A couple of months ago a friend (Larry) invited me on a fishing trip to Chatam Mississippi. He goes every year and comes back with stories about monster crappie.

I asked my friend Harry if he would like to go with me for the week long fishing trip.  He agreed.  Harry and I have owned a fishing boat for years.  In fact this is the third boat we have owned together.  We use it about once a year.    

 

We left last Saturday for the 500 mile drive, about half way we had a blow out on the trailer tire.  Fortunately we had a spare.  We then lost over an hour buying another tire and getting it mounted. 

 

We arrived very late at Roy's Store in Chatam. Our new home was a small 3 bedroom duplex like building. It was not the Marriott.

The shower head was pointed too high and would not move. You had to stand at the back of the shower and jump up to get water on your head. In the kitchen sink, hot water came out of the cold water tap,and cold water came out of the hot water side. Even though we were in Mississippi the TV had two channels of nothing but snow. We had two bathrooms, here is a picture of the "bad" one. It didn't have a door.

Our bed room was small.  You had to go into the kitchen to turn on the bedroom light.  We had no furniture other than a bunk bed.  Harry slept on the bottom bunk and I slept on the floor.  We had a door to our bed room that was on springs.  It had no handle or lock and the darn thing would swing both ways.  There was a light in the living room and two light swithes on opposite walls.  Both switches had to be in the up position for the light to work.

On Sunday we went fishing in the rain. The fishing was very good all week.  We used a cheating device called a "Yo Yo".  It was a spring device that you tied to a tree.  You baited it with a minnow and when a fish would bite it the spring would jerk the fish out of the water.  All we had to do is keep them baited.

On the second day we almost sank the boat.  Our live well (were we keep the fish) becam plugged up so water ran out into the boat.  We quickly drove to shore and got the boat out of the water and fixed the problem.  Fortunately the water we were fishing n was only about three foot deep, but the snakes and alligators would have made swimming a little interesting.

After two days of not sleeping, Harry and I decided to take a break and we drove about an hour to Vicksburg and toured the Civil War site.  It was very interesting, and the highlight of the trip.   The Yankees won the battle and the war.  A lot of the Southerners still haven't gotten over it. 

We fished again on Wednesday, and on Thursday we decided we had had enough fun and drove home two days early.  No one got hurt, and we saw a lot of Mississippi.  The trip to Vicksburg was great.  We brought home enough fish to throw a fish fry for the softball boys, and I learned to appreciate a good hot shower with a swivel head.

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