I remember January of 1996.  As the snow fell in Charlotte I made up my mind to take the hunting trip that I had long talked about to my friends.  I called Tom Smith, a name given to me by a hunting partner of mine who had been on many North American safaris.

     "Tom," I asked when he answered the phone, "I'm looking for a first-timer's trip... maybe a combo, you know: mule deer and antelope.  What can you get me?"

     "I've got the perfect hunt for you," he answered.  "Floyd Mitchell runs a first class outfit up in the Power River Valley of Montana.  He'll get you a top notch mule deer and put you on some decent antelope.  If you want, you can come by my shop and pick up a couple of video tapes that'll give you some more information about the hunt."

     "How much would a hunt like that run me?  Cabela's offers hunts like that in about the $1,500 price range," I said.

     "With Floyd, you're looking at $2,750.  That covers just about everything:  transportation to the camp from Gillette, Wyoming, food and board, care and handling of your animals, stuff like that.  You won't regret it.  Why not drop by and get those tapes, then we'll talk some more about it."

     $2,750.  Yeah, right.  That didn't include the air fare from Charlotte to Denver to Wyoming and back.  $600.  It didn't count the $525 for the Montana guaranteed mule deer license or the $90 for the antelope drawing.  What about the $600 I spent on a new all-weather Remington 7mm mag for the trip?  What about the $1,600 for the Swarovski scope for said Remington?  What about the cost of shipping any meat I got from Broadus Montana back to Charlotte?   The new Rocky Bearclaw boots I spent $150 on just for the trip?  Montana's got to be cold... what about some new cold weather gear?   By the time I left, I had spent around $4000 for the entire trip.  Just letting you know that there can be a lot of costs that you don't think about when you plan a hunting trip.

     Tom's shop was filled with in-process taxidermy work ranging from African kudu and Cape buffalo to North Carolina whitetail deer.  Tom is a first class taxidermist; his stuff is museum quality.  He takes his time about getting it back to you, but let me tell you, it's worth it.  He's the only taxidermist I know who won't mount an animal unless the hide has been properly prepared by a professional tannery.  He handed me the video tapes of last year's hunt and asked me if I could get them back to him within a week or so.  No problem.

     By the time I was fifteen minutes into the first tape, I had made up my mind.  The muleys in the video were huge, the antelope were plentiful, and the country was beautiful.  I called Tom back and booked the hunt.  It was set for the last week of October, 1996.  Ten months away.  The turkey season would come and go before October got here, maybe a fishing trip or two to Cape Hatteras, another long hot summer would pass...  heck, it always seems to take forever for fall to get here, this would just make it worse.

     I opened a special bank account just for the trip.  Whenever I could afford it, I dropped a couple hundred dollars in there.  Whenever I bought something hunting-related, the money came from that account.  Unexpectedly, some land on a local Charlotte area private lake became available in early spring.  I had to have it.  The down payment on that land wiped out all of my bank accounts, and I began to worry about how I could ever afford the Montana trip.  By the time August got here, I only had about a thousand dollars in the account.  

     In August, I got word from the Montana Department of Wildlife that I was unsuccessful in drawing an antelope tag.  Tom had told me that the chances of winning a tag in the lottery were about 90%... how bad could my luck be?  I called Tom and told him that I didn't draw the antelope.

     "There's not much I can do about it, " Tom said.  "I'm really sorry you didn't get it, but sometimes these things just don't work out.  Go on up there and get yourself a good muley, and we'll try to get you an antelope next year."  The good news was that since this wasn't going to be a combo hunt the total price of the hunt would be lowered by a few hundred dollars.  With my money situation the way it was, this really turned out to be a boon.

     As October began to approach, I realized that I had booked my hunt on the same week as the Cape Hatteras World Championship Red Drum Tournament.  I had fished the tournament back in 1995, and while I didn't place in it, I had had a wonderful time and promised myself that I would fish it every year from now on.  I was tempted to call Tom and ask him to change the dates of the hunt for me, but I never got the nerve.  I guess I didn't want anything to happen that might cause him to call off the trip.  

     "Things always even out for me, " comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said.  I felt that same way when Tom called me not a week later and told me that a spot had opened up for a November hunt with Floyd's outfit.  The rut would be peaking at about that time, and since I didn't draw an antelope, he wanted to do anything he could to improve my chances for a top quality mule deer.  "You interested in changing dates, " he asked?

     Things evened out for me.  In mid October, I was notified that I was a finalist for the "Vision of Excellence" award at work.  The yearly winner would receive a cash award of $5000. after taxes.  When they started reading the description of the winner at the award banquet, I knew right away it was me.  The person who nominated me had shown me the text of her entry for me, and I recognized it when the moderator read it.  I had the money for my trip, I was able to fish the tournament, and to top it off I had just killed an 8 point whitetail down in South Carolina on the opening day of the season.  "Thanks Jerry, " I thought.