Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you...

So the answer to the question 'how was the hunting trip' depends on how you decide to measure sucess!

Spending time with granddad was great... it had been over a year since I had seen him. It was so great to get a chance to spend this dedicated time with him, not phone calls and letters. Hard to believe that at 84 years old he's still out in the field, 'pushing the corn' and shooting at birds. We should all hope to be in such good shape at 84!

Now, as for the hunting, that wasn't the best we had ever had. Turns out the area of SD we were hunting has had a very wet fall. That has led to 'lots of cover' for the birds, meaning 2 things:
1) there is A LOT of corn that still has to be harvested, meaning birds hang out in the corn, which is hard to hunt with a small group of guys and a couple dogs and 2) all of the other cover (sloughs, shelterbelts, etc) are all overgrown, again making for flushing birds a chore!

The other really great thing about the trip was the dinners we were able to do with the Bratland family. It is really funny to hear my granddad and his friends tell stories about hunting 30+ years ago when the 'Bratland Kids' were kids. Now here I am hunting when the grandkids are all just kids... the next generation of hunters is seeing the next generation of Bratland's grow up (albeit 1 week at a time in the middle of October every year).

So the summary is 3 birds in 3.5 days of hunting (rained out the last day and a half) for the group... not a great showing. Close to the least birds they have ever gotten!

On the upside, I did hit the 1 pheasant I shot at... the downside of course was that was the only pheasant I got to shoot at... :(

The drive on both the way there and back was uneventful. Very little traffic either way. I never paid over $3.00/gal for gas, which was nice.

Weather was great for the first 3 days (sunny and cool). Then the rain set in. We hunted the morning of day 4, but man was it cold and windy. After a couple of hours of not seeing many birds and getting colder and wetter with every step, we called it a day... Then the next morning we woke to the same darned weather.

So we had breakfast and decided that we weren't going to hunt that day, instead we went back to the house and all packed up, getting on the road early.

Now I am finishing up my vacation days staying at our friend's house before finishing up my time in the states with a couple days of meetings in Oregon... Have loved my time in the US, but really miss Steph and the girls.

More later.

Cheers,
Joe

Birds or no birds, I am looking forward to next year's trip... Which I am sure my wife is rolling her eyes at as she reads this! :)

Spreading Around My Tourist Dollars

As many of you know, I am back in the US for about 2 weeks for my annual pheasant hunting trip in South Dakota with my granddad.

I am sitting in a local hole in the wall restaurant in Bowman, ND. The sign said 'World Famous Big J's Restaurant' and actually had both an American and Canadian flag, as to make it clear that the world is bigger than ND and the US! I had to give it a try - heck if those kooky Canadians love this place, it must be good.

Turns out this little hole in the wall has Internet access... Amazing.

So I am making good progress... Started out from Canby at about 4:30am on Thursday morning (jet lag lead to an early awakening). Made it to Bozeman (as planned) on Day 1 and will get to Willow Lake, SD by this evening if all remains on track.

I stopped here in Bowman, ND for 2 reasons - #1, I have never been to ND, so I decided stopping for lunch would give me a real excuse to say I had been there... and obviously I lucked out and came across the world famous 'Big J's'. #2 - I decided to spread out my tourist dollars. This route only crosses the SW corner of ND, I can't be in the state for more than a hundred miles - so I grabbed this chance.

The 1 state that is in last place in the Welsh Tourist Dollars standings is Washington. I could not make it from Canby to Couer D'Alene on 1 tank of gas and was forced to stop in Spokane and get gas - which I was trying to avoid, as it was something like $3.2x/gallon. I got only $15 worth - enough to get me to the $2.89/gallon gas in Couer D'Alene.

Montana got some gas and a night's stay.
North Dakota got lunch, although that's only $5.79 ($6.20 with tax).

Oh, last reason Big J's will remain famous with me: they rightly serve ranch dressing in a squeeze bottle like ketchup and mustard... not limited quantities in little cups like most places... that alone was worth the stop!

More from the 'Pheasant Trail' later...

Cheers,
Joe