We drove out to Camp Perry which is about 6 miles West of town and is nationally know as the place where the NRA sponsored National Rifle Matches are held each summer. It is also home to the "200th Red Horse Squadron" of the Ohio Air National Guard. Some of the finest shooters and marksmen come from all over the world to compete here each summer. I lived in a house only about a mile from here while in high school and during the summer my brothers and I used to go there to watch the matches and just "Hang Out" as the kids say. We even had occasional summer jobs there. There are many different rifle and pistol ranges there the longest being 1 1/2 miles long. Can you imagine that the winner at that distance usually will fire several hundred rounds at a target who's bulls-eye is only about 1 foot diameter and only miss that small spot about 5-10 times. That's not the person I want stalking me in the woods!!! The range and facilities have many other uses at other times such as police and military training. Above is what appears to be a group of police officers pistol training while we were there.
We also took a drive out to Catawba Island (not really an island but a peninsula) to see where the more affluent of the area gather and to make sure I could find where the major get together of the weekend was being held. These are some of the boats docked at the Catawba Island Yacht Club. You sure couldn't tell the economy is in a downturn by looking here. The one in the picture to the left is probably 45 - 50 foot and I would guess in the $750,000 to $1,000,000 range as well as the two below probably in the $400,000 to $750,000 range. These are just a representative example of whats docked here. Since Port Clinton is right on Lake Erie, it is a very popular summer boating destination for people from Ohio and a lot of the surrounding states. There are many, many marinas located in
After a few hours of touring and visiting all my old haunts we decided to stop for lunch at Jolly Roger, a restaurant serving locally caught Yellow Perch and Walleye. I remember fishing for Yellow Perch when I was younger. I loved eating them. Judy had a Perch Platter and I had a combo of perch and Walleye. The portions were huge and more than we could eat so we brought leftovers home for lunch today. It was delicious but we both agreed that the Walleye was the better of the two so we plan to stop at a local fish market to buy some for our freezer when we head out.
The first get together of the reunion bash was Friday evening when we gathered at Mango Mamas for snacks, drinks and memory racking trying to remember who we all were. That was fun and I think Judy enjoyed meeting all my old classmates although they're all trying to figure out how I caught her!! Even though most all the faces looked familiar to me, I could put names to only a very few without help. But that's OK and part of the fun. Hell, there were people there who said I wasn't me even after I told them who I was so I kept my driver's license handy and with the help of a magnifying glass, most of those OLD COOTS were finally convinced!!! Today we do a little more touring and then gather at "The Swamp" this after noon for the second phase of the weekend. There was a pretty good turn out at the first gathering and I'm hoping this one will be better and some new faces to challenge our memories will show. One such face will be my high school sweetheart who I haven't seen in 50 years. Hope I remember who she is or that could be embarrassing!!! Stay tuned for more excitement.
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