was well planned but ended up being my shortest Texas Road Trip ever!!
For many of the past 20 years I've driven down from Minnesota to Texas during our winter to go hog hunting. This year I had a 14 day trip planned that allowed me to finally make it to a Bownanza, go catfish fishing, hog hunting and do some other fun stuff. On the eve of my departure date, Thursday the 12th, the ranch that I was going to spend my time at and then take my family hunting at later in the week, called and asked that we not come. They were concerned about us bringing the Corona virus with us. I understand their situation as my oldest daughter was flying in from a "hot spot" and my other daughter and my Mom were also flying down. No hard feelings with them. Before I hung up with them I had made up my mind that I was going anyway to do some of the other things I had planned!
My first stop was at Specialty Leathers in Boone Iowa. They are the only tannery in the country that can properly tan beaver tail leather and I had several that I wanted done. Very cool place and they gave me a tour! They had elephant, water buffalo, bison, beaver tails and alligator hides all in the tanning process.
Second stop was Jewett Texas. My last name is Jewett and visiting this town has been on my bucket list for a long time. There is even a "State Bank of Jewett"! I thought about going in and asking for all of that money that must be mine because my name is on the building. I decided against it as that would have really messed up my trip!
Next stop was the Friday night pre-party. Some lady was cooking up sausage and venison bacon and doing a great job of it! I met several folks but didn't hang around much as i was tired.
BOWNANZA! I can't say enough good things about it. Everybody was friendly and the food was all great. It was good to put names with faces and I had good visits with many people. It was interesting how many have a connection to Minnesota-be it family, work, hunting, canoeing trips, etc. This is the first gathering I've ever been to where people told me I had an accent! Many thanks to all involved, especially Mary and Michael. I certainly hope to make this an annual event.
I left Bownanza at 2 and drove over to Hondo to visit a friend and pick up my daughters javelina hide from last year's hunt that he had gotten tanned for her. It was good to see him.
At this point I had nothing to do until the fishing trip with RiverRat1 (thanks again for the awesome offer Tim) started on Wednesday. Not that I didn't have anything to do so much as I hadn't packed what I needed to be self sufficient for that time. With the suddenness of losing the ranch to stay at I just hadnt thought it thru well enough and motels and restaurant food were not an option. Hindsight is wonderful but if I had thrown in my camping/outdoor cooking gear I would have been fine. Instead, I headed home cutting 10 days off from my trip. As short as it was, it was a win!
My job doesn't expect me back until the middle of next week so instead of shooting hogs in nice warm weather I'm going to spend the time on the ice and snow doing some under ice beaver trapping/snaring.
For many of the past 20 years I've driven down from Minnesota to Texas during our winter to go hog hunting. This year I had a 14 day trip planned that allowed me to finally make it to a Bownanza, go catfish fishing, hog hunting and do some other fun stuff. On the eve of my departure date, Thursday the 12th, the ranch that I was going to spend my time at and then take my family hunting at later in the week, called and asked that we not come. They were concerned about us bringing the Corona virus with us. I understand their situation as my oldest daughter was flying in from a "hot spot" and my other daughter and my Mom were also flying down. No hard feelings with them. Before I hung up with them I had made up my mind that I was going anyway to do some of the other things I had planned!
My first stop was at Specialty Leathers in Boone Iowa. They are the only tannery in the country that can properly tan beaver tail leather and I had several that I wanted done. Very cool place and they gave me a tour! They had elephant, water buffalo, bison, beaver tails and alligator hides all in the tanning process.
Second stop was Jewett Texas. My last name is Jewett and visiting this town has been on my bucket list for a long time. There is even a "State Bank of Jewett"! I thought about going in and asking for all of that money that must be mine because my name is on the building. I decided against it as that would have really messed up my trip!
Next stop was the Friday night pre-party. Some lady was cooking up sausage and venison bacon and doing a great job of it! I met several folks but didn't hang around much as i was tired.
BOWNANZA! I can't say enough good things about it. Everybody was friendly and the food was all great. It was good to put names with faces and I had good visits with many people. It was interesting how many have a connection to Minnesota-be it family, work, hunting, canoeing trips, etc. This is the first gathering I've ever been to where people told me I had an accent! Many thanks to all involved, especially Mary and Michael. I certainly hope to make this an annual event.
I left Bownanza at 2 and drove over to Hondo to visit a friend and pick up my daughters javelina hide from last year's hunt that he had gotten tanned for her. It was good to see him.
At this point I had nothing to do until the fishing trip with RiverRat1 (thanks again for the awesome offer Tim) started on Wednesday. Not that I didn't have anything to do so much as I hadn't packed what I needed to be self sufficient for that time. With the suddenness of losing the ranch to stay at I just hadnt thought it thru well enough and motels and restaurant food were not an option. Hindsight is wonderful but if I had thrown in my camping/outdoor cooking gear I would have been fine. Instead, I headed home cutting 10 days off from my trip. As short as it was, it was a win!
My job doesn't expect me back until the middle of next week so instead of shooting hogs in nice warm weather I'm going to spend the time on the ice and snow doing some under ice beaver trapping/snaring.
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