Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Survivor - Oklahoma?

Well, i have been here now for almost 6 months. and things have been cool. Work, church, starting to make some friends outside work (thomps - getting ready to launch Landmark.)

On tuesday my boss, tom, decided to take me and another co-worker greg out to shoot guns. well, rifles really and we were shooting skeet. Tom is an avid hunter. He has a deep, blood lust thing. So anytime he can go hunting he jumps at the chance.

Well, Tom has a friend who has a huge piece of land. Something like 10 square miles! We arrived in the afternoon, set up and shot the guns. It was a lot of fun. So we shoot some skeet and that was awesome. I have never fired a gun before. I am hooked.

After we finish destorying some clay, tom decides to get his polaris 6 wheel ranger out. The ranger is not suppose to be able to get stuck (more on that later). So we head out to the north west side of the property. Beautiful drive. Animals, sun, wind, green pastures. It was awesome.

Tom decides we need to head to the other side of the property. So we're off. Not up until this moment i have having the time of my life. I mean, i have not been out in wilderness for a long time. It was awesome.

We blow over top of a small hill and sunk into a creek bed. Now there was not any water preset but it was moist. and we buried that ranger. Bad. We pull out the winch and hooked it up to (3) trees - and pull them out of the ground trying to get the ranger out of the clay. It was no use.

By this time, it is getting dark. So we decided that we need to go get tom's truck to pull the ranger out. Tom and Greg cross the "creek" bed and climb the next larger hill and start discussing our options.

Tom yells across at me, "Carter, grab the whistle out on my bag and come on up."

Now i know i am in peak physical condition - NOT. Walking across that creek bed (sinking up to my knees in clay) and then up the hill. i was huffing and puffing by the time i go to the top of the hill. Then we had to walk close to a mile where a gate was located.

So Tom and Greg decide they are going after the truck. Tom has his rifle and flashlight. I am armed with a whistle.

Now, i have watched Spike TV. I have seen those shows about animals attacking people. So going thru my mind is this: i am going to get mulled by a mountain lion and all i have to protect myself is a fricken whistle. Funny imagery now; not then.

So i convince Tom to leave the rifle and flashlight. He takes off and Greg decides to stay with me. While we were there, Greg suggests making a fire to keep the bugs away. OOOO. my chance to make a fire. Then Greg remembered the fact that i love fire and thought it would be bad to burn all of oklahoma!

It was dark and bugs were all over us. Tom had to have hiked several miles to get the truck. We were out there quite a while before we saw the headlights on the truck. What a welcomed site.

We did get the ranger out of the creek bed. That was an experience. And we did not get attacked by any animals. And just so we are all clear - there were no Broke Back Mountain situations out there - if ya know what i mean.

I left the office at around 2:00pm and did not get in the shower at home until 11:45 PM.

What a trip.

Sorry, Jeff Probst did not show up with the million dollars.

Later
Carter

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Question:
How do you know the difference between a brown bear and a grizzly bear?

Answer:
A brown bear's droppings contain twigs and berries.
A grizzly bear's droppings contain twigs, berries, and a whistle.

:D

C-Man said...

that was really funny -- now. not then. thanks for the laugh

Anonymous said...

hahaha- that is classic- nothing says fun like walking through clay.

I am glad you made it back safe and sound.

You know I know a vietnam sniper they used to drop behind the lines with not even a whistle...

he just had a plastic spoon and a ball of yarn, yet he was given top secret security clearance for life... just ponder that one.

Anonymous said...

The ball of yarn was to distract any killer kittens he might encounter?