Guest Blogger

My brother's blog is down and he is in Kansas so he asked me to post this for him. I haven't read it yet and I need to run to work so here goes.

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Kansas Trip
Right now I'm in bed. Away from my beautiful pregnant wife, soon to be son and dog. I miss them. Let's see right about now we'd just be finishing up watching Grey's Anatomy and the four of us would be snuggled up on the couch. Fortunately the dog doesn't take up too much space.

Tonight I am in Hayes, Kansas. I had the opportunity to fly out to Denver on thursday where my Grandpa Don picked me up in the motorhome. We then drove four miles to Colby, Kansas and stayed in the Wal Mart parking lot. I haveto say that this thing is pretty comfortable. Not as comfotable as sleeping next to my wife and dog (sorry Grandpa, but I think that's the way it's suppposed to be). For being a 1990 ford motorhome with over 100,000 miles on it, this thing is really in comfy. I truly enjoy my grandpa's company and I think I can safely say that he enjoys mine. I can't imagine traveling in such tight quarters driving through the rolling plains of Kansas with a fellow you can't stand.

With good planning we were able to have a leisurely trip getting good sleep and not too pressured to drive long periods of time at a time. We met up with Tonne family who own Special T Hunting (www.specialthunting.com). Let me tell you these guys are great! If you're ever in Tipton, Kansas look them up. They raise their own birds and are just down right nice people with a strong work ethic. We shot a nice two rounds of their sporting clay course which is 100 shells apiece. Out of 100, I hit 50. Not bad considering the last time I shot a shotgun. I was fortuante enough to use my grandpa's Franchi Falconet 20 gauge double barrel with a modified and improved choke. "She's a real hunny of a gun," as they say. I really like the sporting clay course and it's something I'd love to continue in WA. Altough I felt like me shoulder had been punched 100 times in the same spot. All that was to prepare for the next day.

Today was the hunt. A late start and a breakfast of jalepeno bagel with cream cheese, pepperjack cheese wrapped in black forest ham and some medium pulp orange juice helped to give us the energy for a long day of hunting. Now I won't go into all the details, I think perhaps me grandpa could do that better, but it sure was fun. We hiked up the first rolling hill to where the birds were said to be and didn't have a flutter. But a few minutes later I had a pheseant rooster in my vest. Buena, my grandpa's sweet pointing lab chased up first bird of the day and it happened to be right out in front of me on the right side of the field. As I heard the bird cockle and the flapping of wings I instinctively brought my gun up to my shoulder. I quickly went thru my checklist in my mind as I arraned the bird in my sights. I made sure that the dog was out of the way, that my grandpa was safely off to my side and that there weren't any lawyers in the line of fire and flicked off the safety. First shot: miss! Time for a second shot and bang, whoop there was a bird falling out of the sky. Now Buena is a beautiful dog and it's her instinctive nature to retrieve. She chased the bird down and brought it to my feet, trotting back to me with such a proud grin on her face. She was proud, and she should be. She had just completed the task that had been past down in her dog genes for many generations.

So now what?! There's a bird at my feet and there's nothing left but for me to put it in my vest and pack it. This went on all day and may not sound like fun to some of you who, but it was. We had great success at first but managed to lose track of a bird across a fence while Buena was busy retrieving another shot bird. By late morning we had missed a few opportunities but stilled enjoyed the hike through the brisk Kansas rolling hills. We hitched a ride back to the motorhome with Larry and they served us lunch, a refreshing break from the hunt. With a renewed energy we set out in a new direction with new direction. We didn't get far. The first bird was spotted before we left the driveway and before we were even loaded. They held the dog back while I went in after it. Turns out we got two birds before we even really set foot in the field!!

Although our shooting accuracy steadily dropped as we went along it was amazing to see the dog work and we really had a great hunt. Did I mention yesterday was 60 degrees? Today was colder because of a storng wind, but it was very clear. We settled up and sincerely thanked our hosts for their warm hospitality and celebrated our success at Applebee's after driving an hour and a half from Tipton to Hayes. Tomorrow we head for Denver and then I catch a flight out to Seattle. I lto travel, I like to shoot and I love to spend time with my granpa. And while I can't wait to give my wife a big fat kiss and feel my little baby boy kick my hand through her tummy or feel boo's wet little tongue lick my nose, I'm having a great time pretending to be a cowboy, sleeping in an RV under the stars with his trust-worthy companion, noble dog and dependable shotgun updating his blog on his handheld treo cellphone pda.
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