Let's go fishing.....!
I am recently back from my annual fishing excursion with my fraternity brothers from Trinity University. This was our 31st annual "Let's go fishing" event. It had been since 2004 that I was able to participate. Last year, for the 30th anniversary, the group went to Costa Rica and by the pictures I saw, had a remarkable time. I was unable to go due to the recent surgery I had undergone at just months before the trip, but this year I was back among the fishermen.
I started going in the 80's when the group stayed at some modest little fishing cabins on the Colorado river in Bend Texas. Thankfully I was there only a couple of years before we graduated to accomodations more befitting our group. For the last 20 years we have been staying at the Carpenter Family Ranch on Greenwood Creek as pictured here. Ben Carpenter was a modest businessman in Dallas who owned such things at Southland Life Insurance Company and Las Colinas. He also has a freeway named after him. Greenwood is over 2000 acres on the river and has a gorgeous creek running next to the house. Mr. Carpenter died just weeks ago, so we are unsure of our continued use of his home, this may have been our swan song at Greenwood. It has been a perfect place to have a fishing reunion, centrally located and with serveral boats made available to us in addition to two full time cooks who lay on a mean spread at every meal.
The accomodations aside, it is a remarkable thing for us to have gone on the trip for all these years. The permanent group is comprised of 16 people with others having been in and out over the years. When we started going on the trip, some people had not even married yet and now they have grown children. We've watched each other age gracefully, mainly, but not without going through the trials of life with such things as divorces and alcoholism. Thankfully we now all seem to be on the gentle upward path and enjoying life. The event used to be a time for great revelry and some hard fishing hours, now we seem to enjoy taking hikes and talking. It's a great thing to arrive each year and start off once again like we had not even been apart. We even caught some fish this year!
I am recently back from my annual fishing excursion with my fraternity brothers from Trinity University. This was our 31st annual "Let's go fishing" event. It had been since 2004 that I was able to participate. Last year, for the 30th anniversary, the group went to Costa Rica and by the pictures I saw, had a remarkable time. I was unable to go due to the recent surgery I had undergone at just months before the trip, but this year I was back among the fishermen.
I started going in the 80's when the group stayed at some modest little fishing cabins on the Colorado river in Bend Texas. Thankfully I was there only a couple of years before we graduated to accomodations more befitting our group. For the last 20 years we have been staying at the Carpenter Family Ranch on Greenwood Creek as pictured here. Ben Carpenter was a modest businessman in Dallas who owned such things at Southland Life Insurance Company and Las Colinas. He also has a freeway named after him. Greenwood is over 2000 acres on the river and has a gorgeous creek running next to the house. Mr. Carpenter died just weeks ago, so we are unsure of our continued use of his home, this may have been our swan song at Greenwood. It has been a perfect place to have a fishing reunion, centrally located and with serveral boats made available to us in addition to two full time cooks who lay on a mean spread at every meal.
The accomodations aside, it is a remarkable thing for us to have gone on the trip for all these years. The permanent group is comprised of 16 people with others having been in and out over the years. When we started going on the trip, some people had not even married yet and now they have grown children. We've watched each other age gracefully, mainly, but not without going through the trials of life with such things as divorces and alcoholism. Thankfully we now all seem to be on the gentle upward path and enjoying life. The event used to be a time for great revelry and some hard fishing hours, now we seem to enjoy taking hikes and talking. It's a great thing to arrive each year and start off once again like we had not even been apart. We even caught some fish this year!
