Breakfast was served at 8:00am. There’s no time for sleep. We have fishing to learn to do.
The mornings are staring to cool off here in Central Texas, so when we went outside to learn how to assembly our fly fighting rods and reels it was a comfortable but cool 55°. I started out in just a long sleeve shirt, but it didn’t take more than a few minutes for me to rethink that decision.
Before we even took our rods and reels out of their bags, the oncologist that came for the weekend lead us through some breathing and stretching exercises. Then, we were taught how to put our rods and reels together. It’s not that complicated, but I was very thankful for the step-by-step instructions. After our rods were ready, we received a casting demonstration. They made it look simple enough.
Once I figured it out and began to discover a rhythm, I discovered why people fall in love with fly fishing. There is something so peaceful and relaxing about casting that line. And the sound of our line is muscial. I’m already in love and I haven’t even tried to catch a fish yet.
After trying our hand at casting, we returned inside for a knot tying class. Knots aren’t usually my favorite things to do. They usually frustrated me, but I guess today was my lucky day. I could tie some knots!
We had lunch and then went back out to learn another way to cast and how to pull our line. I was busy doing all this so I don’t have any pictures. We also received a lesson on how to think like a fish which was extremely interesting and informative to me.
During our break, we went around Glen Rose. They were packing up from a festival as we were walking around. It’s a small little place but has some really neat shops including an old soda shop and the best pie in Texas!
We had dinner and then went upstairs for some door prizes and a chance to just talk with each other. We all walk through different battles, and we all deal with cancer in very different ways, but there’s something about being around other cancer patients that heals you really deal with so many things so many hold inside. We watched that happen this evening. It’s amazing to me how much we, the cancer patient, hold inside and don’t talk about. Many times we don’t even realize we need to talk about these things. It was awesome to see some of the women in our group really begin to heal from something they might not have even realized they needed to heal from.
Our night ended with a campfire and great conversation. Tomorrow, will be the day of the fish and it’s supposed to be a “4 fish day” thanks to the super moon. 