>I’m starting the 12 steps today!

I’m new to turkey hunting…I saw my first wild turkey in southern Idaho in the early 1980’s while my brother Scott and I were mule deer hunting. It was a hen, and she flushed out of some scrub oak. Scott and I looked at each other and wondered what the heck that was!

My Good friend and partner-in-crime Gary Ruppel twisted my arm yesterday and made me drive back to Kansas to chase gobblers on the Republican River in the Northwest corner of Kansas on some private property! Of course I accepted his invite cause misery loves company. We arrived in Kansas at 10:00 pm Wednesday night and were up and headed to the the turkey woods at 3:00 am. We had to be finished by noon so that we could get back to Kiowa, Colorado by 4 pm so that Mr. Gary could make his Tee-time for the Men’s Club (I’ve been trying to get Gary to give up golf cause it’s a terrible addiction!!!! >8-0)

As the sun broke the horizon, I could hear gobblers all along the river bottom…this is something every sportsperson should experience in their life time! We were tagged out with three nice gobblers by 11 am! What a wonderful way to end the season…But…Just maybe…I still have a 2nd Kansas turkey tag for the units further east! And…the season goes to the end of May! What’s an addict to do?

Acknowledgment of the addiction is the very first step! I swear every single year that I’m NOT gonna go crazy over turkeys! Last year I did pretty good…I chased trout and focused on my veterinary practice. This year was a different story all together! I’ve spent the last 2 months going back and forth between Kansas and southern Colorado looking for love sick toms. What a wonderful season at that! Karen’s kids told me tonight that it seems like FOREVER since they last saw me!