Harman's North Fork Cottages Day 3-Evening Session....

Again, I sit here on a Sunday while watching football and my fantasy team trying to play catch-up.  Once again life has gotten in the way and once again I find myself apologizing for my lack of blogging.  I am hoping to get more on track soon.  For those that know what I do for a living, I am sure you will understand.  I did not intend to drag out our Harman's adventure for a month.  I had planned to post every day but that isn't working out well for me.  So, please bear with me and hopefully work will slow down soon.

Quick Recap:  Greg and I came and conquered the browns, rainbows and tigers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.  I broke my 3wt on Thursday and Greg broke my 5wt on Friday.  Two rods down and two days still to go. My birthday was in full swing.

The morning session was finished so we headed back to the cabin for breakfast.  Honestly, at this point in time I can't even remember what I had but I don't think it really matters.  After breakfast Greg and I killed some time by tying.  The Road Kill Nymph in chartreuse had slayed the smallies and panfish on Friday.  Greg and I were thinking of going back to the same spot we hit on Friday for some warm water action.  He had burned through, or should I say the fish burned through, the flies I gave him on Friday.  So we sat down and commenced to tie up some killer flies.

On a side note, Greg never smiles in photos.  Here is a prime example:

Greg constantly mocks my goofy grin as well.  So in an effort to make him smile and have some fun, we reversed roles:

Photos courtesy of Melissa Price AKA The Wife.

Alright back to the story.  We tied for about an hour or so and planned the evening's session.  The girls were hanging outside on the deck.  I decided to venture out there.  Almost immediately I heard thunder.  What the hell?  As the time progressed, so did the thunder.  A talk with Greg and the girls revealed an unknown situation with the weather.  In an effort to still do something other than becoming a human lightening rod, we all decided to venture out of cabin and visit the trout hatchery.  Why not right?  Seemed like something fun to do.  So we all piled into our Honda Pilot and headed out.  We had to go up the side of a small mountain to get there.  As we were doing so, I noticed that the car shifted out of gear and into neutral or so I thought.  Greg quickly looked at me and asked if I did that to which I replied "NO!"  We were able to find a place to pull over which was great.  The bad news was that I couldn't get the car to shift back into drive.  I was only able to shift into reverse.  I think at this point it is also important to point out that this area is in the mountains of WV.  There is no cell phone service.  Not like I would know who to call anyways but I think you get the point.  I was finally able to get the vehicle to shift into drive and we turned around and headed home.  Guess what......we didn't make it.

As we came through the town of Petersburg and of course as we were going up a hill, the car quit working.  It would not move forward anymore.  Done.  End of story.  Shit!!!!  My wife got in the driver's seat and the rest of us piled out to push.  I would like to make a statement or more of an observation here.  Traffic had backed up behind us.  People were impatient.  Yet not one person helped us, though a couple did honk.  Amazing!  Oncoming traffic didn't even stop as we tried to turn left onto a side street.  Again...amazing!

We were able to get the car safely on a side street.  Now what?  It was four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon on a holiday weekend in a town with no mechanic and no cell phone service.  WTF?  The girls were able to walk to a store and ask for help.  Luckily for them, some people who were also staying at Harman's offered to give them a ride back.  After a quick discussion, we decided that Greg's woman and I would stay with the vehicle while Greg and my wife headed back to Harman's to get the other vehicle and find help.

The wife and Greg headed back.  The wife spoke with the front desk at Harman's.  Their solution.....call Fred!  For those that know about Harman's or watch Fly Rod Chronicles, know that Fred is a fixture there.  After a while, Fred and a friend showed up straight from shopping.  As Fred exited the vehicle he stated "I am not a miracle worker.  That being said, I will help you anyway I can."  This they did.  After several phone calls, Fred had a diagnoses on the car.   Radiator was done.  Its fluid had mixed with the transmission fluid which killed the transmission.  Awesome!  I told Fred "Tell Curtis thanks!" in a joking manner.  I proceeded to explain about how well this wedding present/birthday/vacation was going so far.  We were able to arrange for a tow on Sunday which meant we would have to leave the car overnight.  As we were discussing our options, a young and rough looking gentleman from the house we were parked in front of came outside.  He walked up to me, looked my Honda up one side and down the other as he asked "You all leaving this here overnight?"  I replied yes and he informed me "I will watch it for ya."  We spent the rest of the evening teasing and taking bets on whether or not my vehicle would be on blocks when we came back for it on Sunday.  With everything worked out, we headed back to the cabins.  I would like to point out  how wonderful Fred and the people at Harman's were.  While our dilemma had nothing to do with them, and was not at all their problem to solve, everyone went out of their way to help us.  I can't say enough good things about Fred or the Harman's staff.

By the time we got back, I was pissed, to say the least.  What a terrible birthday I was having!  Now we were in WV with one car between four of us and enough luggage/fishing stuff to last a dozen people a week- how are we going to get home??!!  I decided to go out and chase the trout for a while.  I only managed to land two rainbows.  The crappy birthday continued its wonderful streak.

Sorry about the photo.  Blogger rotated it and I can't figure out how to fix it back.

So with the evening session done and only two trout landed my birthday ended on a rather sour note. It actually might have been the worst birthday ever for me and it was most certainly shaping up to be the worst vacation ever!