On the road… again!
Afghanistan to Zambia
Chronicles of a Footloose Forester
By Dick Pellek

The RT Probe

When we finally decided that clam hunting was going to be a steady part of our future lives, Thu and the Footloose Forester decided that one Hawaiian Sling was not enough to make our hunts as efficient as we would like. So we decided to buy another one. Unfortunately, the on-line price for a Hawaiian Sling shot up to over $35 for the kind we had purchased in Honolulu decades ago, thus we considered making our own. Enter the RT probe, the homemade clam probe we fabricated from a 4.5-foot section of sturdy plastic piping; and a detachable threaded adapter into which we glued three 12 inch, sharpened stainless-steel points that we weave-wrapped with wire to keep the probes equidistant.

Footloose Forester with homemade RT clam probes

The RT (Richard-Thu) Probe was the compromise name we would give our new weapon/tool; to distinguish it from a true spear fisherman’s sling. So, we decided not to attach a surgical rubber sling at the end opposite the probes. This tool was not going to be used for spearfishing. The usually muddy water of Chincoteague Bay does not afford many opportunities to spot fish in the shallows. On the other hand, the countless clams in the shallows of the seldom visited bay are easier to detect with a probe than by relying on feeling for them with bare feet.

Of course, we ended up making six RT probes, so that family and friends who join us in living-off-the-land experiences will be well-equipped with the best tool available. Our cost was about $36 for all of them.

The adventures to come will be part of the warm memories we will surely look back on as the best years of our lives. Come to think of it, all of those years with Thu have been the best years in the life of that lucky guy called the Footloose Forester.