But, Where Do You Pee…?
I plan to travel the rest of my life with my Adventure Partner!
When I first started dating my husband, he said he wanted to take me fly fishing. I laughed and said, “Gross, that doesn’t sound like me!” You see, I’m a girly girl, possibly the tiara tipped you off. I like to be clean, I like to smell and look nice, especially when I’m around a man that I want to smell me and look at me. Add to that the fact that my only experience with fishing was as a kid with my dad. We used bait, which I liked to play with, but didn’t so much like to stab through with a hook. Like most dads, he required quiet, not my forte. We would sit quietly for hours staring at a bobber, it was slow death! Randy said I could talk all I wanted to, because fish don’t have ears and that I didn’t have to touch anything I didn’t want to. Flies are clean and he would even take the fish off the hook for me. (I take my own fish off now, unless they swallow the hook)
My first fish on fly. Since this noble fella, I’ve added 50 species to my list!
First time he took me out, I was wearing a dress, heels, probably a bit too much makeup and jewelry. It was a manicured little farm pond and I hooked a cute little Sunfish. It wasn’t the only thing that was hooked! I Loved Fly Fishing! It is active, you are moving all the time. When you have a fish on, you can feel the struggle through the line between your fingers.
Since then, Randy has shown me beautiful places far and near where we can share our love of fly fishing and travel. That’s why I call him my Adventure Partner. We choose to have a small house and not-so-new cars so that we may travel more. Sometimes we tromp down miles of river or shoreline, sometimes we get on a boat for a whole day.
It’s funny when I talk to anyone about one of our fishing adventures, you get general questions like, “Do you eat the fish?” usually the answer is no, we mostly catch & release. Men typically want to know tactical details like, “How big was that fish?” or, “What kind of fly did you use” or “What weight rod?” Of course, women may ask those questions too, but I love that when women look at our fishing pics, they are aware of so much more. Men see the fish, women see EVERYTHING. They note what you are wearing, your surroundings, they wonder if it is hot or cold? When discussing all day guided boat trips, eventually, most ladies come to the same question, and one that I too pondered before I went out on my first all day boat romp; “Where/when do you pee?”
Logistically, this is a bigger deal for us gals than our male counterparts, but it also highlights a general rule about women; we have to think of so many things, and always stay a step ahead. I think that is why we are so prone to worry. Our heads are filled with “what ifs…” and “what abouts…”. No wonder we often have trouble sleeping at night; we can’t shut off our heads!
The way I combat this issue (works about half the time) is I write things down. I keep little notebooks in my purse, by the bed, on my desk and I have an Evernote App on my phone. I feel like if I can put it somewhere that I can trust not to forget, I can rest my mind. Nothing is sure-fire. When it is a real worry, I really don’t have any answers, happy to hear your ideas in the comments!
BTW, where/when do you pee? Most of the time I’m sweating so much it doesn’t matter. If you are way off shore, you can dangle your booty off the back of the boat and everyone will be kind enough to hang out at the front, having loud conversations to give you privacy. If you are close to a shore you can ask the Guide to pull over and let you take a short walk into the jungle. It’s a fact of life, nothing to be embarrassed about, everyone pees.