growing old ain't for sissies

This weekend i was fortunate to be able to take a day trip with my grandfather to go hunting. While i have spent quite a bit of time traveling with him in the past this excursion was the first in a year or so. My first trip was when i was 10, my first ride alone on a plane. Over the years we have hunted around the state, fished some of the best trout streams the west has to offer, and the summer before my freshman year of college we spent three weeks driving from Santa Barbara to Idaho and back, with stops in Utah to look at amazing rock formations and a few days in Montana spent fishing the beaverhead and one day spent driving across the state to look at Lewis and Clark monuments and famous battlegrounds of the west.

One thing that has amazed me over the years is how strong he is. While he has gotten a little bit slower, he can still move. While a bad knee laid him up for a while, the replacement has allowed him to keep getting up at 5:30 to go for a swim, exercise, eat breakfast, and read 2 newspapers before nine! When we went out to the blinds on sat he chose the better, difficult to enter blind over the more accessible blinds. And he was the first to hop into the hole in the ground as i attempted to get in without hurting myself. 8 hrs later i struggled behind him on our walk out from the ponds, his step way stronger and more fluid than my own. It was then i fully comprehended how much i have learned from my grandfather, and how much i value the wisdom and strength i take away from out time together.