Sometimes Things Go Wrong

This year, 2011, would be the 25^th year in a row that dad and I have made our way westward in search of pheasants. Most of those years we have wiggled our way across I-70 to a little town in Pawnee County, Kansas. This year was to be no different as we left my driveway at 3:30pm on Tuesday, the 22^nd, on our way to pheasant freedom.

Our first night found us in Columbia, Missouri; exactly 100 miles from Kansas City. This was a great place to stop as we would be at the Kansas City Cabela’s at 9am to purchase our Kansas bird hunting licenses. After a nice breakfast in the hotel we pointed the Suburban west and within a short piece were into the state of Kansas and just ready to pull into Cabela’s when” IT” happened. I looked at my gauges and sure enough my temperature gauge was on the way up…not what we wanted to see. I pulled over and popped the hood and could see that there was no fluid in the coolant reservoir. I had a gallon of mixture and proceeded to fill it up; we drove a few more miles and stopped in at the Cabela’s parking lot. I once again checked the fluid and all was well; but something was not right and this made me very nervous. I quickly grabbed my phone and called my mechanic back here in Indiana and we ran through the possibilities, but I knew this was not a good thing.

Optimistically dad and I purchased our licenses for $75 dollars (still the best bang for your buck in the country) and eased our way a few miles down I-70 before I chose to turn around and stay close to KC not wanting to have an issue way out in the prairie; this was a good decision. We were skirting KC on the south edge and were on I-435 when once again the temperature spiked and we lost fluid. We were adjacent to a Marathon and I went in to the store, used the phone book and plucked a number for a GMC dealership out. I found out we were just a few miles away and within minutes we were there and the folks there were very nice and told us they would have sometime just after lunch to pressure test the truck…the wait was on. The diagnosis was exactly what Ben thought it was…a blown intake gasket; that was the good news, the bad news was they couldn’t get to it until Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Another major issue now appeared as I had a dog trailer and 3 dogs to care for. We decided that we would make a quick run to a local motel and dump the dog trailer whereby I would then bring the truck back to be worked on.

This is where things got very interesting; southeastern KC, 3 dogs, trailer and the nearest anything was a pretty good walk away. To say the least both dad and I were bummed; not only would we not be doing any pheasant hunting but we were stuck in a dive on Thanksgiving. Now I choose to go west and for sure love to hunt but sitting in a motel room for a few days is not my style. It was during this time that I truly appreciated my home, my family and my wonderful wife. Sometimes things just don’t go the way you plan. Dad and I have…as I said, made lots of these trips and most have been good but as my old Suburban gets older it is natural that things are going to breakdown. Last year I pulled over into a Walk-in Hunting Area about 30 miles north of Dodge City; harvested a pair of birds and when I got back to the truck it wouldn’t start…the starter had went out! That was the day after Thanksgiving and while we lost the rest of that day, we did get it fixed and continued our hunt. The easy thing to do would be to buy a new Suburban…but life doesn’t always allow all the things we want and my choice is an education for my two boys. But…for just a minute I must admit that I walked through the GMC dealership and had some wild thoughts about a used 2010 Suburban. Somehow commons sense prevailed and I knew that this wasn’t going to happen.

The good news is that my companions (dad and the 3 dogs) were all good sports and easy to please. I also had all my fly-tying materials and I will be prepared the next time I hit the water as I sat and created wooly buggers, sculpins and Hoosier Streamers…all in various colors and sizes. I had a lot of time to reflect and could think of two things; Vickie is always saying that “things could always be worse” and I am always preaching to my kids that it is not being knocked down that is the problem, it’s not getting back up again. So…we will get back up again and there will be other times to shoot a few pheasants; but for now I will have to watch some pheasant hunting videos that I took last season and have here with me on my computer…as I long to once again Enjoy the Great Outdoors.