Astoria is a great place to visit. The Astoria-Megler bridge, the longest continuous truss bridge in North America is quite a sight. Lots to see and do here including Fort Stevens State Park, Fort Astoria, Heritage Center Museum, Flavel House Museum, Uppertown Fire Fighters Museum, Astoria Column, and the Columbia River Maritime Museum, home to one of the nation’s finest displays of model ships and nautical artifacts.

The fishing derby, sponsored by Cascade Business Group was lots of fun and as far as I know everyone got their salmon. We had a reception in the Cannery Pier Hotel and afterwards I went to find the boat ramp and KOA which were in Hammond, Oregon. I would have stayed at Ft Stevens but they were full. Presley spent the night in the doggie hotel (he calls it the doggie jail).

The KOA, while very nice with lots to do, was very crowded with campers, pickup trucks, people and dogs. I suppose it was because of salmon season but I think they stay pretty busy as a rule. I didn’t even bother to hook-up. If Ft. Stevens is full, this is a good second choice.

Friday we were on the water early where it was rainy, wet and cold. I got the first fish on the boat, a medium size Silver Salmon. We were trolling real shallow, something I had never done before. The deepest was about 12 feet and a couple of rods were only 6 feet deep. There were lots of boats and lots of salmon.

The salmon limit is two and they have to be hatchery fish. The hatchery clips the rear dorsal fin so you can tell the difference between their fish and wild salmon. The problem with that is you can’t tell until you have caught the fish and brought it up to the boat. This results in a good number of wild salmon dieing. Not a well thought out rule in my book.

We were off the water by 3:30pm and I went to pick up Presley. At 6pm I picked up my fish, filleted and packed. Back to the KOA, in bed by 7pm and didn’t wake up until 8am the next morning.

Fishing is tiring but worth every minute!

Today I finally made it to the Manteca, California Bass Pro Shop. Was it cool or what? I spent a quick 1-1/2 hours there and could easily have spent 4 hour going up and down every aisle.

I will be going back as it is only about 40 minutes from home.

If you didn’t know, Bass Pro Shops offers equipment and clothing for hiking, backpacking, wildlife viewing, camping, outdoor cooking and more for the entire family. They have a huge shoe department with almost any shoe or boot imaginable for rugged outdoor pursuits or just being casual and comfortable. That’s where I am going next time for shoes. The clothes are really great too and just what you need to get ready for that Alaska trip.

Sleeping bags (what we use zipped together in the bus), coolers, knives, lots (that’s an understatement) of fishing gear - you name it. They even had a life preserver for Presley! And of course, since I just bought a hatchet a couple of days ago at a hardware store, I see a much better one here.

And the boat section. I love the 4 stroke Mercury outboard and they have some perfect small boats to pull behind the Sprinter (shhhh, don’t tell Debbie) and give us more excuses to camp near lakes. Well, maybe when the economy gets well, Pig Fever is not a worry, and I get the government bail-out I need . . .

Manteca Bass Pro is opening Wednesday and they will be 37.85 miles from my driveway. That’s what I’m talking about!

This is a serious event. Even though I don’t hunt any more and fish a lot less than I did when I had the bass boat, just the camping part is likely to pull me into the new store. Hopefully I can get over there in the next week and I will give you a report.

The Manteca store is designed as a tribute to Yosemite and California’s Central Valley. With 3,500 area artifacts, and a 20,000 gallon fresh water aquarium, the 120,000 square feet store is like a magnet for me and many others. I think I will see lots of Sportmobiles there.

I need to find out how long I can hang out in the parking lot . . . this sounds like a multi-day trip and a great place for a meet/greet get2gether. You betcha!

The new 2008 edition of the Great Alaskan TourSaver is a littler larger than pocket size and is a win/win for visitors to Alaksa and Special Olympics Alaska.

You’ll find the book has more than 140 2-for-1 offers on accommodations (hotels and camping), fishing trips, flight-seeing, and more. It covers the whole state and splits Alaska up into five sections: Southcentral Alaska; Interior and Far North; Inside passage and Western Alaska.

The book costs $99.95. But you may be able to find a bargan on line. And if you use just one coupon you have recouped the entire cost of the book.

Some of the 2-for-1 offers include:

• Alaska Rail Tours between Anchorage and Denali National Park.
• Accommodations at Denali National Park.
• Denali Flight seeing with glacier landing.
• Denali Backcountry Jeep Safari.
• Kenai Fjords National Park glacier cruise.
• Glacier Bay National Park glacier cruise.
• Charter fishing for salmon and halibut in Seward, Kodiak and on the
  Kenai River.
• Admission to Alaska Native Heritage Center, Alaska Sealife Center
  and Alaska Raptor Center.
• Raft and Jet-boat adventures

For me the book presented many ideas of things to do I hadn’t know about. Just looking at the coupons shouts, “Adventure, adventure.”

You can find information here www.toursaver.com.