Take 5

By: Samantha S. Daviss

As we all know in the state of Texas, there are five seasons…Spring, summer, Autumn, Winter, and of course hunting season. And thus, began the season of deer hunting this weekend, with opening day this past Saturday.

I have missed very few opening weekends of deer season, spending 90% of them with my daddy. Yes, even at 40, he is still my daddy. But like I told him last night, the faces have changed, and I have added several players to our game (my three boys), but the memories and time together is still just as great as it was when I was a little girl, falling asleep with him in the deer blind.

And as the time passed, I would hunt alone in my own blind, and sit around the campfire laughing, telling stories, and drinking my first beer. And now I am old enough to buy my own beer, and sit and cut up with all the guys around the camp fire, while I watch as my boys come of age on the deer lease, riding 4-wheelers, and shooting their Red Rider BB Guns.

I got to spend some great time with all my boys this weekend. And my oldest hit a milestone; I have always helped him field dress his deer; but this weekend, he did it on his own (with a little refreshing from myself and a buddy of mine), but nonetheless, he did a great job. And I was able to sit in the blind with my middle one, and play on the 4-wheeler with my youngest. Overall, it was a much-needed getaway and time with my boys and my dad, while my husband had to work, sadly.

Sunday came too quickly, as usual, when we are at the deer lease. But we quickly packed up the car, due to an unexpected rain cloud that unloaded on us that morning. And we shut the cabin down, I started my car. Wait, let me rephrase that, I attempted to start my car. For whatever reason, my car battery was dead. So, with two huge trailers on our cars my dad had to manipulate his car around the campfire to jump my car off…and off we went.

Take 2 -- About some 10 miles down the road, one of the tires on the trailer I was pulling, started losing tread. It started shaking and rumbling, and vibrating my car. So, I called my dad to wait on us, and I limped in to the nearest town, because it was pouring down rain, and of course the lug nuts were too small for the lug wrench that goes to my car.

Luckily, we find a guy with the proper lug wrench, get it off, replaced and off we go again.

Take 3 – Now mind you, we started driving at 9 A.M., and it is usually only about a four-and-a-half-hour drive home. So, I am hoping third time is a charm. And off we went…but wait, about 10 miles down the road, my oldest says “Ummm, hey mom, rubber is flying off again.” I laughed and kept going, thinking he was just trying to wear me down. But no, here we go again with the rumbling and vibrations.

I jump out, and of course, the tread has ripped off that tire too. Oh, did I forget to mention, that this is my dad’s trailer, and I am pretty sure the tires are as old as I am? They were so old, the rust to the lug nuts on the spares had welded themselves to the wheel. This time, luckily, my dad was behind us. But yet again, the lug nuts were too small, so off he went to the next town to by the correct size lug wrench.

I stayed behind to work on it. After a few cuts and cuss words, I managed to get one lug nut off. But the next one, there was no way. Finally, after about 20 minutes a nice gentleman stopped to help us out, with the correct lug wrench.

And yep, you guessed it…off we went.

Take 4 – So just in case you have lost count…I have now gone through two tires, I am now on my third, and I have run out of spares. But the funny part was, when I got back in my car and headed down the road, I looked at a text on my phone from a guy friend of mine, saying man I just saw a girl that looked just like you on the side of Highway 190; and I said well hey, she didn’t look like me, she was me.

Nonetheless, we were “On the Road Again…”. Not even joking, and I wish I were, my third tire tread started flying off, about 20 miles down the road. I had about 20 more miles to go to the next town, where my dad was; so, the boys and I slowly limped in. We found a place, bought two new tires and off we went.

This time we made it all the way home. But we had to stop by our friend’s barn, where we are keeping our pig for the Youth Expo, come March. Everything was well, things were great. But the four of us were definitely ready to be home. However, the driveway was blocked, so I backed up, turned the wheel, and tried to cut through a small corner of yard/farm land. Well, after a few hours of rain, Mother Nature had other plans for me, my car and my trailer.

You guessed it, I had to flag down some guys that were living on the property to come pull me out of the mud.

Hence, Take Five! We were finally on our way home, and it was about 7:45 at night. When we should have been home, being lazy, and doing laundry around 2PM; six hours later, we finally made it home.

And End Scene. Another chapter closed on the exciting day-in-the-life of my family adventures.