Ik ben hier uit! (I'm out of here!)

I'm out ladies and gents to the land of Amsterdam. Hee freakin' haw...!!!! Hopefully, I'll be able to post a blog or two while I'm there....Keep my dad in your prayers as we are actually going for him to get a few cancer tests....It'll be all good....

See ya'll next week....

Tot ziens (Bye!)

Master Debaters...

Last night at about 1am as I couldn't seem to find my way into night night land I turned on the TV to watch the rerun of the Democratic Debate. Ever since I watched all seven seasons of the West Wing, I've become more in tune with politics, especially the upcoming election...

Anyways, last night's debate was pretty cool. One, the whole You Tube venue gave the candidates honest questions from everyday people. Secondly, Anderson Cooper did a great job at moderating and made the candidates give an answer. And lastly, I love the under dogs in this election (both Democratic and Republican).

While many of the front runners tend to dodge questions somewhat, the dudes that have no chance of winning whatsoever don't hold back. They are brutally honest. I would love to see more of that in politics opposed to scripted and canned answers.

The Soul to Soul Tour

Charlie, Carrie, Amanda and I went to Tim and Faith on Sat. night. Great show. It's actually kind of sick how good looking they are...Special guest stars Angie Aparo and Kenny Rogers...


She was looking for me in the crowd...

The "Gambler" had to throw down for a song...

Homeboy Tim is a rock star...Is having a man crush cool?

Some chick I met during the show....

Quick Book Review

A few months back as I was coming home from a trip, I stopped into the little bookstore in the Shreveport Airport. I was in need of some reading material and I ran across this little beauty.

Guest of the Ayatollah was a narrative of the Iran hostage crisis. I was interested in this book for a couple of different reasons: 1)I want to know more about the history of the Middle East conflict and 2) I was born the day before the hostages were taken. Apparently, my dad would tell people how old I was in days +1 for all 444 days.

I really thought this was a good book to read. It took me a long time to finish it because I only read it during travel and the book was over 700 pages. If you have any interest whatsoever in a very significant moment in our history that still has implications in today's world, I highly recommend it.

Back to Business...

I apologize for the lack of blogging here lately as I've been on a long work trip over the past week and a half. Great trip. More details below.

I have several things I need to write about but first a few house cleaning items...

Check out Wes's post for some 4th of July pics on Lake Allatoona...

Definitely need to check out Curt's recent posts concerning his trip to Bolivia...Read it, you won't be disappointed...

Now back to my recent travels...

I first headed off to Shreveport, LA for the Skeeter Dealer Meeting. This is always a fun meeting for me because I get to see a bunch of people that I used to work with. Very fun meeting. If you get a chance to peruse the internet, check out www.theworldoffish.com. Pretty funny stuff. This guy hosted the awards banquet and he is freakin' hilarious.

After a few days in Shreveport, I headed to sunny Sarasota, FL. I've been to this meeting several times and the hotel that it is at is totally cool. Right on the water - Sarasota Bay. Once again, a great meeting and got to see a bunch of folks that I don't see enough. On Sat. when the meeting was done, my buddy Dean, his wife Paula and my bro Joe cruised on a boat for a while and beached it on this little island. We marinated in the sun for about 5 hours. Besides for the lobster red back, it was awesome. Sunday morning Joe and I made a run at some Tarpon but didn't see any. Nonetheless, great freakin' trip....

Here's an original 1948 Wooden Skeeter...Oldest Bass Boat company in the industry

Here's another....

Here's the newest of the new...iclass...a cool 50k and it's all yours...

Here's the new Yamaha F350 on back of a Century

Joe and me enjoying the meeting being done

Our tour guide Joe waiting as we got supplies for our boating adventures

Here's a Sarasota sunrise on Sunday...The only thing that would have made it better was a couple of Tarpon

Begas Buddy....

A few months back the boys (Ryan, Mac and Me) decided we needed to make a trip before Rye Rye headed off to med school. What better way to say Good Bye than go to Vegas.

We got there early Friday morning after a mess at the Atlanta airport. After checking in our stuff at the New York New York we headed out....We didn't go too big that first night but hit up Planet Hollywood for a few hours and played a little black jack.

Day two started at around noon. We chilled at the pool for a few hours since it was well over a thousand degrees. From there we hit up several casinos looking for a place to grub. Ended up at the Flamingo. After that we said we were going to power nap it til' about midnight before we cruised out. The power nap turned out to be a full on gown session until 8am the next morning. Ryan did his best to get us up and ended up going out solo. Sorry Rye Rye....

Day three....World Carnival Buffet at the Rio. Pool for about five hours with my buddy Dave who lives in Vegas. Grub. Nap. And then ended rolling around until we finally settled on the Frontier since they have broke man's black jack ($5 Tables)....

Awesome trip...Call for details. Rye Rye has a few more days left in the ATL.

Three big time white boys

Grub action with my buddy Dave...He's the dude that looks mad

The lights of Sin City

Ol' school style at the Frontier...I made a donation while I was there...

Rye Rye and me playing video games after riding the roller coaster....