Snowstorm 2009 - Thu, Oct 29, 2009

Day 1 – 10/9/09

I hate waking up early. This was 4am early and it hit me like a ton of bricks. My grandfather has this thing that he wants to be in Reno by breakfast, so the tradition is that we leave by 5:00am by the latest. A few years ago I overslept, so now I stay at my parents house the night before.

A few cups of coffee later I’m up and loading the truck. We decide who’s riding with who and off we go. I’m riding with 3 of my cousins so I expect this 6 hour trip to be full of smoking, potty talk, and general pandemonium. My dad rides with my grandfather.

About 2 hours later, we hit our first stop on the 6 hour trek, the WinCo to get supplies. My dad is hysterical with laughter because my grandfather had to pee so bad that he almost pee’d his pants, then as he was hauling his 90 year old pee-pee-dancing ass out of the truck he farted so loud my dad’s hair parted. My dad can’t even tell the story because he’s crying from laughing so hard.

Shopping at WinCo every year is exciting, because we have no formal “list” to get.  Now we have to get enough stuff to feed 10-15 guys breakfast and lunch for almost a week.  The “list” as my grandfather says, is in his head.  He’s 90 years old.  Yeah.  We managed to get 10 dozen eggs and 8 lbs of butter.  Do you realize how much 8 lbs of butter is?  I do.  Here is where we also get the booze for the week.  Oh, my dad also can’t speak because he is still laughing from my grandfathers pee’ing and farting escapades from the car ride earlier.

After WinCo comes the best part of the trip; breakfast at Bordertown. The food is killer, and its a meeting place for all of us to get together whom drove separately.  Walking into this place always trips me out.  Until recently, you had your option of “Smoking or Non-Smoking”, something I had not heard in California for years and years.  Next there is a whole mini casino here with the lights and the bells and everything.  I play my customary $1 every year and proceed to lose $1 every year.  Every year we manage to meet the rest of the group here for breakfast (or they meet us at WinCo).  The food is what you would expect from any little diner, although their coffee is really strong.

Next comes about another 3 hours of the most boring terrain you’ll ever see.  I usually start to get excited about the trip when I start to see the huge cross-country power lines that carry power into Oregon and Nevada.  Around where they cross 395 is where the shitty county dirt-road we need to take to get to camp.  The county road is gravel, and usually in pretty good shape, however the jeep trail going into a camp requires a truck, SUV or anything that isn’t low to the ground like a car (unless you dislike the underside of your car).

We get into camp around noon after a grueling 6 hour car ride.  The group before us left the water turned on, but I needed to go and light the propane powered fridges and freezers (yes, they make fridges that are powered from propane).  Since the duck hunting season started Saturday 10/10, my cousin and I set up the decoys around the small ponds we have towards the front of the house.

I take the little

The rest of the day is spent drinking beer, unloading the gear, and waiting for the rest of the group to come up the following day.  For dinner we have pesto, salad, and pork chops.

Day 2 – 10/10/09

The day starts early as the sun is coming up.  After a quick breakfast my cousins and I don our duck hunting gear, and see if there are any ducks on the pond near the house.  We manage to jump about 20 ducks only to miss them all.  In my defense, my gun did have a problem with the plug sticking into the spring cap (so I only had 1 shot vs 3 shots), but

Back to Home