Finally Home - Rally Thanks

[C.]

Finally home after catching the redeye in Sacramento. Other than loss of sleep, travel was fairly uneventful!

Gotta pass on some thanks:

First to Gator, Korny, and Tony and all who worked hard to put together the Rally - you guys did a great job and put on a fine one!

Also a big THANK YOU to all of the sponsors without whose help , these Rallys likely would not be possible!

Also thanks to Gary (Hub Spinner), Gator, Peter, Angel, Kevin and Charles Burleigh (hope I got that right Charles) for sharing your boat with me during my time there. I had a great time with each of you and caught some decent fish thanks to your efforts and patience.

Charles really had some patience Sunday morning and resisted any temptation to make fun of my feeble efforts to pitch those Senkos into those tiny openings under the trees and weeds! He's very good at it as evidenced by his Sunday catch!

Thanks to Smiling Jax for sharing a room with me and CONGRATS on getting your personal best Sunday AM.

Pat Dilling - great to see you again. I do hope that you and some of the many other guys that were so friendly to this out-of-stater can come out to our annual bash at Lake Fork next Memorial day weekend.

Finally a special thanks for Dewayne Bonham who really went out of his way to make sure I had some good information (and baits) for my first Clear Lake experience.

C.

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

Charlie, it was great meeting you..I hope to get to make one of the Texas Rally events in the near future..Sorry you didn't catch any of our huge Clearlake hawgs, that would have been the crowning achievement..But at least, just like me, you got to see some of them..

mac

[Pat]

Hey Charles, It really was great to see you again. Knowing you were coming West was one of many things I looked forward to about this Rally. I have already told Kate to block out Memorial Day week-end next year. I know some others were talking about it too. How did you get your rods here, any hassle from the airlines on that?

thanks for coming!

Pat

[C.]

How did you get your rods here, any hassle from the airlines on that?

Pat

Pat: No airline hassles with the rods. I flew American and they have probably the most liberal policy on that of any of the airlines -- the rod case can be no more than 50# and 115 inches. Some of them have very restrictive policies (usually severe length restrictions) and if your rods exceed their limit, they either won't take them at all (Southwest), or want to charge an astronomical fee (Delta, United, Frontier, etc.) for the oversized" item.

The only real "hassle" was just carrying that long rod case around as I shuttled between the airport and the rental car company. That alone for me might make it worth shipping them ahead the next time I travel by air.

Any Ca. guys that do contemplate coming to the Rally@Texas next year and need to make arrangements for their rods, I'd certainly be most willing to be the
"shipping address" for a UPS or similar shipment, then take them to the Rally to match up with their owners. On the way back, I'd be most happy to drop them off for the return shipment.

C.

[Smile_n_Jax]

Thanx much, Charles. It was a pleasure meeting and rooming with ya. You are, indeed, a true Texas gentleman.

[DG]

Pat,
You have a pm

[sTony]

Thanks for coming out and taking part in our rally Charles. It was good to see you again. Looking forward to Mexico in January!

sTony

[zkapri]

It was great to see you again and I look forward to my fourth Texas Rally next year. Hopefully I'll get a chance to fish with you again soon.

[MikeD]

Charlie, saw you at the rest stop on Hwy 5 on Sunday afternoon, but in my exhausted and deluded state I couldn't put 2 and 2 together to figure out where I had seen you before and why I thought I knew you. I finally figured it out (duh...) and came out of the bathroom but you had left already. Would have said hello if I'd had my wits about me, but still wanted to say thanks for coming all the way out from Texas. I know we all appreciated having you there and look fwd to seeing you again next year.

[C.]

Charlie, saw you at the rest stop on Hwy 5 on Sunday afternoon, but in my exhausted and deluded state I couldn't put 2 and 2 together to figure out where I had seen you before and why I thought I knew you. I finally figured it out (duh...) and came out of the bathroom but you had left already. Would have said hello if I'd had my wits about me, but still wanted to say thanks for coming all the way out from Texas. I know we all appreciated having you there and look fwd to seeing you again next year.

Mike:

Make that a double duh! As I walked out of the men's room, I too thought I saw a familiar face but just didn't go back to confirm. Instead I just went on to the airport where I got to sit around for 4 hours "guarding" my baggage because the American Airlines ticket counter wasn't open and I couldn't check it!

Hope to see some more Ca. guys at Fork next Memorial Day weekend.

C.

[Kevin Evans - Kap]

Sir, It was a pleasure sharing my boat with you. I just wish I hadn't of thrown your camera in the water. (numbnut nominee)
If everyone from Texas is as friendly and hospitably as you then it most be a damn good place to live, fish and hunt...
Take care,
Kap