BuckTracker: Alabama Dreamin’

Last weekend–seated comfortably in an Alabama box blind overlooking a food plot on a sunny, pleasant afternoon–I couldn’t resist text-messaging a buddy back in the Midwest.

“How is the weather back in paradise?” I queried, feigning innocence.

“Stupidly cold. How ’bout you?” was Ted’s too-good-to-pass response.

“Well I’m sure glad there’s a roof on this blind to keep the darn sun off me.” I replied, unable to resist.

My friend will undoubtedly get me for that remark. We’re slogging through an epic winter in the upper Midwest, and joking about weather is only way to bear it. And my Alabama hunt revealed another first; the place I traveled to hunt was 80 degrees warmer than home….and I actually liked that. When I left Alabama on Tuesday temps were pushing 75. Two-plus hours later on my plane’s approach to Minneapolis, the flight attendant somewhat cruelly reminded us that the thermometer was several notches below zero.

Sigh. I did not kill a deer, but I did escape an ice-box winter for a few days and that was surely enough. Had a wonderful time, ate some great southern cooking (okra for the first–but not last–time), and basked in hospitality. I’ll come back any time I’m invited.
One of my compadres did shoot the fine buck picutred and two does while the rest of our crew went deerless. None of us cared a bit, because back home looks a lot like the scene in the photo below.

So how’s the winter in your neck of the woods?