Delta Dude, Dakota Ducks: We Rode In Trucks

Greetings from the land of many ducks and weird weather! It's supposed to be spring time but we had average temperatures in the mid 40's last week. The good news is the temperatures are supposed to improve by the middle of this week. Thank goodness! A Southern boy isn't used to preforming cardio throughout the morning in an effort to not freeze to death. It's pretty hard to write down data whenever your fingers lose dexterity. I even overheard myself hurling insults at flushing birds or trying to reason with them saying leaving their nests wasn't a good idea in this cold weather. But, birds being birds, they decided having a rope dragged across their head was a good enough reason to abandon their nest for a little while.

I decided it was high time to allow you a face with some of the names that I use in my writings. Obviously, these pictures were taken from our last fishing excursion. It didn't turn out quite like we planned, because we didn't catch any walleye, but we did enjoy reeling in a stringer of trout!

Jake

Scott

Jordan

Justin

And now a few pictures from the days catch.

He's watched Bass Masters one too many times

We all told him that was a "big fish" we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings around here.

Last Sunday, Jordan and I were folding the last of our clothes when we looked up to see a man talking to Justin as he was waiting for us in the truck. This guy was becoming all animated and you could see how excited he was because of the huge grin on his face. I looked over at Jordan and said, "Man, that guy must have really liked something Justin said because he's been talking to him for a solid 5 minutes now." Jordan just kind of smiled and said, "Guess we'll find out soon enough. You ready for Wal-Mart?" After we loaded our bags into my pickup, the guy who had gotten giddy over Justin said to me, "So you're the one who goes to Mississippi State, huh?" I told him he had found the right person, he went on to tell me that someone he knew had played quarterback for MSU many years ago. I just sort of nodded my head because I didn't know who he was talking about. The failed attempt at a connection didn't discourage this man though because he quickly asked,"Do you two work for those people with the duck TV show too?" Jordan and I looked at each other sort of surprised and then we said, "Yea, we do." (The first day I worked in the field my boss told me that the Ducks Unlimited TV show wanted to come film us at some point during the summer. With that in the back of my mind and having watched the DU show on the Outdoor Channel myself, I thought surely that's what this man was referring to.) Well, that man's face lit up brighter than a Roman candle when you look down the wrong end trying to aim the thing. He got really excited and said,"Man, that show is awesome! I just watched an episode last night when they took that boy out in the woods snake hunting so he wouldn't wanna date one of their daughters or somethin'. I never can remember those boys' names but I always know when their show's on because of those big beards they keep." The man told us how good it was to meet us and that he'd have to tell his nephew he had run in to us. As soon as the fellow had gone out of ear range I whipped around to Justin and asked,"Did you tell that man we worked for the Duck Commander?" Justin started laughing as he recounted the entire story. He said it started off when the man had noticed all the waterfowl stickers and the MSU logo on my back glass. After that, he asked Justin who he worked for. Justin told him but I guess this man didn't know the difference between Ducks Unlimited and Duck Commander. To this man, we were the waterfowl researchers for the hit television show on A&E Duck Dynasty. Justin said the man got so worked up that he couldn't bare to break the news to him that we weren't anybody special. http://www.aetv.com/duck-dynasty/

Although it is bitterly cold to us Southern boys, spring and the newness of life that it brings is in full swing!