[Bobby B.]

It started off with my alarm not going off. Super Dave arrives right on time and I'm still sleeping. Sorry again, buddy.

We head off to Lower Chain Lakes by Athabasca to check out the huge rainbows we were told are in there. I live in the west end of Edmonton but instead of heading through St. Alberta as I should have, for some crazy reason I head east on the Yellowhead and take 97 street north out of town before realizing I'm taking the wrong route. We coorect course.

We arrive at Lower Chain Lakes and I approach a man and his son on the ice. They have a 10" rainbow on the ice and have released the six 'small ones'. While we're chatting, the man's son catches a 9" and decides to keep it. Turns out the 2 guys are locals and they inform us of how the fish size in Lower Chain has shrunk over the last few years. Not interested in hooking trout where keepers are 9-10", we head off for Dolberg.

We arrive at Dolberg, the sky is clear, the sun is warm and the wind is light. The only other guy on the ice leaves 5 minutes after we arrive. For the third outing in a row, Super Dave doesn't get so much as a bite. I ice two 14", lose one plus have three hits. We both get sunburned, especially me.

We head for home at dark. Engrossed in a full on BS session, we miss the turn in the road and are now unknowingly heading west towards Sangudo instead of south towards Cherhill.

We arrive at highway 43 and I sense something isn't right. We head east towards Sangudo. We wonder what the Hell are we doing on the west side of Sangudo? My internal compass starts to spin. As evidenced by the highway signs, we know we're on #43 heading east but we can't understand how we arrived on the highway west of Sangudo. Nothing makes sense. I feel like a jet pilot whose instruments tell him one thing but his gut tells him another. After some discusion, we realize the turn we missed and I blame Dave as he's the acting navigator.

Ten minutes after passing through Sangudo, I suddenly become aware that the fuel gauge is showing less than a 1/4 of a tank. We plan to take on fuel at the Gunn service station, but it's is closed. shortly after, the fuel light blinks off and on depending on whether the truck is facing uphill or downhill. The service station on #43 south of the Alberta Beach turn off is also closed. The fuel light is now glowing strongly.

We fuel up at some service station on 16A west of Stony Plain and continue the drive home.

All in all, a great day but not without some hiccups.

Bobby B.