It all started in 2006 I believe it was March or even February and I was at a log home show with my parents in Idaho. Now I was 10 years old and did enjoy seeing some of the cool log home booths but again being 10 I’d imagine I was getting bored until I ran across a booth of a South African outfitter with two very nice South Africans sitting in it. Now I truly wish I could have remembered who they were because at this day I’d so gratefully love to thank them for taking the time to talk to a 10 year old and for starting a fire that burns brighter in me today. As we talked I asked what the age requirement was to hunt in Africa and they simply replied there wasn’t one I just needed to come with my parents and prove I can shoot. Now with Wyoming having an age limit of 12 and may other western states being similar I couldn’t believe my ears. So this got the wheels going and I told my parents these guys said you don’t have to be 12. We could go and I could hunt. Now I’m not sure if my dad was just tired of me going on about it but he said okay if you make the money to book my flight he would book the trip. Even with this being in 2006 flights we’re not cheap I believe they were in the $1,700-1,900 range so I quickly went to work selling lemonade and cookies out front of the house as soon as the nice weather came about. This wasn’t the best business model as I live in a small town and the number of people that drove past our house on a daily basis wasn’t that great and selling lemonade for a quarter was not going to strike me rich contrary to what I had believe in the planning stage. So plan B was the annual 4H livestock show and sell pigs. I’d been doing 4H for a few years and would show two pigs and sell one at the sell as that’s all you could sell, actually during that time I was trading the second pig to shoot a Bison. Key note always trying to make a hunt happen! So when it came time to sell my pig in August of 2006 I had done some good campaigning for this auction. At the time this part of Wyoming was in a booming stage of oil and gas and big companies like chevron and BP were here so there was some money to chase. I had gave out invites, dinner tickets and a healthy stack of drink tickets to hopefully persuade someone into maybe having a few to many cocktails and buying my pig. I was late in the sale evening, like almost dead last. I was worried as this might have back fired maybe everyone had already gotten to far drunk and spent all their money. So as I entered the sell ring and the auctioneer started calling out bids, a smile quickly grew upon my face as he kept climbing $500, $700, $1,000 $1,5000 $2,000 $2,000 and finally slamming the hammer down at $2,800. I quickly placed my big back in his pen found the woman who had bought my pig, gave her a huge hug, looked at my dad and said book the trip I got the money. Thats where the planning began of my first Safari!
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