On August 20th the Cruises guide drug me on a cruise from Barcelona, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal by way of Morocco, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands.  The two things that stand out in my mind more than anything else, except for sitting by a pool where women were sunbathing topless at a motel beside a casino in Marrakech, Morocco and listening to the call to prayers from the local Mosque, was some graffiti I saw.  At the airport in Germany in the men's room was a hand printed note saying "Kill all Jewish and American when you can."  On a wall in Barcelona was printed "Capitalism kills 10,000 children every day."

We got home at 9:30 PM Labor Day and I left at 1:30 PM the next afternoon to drive to Rhinelander, Wisconsin for the bass fishing newsgroup North Woods Classic.  I fished there on Thursday in practice with Fritz then we fished the first day of the two day tournament together on Friday. I caught a keeper smallmouth on Thursday but neither of us landed a keeper on Friday. On Saturday I managed one keeper smallmouth weighing 2 lbs. 7 ozs. and won the big fish pot and got 5th place in the tournament. The weather was unusually hot and really turned off the fish.

On Sunday Fritz and I drove up to Diamond Lake Retreat near Minocqua, Wisconsin and met Jack, Bill and Doug for a week of fishing at our Weekend X North II.  Those of you that did not make the trip really missed a fun time.  The food was great, the fishing was good and the fellowship unsurpassed.  I am already looking forward to the trip next fall.

I left them on Saturday morning at 8:30 AM and pulled into my driveway at 2:30 AM Sunday morning, 1145 miles later.  After a few days of trying to catch up with email, overdue chores and knee high-grass, I headed to Eufaula for a two day club tournament on Friday afternoon.