Day 4 – Arrival

After yesterday’s long road push both me and Luna where whipped, but she obviously less so than I. Fortunately she didn’t stand over my sleeping body and start her morning lick of my face and whine to go out until a little after 7 am CTL (almost 2 hours past her normal 6-6:30 am EST typical wake up time). I slept so hard I don’t think I moved at all from the time I put my head on the pillow till my wet morning wake up kiss from my dog.

Fortunately the land surrounding the Hampton Inn in Sioux City was all open and well from any road, so Luna got to run free in the brisk 34 degree temps with tiny snow flurries. It wasn’t but a minute before she got on a cotton tail and chased it a good 30 yards before I called her off. I’m certain she was convinced we had arrived at our hunting location, but she was good to come back inside the warmth of the hotel after 15 minutes of South Dakota chill. After my breakfast, we got back on the road and arrived in Mitchell, South Dakota a little over two hours later and met up with David Dempsey and Richard Miller. After these two V owners got their red dog fix (unlike last year, their pups aren’t here this year), we went to Cabela’s so I could get legal and do my part of re-charging the local economy.

We were soon off on another 1+ hour drive (I opted to be a passenger…it was so nice not to drive) to public hunting grounds 20-30 minutes west of Kimball….three hunters and one [very special] red dog. We hunted for 2.5 hours over a 4 hour period…lots of walking fields of corn, switchgrass and sorghum…for Luna, lots of running. We spooked up a bunch of hens…2-3 dozen…but very few roosters, and only one within range. Richard Miller got a nice cock pheasant and retrieved it before Luna was in tune to getting it for him The fields were filled with scents of birds, deer and all sorts of critters, so it was good that Richard decided to throw his bird near her so she could get an up close whiff, and she retrieved it 30 yards to me. Only one bird on the day, but only one shot taken, so not too bad. We’re looking forward to another day on public grounds tomorrow before heading to the Wagon Wheel Ranch in the late afternoon for three days of incredible pheasant hunting. The population is up 7-10% and last year we saw thousands of birds in three days.

We’ll be checking out of the Mitchell Hampton Inn tomorrow and unless Curt has installed Internet at his ranch, I won’t have Internet access again until late Friday or on my hotel stay Saturday, in route to Eddie & Adele Neupert’s farm in Sunset, Louisiana. So the blog posting may have to wait!

From Mitchell, South Dakota…home of the Corn Palace
Sal & Luna