Tuesday, Mississippi River, La Crosse, Wisconsin
Dan writes:
We’re feeling real good about being able to catch some fish here on Wednesday, so this morning I didn’t rush to get out on the water for the last day of practice. I respooled line onto my reels, cleaned out the boat, and got myself organized for tomorrow. It wasn’t until 11 o’clock or so that we finally pulled out of here and headed into town. Down at the launch ramp we stopped off at the Ranger service trailer and had them make a few adjustments and replace some parts on my trolling motor, and then Annie dropped me in the water so I could get a couple of hours in right around the tournament site. Looking for that last-minute spot, you know.
From there we headed over to the registration meeting around 5:00. We haven’t fished an EverStart tournament in a while, and a Red Man tournament in even longer, so this wasn’t the usual crowd of people we see at these events. Just the same it was amazing how many people in this new Northern EverStart division came up to us tonight and introduced themselves as people who used to know us from such-and-such a place or from such-and-such a time in our past. Other people we’ve never met just recognized us and told us that they read our journal. It was very flattering to both of us to be acknowledged by so many people. We had a real good time seeing everyone and renewing old acquaintances.
Annie writes:
Dan put in late today so we planned on going straight to registration from the water. I put him in the water and stayed in the truck studying for my English course I am taking soon.
After registration we went out to eat with Scotty and had LOTS of strategy talking for tomorrow. Dan has this feeling again that he could win this tournament. I am torn, do I get excited, or do I stay calm and just wait for the results tomorrow? I can’t help but get excited, Dan is catching fish, has the confidence, and I feel he can do this. All I can do until tomorrow is wait, and try to stay busy. How can I? I am so excited, no wait, calm down, OK, we will remain calm, be supportive, and just pray that it is our turn.