a political sticker or sign.
I have always loved the mountains and still do. I never get tired of looking at them. One underrated aspect of the West is the sun. It’s sunny a lot whereas in the Midwest you can go a month without seeing the sun in the winter.
We fished the Green River. It was windy, but not as windy as it was in Montana. We caught mostly big fat brown trout. It was a great day on the river.
We are back in Vegas now and I am plotting where to go fly fish in Arizona and Southern Utah over the winter. My body is in knots from sitting in a car for so long on two-lane highway.
We watched the debate last night with friends who are Republicans and also exiles from Chicago. We concluded we would like to see everyone drop out except Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. A three-way debate with Trump is the way to go. The rest of the candidates are pretenders. However, some of them have the money to go on their own without donations, and no one has the right-sized ego to get out. For the good of the Republican Party, they should. Haley and DeSantis have something to say and in a three-way race with Trump, polls might tighten.
What did you think of the debate? Who’d you keep, discard? I also think having people in the audience is a huge distraction. End that.
I like Vivek also. He has the right ideas and a great presentation style. Admittedly, he is just practicing but I expect him to be a serious contender in future cycles. Keeping him in the mix is a good idea as long as they can treat him civilly.
What you forgot is that we don't need the moderators. Set up single topic debates in a wide open format with NO MODERATOR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS. Give them set times and automatically cut their mic when it isn't there turn. But the times are 5 or ten minutes long each, round robin. Let's have a discussion - not a gladiator match.
Love that part of the country. We have driven across the country, extended family trips over two weeks. We have gone to Yellowstone, which does not look like it did before the huge fire, Glacier which is our favorite. The Tetons, Jackson are also awesome. We used to do a lot of lake fishing north of where we lived in Spokane, WA until basketball took over my life completely. We once hauled in a 7 pound german brown trout that my baby brother hooked and took all of us to get it into the row boat we were in. I miss fishing. Live right next to a great bass lake in NC just can't find the time. Sounds like you had a wonderful time! I can empathize with your knots comment, being 6'6" myself and realizing no matter what we drive in, it was not really built for someone like me.