Missouri Outdoor Communicators
Annual "Float N Bloat"

July 7,8,9 2006
www.mochomepage.org

July 2006 Float ‘N’ Bloat report and “thoughts I’d like to share”
By: Bob Whitehead, Outdoor Guide magazine

The 2006 Float ‘N’ Bloat was a wonderful time. Weather was best I can ever remember for that time of year.  There were soft breezes during the day and it got almost chilly at night.
 
We had four tent campers and a few stayed at the motel in Licking. Ray Eye, Ralph Duren and I stayed in the cabin. 

I took it easy after a short stay in the hospital just prior to Float n Bloat. Ray Eye loaded and unloaded my stuff for me and drove me down and back. 

Ray kept the grounds cleaned and the cabin organized and whisked me away to the river bluffs one evening when it got hectic at the cabin.      He was great watching over me and the others did a lot to make it easy for me to do nothing but enjoy the great company and great food.

We saw lots of fawns, turkeys, a huge snapping turtle entertained each evening in the river below the deck and Jared Billings brought fish pellets creating a piranha frenzy.  Seems as if the armadillos have taken a liking to the grounds, as well, who can blame them?

Ray and Ralph made sure we had plenty of barred owls to keep us company later in the evenings.

Saturday morning I rode the Bad Boy Buggy with Ray to the bluffs to listen to his “Eye on the Outdoors” live radio show live and all of us enjoyed sunrises and sunsets one can only experience from that spectacular viewing point.

Ray grilled pork steaks to perfection and good friend and local John Erdelen commanded a fish fry a VFW membership would be proud of.

For Saturday’s fare Ray and I cooked ribs, we had fried white bass I caught with Tony Allbright on Bull Shoals a couple weeks ago and fresh goggle eye I caught with good friend and fishing guide Rich Wade.   John fried the fish, potatoes, onions and biscuits for us again; he did dishes and was a great hand, a true Blood Brother.   

Eat those fried biscuits with crab apple jelly and you will know there is indeed a God in heaven.

Bill and Diana Cooper fixed a shrimp/fish/potato jambalaya you’d slap your mamma for and Mark Hubbard and his girlfriend cooked Illinois sweet corn that makes my mouth water now.  

Several of the Wade clan joined us for Saturday evening’s gala and we were blessed with a performance by Ralph Duren who sounded a typical evening’s sequence of river and fauna sounds creating an orchestra of evening’s transition only he can do.