The life of a guide

Last week I flew to Denver Colorado to do a Sportsmen's show to find some more customers. I arrived a day early and had my brother who lives in fort Collins pick me up. The next morning I made the one hour drive into down town denver to the Convention center for set up. After a couple hours of packing all my show equipment into the building I had my booth set up. For the next 4 days I had to drive into Denver and work the 10 hour days at the show. I took a shuttle bus from the Coors field where they had us park and get on the bus to shuttle in. Friday night after the show I was on the first bus and thouight I was going to get out early and beat the traffic. Wrong, the bus broke down and it took them 45 minutes to get it fixed where they could drive it. A ramp for wheels chairs wouldn't go back up after they let it down due to the bus driver hadn't been orientated on the bus. Patience anyone, I have a lot of patience for some things and fortunately this was one of them. Saturday at the show I had a customer named Eric stop by my booth and visit with me. He was telling me how much fun his family had while visiting the Pacific NW and fishing with me for 3 out of the 4 days while they were in the area. He offered to take me out to dinner that night and I took him up on it. No bus ride and get to hang out in downtown Denver! During this time of year Denver is a fun place to visit with the town being decorated for the Holidays and there is lots of restaraunts and pubs to check out. We went to a Sports bar called Old Chicago which had lots of different flavor of beers and great pizza. The town was packed that night due to the Denver Broncos in the playoffs against Pittsburgh.  I had a great time with great company. It was nice to get away from my fast pace life like being back home. When you are self employed you never have a day off and you think you should always being doing someting productive to make money which is what I had to do when I returned home. Since my return I have been Sturgeon fishing on the Columbia River. It has been long days getting up at 4:30am and being ready for my clients by 6:30 am. The weather is cold and snowing but I have a top for my boat along witha a heater for my clients. However I do not because I am out ion the weather running the boat and rigging rods once we get to the fishing spot. The fishing has been great but the weatehr is challenging some days when you are fighting the wind for 8 hours. After I get my clients their fish it is time to pull the anchor and head to the boat ramp where I will fillet their fish. After I get them on their way it is time to clean up the mess. The top needs to come down and the panels need to get stowed away which is the easier part. I forgot to mention putting the top up in freezing temperatures in the morning when the top doesn't want to stretch. This part is not fun and it is a time when I wonder why am I here doing this job, oh yeah because everyone tells me that I am living the dream! Don't take it wrong I love my job but it takes a special person to be able and do it every day. I am going on 8 straight days of fishing and no day off in sight right now which I am not complaining. Usually January and February are my slowest months so I will take all the work I can if the weather allows it. Right now as I write this blog it is snowing hard and I need to get to the boat ramp in the morning. Thank god for my 4 wheel drive Chevy pick up. I couldn't do my job with out it.