I’d like to interrupt your regularly scheduled program to talk to you about something important.

Fishing tackle. You keep losing it, I keep finding it. And I’m not giving it back. Example below:

Do you know what that is? Take a second… I’ll wait.

That’s 66 hooks and enough line to go around 2 spools. Also, there’s a trackhawk in the background. Yes, my car is dirty, but I’m outdoorsy and it happens. So there are two stories here, one about the tackle and one about the Jeep.

Tackle first.

I’m lucky enough to live in Sanibel, Florida. It’s a small island on the southwest coast of Florida and if you don’t mind being 45 minutes away from things like Publix or Starbucks or the gym then you’ll love this place. It’s also an added bonus that during season it can take you 2 hours to drive 6 miles! But seriously, this place is great. It’s known as the “sea shell capital of the world” and I have quite a few sea shells in my house because of that. A big perk is I get to go out on the water most days, and when I first started paddling here I noticed something; this is a pretty popular place for tourist to go fishing. I’m not that great at fishing but compared to many of the tourists who come down here for a few weeks and attempt to fish, I’m a sniper with a rod. I decided that instead of paddling around some of the barrier islands, I’d start picking out monofilament, hooks, lures and whatever else I could find, which has included bushels of grapefruits, lime flavored lays potato chips and countless hideous hats (seriously, where do you people find these?).

If you see a blonde wrestling with some mangroves, don’t be concerned, it’s just me. However, you may get lucky and see me fall off my board.

This brings me to my second point. The Trackhawk. If pulling fishing line from mangroves doesn’t make you giddy, then this will.

This beauty comes stock with 707hp. As I mentioned earlier, I live on an island where the top speed is 35mph on our main road, but most people top out at 30mpg, so why have this car? 2 reasons. 1: you can put a roof rack on it and 2: it brings me pure joy to step on the gas. You have never seen a bigger smile on my face than when I picked this baby up from Secret City Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Oak Ridge Tennessee, and first stepped on the gas. I wish that the dealerships in Florida were like this place. Normally I can’t wait to get out of a car dealership but everyone here was not only helpful, but friendly and with a great sense of humor. The sound of the supercharged engine is pure bliss. The only thing that beats it is the sound of the supercharged engine as it runs through Tail of the Dragon. What is this place? 11 miles and 318 turns. There is a sign at the entrance that reads “high fatality zone.” This place is a motorcyclist’s dream come true. Boasting blind curves, high degrees of camber and claustrophobic scenery, it’s a challenge to even the most experienced of drivers. And a great place for me to break her in.

Something this beautiful deserves it’s own photoshoot.

The only thing that makes me sad about this car is the recall issue. Jeep has asked me to store a car I picked up in December, and not drive it until late March. April came and I was told the part was on its way so I made an appointment and went down to Naples to have it fixed. I was then told the part never came in and resisted the urge to throat punch the service tech that just made me drive four hours round trip for nothing. In the mean time, she keeps the SRT company.

Now back to more important things, like fishing!