It came and went... Now just a memory, the 2013 Bassmaster Classic... This is going to be a long one!
I awake at 4am on thursday morning start packing and hit the road at 5. I arrive at crazy Troys house around 6ish, he loads his stuff into the truck and we are gone. Everything is going smoothly until we hit the storm and it wasnt just a normal storm, this was an epic version that eventually dumped 8'' on St. Louis and now here we were driving in it... I get a text...
Luke - "where are you guys?"
Me - "you can find me in st. louie"
Luke - "oh gad, you guys wont be here for 8 hours"
Me - "gps says 6"
Luke - "yeah, right, took us an extra 2 hours"
Me - " ITS ON NOW, GUARENTEE WE GET THERE INSIDE OF 7 HOURS"
Me - (pic of speedometer at 75mph)
Luke - "you guys are gonna die"
Me - "negative nancy"
I told Troy to get ready to throw, we werent slowing down for snow covered roads, ice pellets, sleet, frozen wipers and all the other crap that goes along with driving in the winter... You guys have to know that for some unexplainable reason, I feel absurdly comfortable driving in snow... Most of the confidence comes from the truck I drive... You will have a hard time convincing me that a 2500 Sierra 4x4 isnt the greatest snow driving truck on planet earth... I am not exagerating when I say that you can drive it as if you are on dry pavement and as long as there isnt idiots driving 25 mph, you will be perfectly fine. So thats what we did, the speed limit was 75mph at times, so there were times I was hitting 80, with mostly 70-75 in between random slow downs for traffic. We only nearly died one time and considering we prob passed 1500 cars, I would say thats a good ratio... Unfortunately, that one time was a pretty close call, and Troy nearly shat himself but no harm, no foul... Just for the record, that one close call involved a trio of vehicles driving 30mph down the interstate. I dont care if it was snowing, thats DANGEROUS... Ok, ok, maybe I was the one being dangerous but it was Lukes fault, he said the time to beat was 8 hours, no way I was going out like that... We got there 6.5 hours later so that damn storm cost us 30 minutes... The entire trip took 13 hours, on a side note, Crazy Troy drove home, with sunny, dry weather and we made it in 11.5 hours... He did 80+ the whole trip, at least I wasnt excessively speeding in 65mph zones...
WE ARE HERE!
Day 1
Troy knows nothing about the industy and he is fine with it... As soon as we get there, we head to the hotel where everyone is eating and hanging out. The Doubletree in downtown Tulsa. The first guy we see is KVD who immidiately stops to talk to Luke. Troy could care less, Me? I couldnt speak and I rarely have that problem. We head in, and nearly all of the big timers in the tournament are there hanging out... I tried to put it in perspective for Troy, who is a nascar fan, by comparing guys to drivers he knows... KVD is/was Dale Sr. JVD is Dale Jr. Iaconelli is Tony Stewart, Gerald Swindle is whoever is in nascar that is a badass... and on and on and on... Troy - "AWESOME"
I had a conversation with someone in the Vandam crew that I think was either his mom or his grandmother, Im not sure but she was old and she was funny. We talked to John for a minute, wished him good luck. Talked to Johns dad and his mom for like an hour. They were both really nice people. In case you didnt know, Randy Vandam (Johns dad, Kevins brother)is the Ohio state record holder for biggest smallmouth bass. Pretty impressive, has held the record for years...
Day 2
Spent most of the day walking around the Expo, shaking hands, meeting people, checking out new gear and so on. Kyle won a nice Fenwick rod by beating me in a flipping/pitching contest. Good for him, he needed a nice rod. Me? I blame the equipment, if all else fails, blame the gear, they werent G Loomis rods we were using so that made me in-accurate. Finally got to meet JoAnn O'bryant, the promotional director for Skeeter. She handles all the endorsements and the entire Skeeter team... She hooked us up with sponsor passes so we ended up sitting with the Skeeter family at the weigh in. Managed to find time to meet up with Fletcher (Shryock)and his brother Hunter, they were hanging out by the Spiderwire booth all day (Fletchers new title sponsor) it was good to see him, its been awhile but he was ultra busy so we left him to work. Got a chance to catch up with ole Cliff Crochet as well. Always a trip to talk to him, he is hilarious and gave me one great bit of wisdom
Cliff Crochet - "Just remember, when you get to the Elites, nobody gives a shit about Steven Priest"
words to live by!
The weigh in was spectacular. Honestly, it was the highlight of the trip for me and one moment in particular. We got to our seats and nearly instantly, the lights went dim and the lasars started bouncing all over. Over the PA system, loudly you here a bell. BONG, BONG, I knew it immidiately and I got chills, it was Metallica (my favorite band EVER) For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was followed by a highlight reel of past classics. It was fantastic...
As for the tournament itself, yall can check out the results and the footage on bassmaster.com and the airing will be on ESPN 2 this coming weekend. I found myself cheering for anyone to beat him but in the end, Cliff Pace is now a classic champion regardless of how much it looks like he doesnt care. If you watch it, Im sure you will notice what Im talking about.
You will also notice a guy named Hank Cherry... This guy was in my shoes just a year ago and now he is going to be remembered forever because he nearly pulled out a huge comeback but unfortunately, you will see, why it didnt happen and its excruciating. I hope he recovers because he seems like a great guy and a great fisherman. Also congrats to Brandon Palanuik, pretty cool that the Classic runner up put a picture of me on his facebook page just a few weeks ago...
All in all, it was a good time. I wish I could share more but my pinky finger is cramping up and Ive been typing for an hour solid, Im done....
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