There And back Again, A SAK tale.

cbl51 · **on:** January 23, 2019, 05:22:18 PM

It was a long trip.

I hate flying, so I try when possible to boycott the airlines. It's not the flying itself that I hate, I took flying lessons in the army and soloed in a Cessna 150. I just hate the way the airlines have got so greedy in the past ten years that people are now packed like sardines in there. I am a human, not a sardine, so I drive when posable. I drop my better half Karen at the airport and head out in my Toyota Tacoma. This past holidays we spent with the daughter at her place in Mission Viejo California. I love spending time out there and I get to spend time with our granddaughter.

So, for a period of time from the 20th of December to January 6th, I was either two days on the road going or returning, or in Mission Viejo doing things outdoors with the family. Hiking, partying, and taking Bree, age 9 to the sea museum at Dana Point where she handled star fish, got to touch rays and small sharks, and fed bits of crab to an octopus. And hanging out at the house I did most of what I love to do, cooking. My homemade seafood chowder, meatloaf, tuna casserole, chili.

For the time I was away from home, my only cutlery that I took on the trip was the executive gifted to me by Nix, and the serrated edge recruit gifted to me by Mags. That was it. They were all I had camping our in Arizona and west Texas coming and going. My little 2002 Toyota Tacoma has a Leer fiberglass cap and I use it to camp out in at night. Out west, BLM land (Bureau Of land Management) is free and open for camping, so after leaving Georgetown Texas at 6am, I find myself around Gila Bend Arizona by night. I used a map and found some BLM land out in the desert to pull my little truck out in and campout. Food was cooked over a small Optimus 8R camp stove. Food prep was done with he serrated edge recruit. Since my main kitchen knife at home is a Vicotrinox serrated edge paring knife, this was a familiar cutter to me. It was a breeze to slice up the bell pepper and green onion that went into the ramin, and slice up the fruit that was desert.

In the morning I'd hit the road and stop at Yuma at about 6am for breakfast and be at Jessica's place in Mission Viejo by about 11am. While there, I used the recruit as a paring knife, garden tool, and two home repair jobs that my son-in-law hadn't got to.

On Christmas morning, the executive opened presents and then the SD tip of the orange peeler tool did a great job on small Phillips screws on stuff that came with he dreaded warning "Some Assembly may be required". These two SAK's did great service on Christmas morning.

One of the gifts I had carried in the truck on the way out, was a new fishing rod and reel for Bree. She loves to fish. To replace her pink hello kitty kids rod that she has outgrown, was a nice Garcia rod and a reel. Of course this meant that we had to go right out to use it at the local lake. Bree caught a decent but not spectacular yellow perch that she insisted n taking home and eating. Bree likes to eat what she gets. She's quite the little fisher gal. So at home, the serrated recruit did a great job gutting and cleaning the fish in Bree's hand. Of grandpa was right there supervising. Kids are quick to observe, and they notice things. When I handed her the recruit, she said right off, "Grandpa, this is a different Swiss Army knife than you had last summer." I told her about this forums and the generosity of it. The perch, once cleaned got stuffed with some orange slices cut by the recruit, and some butter, and wrapped in aluminum foil and baked. White succulent meat that lifted right off the bone with a fork.

We went hiking in the mountains at the Cleveland National recreation area, and they had a sign warning of mountain lions. Of course, since my carry license is no good in the state of California, I couldn't pack my handgun. I always stop a the California border at Yuma and unload whatever I'm carrying and lock it up in the back of my truck. I did have the heavy duty hiking staff I made from some native hornbeam back in Maryland. It had worked great on a put bull that had attacked out little Welsh Corgi, so I figured it could clobber a mountain lion if need be. I remembered that incident where a young lady on a mountain bike in California was attacked by a mountain lion and her friend beat on it with a bicycle pump and drive it off. I figured my Gandalf staff was better than a bicycle pump, but Bree was a little nervous. So I looked around and found a stout stick almost as tall as she was, and used the recruit to sharpen one end so she had a spear. This gave her enough psychological comfort that she enjoyed the hike. We made a pinky shake deal that if a mountain lion attacked, I'd clobber it with my staff, and Bree would spear it. But only in California would they post warnings of mountain lions, then on a board right next to that have regulations that forbid firearms, knives with blades more than 3 inches. Yeah, don't want to put those poor mountain lions at too much disadvantage.

I spent the 5th and 6th of January driving back, and camped out in West Texas high desert in my Tacoma again. Again the serrated recruit was my dinner prep knife. Diced up some broccoli and bell pepper for the ramin again.

So for 18 days, and 3000 mile round trip, my only knives were the executive and recruit. Thank you so much again, to both Nix and Magentus for the gifted SAK's. They were my only knives for duration of the trip, and remain my EDC pocket knives. Fishing, camping, hiking, and kitchen work, they did everything I needed. But then again, do we expect anything less from Victorinox?