July 4th - With New Friends

Friday  - The 4th of July and the end of week three.......

We actually slept in on Friday.  It was about 10:00 when we headed out fishing.  A little on the cool side and a little windy so we would not anchor today; we'd spend the day drift fishing.  We stayed out about four hours and had some pretty good luck and some not so good luck.  Rich caught the first fish - a small perch, lost a real nice small mouth bass about 20 feet from the boat, and caught three real nice crappie ( but forgot to close the top of the minnow bucket - so the first one got away!).  I caught 2 very small perch and a nice crappie.  And Rich about scared me to death when he yelled VERY LOUD and rocked the boat when a very large hairy brown spider was starting to crawl under the pant leg of his shorts.   Yes - that's the picture I managed to get of the spider, dead in the water about 25 foot from the boat.

About 4:30 in the afternoon we headed over to Bill and Linda's where we'd been invited for a cookout to celebrate the 4th of July.  

These two have been coming to Black Lake for over 25 years and now have a permanent park model here at Roger's Camps.  Bill goes out fishing at least once every single day (weather permitting).  Linda doesn't fish.    Linda goes back and forth between the Lake and there home in Rochester and Bill spends the majority of the time between May and October right here.

 When he's not fishing - he hunts. and today we'd be celebrating the holiday with Venison on the Grill.

Also celebrating with us today was Dean and Sherry Rogers, the owners of Rogers Camps.   We met Sherry briefly the other night at the campfire - and of course Dean we see most every day working around the camp.

Our prayers go out daily for Sherry who is suffering with Liver cancer.  Needless to say she's not real active, rests a lot of the time and we were so glad that she was feeling well enough to join us today.

 I had a chance to talk with her a lot today and truly enjoyed her company.

Bill did a fabulous job with the Venison.  He fixed burgers, steaks AND tenderloin.  What a treat!

 Our freezer was always full of Venison when we lived here in NY State but that was many many years ago!  The meat was delicious..............and the tenderloin was as tender and delicious as any fillet Mignon we've ever had.    Sherry tossed together a green salad and I made a potato salad.  Bill brought out a couple of bottles of his home made wine which we enjoyed with some horderves.  It was a cool evening and a little breezy so we set the food up inside, but ate outside.  For dessert Sherry had brought a delicious Turtle Cake - which we managed to finish easily!.

Before the night was over another couple who have also been coming here every year for about 27 years stopped by to chat for a while and to say goodbye.  They had been here for the week and were leaving in the morning.  That was Mike and Jane - who said they had one of their best "fishing" weeks ever this past week.     By the time we headed for our cabin it was nearing 9:30 and you could hear the fireworks off in the distance.  A little later we could see some of them on the other side of the lake.  Our original plans were to go on the dinner cruise from Alexandria Bay and watch the fireworks from the boat.  Probably would have been a nice evening as well - but we're both glad we made the decision to stay and enjoy the evening with what we hope will be some new friends to keep in touch with.