As I write this, I am sitting in the Jackson Hole airport terminal waiting on Steve's arrival. To my right is a huge window overlooking the Grand Tetons. Absolutely amazing.
I wrote an essay about Yellowstone, yet I had never visited the park at all. And I won? Chris Hunt of Trout Unlimited has said that I was chosen (and I am paraphrasing), I really wanted to go. Of course he is right, but I think there was a little more to it than that. I needed to go. Not because I wanted to be away from my job(well maybe a little), or my family. I needed to go because...to be perfectly honest about it...it was my time to go, my time to be chosen, my time to venture out of the land of The Perfect Drift. A greater reason beyond getting out of Tennessee and going fishing.
I do not have the first inkling of an idea about what is to occur in the days to follow, and perhaps that in and of itself is the big adventure. To step out of my comfort zone and walk in what is arguably one of the greatest fly fishing locations in the world without the foggiest as to what it is like.
I cannot be any more at peace with myself than I am right now. Without any close relations or my usual fishing buddies, I am out here winging it, meeting new people in my sport as well as my craft...and I am at peace.
Thanks to all the folks involved in putting this trip together. Rebecca Garlock, Chris Hunt- they have both been a great source of info and support. To my old/new friend Steve Zakur and the adventures that are upcoming.
But most of all, thank you to my family who have supported my sport, my dream of writing, and the strange man that is me. I hope to honor your love and loyalty by draining every drop out of my days here.
And until next time...the adventure begins......
now.
