Want to tell you all the whole story, but am leaving town again tomorrow night to visit my girls in NYC. So will be brief here, a summary, but please carry forward. Will expound upon return (next week) post photos, etc.
Left ILM driving to RDU...took the plane to Minn/St. Paul. Another CRJ to Sioux Falls, SD. Four hour drive to the farm on the prairie. A farm 18 miles from the nearest teeny town, 8 miles from the black-top. Isolated. We stayed in their basement, set-up as a bunk-house.
Flew into Sioux Falls with a buncha pretty boys, all decked out in Orvis attire, Egyptian cotton khaki shirts embroidered with their lodge logo, etc. Impressive. Pretty. They were paying $450/day for guided hunts over trained dogs; we paid $140 per day to stay and freelance.
We hunted very hard. Would say we walked five to six miles per day. Hunted three days, walked 18 miles total I reckon. Limit was 3 pheasant per hunter per day, which would have meant 45 birds total. We ended up with 28.
We had a great time. The weather was perfect. Light south wind. low every morning 30 degrees, quickly warming to 64, shed our jackets around 11 am, hunted shirtsleeves the balance of the day.
Party consisted of the headmaster of a private school, a contractor, a line foreman, a judge, and me. We got along great, and hunted well together. Good hunters, good shots. We see all kinds of wildlife. Deer everywhere, BIG deer, not like in the south, another strain, big whitetail deer. The does go 200 pounds easy. Coyotes, big jackrabbits, ground-hogs, etc.
So we leave the farm yesterday morning at 4:45am to make the 11 am return out of Sioux Falls. The judge is driving. Don't know if ya'll have been out west, but the roads are good, raised high above the prairie, snow markers near the ditches, straight for twenty miles on a stretch, and made for high-speed running. No speed limit signs posted.
Everyone is snoozing except for the judge. The boys say later he has the pedal to the metal in our leased 2010 Chevy Suburban. He's running 85 to 90 in the dark, lonely road, straight shot heading for the Interstate.
Out steps an eight point buck in the rut. Judge says he's walking across the road from right to left, keeps walking...judge sees him. brakes hard, but not locked-down...that's when I woke up.
Deer flips around, turns back to the right across the car. THANK the LORD the judge didn't whip a hard right to avoid him. If so, we would have flipped many times, the doors would have flung open, and yours truly and all friends would have perished yesterday morning. Instead, we just hit him....good job.
On impact, the hood flies straight-up into the windshield. Our visibility now at 75 mph is a white Suburban hood. The judge uses his side mirrors to brake, stay in our lane, and stop. No one else is on the road.
A car from the opposite direction later stops. They help us drag the buck from the roadway. The boys estimate him to weigh 250# minimum. We engage the On-Star on the Suburban. A deputy is dispatched. We're concerned we'll miss our flight. We have to file a police report, its a rental car.
We check the damage with a flashlight, its still dark. The left front-end looks like a howitzer hit it. NO lights, they're obliterated. The front bumper is gone. The driver's door is buckled and won't open. The hood is a mess, won't close. Walk back to check out the poor buck lying there...he's pulling his last breath, eyes still open and wild, but fading.
A car stops, ask him if he has rope/bungee cord to tie-down the hood. Truck is running....figure we can get to the airport, if we can secure the hood. He gives us a bungee, make temporary repairs.
The deputy comes...what a nice guy! Asks when our flight is out, tries to help us...talks to the driver (the judge) but doesn't know he's a judge...says he wants to follow us to the truck stop at the Interstate 5 miles away.
Follows us, but as soon as the first Semi passes us from the opposite direction, the bungee breaks loose....hood pops up again...deja-vu...no good. We limp over again. We have no rope to tie-down the hood, nor does the deputy. Looks like now we'll miss the flight.
The deputy has an idea....he has his set of hand-cuffs, he decided to hand-cuff the hood to the radiator frame! Held his flashlight, no problem, done and done. We ride all the way to the airport in Sioux City with the hood hand-cuffed to the radiator.....will post pics of this whole scary mess next week...
We're home safe and sound. Glad to be back, glad to report, and thankful to be alive.
After review and corrections, sure wasn't "brief". Although I tried...
Thanks guys,
Scott
