NOV-B-4
THE THANKSGIVING DAY AND END-OF-NOVEMBER
SEASON:
A FAVORITE OF THE YEAR, WITH THE
FOR STARTERS, THE TRAPPE MD
DAY AND SEASON:
IN A COLD AND WINDY OPENING DAY,
A SINGLE DEER, A SINGLE SHOT, AND A BIG
BUCK
FALLS TO DAVID SCHAEFER AND ME
The run was
wonderful! It seemed too cold when I go
out early to load up the Audi, for its Inaugural Ride to Joe’s hose and to the
We had a funny episode at the start. Joe had appreciated the heated leather seats in the Audi and we were going to go for packet pick up of my number 262—a low number in a field of up to six thousand runners—enough to attract the TV cameras and even an overhead news station helicopter. We went through packet pickup about the first to do so, and I got a tee shirt for my registration and also one for Betty. I then went back to the Audi parked in the special handicapped parking with Joe’s tag on the rear view mirror. I had been listening to the “Dual Biography” on Lee and Grant about the Civil War. I had not know how much this would be of interest to Joe, since he had planned to go up to Harper’s Ferry and to "see" the civil war events that had occurred there, along with “John Brown’s Fort”---the fire station where he had been captured. He was keen on listening to the Civil Wart stories as we sat in our toasty warm seats awaiting the warm-up stretch with the Sergeant’s Program pre-race. I maneuvered Joe and me toward the front of the large pack of runners, and we lined up to start. Just as I set my watch and Joe had shifted hands for the sting to go to my left side, the gun went off and the crowd surged forward. I turned to grab an armload of air!
I was pushed along for about a hundred yards as I called out for Joe. I could not see him, and I knew he would not just run forward so I tried to run back against the onward rush of bodies. I worked my way to the outside and then saw Joe behind the starting line at the curbside margin, and grabbed his arm and pulled him into the center of the stream of moving runners. This is the first time this little stagger-start has ever happened, and we were separated at the very start of the race! But, we got quickly into pace and all it cost us was about two minutes and our front line starting position.
But, we are about a step and a half ahead of the pace, and that means we would have to be putting on the brakes throughout our run, since we would crawl up the backsides of the thick crowd of runners, especially when we arrived on Wisconsin Avenue, where the three land southbound road had cones blocking off only one lane for runners and two lanes for vehicles. Joe and I could not safely pull out of the “coned-in lane” so we had to settle back to a pace not usual for a sprinter. We just decided to enjoy the race—especially the high number of good-looking women around us—“Hey now!” being the code word! We enjoyed the race.
The sun rose high and bright, and
it almost got warm toward the end of the run, making it a good idea that we had
used shades during the run. WE crossed
the finish line among all our friends of the MCRRC who run the RMS (Race
management Services) for this run. We
had seen Joe’s family and got cheers at the one mile point and now we could get
a banana and bagel and go back to the Audi to listen to more Civil War stories. I had an invitation to join the Aukward
family for both their Thanksgiving celebration and also the Harper’s Ferry
excursion the next day, but I told them of my longstanding tradition on the
A LUXURY RIDE BY AUDI TO THE
FOR THE THANSIGIVNG TRADITION OF OUR
DEER SEASON OPENER AFTER THE
The Bronco seemed lonely as I
pulled out a few things to pack over to Craig’s in Trappe. It is the ideal deer hunting and running gear
vehicle and Joe is asking for a final sentimental journey by Bronco. We called
I drove out to the
We had the big overstuffed dinner
and even more desserts, as all the family came over except Cindy and her
husband Keith since she is having a baby shower hosted by her friend in
OPEINING MORNING:
A COLD WIDNY LONELY VIGIL IN THE SAME TREE
I HAVE USED,
AND, THEN, AT
I was in the tree early, and
watched a slow dawn as I rocked back and forth in high wind. At
At the sound of the shot, I could see a shower of hair and the buck staggered back, and then ran behind the tree that interrupted my view. I heard Craig shoot three times and then heard a shot from David, then a second one, and finally a third shot from David’s stand. I waited, then used the walkie talkie radio to call Craig. “Is he down? I thought I had hit him well!” I got no answer.
Later, I heard a call from Craig, who said he had somehow turned the radio to the wrong channel, and he had just now got it to working. I asked again., and he said he thought I had missed it and that David had hit it three times and he had missed it three times, shooting behind the fast moving buck who seemed in remarkably good form as he cleared the ditch and ran the length of the field before falling over at the last part of the field before getting to the opposite woods only fifty yards in front of David. Well, I responded, I do not know how I missed him, but I am glad we got the buck and happy that David had scored.
When I arrived, David shook my hand and said “Nice shot!” The buck had been hit solidly in the neck and chest by my shot, he said, and had been knocked back and staggered, then ran in front of him and he hit it again, but it did not go down. On the third shot it fell and he simply put it out with a lying down final shot. We looked at the four holes from ballistic tip rounds, each of which was lethal. The animal was a very large body buck and incredibly tough to make as many yards as it had with that number of solid well-placed hits.
My name was already wrapped on a
slip of paper tied to its antlers and we packed it over to the deer check in
station and registered it as my MD opening day buck, since it could have gone
to either one of us, but David had forgot his license. I talked with the DNR official there, then we
went to Mom’s Diner and we had brunch in Princess Anne,
We returned to the Vo Tech School and set up, Bill insisting that Craig and I sit side by side on the platform on the far end of the field six hundred yards from where I usually sit in my tree. I watched intently, covered now by my new Gore-Tex camo outfit from fierce begin winds. No deer moved in this wind. So the herds of deer Bill had expected never did come out, but across the field at twilight, under the tree that I had always used we saw a buck come out and gather acorns under my tree, A doe crossed over from the other side also about seven hundred yards away, in wind that would have made the “windage “ on the shot impossible. As I studied the buck of the far side of the field in the fading light, I could see it is the twelve point buck Bill had told us he had seen—right under the tree I usually sit in! If I had been there, the buck and doe aligned themselves for a “twofer” shot!
A HAPPY DAY BEGINS WITH A RUN, THEN A
SCHAEFER SPECIAL
AND ENDS WITH A TREE TRIMMING TO CHIRTMAS
CAROLS
On Sunday morning I ran all around
the large acreage of the Trappe MD farms along the
After multiple false starts on a new artificial giant tree, Carol was frustrated. The first model did not work. The second shorted out the light string. Craig and I went to Radio Shack where he got a pair of new picture phones, and I learned about the different services that might reduce long distance phone charges. We came home with abundant fuses and then set to work trimming a new Christmas tree with all the decorations that Carol has been collecting for some time and a lot of festive decoration in a big way. After the last ornaments had been hung, the last of the fuses shorted out and the tree failed for the last time.
Craig and I are going to get out at four in the morning and go to Bill Webster’s farm and he will leave about eight thirty as Bill will as well to go back to work. I will see if the cell phone will make it possible for me to hunt one more day before return to night. Stay tuned--there is one buck hanging now and we will see how many more may join it!