Senior moment stumps Smalley

Recently, while talking to Bill Swope about fishing, the conversation turned to “senior moments.” Things like launching a boat off a trailer without a bow rope, or backing over the bow rope so it breaks. Both situations resulted in an unplanned swim — for both Bill and me.

While it’s been three years since I left out the drain plug, a senior friend did that last summer, and I helped paddle back across the lake at midnight because we drained the battery pumping water.

A couple weeks ago on a fishing trip to the “Mo”, we hired a shuttle to move my truck from Craig to Mid-Canyon. Instructions were to leave the keys under the floor mat.

About halfway down the float, I mentioned to my daughter and son-in-law that I had locked my set of keys in the truck back in Craig because “we wouldn’t need ’em.” Melissa and Matt looked at me like I’d just tied a Mepps spinner on my tippet.

“I’m not really worried,” I told them. “I got locked out in the Safeway parking lot in Whitefish last fall, so I’m pretty sure I hid a key after that episode.”

About a mile later, I remembered I had my son’s truck in Whitefish that day.

At least I hadn’t forgot to leave a set of keys with the fly shop providing the shuttle — like I did a few years ago on the Bighorn River. Man, I was steamed about not finding my truck in the lot — until I found the keys in my pocket.

I looked under and around my truck at Mid-Canyon at least five times before I gave up and asked someone for a ride to a spot with cell service. And also to borrow a cell phone because mine was locked in the truck. With nothing to do but wait, I crawled under the truck one more time — and found the key.

Shortly thereafter, former student Lucas Fisher came over and told me, earlier that day, someone had removed the pin holding his receiver hitch on his boat. Luckily safety chains prevented real damage.

Morals of this story are always hide a key, use a locking receiver pin and don’t get old.