I drove across the state to the South Dakota Math and Science Teacher's Conference on Thursday. Had a great time as a "vendor" offering our classroom presentations with the live birds. I brought the redtail hawk and the little kestrel since they both travel really well and enjoy crowds. Things broke up early Saturday due to an impending blizzard.
I got as far as Presho, SD when the hiway got slicker than snot on a glass doorknob. I knew for my safety and that of the birds in my care I had to find shelter and hunker down. I found a house that was unoccupied and I broke in. It was easy enough, I found a hidden key! I brought in the birds and set them up on perches out of sight of each other. No sense tempting the one to eat the other!
The house was unoccupied because the owner is farms there in the summer and spends his winters elsewhere. He comes back with his friends for pheasant season and deer huntingm, but other than that it is vacant. I turned on the lights and began looking for what I could pillage. Nothing but a bag of freezerburned smelt in the freezer and a vast array of condiments of amazing antiquity in the fridge. I turned my attention to the cupboards. No liquor. Things were looking bad.
The tv was broke, too. No hunting or fishing magazines and no girly magazines either. Things were getting desperate! There were no decks of cards either! Can this place actually serve as pheasant/deer camp?!?!?!
The cafe down the street was open for breakfast on Sunday morning and I had a hearty breakfast at Hutch's. (I recommend you get the Hutchburger next time you come thru this area) But they closed at 2:00 due to the blizzard and they don't open on Mondays.
I spent almost all of Sunday cleaning the kitchen. I also stripped the bedding and washed it. The carpets got vacuumed and all the bathtowels went thru the laundry as well. By the time I went to sleep that night I was pretty dang hungry. Not yet hungry enough to eat a hawk, though.
I awoke several times Sunday night and called the 511 hiway conditions number only to hear the interstate was still closed. Monday morning dawned with wind and snow still blowing around. My Jeep on the street had been blocked in when the town plows got out early and I had 3 ft of compressed snow to get thru if I was to ever escape.
At the 40 hour mark of my criminal occupation of someone else's house, I finally got word that the Interstate was open again. I packed up and beat a hasty retreat before the coppers could nab me. I made it home scot free. I survived the epic winter blow of 2013!
On the other hand, I gotta drive a 450 mile trip again next weekend with the birds for a program in Jamestown ND!
