Day 1: Easter Sunday
After church, we head to Roulette. The "Rebel-mobile" is already packed and loaded. We pull into Mom and Dad Hatcher's house, pose for an annual Easter Picture.

While the ladies get the ham dinner finished up, Dad and I set up the new tent in his backyard. Sure, it's not "roughing" it... but we're camping for a week, let's be realistic.

So we eat dinner, and then go to Zoe's mom's house in Port Allegany for more food (and her homemade candy.. mmm good.)

We know we'll get back late, so we plan to sleep inside the house for the first night.

Day 2: Teach a Kid to Fish
After breakfast, we hit the river. We fish in "Dates' Hole" (pronounced by a million Roulette Natives as 'Dateses') in the Allegany, which runs along the back of Dad's property.

We fish and fish, with little result, other than tangles lines from the trees and brush growing up. So we hit the gravel bar down below. The spring water is high, much of the gravel bar was underwater, but there was a great spot to let the kids stretch their legs and try their hand at fishing. Isaiah get's a nibble, and then lands a good sized trout. Minutes later, Michaelah get's a hit from something huge. Her curiousity had earlier prompted her to play with the little knob on her Barbie pole that says, "Drag"... so the fish, or river monster, gets away with quite a bit of her line, and after heading for a tree, snags her up and gets free.

She gives up after a few minutes, and opts for skipping rocks.

Abe lands a decent sized trout a few minutes later.

I didn't catch anything, but I spent a lot of time in the water (brrr.) getting lines untangled.

We take a break from fishing, and relax out of the sun in the tent for a bit.




Grampa Yogi takes the kids to Faith's Country Store (formerly Bill's Kendall, then Mac's Country Store) for ice cream in his wagon. Roulette Rebel photographer Greg Doane snaps this photo of the "Hatcher Invasion" downtown and hurries home to email it to me. No doubt chuckling hysterically.


The boys help me cook up their trout with butter and garlic chives we found growing near our campsite. MMM Good.

We eat dinner, try a little more fishing with Grandma Deanie, and build a campfire, and retire to bed.
No fish for Josh.



Day 3: Cold Start
Brr... What happened? The weather guy said it was not supposed to get lower than 43 overnight, but we woke up, and were way too cold to get out from under the covers for a little bit. There was frost on the outside of the tent. We went inside for breakfast.

Isaiah, Dad, and I run to Nell's in Port Allegany for a fishing liscence for him, but they're out. So we run to Coudersport to Potter County Outfitters to get a liscence, so Dad can get in on the fishing action.
We put in at the hole in the backyard; Dad's ultralight pole and six pound test starts to go nuts... he's got a big old carp on the end of his line.

The carp puts on a heck of a fight, and as he get's closer to the bank, dad realizes he's not getting this thing out of the water without some help. So he sends me down the bank to get him.

My foot slips in the water, but I get the beast to the bank. My kids are so proud of their Grampa.

Isaiah wants to eat it. Michaelah thinks its funny looking. Shiloh wants to pet it, even though it's as big as she is. Grampa literally gives the fish a kiss on the lips, and throws him back in to be caught another day.

We go over to fish with Grandma Deanie behind her place along the bottom end of Fishing Creek. We drowned a few worms, but no bites. Probably whoever left this chair in the water caught all the fish. We came home, and slept inside, to avoid another cold morning, and to ease our sunburns
No fish for Josh.



Day 4: Take a Hike!
We hit the old trails through the woods nearby. Most of the trails and paths I remember were grown over, so we had to wade through some prickers and thorns, but we saw a few neat sights. Including a Skunk Cabbage Swamp.






And this flower, which we couldn't identify. If you know what it is, please email us and let us know: editor@rouletterebel.com or leave a comment on this post.



We walked home along the road. I pointed out the Lyman House. This is where Roulette was started. This is not the original house, but a house built by John Lyman's son. John Lyman was the first settler of Roulette. There are a number of interesting stories about the Lyman family, and the other families that founded the town. I'll dig them out someday.

I helped Dad plane some boards for a remodeling project, and then we went for a drive to find some leeks.

We drove out Trout Brook, and visited the Beaver Dams.
No leeks.

We drove to Coudersport to get gas, and paid 2.89, just before it went up to 2.97 . Never thought I'd be glad to pay 2.89 for a gallon of gas.

We took Dinghman Run back home, and discovered a mess of leeks up on a bank. The kids wanted to climb up and help me dig a few. MMM good. I think my underwear was hanging out.

We came home and slept in the tent.

No fish for Josh.



Day Five: The Roulette Park
We woke up much warmer. Just a little frost, but not nearly as cold as the previous morning.

We packed up and helped Grandma Deanie clean out her flower beds.

Then, we went fishing with Grandma Deanie and Dad at the park in Roulette. We had a blast. Saw a few trout swimming. But couldn't convince them to eat a worm with a hook in it.








The kids got bored and played on the equipment at the park. Zoe ran to Port to bring us back some Pizza and Wings from Fox's. MMM Good.




Then we came back and read some of the Chronicles of Narnia in the tent with the kids, to get out of the sun.

We grilled hamburgers, got showers. (My mom said I had to have one.)
And slept outside for the last night.

Day Six: No Fish For Josh
Last day of camping.
We pack up all the sleeping bags, food and blankets, and then take the kids to teh Cow Hollow bridge. I remember catching fish by the bucketload there as a kid. Michaelah caught a crayfish (or crawdad, depending on where you're from).
But that's all that was biting.
We came home and packed up the tent. It's supposed to rain this afternoon, and we don't want a wet tent. So we're hanging out inside to let our sunburns ease a bit more, and let the kids get some rest. One more night here in Roulette, and we'll head home tomorrow afternoon.
No Fish for Josh.

All in all, it's been a great trip. Great weather, good food, and we've had a lot of fun with the kids. Makes me not quite ready to head back.