They talk about it all the time.

Otto wrote a short story about it for his class.

Fishing.

And, in particular, fishing with Uncle Danny.

My two sons have an obsession.  And Uncle Danny is like a rockstar.

And he lives on a lake too – which wins big bonus points.

So when the opportunity arose to get those two young fishermen casting their lines into the water with my brother, we each got in our cars and drove to the TN line and exchanged a couple of wide eyed, big grinning fellas for a couple of days.

My heart felt a little lumpy when the boys left my car to jump into Uncle Danny’s Jeep.  Not for fear for their departure or their safety or me missing them – not any of that.  It was just …. I don’t know.  So much of everything. It was their wild enthusiasm when I told them the day before that this adventure was taking place.  It was the long drive on a day filled up with sunshine with the two fellas I think are the best boys around.  It was dancing leaves and flaming trees and color all around in the mountains of North Carolina.  It was love for a brother of my own and genuine gratefulness that he loves my little men so well.  It was the unpredictable nature of the lives we lead and the paths we never know our feet will take.  So much of everything.

And so we hugged and Danny tossed Pittsburg Steelers hats on the boys, handed them each an orange and they buckled in and drove back to Tennessee.

I got updates – like ridiculous photos of their “dinner” and the fish they were catching.

And when I picked up the boys after their visit, I got all sorts of stories and tales and more smiles and a request for making plans for the next trip.

My brother makes these videos of his fishing exploits.  Bergen and Otto made their video debut this week.  (Danny calls them Bergotto.)

(Go ahead and subscribe – it’ll make his day!)

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