Extravagant Thanks

Greetings Fellow Extravaganzers!

 

It is early this last July Sunday morning--my last scheduled Sunday here in God's own backyard, Montana--and before leaving this special place to return to that other special place, the Bay Area, from which I am privileged to travel to and fro (I refer to our two homes as "the bookends" between which each year we write our tomes), as tradition and propriety each dictate, I wanted to take a moment to write and thank each of you who participated in Extravaganza 2007 for being with us and making it the most wonderful of experiences that it was.

 

The purpose of the Extravaganza is for Kathy and I to reach out to those who have touched us the most in this and prior years and to allow us to return that favor.  It is a time for frivolity in one of the most special places on this orb that I have ever seen; it is a time to celebrate friendship and fellowship; it is a time to journey to and into places that you may never have seen before; and, most importantly, it is a special time to take a moment or two out of our otherwise busy lives to celebrate not only each other but all of those around us.  For your being with us, Kathy and I are truly thankful for the present of your presence.

 

Extravaganza 2007 proudly stands out among its four predecessors.  Not only was it the largest extravagant gathering with its 65 participants, nor is it the fact that we caught and released more fish than ever (over 1,750 by my rough estimate) or that we fished more miles of rivers (over 750 miles) or drank more cases of wine (try over 30 cases, gang!); rather, it was simply explosive as never before in the unlimited good fellowship, great stories and wonderful times had by all.  Neither the heat of July (as we finish this month, records were set:  Group Three's arriving hottest day in the history of recorded Missoula temperatures; more days over 100 degrees; and every day but one being 90+ degrees) nor the tightness of our schedule (Group Four having to rise early as the "Night Riders" to arrive at the GH by 6:00 a.m. and then, duty bound, to sing well into the evening hours to the tunes of Fred "The Guitar" Johnson) could stand in the way of the potency of it all.  Keynoted and chronicled by Der Blog and Der Blogmaster, Dave Stallard, one only has to peruse the story of it all, forever to be maintained on the web at www.montana2007.blogspot.com (yes, Two, I finally got the address right!) to get a flavor of just what we both individually and collectively witnessed and experienced.

 

Somehow, however, it is not the largeness of it all that strikes me the most; rather it is the small things that stand out:  Group One's Jim Hendrickson walking out onto the crowded back porch to announce that "I can smell fish"; Group Two's unmatchable Lori Ware telling (with appropriately touching tears streaming down her cheeks) of her visage on Rock Creek of a fawn that, unbeknownst to her until the very end, had been sharing two hours of creek side solitude; Group Three's Kinglsand Four story of the fawn they saw crossing the river; Group Four's Jim Kreig double-arm pump blog-posted photo with his first fish in the net and wife Mary Reilley's companion 20" beauty matching hers.  It is the fox seen in the late night hours running along Rock Creek Road; it is the eagle and osprey dancing above the rivers; it is the rise of that fish to a dry fly; it is the quiet unspoken privacy of a moment along a pristine river; it is the sweet smell of pine during an early morning hour; it is sharing a unique personal moment with the deer, the beaver, the mink, the moose, the elk and the chipmunk; and it is meeting new friends and regaling them with the stories of your day.  These are the things that stand out in my mind when I reflect back on Extravaganza 2007; these are the things that are important to me.

 

Each year, when I sit down to write this note of Extravagant Thanks, religiously, I do two things:  (1) I make sure that some reflective time has passed between  the then and the now, and (2) I have playing in the background the special music of John Denver whose words and lyrics, more than anything else, so wonderfully sum up all that the Extravaganza is and is about  ("Of Eagles and Horses" just finished wafting through the air here, followed by "Wild Montana Skies"--how appropriate).  Each year the thoughts and the message have been singularly the same:  Kathy and I are truly honored that each of you chose to spend valuable time out of your busy lives to be with us in this special part of the world that we are privileged to call our second home and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being with us.  Often asked, "Why do the two of you do what you exhaustingly do in sponsoring the Extravaganzas?", our answer is the same:  "You simply have to have been here to know the true reasons why--it is impossible to adequately sum it up in words."

 

Yes, Extravaganza 2007 was, is, and forever will be special.  It was "The Year of the Woman" with five (count 'em) ladies joining the Twenty Inch Club where, never before, had one signed in; it was "The Year of the Couple" with twelve in all joining the fray; it was the year of "Father and Son" as well with seven such sets; it was the year of "The Rod and the Reel" (70 such sets of that); and it also was "The Year of It All" with everything imaginable (and some not quite so, such as Miz Lori's Group Two twenty inch latex fish and Group Four's defrocking of Lexus license plate holders) taking place in the narrowest of windows:  The week before Group One arrived, the rivers were not fishable due to an aggressive runoff, and the day after Group Four left the rivers began to close for afternoon fishing due to high water temperatures.

 

Folks, as previously booked, we fished the world's best rivers at the best times with the best guides, and we fished them well.  But the Extravaganza 2007 was (and it always has been, and always will be) more than just a fishing trip--it was a chance for 65 special people to be in a special place doing special things that never would have been witnessed and seen if we hadn't collectively "Extravaganzed".  For that we are thankful and, for all that you each did to make this year's event as special as it was, we were blessed by your presence and participation.

 

As tradition further holds, as we put a bow on this year's Extravaganza, son Tyler salutes you with his Groups Three and Four bbq spatula in hand, Kathy waves a final goodbye to you from her Montana meadow kitchen window and ol' Rock Creek Ron, well he just sits here before this computer screen with a Cheshire-like smile on his face (that will last another year), knowing that, individually and collectively, "we came, we saw and we conquered" and that, yes, indeed, all is well in Extravaganzaland.

 

Best to all from the scene of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron