It's All For The Ducks.

There’s no point in leading you on as to who won this pile of gear at this years Ducks Unlimited dinner.  Not us.  The pile in the picture does not even show the stylie Henry Rifle that Rocky the miners wife won.  Clider and I had to watch as Sherri, lubed up on cocktails, won prize after prize while we sat and discussed what we bid on and how certain we were that we were next to win.  Here’s how it all went down.

 

Clider got his ticket as a birthday present and encouraged me to get mine before they sold out.  Even though I knew that they would never sell out of tickets I bought mine early anyway and we planned to head out after work for a fine meal and lots of expensive prizes.  We stood in line at the entrance to a sold out dinner and got our block of tickets, a tasty Budweiser beer and headed off to the line to win first stopping at the ‘goose band’ booth where a shiny new Browning autoloader DU commerative edition waited.  Of course I had to get in on that action.  I’m more of a Benelli guy but I could easily sell the Browning to Clider and turn a quick profit.  Last year it was possible to walk up to the raffle items, this year we had to wait in line to get there.  The line snaked passed the ‘shot glass game’ and I had to play, it’s for the ducks after all.  Choices being pretty slim I decided on the Hot Damn and my shot glass was number 67.   Clider was busy playing the ‘playing card’ game and not long after all my tickets were spread out amongst the stuff I knew I would be winning.

 

We had to settle for the benches along the side of the banquet hall because, as I mentioned, the place was sold out.  Just in front of us Was Rocky the miners parents and other big time players in the local duck scene.  Next to me was a couple from Kalispel Montana who just happened to be passing through and somehow got a ticket to the dinner that was sold out, next to them was Sherri.  Clider was busy losing the ‘playing card’ game and I was reeling from the number 68 being called for the ‘shot glass’ game and the camo Remington I was so sure I was going to win seconds before.  We bolted to the food line to get our prime rib as soon as it was available because certainly at this sold out event it would go fast.  Being as we were not sitting at a table, but instead in the staff traffic pattern, I was able to score not one, not two but three servings of huckleberry ice-cream for dessert.  Let the winning begin!

 

Sold Out?

By now the guy from Kalispel was toasty and informed me he was a car salesman at a GM dealership back home.  He kept pointing out Ken Smith (from Dave Smith motors, the world’s largest blah blah blah…) and telling me how rich the guy is.  It kept going like this “Man, my boss has a jet and a house in Maui, just imagine what that prick has. Did I tell you we were just passing through and decided to come tonight?  You know, my boss makes like a million and a half a year, imagine what those Smith boys make.  Yea, they’re doing it right.  Hey, you ever been to Kalispel?  You should come see me, we like to party!”  His equally toasted wife was yell-talking with Sherri who was doing her best to be heard over the start of the raffle giveaway.  After Clider and I somehow repeatedly lost item after item Rocky the miner, who was on the committee and helping run items being won to the winners, used the microphone to tell Sherri to pay attention.  She won the next item.  It was a one piece camo jumpsuit that Clider and I are still puzzled about its purpose.  Minutes after Sherri had the jumpsuit on and a fresh cocktail in her hands, seems her friends from Kalispel like to party.

Loser!

 

And so it went for a while.  The H7HT missing out on item after item that we definitely needed.  Sherri would win another prize.  Another gun would get won by some person who has never been ‘The Expert’, and so on.  Finally late into the night the last item came up and we were convinced that our bad fortune to that point was setting us up so that one of us would win the coveted Browning  DU gun of the year.

 

On the ride home we talked about how it’s all for the ducks.

GBCH