After a week in Quetico Park I got back to work. The wife heads for her folks and my two teenage boys are off doing whatever they do at this age. I couldn’t stand it so I get the boat out and head to the St. Croix. After hunting and pecking though my usual spots between Stillwater and Hudson I finally found some several nice pods of smallies, with diminishing flow fish were holding tight to the deeper edges of current seams. Fishing tube jigs with a very soft drop on 1/8 jigs was great fun.
Caught a few fish, sucked a brew or two (really- no more than two) I pulled up on a sand bar and put a steak on the portable grill. I cooked it slowly while swimming with the dog, with no utensils the only choice was to eat it right off the grill (as of course real men should do). Heading off and looking around at the nice night I mindlessly drifted into the “No Wake” zone going faster then I should have. I hear this loud siren, look up and it’s the sheriff, recognizing the evils of my ways and knowing I was so busted I killed the motor and just waited for them to motor over.
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So they do the usual safety check and noticed the empties. Yep- mine! Hair is disheveled, shirt unbuttoned, steak grease running down my chin-it was clear they were dealing with a disreputable citizen! So they run a series of sobriety checks (I was sort of chucking as they couldn’t ask me to walk in a straight line being in a 16 ft boat and all) So the sheriff tells me the count backwards from 78 and if I would have any trouble doing this. I explain that I would do the best I could but I couldn’t guarantee a flawless response given that numbers aren’t my best skill given that I have A.D.H.D and my parents homeschooling me in the Appalachians and all. Slight chuckle.
So, I get through it and the guy asks me for my driver license. He takes down the information gives me a warning and quips… “its not often I pull someone over who is older than me”. My only response was that this was clearly “police harassment”. We laughed and I was on my way(but this time slowly).
I like that, get off vacation and then nothing to do so you get to go fishing ??? 
BTW, how can you tell when your on vacation or off ??? 
