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Lucky for us we woke up just 30 minutes later than we had planned. With a little teamwork, we made up the lost time in the bagging/cleaning process. We changed the water in the fish containers as we bagged them. We had collected water from the different sites to that we would be able to change them safely. One tends to drink a lot of water during the collecting process. The work is fairly strenous and you need to drink a lot of water. We bought gallon jugs of water at the grocery store and as we emptied them, we filled them with water from the collection sites. I'm sure the cleaning crew at the last motel was wondering what on earth we needed so many gallon jugs for.
I changed the water and bagged the fish. Katy double bagged the fish and labeled them with their collection information. We packed them into the styrofoam boxes...two to be shipped via express Mail and the four inside our duffles to be checked at the airline counter as luggage. I had an insulated carry on that we would pack any spare fish in that...believe it or not...we might find along the way up the airport.
Let me tell you...once you have this collecting bug in your brain you can't stop. Katy had told me about her biology class taking a field trip to a pond not far from the school she had been attending and that she thought that professor had said one of the sunfish was an "orange" something or another...that would be an Orange Spotted Sunfish. One of the more colorful varities...and small enough for a larger aquarium...we were off to catch a few.
The pond was a small 1/2 acre water lilly covered affair. Thousands of Gambusia affinis were all over...including on top of the lilly pads. We caught a
few for the tubs in back of the house. Netted a dozen or so Bluegill fry...but no Orange Spotted Sunfish...oh yeah, a bass fry also.
We were getting pretty good a bagging fish by now, so bagging up the Bluegill and the Gambusia was not problem. We bagged them and tucked them nicely in the insulated carry on.
We celebrated by picking up shakes at the Sonic Drive In and then headed North on Highway 71 towards KC International.
We check the bags after waiting in line for 2 1/2 hours...a rough flight into Denver filled with first timers...a smooth flight with extra seats on the leg into San Francisco meant we could catch some sleep. Sarah was waiting to greet us and let me drive home. The two of them headed off to bed within minutes of hitting the front door to the house...I headed to the fishroom and started to unload the fish. I stopped but was not finished at 1:30 in the morning...3:30 in the morning Missouri time.
