2017 Mule Deer Hunt Day 7 Leave Day

I had thought about leaving the previous evening, but it was getting late, especially with the time change, and dark early.  Besides, I was enjoying the group of guides and others I was hunting with, so I stayed the final night.

Once awake, I packed up much of what I had.  The mule deer meat wasn't frozen, but the very cold overnight temperatures had cooled it well.  Importantly, the cats had not gotten into it - they had lots of leave-ins in the bed of Jim's truck anyway.

Breakfast was eggs and muffins - and eating chocolate chip muffins for breakfast is awesome - almost like eating cake for breakfast.  I wanted to wait until daylight to leave since the area is so thick with deer.  Besides it would give me a chance to see the deer in the fields one last time.

Once it got light, I said goodbyes and thanked everyone again.  Then I was on the road.  The cold temperatures kept the road frozen, which was an improvement over the mud that had been everywhere for the previous days.
As I left the area, the fields were again filled with deer.  I saw a few of the bucks that would be shooters just about anywhere else in the country, but just nice here.  Shortly before turning off of the dirt road onto the paved, I saw a big group of mule deer does and smiled as I made the turn.

I headed south toward the interstate, getting on it only briefly before stopping in Spearfish to get dry ice at Safeway.  With the cold temperatures, I was hoping about 15 pounds would suffice. 
From there, it was really time to head home.

The day started with a mix of clouds, making a pretty dramatic sunrise.  Sadly, the picture couldn't adequately capture what it actually looked like.

Once again, I was on I-90 for a long time.  There were a few periods of snow with a couple areas where the roads were quite slippery.  Right near the South Dakota Minnesota border there was a roll-over accident that I strongly suspect was from ice on a bridge.  This slowed most of the traffic, but the roads were only troublesome for a short distance.  I sort of felt like I was in the Movie Fargo though.

I was listening to David Rakoff's book Half Empty which was not nearly as good as Don't Get Too Comfortable.  But the end of the book was somewhat dramatic as he talks about his cancer which I believe kills him a few years after the book was published.

Once I had a good idea where I could get to, I had SO look up hotels.  I wanted to stop in Waterloo, Iowa, but there were really cheap hotels and really expensive ones without much in between.  I think that is the same problem we had when we stayed there in 2012 and as I recall, I wasn't thrilled with the hotel we stayed in then.

So I motored on to Iowa City.  The last hour was pretty tough with fatigue and darkness, but I was careful and made it safely to the hotel.  After eating little since breakfast that wasn't junk food, I was hungry for something more substantial.  Sadly, I think the gas station hot dogs I chose were not much better.  The Sabra Hummus was actually quite good though.