The Hunt That Never Was

The excitement was boiling in our blood as we planned a spontaneous trip to Kansas to chase Bobwhite Quail. It all started when my Cousin Shawn sent me an email inviting me to accompany him on a Kansas Quail hunt (you can see his blog here ). That email got me scheming and planning. So I called my other cousin Andy (you can read his blog here ) and we started figuring out the logistics.

Early Thursday morning Andy arrived at my house we loaded his green Subaru with guns and dogs and we were on the road. We were all smiles. We figured we could be in the Denver area by six PM, because that is where we were meeting up with Shawn. Or so we thought.

We were about 110 miles from my house when we heard it. "Clack, Clank, Whap!" That is the sound we heard under the hood. Unfortunately we made it far enough to be completely out of range from all civilization. We looked under the hood, combined our knowledge of cars, which is virtually non existent, and then we prayed. Praying worked better then our knowledge of cars and we came to the conclusion that we needed oil. So we flipped a coin and I won (or lost depending on how you look at it). I sprinted across the freeway and started thumbing.

One car went by and moved into the far lane from me, then a second, then a third, and then I lost count. But finally an old man pulled over and offered me a ride, but even better, our prayers were answered again. He had oil in his trunk. He gave it to me and wouldn't accept any cash (God Bless that old man and thanks). We poured the oil in and fired the Green Subaru up. We burned a lot of smoke, but the "Clack, Clank, Wahp!" stopped (another answered prayer). We started down the road and made it the eighteen miles to the closest gas station (another answered prayer). As we pulled into the parking lot the car gave up the ghost. And my first quail hunt, will be forever known as The Hunt That Never Was.

I want to give a special thanks to my Cousin Andy for being adventurous, going with me, and ultimately sacrificing his car. I also want to thank my cousin Shawn having prepared so much to get me out to Kansas to hunt Bobwhites, the Old Man who gave us the oil, the Lord who answered our prayers, and especially my dad who left work and drove into the middle of the Wyoming Desert to rescue us, to top it off my Dad got a speeding ticket on the way home. Finally at one in the morning I laid my head down on the same pillow my day started on, at home in Utah. The things we do to hunt.

All in all it was a positive experience. We laughed, swapped lots of stories, and learned the hard way to always check the oil before you drive to Kansas. One day we will look back on this experience and laugh, but I don't think that time will be anytime soon.