Gary Reeder
back many years ago when I was in radio we could go pretty
Sunday, September 01, 2019, 16:47

much wherever we wanted to as the station ran Trade Out spots for the various vacation sites and we got to go there free. And invariably my wife at the time had to go to Daytona Beach or one of the other big beaches in Florida. She loved to lay out on the beach....all day. I tried snorkeling and even got into scuba diving at Clearwater Beach for a while but found no fun in that. Unless you went out 5 miles into the gulf there was nothing to see except bare sand and a few small ugly fish. I even took a couple of half day deep sea fishing excursions and wasted a lot of money and got nothing but a sunburn. Another extremely painful vacation was again going to Florida and Disney World. It was free but I still had to put up with the crowds of people, the $7 Cokes and $15 hamburgers and waiting in line for hours to get on a 5 minute ride.

We went to other places too like Gatlinburg in the Smokies. Again wall to wall traffic and more fat sweaty people than you could count with little fat screaming munchkins.

Like John said, vacations are not for me. I give myself a good hunt every year or so, and on the times when I don't go to Africa or Australia or New Zealand I still have the HHC every October.

Our HHC is in a month and I hope to see a bunch of the Misfits there. It is always good to put a face to the name.

These days the main thing is we aren't getting any younger and tomorrow is not promised to us, so if you have a bucket list, do it while you can. I have a couple of very special hunts still on my bucket list. The Cape Buffalo was on it and besides taking a monster Cape last year I get to do it again next May. The Taxidermists in Africa lost my Cape Buffalo mount so they are doing the right thing and are paying for me to hunt another buffalo next May, no charge. I can't beat that. The folks at Life Form taxidermy in South Africa are good people and are doing the right thing.

I also have a tentative special hunt in Africa next May to coincide with the buffalo hunt but I won't know about that for another 6 weeks to see if we get a permit. But life is good and I have been blessed way beyond what I deserve and I am trying to enjoy every minute of it while I can.

Like John said, I am blessed to be able to do what I enjoy, meet good friends and even get paid to do it. What more could a man ask for?