The Orvis road trip would have been around 1978. At that time both my friend Steve and I were in college so we planned the trip for a Saturday. It was a 3 hour drive one way, so we needed a full day. Saturday rolled around and off we went. Two 20 year kids and a note filled and tattered rod cataloge excitedly headed north to the famous Orvis Fly Rod Co. I was picturing going in and asking to speak to someone about the various blanks. We would then be escorted into the rod shop where and old man in a shop apron would smile and shake our hands before delving into the various design elements and options.
That's not what happened. Not even close. We walked in, probably stoned and paranoid, and started looking around. It's like a candy store for fly fishermen -- flies, vests, rods, fly tying material, leaders and lines everywhere. We looked around for awhile, found the rod rack and wiggled a few rods, when a young male store clerk approached us. He was our age or a little younger and when we asked about the various fly rod models he said: "Hang on I will get a catalog," and proceeded to read the descriptions that we had previously memorized. No old guy in a shop apron was available.
We had pretty decided that we would be getting either the 7 1/2 6 wt or the 7' 9" Far and Fine 5wt that was prefered by the casting instructors there. Because we live in an area that has mostly small streams we went with the 7 1/2' version. I can't remember if we took both versions out to the pond but considering our mental states probably didn't want to embarrass ourselves.It didn't take us long to pick out the components we wanted and we were back on the road again.
We built those rods in the winter of 1978 at my grandparents summer camp. I rented it during the winter when they didn't use it, then moved back to the "little camp" in the summer when they wanted the main camp back. It was a prefect place to work on the rods. We used the dining room table that was under a big picture window for a workbench. A fire in the fireplace and a view of the lake -- what more could you want?
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