After a quick shower and packing up the rest of my stuff I was out the door by 4:00 AM.
I headed north and west - I've done this trip so many times that it almost seems like it happens on autopilot. I got near Columbia just near the beginning of rush hour, but against most of the traffic, it was fairly easy to get through.
Temperatures hovered between the low 20's and near freezing with more changes than I would have expected. A beautiful sunrise came in the rear view mirror. This is a big difference from the trip to South Carolina.
Similarly, the amount of snow on the ground fluctuated between none and a noticeable amount - especially in the shadows.
I listened to I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This an autobiography by Bob Newhart. It was surprisingly and disappointingly bad. This was followed up by Part 1 of a Libravox recording of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift - which was surprisingly good and easy to listen to. My mind was wandering for parts of it though; I may have to relisten to it again at some point and finish the whole book. By that point in the trip, the 11 hour book was too long to finish. I ended my drive listening to a bunch of NPR podcasts that I had downloaded. These were a whirlwind of interesting stories and people, regret, bad decisions...
Soon enough, I was home. The dogs seemed happy to see me. I unloaded and cleaned up much of my hunting stuff. Once SO was home the sausage was made into patties and transferred into smaller bags. The loins were still too frozen, so that will have to wait a day.
Every year, hog hunting is a bit different. Since the loss of the plantation, it hasn't been as good, but despite my single hog, this year (overall in camp) was much better. The weather helped a lot with that I am sure.
I keep asking myself how much longer I'm going to continue to do this. It looks like at least one more year and if it is anything like this year, I'm quite happy about that.
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