Calderwood Dam

Got bored yesterday. Couldn't bear sitting at home in the nice sunny weather. Lisa and I had a quiet nice Valentine lunch at the "Crown and the Goose". We both had the wonderful "Fish and Chips". I can highly recommend it. Back to yesterday. It is hard for a fisherman to wait on spring. February will have most devoted fishermen chomping at the bit. I'm no different. I have a coworker who fished the dam area on Calderwood a lot with spin gear. I didn't think it was doable with a fly rod but I decided to walk down there to have a look at the dam anyway. It is a very nice lake and it was downright chilly in the gorge. It is a gruesome walk for about a mile back up the mountain. Lord knows I need the exercise. I stopped at Abrams Creek for a little while around the Ranger Station. Drove through Happy Valley on my way back home to Knoxville. A nice and sunny day but no fishing yet.

Next weekend if the weather doesn't go bad on us will be a hiking weekend. I'm thinking about doing the Ewing trail in VA up to Sand Cave in KY (Cumberland Gap National Historical Park).

Short Camping Trip at Elkmont

Went to Elkmont for some camping with a coworker Saturday. My friend had managed to get a real good spot at the campground in the Smokies. We fished a little on Saturday afternoon but the river was extremely low due to the ongoing drought. I had a couple of strikes but gave up after a couple of hours. My buddy didn't fare much better either. We enjoyed an evening at the campfire with hot dogs and chili and made an early departure for Knoxville on Sunday. Back at work today and it was a slow Monday. Watched a movie last week called "Run Fat Boy Run" with the always hilarous Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. If you love Simong Pegg you'll like this movie. Although "Shawn of The Dead" was better but "Run Fat Boy Run" was better than "Hot Fuzz" in my opinion.

Update

It's been a long silence on here. I have a good reason for it. My parents from Sweden was here visiting with us for 11 days. We mainly visited local restaurants and did one day trip up to Watauga lake and South Holston lake. We also visited some friends and did a quick downtown Knoxville trip to the Mast Store and the Farmers Market on Market Square. It was a lovely visit but bittersweet as the goodbye is not easy. I had not seen my dad since the fall of 2005. I hope it won't be that long this time around.

We have had a nice day at Dollywood today courtesy of my employer. They provide a yearly outing for the employee's and it's always lovely. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the movies last night. I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers so we had to see "Burn After Reading". It was awesome. The movie has somewhat of a similar feel as "The Big Lebowski". It's a nice spoof of the intelligence and general craziness in D.C. Anyway, I'm glad the Coen's are back in form after some uneven movies in recent years. I was not a big fan of "No Country For Old Men" and I couldn't stand "Intolerable Cruelty".

I have not been able to fish lately so not much on that. I might get back in to the fishing by next weekend if I can manage to fix a plumbing problem, I'm having at the house.

More later.....................