Hunting is something the guys in my family enjoy doing all year round. This fall we were fortunate to join our Wesley in his Mule Deer hunt in Nevada. He was chosen by the Dream Keeper Foundation to hunt for a mule deer in Nevada. This foundation offers a chance for kids with disabilities to go hunting. Wesley has Muscular Dystrophy and has been in a powerchair for about 3 ½ years now. That makes hunting a little bit of a challenge but hey that’s the way it goes. It makes it more of an adventure.
So, we packed up and headed to Winnemucca, Nevada to meet Jim Billingsley, from the foundation and his 2 guides, Jace Billingsley and Justin Hernandez. All three of them greeted us as if they have known us for years. It is comforting when you meet people like that because it gives you faith in humanity when this world is in such a strange place.
The foundation has a track chair for disabled people. With the track chair they have a detachable table and gun holder that goes on it. This helps someone like Wesley who doesn’t have enough muscle tone to hold the gun up. They put Wesley in the track chair and put the table on it. The best part was it had a scope that could blue tooth to a phone or pad. It was an ATN scope. Totally cool for our techy kid! Then the trigger was electronic, and he just had to push a button and the trigger went off. We had it all set up and ready to hunt. He took some practice shots and had high hopes for the upcoming hunt.
They took us out for dinner to The Martin House, a Basque restaurant. We have never eaten at a Basque restaurant before. The atmosphere was great as it was in an old hotel in Winnemucca. We loved that we got to go there because we have always just drove through Winnemucca and never enjoyed what it had to offer. We were not disappointed. The family style dinner was delicious and comforting as well. When you have to pass food around the table and share it makes you have more conversation with those that you are eating with. As we sat at the table, I knew that Jim and his family came here often as they knew the waitresses and they had a great connection. We learned that Jace had played professional football for the Detroit Lions. Our son Blake was star struck!! Justin is a Sports Performance Coach. Both of these guys love helping kids. Jim and his wife, Jeri were very involved with the town of Winnemucca.
The next morning, we ate breakfast and headed out on our 4 hour drive in the pouring rain!! We headed down the highway and we turned on a road that I have seen for years and thought “that would be a long boring road”. It was straight for about 60 miles. It was pretty country to see with ranches here and there. Then, we came to next turn and Jim had informed us that we would be going down a dirt for 70 miles. Yes, that’s right 70 miles. It actually was not bad at all. We enjoyed the scenery and we kept hoping to see a wild donkey or wild horses but, we never did. At the end of the 70 miles was Cedarville, CA. This quaint little town was nestled at the bottom of the mountains. It was a town that was nicely taken care of and they have worked hard to keep the charm. But, we kept on driving. Down the road we went back into Nevada. We were ready to hunt now!
We arrived at the ranch where Wesley was going to hunt. I am just amazed at how you can be in the middle of all the sage brush and it is a beautiful ranch. My family and I have talked a lot about how the sage brush is deceiving to people driving by. We pulled in and there was beautiful alfalfa fields, cows grazing in the stubble and a nice resting area.
Jim and his crew got lunch out for us and the rest of the guys began glassing for “THE BUCK”. We barely got our sandwiches eaten before they called out that they have found some bucks. Now it was time for Wesley to get into the track chair. He was loaded and now it was time to get the gun mounted on the chair. They got all that done and realize that the scope was not working. You see the scope was supposed to connect to a phone or pad. Which it did the day before. Oops, change of plans. Now they had to move the electronic trigger to a different gun. Thankfully, that worked great. But now Wesley can’t see through the scope. So, the remedy for that was a phone scope. That was going well until they realized that the bolt would not open and they couldn’t load the gun. Now what are we going to do? Jace decided that he would put the cross hairs on the buck and Wesley would shoot the gun. No problem! They practiced before they headed out. It was going to work. Meanwhile, they are keeping an eye on the bucks and more does have shown up from the sage brush. I wish I had better eyes so I can see all these deer out in the sage brush. God’s camouflage, right?
Now, the hunters were off. I stayed behind and watched from afar. Which is fine, I am not a hunter by nature. I can’t keep quiet. The wind was blowing good by this time. I was a beautiful sunny day but the wind, omg! I watched for a while, and I could tell that more deer have come now. They crept up a bit on the deer. They were not to spooked because the wind was blowing so hard. I could tell that they were all glassing and watching for “The One”.
From the way I understand it, it took a few shots before Jace and Wesley got there grove with the gun. To hear it told they needed to get there counting down right. Was it 1, 2, 3 go or 3, 2, 1 go? Thankfully, it was windy! They scared the deer, but they only went in a big circle and stayed right in the field.
“The One” came out and Wesley got his shot. A clean kill. They found a buck that was in full velvet. It is like carpet on the horns. He hadn’t lost any of his velvet. They came back to camp and got a few things and me. We drove out to the buck. He was so beautiful, again makes us thankful for all of God’s creatures. By now the temperature is beginning to drop and the wind is still blowing. Wesley who is just sitting in the track chair was freezing. I began to layer him, a blanket and 2 sweatshirts around his legs and 2 jackets up top. I wish I would have taken his picture. He looked like a camo marshmallow!
When it came time to skin the buck, Justin presented Wesley with his own, one of kind knife. It was beautifully made by his friend. Justin then used the knife to help skin the buck. Wesley loves the knife, and it is even more special for the job it did. He liked it so much that he asked to have a picture of the knife so he could show his friends at school. Ryan and I feel so blessed that someone that doesn’t even know Wesley took the time to make such a nice gift.
It was time to get everything loaded back up and head back to town. It was after dark now and thankfully there was a restaurant still open in Cedarville. It was nice to have a hot meal. But our evening wasn’t over yet. We had to get checked into our hotel in Alturas. While the guys were checking into the room Wesley began to have lookers checking out his horns in the back of the pickup. One guy even came over to tell him congratulations. His smile was huge!! This is a kid that doesn’t show much emotion for things but, when he talks about this deer he smiles from ear to ear.
The next morning, we met for breakfast again. We shared more stories about our families and our hunting trip. Again, I can’t say enough what a great group of guys we were with. Then we had to say goodbye to our new friends. They left each of the boys with some great life advice. I hope they listened.
We set out on our trip home. It was a fast trip but such a memorable one. We recapped most of it on our way home.
Ryan, Wesley, Blake, and I would like to say THANK YOU again to Jim, Jace, Justin and the rest of the people involved with the Dream Keeper Foundation for all they did for Wesley. The generosity and care that they put into this hunt was top notch.
Special needs children have dreams and passions just like everyone else. It might take a little more effort and help from others but, the joy on there faces when things come together make it all worth it.
If you would like to learn more about the Dream Keeper Foundation go to http://www.dreamkeeperfoundation.com
The Oily Farm Girl 