Road Trip!!!!!!!

As my departure day drew near, my excitement grew exponentially. I was making the trip down to Missouri to pick up my new Charger 797! My good friend Roy Adams was kind enough to accompany me on this lengthy drive. Day one was really the marathon, left my place at 5AM and arrived in Springfield, Missouri at midnight 19 hours later! During that time we: 1/ Lost a hour and a half when an accident shut down the 401 and we had to detour around it. 2/ Picked the wrong line crossing the border as usual. Personally I think that the US customs guy couldn't believe that Roy wasn't a criminal! LOL 3/ Shopped for a hour and had lunch at the Cabela's in Dundee. Michigan! 4/ Ran into a highway closure on I70 outside of St. Louis but down there they don't like telling you how to detour around such closure.We did get to see parts of the States that we wouldn't normally have, Lebanon, Indiana. 5/ Made it to Springfield, Missouri home of Bass Pro Shops, the mecca of bass fishing! We woke up bright & early and headed over to Bass Pro Shops. Although I have been here numerous times, it's always amusing to watch a newbie experience it. It is truly an awesome place, like no other Bass Pro Shops and pretty much like I had told the US Border Agent! Luckily it opens at 7AM so we were able to spend about 3 hours there before heading back to Richland and the Charger-Playcraft plant. We were greeted at the plant by Joe Dorris, the Dorris family has owned and built Charger Boats for over 30 plus years. We made our way down to the building where they build the Charger Bass Boats, took care of some paperwork and some Charger clothing. Finally we went to see my boat, it was beautiful and far exceeded my expectations. There was a lot of thought put into this boat and I wanted so much to take it out onto the water for a rip, but alas there was no motor on it. I will do another report later when i can take some more pictures and let you really see what's so great about this boat! Before we left I had to take Roy into Joe and his dad's offices to see the Peacock mounts from their trips to Brazil, man I have to try that one day! It was about 2 PM when we bid farewell to Joe & the Charger family and hit the road again. We took a little different route on our way back to Canada heading up through Illinois. The plan was make a stop at D & R Sports Centre in Kalamazoo Michigan. This is one of the nicest independent tackle shop in Michigan, I had been to once before but had arrived late and didn't really gets to see it totally. I was able to meet and chat with the owner of the store, Randy VanDam, Kevin's brother. I also saw his replica of the behemoth Lake Erie Smallmouth record that he caught back in 1993, 9 lbs. 8 oz. 23.5" in length. While we getting ready to leave, we had another pleasant surprise I heard someone call my name and turned around to see old friend and former B.A.S.S. Elite pro, Jon Bondy. D & R Sports looks after Jon's boat for him and he was there to have some service done to it. It was good to catch up with him a bit and he had a chance to check out my new Charger. I would have loved to spend more time with him but we had a schedule to keep. The Canadian border was surprising easy especially when you have all the right documentation. Declared the boat & trailer at the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia, paid the taxes owing on it and away we went. From there we drove straight through to Bay City Marine in Hamilton where my new Yamaha 250 SHO and Bob's jackplate were waiting to be put on the Charger. After we dropped off the boat with Clarence at Bay City we made the final leg of the trip back to my place. It was a whirlwind tour through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Illinois, approx. 37 hours of driving, lots of junk food, lots of great conversation and some awesome company! Watch for future reports as I load this baby up for the up-coming season!