Over the long weekend of October 29, 2004, I went to Eustace Conway;s place called Turtle Island Preserve, in southeast Watauga County. I worked on his legal matters and used the bucolic ambience to research the law on some issues. His place is so big and undeveloped that it is like a small state park.
n the summer of 2004 I attended the scuba diving class with the Reef Dancer Dive shop in Wilkesboro. It has since gone out of business. After our class time at the shop and the pool time at the YMCA, we had to complete the certification and get our licenses by making five open water dives in the ocean. Our dive master Chris Jordan, the Reef Dancer owner and class teacher, and my class mates Stan and Iris Carman, Dave Smith and Rance Moore and I began making plans to go to the Florida Keys. My dive mentor and buddy Paul Anderson, who had been certified for more than a decade and had made about 150 dives, went with us.
In September, 2004, two of my buddies from Rutherford County, Bill Booth and his fellow high school teacher Thomas Crawford, and I spent a week trout fishing and horse wrangling in Wyoming. We stayed with Boulder Lake Lodge outfitters, at the east end of Boulder Lake, in the southwest corner of the Wind River Range. On the map the Lodge is located north east of the tiny town of Boulder, which is south east of the better know town of Pinedale, in west central Wyoming. This was Bill's third trip to this lodge; it was my second trip there; and it was Thomas' first trip.
I learned a couple things one evening a few years ago about athletic training.' I know, I know, I think too much.' Maybe someday I can put all this information to use and write a book or something.' I learned it while biking, but I believe it has a broader application. 'It just goes to show, the more you know (or think you do), the more is exposed that you don't know.'
One weekend in the middle of July, 2004, the St. Paul's Episcopal Church trekked to the idyllic, pastoral conference center in Valle Cruces, Watauga County, for their annual retreat.
The long weekend of July 4 - 5, 2004, Will McElwee and I (Bob Laney) took a backpacking trip on one of the most scenic, and famous, sections of the Appalachian Trial called Max Patch. This section is located on the North Carolina - Tennessee border southwest of Asheville.
The day before the July 4 holiday in 2001, I (Ranger Bob) took a paddling trip on the New River with my daughter Allison and her friend Beth Ann Dellinger. It was a pleasant day with a nice lunch along the way.
The first weekend of June, 2004, Bill Booth, Thomas Crawford and Ranger Bob went fishing on the Green River in Rutherford County. We had a good time with clear, warm weather and fish that were biting. I used my first live bait minnows and caught my first catfish, besides some beautiful red and yellow sunfish perch. Thomas kept the larger fish for his family's supper. [You're welcome!]
On April 24, 2004, a group from Wilkes and Ashe County caravanned to Turtle Island Preserve. Joining Bob were John and Ann Willardson, Randy and Angela Gambill and children, Beth Martinson and her sister Kirsten, and Roland Scroggs and his son Andrew. We went to enjoy an Open House sponsored by Eustace Conway with his staff and friends Yvonne, Beau, Dave, Spencer and Lindsay.
On April 17, 2004, Bob Boettger, Paul Anderson and Bob Laney left town a little after dawn and headed to Grandfather Mountain for a substantial day hike. We ascended the Profile Trail from the parking area on NC-105, which is well graded with beautiful stone work. In my opinion, it is the best graded and most beautiful stone work on any trail I have seen in the U.S.