After a reasonable night's sleep, I woke up and had a couple cups of terrible hotel room coffee - so bad it is good. I had to kill time to not get to Rick's too early, but eventually I couldn't stand it and left for the couple hour's drive.
Letting the Garmin decide how to macroscopically route me is almost always a mistake, but this time it gave me a new route that I really liked. I will definitely try this again on the way home (Exit 82/Screaming Eagle Road -> US601 -> US378). I finished My Lobotomy and listened to a few NPR podcasts. Just like the previous day, I was able to lose myself in the drive.
At some point Rick called me and asked where I was. After telling him, he told me he was headed out to a day at the beach with his SO. I asked about hunting in the afternoon. "Well shit..." he had apparently forgotten the rearrangement we made in December (and why I had gotten a hotel room and was almost there). I thought about texting him the screenshot of it I had grabbed from my old phone when the Pixel rang again. "I was trying to figure out how to make this work and thought - he can take care of his own damn self since he's been coming down here for the last 25 years." I was fine with this, although I also thought it was funny given how protective he is about his stands. Sending someone out on their own was almost unthinkable.
I finished the drive and got settled at the lodge before getting final instructions from Rick as to where I was to sit. The miracle of modern cell phones helped where he was able to text a Google Maps pin. It also helped that it was near another stand I knew.
Getting to the location, I found the stand easily enough after wallowing through a muddy trail and got up in it. Temperatures were moderate in the upper 40's, but it was really windy and I had a very hard time getting comfortable - and I just sort of felt off. But it was a nice enough afternoon. The wind died down throughout the afternoon and I was at least mostly enjoying it.
Time did drag though which was made worse by not seeing much of anything at all. I really had to play games with myself to not look at my watch frequently. For a few brief minutes as the sun set, the sky above the field I was hunting turned the most amazing pink/coral color. I thought about trying to take a picture, but these things almost always pale in comparison to the actual thing. And life's fleeting magical moments can be better experienced living in the now.
Darkness approached and at the almost-too-dark-but-still-can-shoot-but-probably-shouldn't hour a murky figure came out onto the corn pile. Peering through the scope I was almost relieved that it was a deer. Within minutes it was too dark to do anything. I waited a while longer just sitting there in the dark. But with traffic on the nearby road it wasn't that blessed, tranquil darkness. I climbed out of the stand and made my way back to the truck.
Back at the lodge I ate some canned chili and watched TV. Rick showed up a little while later and I met his SO Tammy - who seemed very personable. I turned in shortly after, thankful for all that had gone right to bring me once again to the Low Country.
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