Relocating West!

Folks,

I apologize for the paucity of posts and my infrequent viewing of the FAOL website for the past several months. I had originally planned on moving West after my retirement in January, 2013. However, a head-on auto accident in November, 2012 and the resulting injuries to my wife and myself, as well as our litigation suit against the other driver and her insurance company, caused us to postpone our move (as well as many other planned pleasurable activities!) until now. We are very soon to leave West TN for our new home in the Panhandle region of Idaho.

We've just about jumped through all of the hoops for selling one house and buying another. The only outstanding things we have to do are to finish packing a few things and driving our household goods and 7 cats (and my wife with her anxiety about getting the cats there safely!) some 2,000 miles. We are looking forward to our retirement life in Idaho, complete with all the good fishing opportunities the region affords. Hopefully, the next 2-3 weeks will see us settled in and beginning to enjoy our new domicile and surroundings. Meanwhile, there's work to be done!

Gary J.

Gary;
On the 11th of September I will also be heading to Idaho to visit my kid brother and his wife. He is the manager of Hayburn State Park about 35 miles south of Coeur d'Alene.
I've always flown out to visit but this year I will be driving and plan to do some exploring. I've fished the St. Joe several time but would like to check out the North Branch of the Coeur d'Alene River.
The North Idaho Fly Caster's have their meeting on Thursday the 18th of September at the Best Western Plus in Coeur d'Alene. I plan to attend Ron and Kat. http://www.northidahoflycasters.org/About%20Us.htm
Maybe you will be settled in by then and we can hook up for some fishing.

Gary,
It is good to hear from you again but I am sorry to hear about y'all's problems and pain. I hope that you two recover fully and enjoy life in Idaho with your plethora of walking, dubbing dispensers, um, cats. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. Send pictures of "snow" back to Tennessee.

Regards,
Ed

Congratulations on finally finding your new western home.

To do list.
1) Snow shovel.
2) Snow blower.
3) Big ole bag of salt.
4) Big ole stack of fire wood.
5) Find big ole neighborhood kid to use snow shovel, snow blower, spread salt, chop and stack fire wood.

You're not in Kansas anymore brother, give our best to Phil and good luck with the cat wrangling. I can picture you with the Stetson on, trying to drive that heard..;)
Not exactly the Ben Cartwright moment we might have imagined when visiting the Ponderosa.

...and while I'm at, looks like you'll be taking some time out from that move for a piece of red velvet cake today.
It's 8 / 19 - Happy Birthday Gary.

Be well, Dave & Peggy.

I visited the panhandle years ago and thought it was awesome. fish the N Br. Coeur D'Alene and caught many cuts everywhere I tried. Also drove to WA to fish the Spokane river. Its hard to describe such beauty. your a lucky and brave man to make such a drastic move. I commend you.

Happy Birthday, Gary!

Ed

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and kind comments on our move to northern Idaho. Jack, I would really like to attend the North Idaho Fly Casters' meeting, if I have sufficiently recuperated from all the driving I have to do in the next couple of weeks. I am driving a U-Haul truck to Idaho next week, then flying back to Nashville to drive my pick-up truck and my utility trailer with my workshop "junk" to our new home the following week. That will make a total of about 4000 miles of driving and 2000 miles of flying! Also, I would like to meet up with you in Idaho during your trip west, again, if I can keep my tail-feathers from dragging!

Ed, I don't dare allow my wife to hear any comment about "walking dubbing dispensers", even though that is a pretty accurate description of our felines! Honestly, I am looking forward to having a winter with some snow instead of the ice storms we experienced here last winter! It seems all we get in TN is ice and mud in the winter. A little bit of white stuff will be a welcome change!

Rizeye, I agree with you about the beauty of Northern Idaho. However, you have been the first to call me "lucky and brave" concerning this move. Most folks are content to ask "Are you crazy?!?" Or, they ask the wife "Has he lost his ever-loving mind?!?" Like you, I find the Idaho Panhandle a tremendously attractive location, and the people are extremely friendly.
Dave E, what can I say? It seems like it has taken forever to finally pull the trigger for our relocation. A little too much "life" interfered with my original plans. As you are aware, I looked at a large number of locations in my search for our new home. We narrowed the choices down to the Klamath Falls/Chiloquin, OR area or the Coeur d'Alene/Rathdrum, ID region. Both hold a strong draw for the wife and me, but the CdA region won out with its proximity to the airport at Spokane where I can hop on a Southwest flight at the drop of a hat (about 40 minutes) to get back to the TN/KY area to tend to any family issues that will arise. Getting flight connections from Klamath Falls was going to be more challenging. With aging parents, quick travel is important. Also, shopping opportunities and other "retiree amenities" seem to be more prevalent in the CdA area than in Klamath Falls. The elevation in the Rathdrum Prairie area of Idaho is about 2200 feet, quite a bit lower than Klamath Falls, which is about 4000 feet. I spoke with a climatologist in the CdA area who told me that the average snowfall in the CdA region is about 38 inches, which is very similar to Klamath Falls, also about 38 inches. I appreciate your best wishes to Phil and me in our move. If your and Peg's schedules allow sometime, I would really like for you all to come and visit! Also, our church had a shin-dig for us last night. The red velvet cake was plentiful, and delicious!!
Gary

Gary, you will be real close to where the Idaho fishin is held. Good luck on your move and my prayers for a safe trip.

Gary;
Are you there yet:confused:

Gary,

You are a hop, skip and jump from some fantastic fishing in western Montana in the St. Regis/Superior area on the Clark Fork River. You will have to give that a try next year.

Larry ---sagefisher---

Folks,

We finally made it to our new home in northern Idaho in early September. I had to fly back to Nashville to get my pick-up truck, utility trailer, and my workshop "stuff" and drive all the way back across the country a second time. Ended up traveling over 6500 miles in about ten days, counting the flight. My tail-feathers are still dragging from all that travel! We didn't have too much trouble during all that traveling, except for a tire blowout on the U-Haul truck near the Badlands in South Dakota. We were stranded on the side of the road for about 4 hours in some rain and strong wind. The worst part was the 7 cats started coming out of their stupor as the sleeping medication wore off. That made the wife extremely anxious, as the cats were trying to tear out of their containers.

Jack, I'm not certain I will be able to make the next meeting of the North Idaho Fly Caster's, but I will try if possible. I'd sure like to hook up with some folks who know their way around up here to lessen my learning curve for outdoor pursuits.

Larry, I observed with considerable interest the Clark Fork and the St. Regis rivers as I drove through western MT. Those are some fine looking streams! I plan on getting out soon to scout those rivers, as well as several other streams in the Panhandle of Idaho. Right now, getting things unpacked and stored away is our primary objective. It's amazing how much junk, er, stuff, we can accumulate in our lifetime. I am continually reminded of George Carlin's discussion of how we tend to let our "stuff" rule us, instead of us ruling our "stuff". There's a lesson to be learned from that!

Gary