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Calif Bill

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On 29 Apr 2007 15:36:35 -0700, wrote:

my children (the next generation of spenders)
and many or their peers are moving toward greener play across the
board. Kayaking (touring), indoor rock climbing, and bike trips are
big, vacations are no longer Daytona, but New Orleans for cleanup and
culture.

My kids are pretty much the same way with respect to other sports type
boating. All of them own kayacks (THE HORROR!!) and canoes. They
like my boats, but it just doensn't do much for them - they'd rather
participate in a more physical way. Which is great for them.

I know that locally, there are a quite a few fisherman who have
fishing kyacks and canoes with smallish electric motors. I'm a little
too big to use something like that, although now that the Princecraft
is down south, I might think that one through a little more. It's
tough to launch the Ranger on smaller ponds. However, with the
arthritis problems I have, a kayack or canoe is a little small for me
to be comfortable - not to mention that at 6'3" and now 235 (from 270)
that's a little cramped.

I've been thinking recently of getting one of those little Coleman
skiffs, a pontoon type boat I can throw in the back of the pickup or
even making one using cold molding techniques. I've got an extra
trailer (for the PWC one of the kids once owned) so it wouldn't be
that tough to handle a cold molded one.

I just had two of my kids return from New Orleans and I have several
friends who still live in New Orleans - according to them, it's a
freakin' wasteland and will never recover. Part of the town are in
decent shape apparently, like the French Quarter and parts of Metarie
(sp?), but the rest is just junk. I havne't been back since Katrina,
but I'm thinking of returning this summer just to see for myself.

Many of the local water ways are making provisions for much
smaller boats, and recreation and motor restrictions are getting
tougher every day. The overindulgent will still have their big boats,
but they will pay though the nose, be subjected to more restrictions,
and their numbers will drop due to financial attrition. I don't know
that the situation will ever improve for them from this point on. Once
the big manufacturers tool down, I don't see them coming back.

I think it's a little early to make that kind of determination, but I
take your point.

New Orleans proper will not ever be back to what it was. Both politics and
the land. At least they have cleaned up the 9th ward from all the destroyed
homes and business according to my neighbor who just came back while working
in Slidell for a Church Sponsored rebuilding of homes for the underinsured
and elderly. I was down there last June for Habitat for Humanity in
Slidell. Same time as the elections for mayor were going on. The people in
N.O. that remain are idiots! One said they were voting for Nagan. He had
only been in office 3 years and what could he have done. I had not been
back to N.O. since 1965, and you could see that even the French Quarter had
gotten a lot tackier since then. I used to enjoy weekends in N.O. while
stationed in Biloxi so saw it many times in that year. The Mississippi area
was devastated even more, and they are recovering a lot faster.

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