Tonight we are staying in a town east of Oregon called Hood River. Bj was at the library all day working. But the library closed at 5 and he wanted to find somewhere else to work. We found a nice bar with internet and he was working there for a few hours.

There was a shuffleboard there and we played some games on it. Pretty fun. I have never played shuffleboard before. You slide these hockey puck type things along a long board that is varnished and sprinkled with salt to make them slide. you aim to get the pucks into the sections with points. Fun. Then Bj was working more and I was messing around on the shuffleboard. Some guys came in and started chatting to me and one of them started playing shuffleboard with me and we were chatting. His name was Josh and his friend was Eric.

They were wearing matching baggy dark green patterned cargo pants, and I was like, why are you wearing the same pants? And Josh was like they’re hunting pants. And I was like wow you are hunters? And they were like yeah. And I was asking them all about hunting.

They are not only hunters but get this they are ARCHERY hunters. They use bows and arrows to hunt deer and elk. I was sort of totally impressed. They also hunt birds such as grouse and wild (wild) turkeys (couldn’t drag me away). They were very friendly guys and I was thrilled because I never thought id get to meet people who hunt with arrows. I was asking them all about it. I asked what their arrows were like and eric took me out to his truck and showed me his bow and arrow. It was very cool to see. I gotta say. Totally wild. The bow was very high tech. The arrow looked as you would expect. But very sharp.

It was fun talking to them. They were also into fishing and they worked in construction. Josh was a carpenter. Also he has a boat he takes out on weekends. So he is like, a hunter/sailor/carpenter. Oh my god. I was like, “Bj this guy can do everything. Hunter, sailor, carpenter.” Bj agreed that this combination trumps programmer (but he took it like a man).

Anyway it was so fun talking to them about hunting. Josh was saying he eats everything he catches. He takes the beast to the butcher and gets it cut up into hamburger meat. He said he preferred to hunt with an arrow because it seemed fairer. I can certainly dig that. I mean jesus. I would never hunt with anything I am a vegetarian and I would be happy if there were no carnivores. But I have come to appreciate hunting, when the hunter eats his kill, that is certainly more sensible and “real” than buying meat from a supermarket where you never need see where it comes from.

We hung around talking to them for a while and it was fun. They were totally “exotic” because we have never met hunters before let alone archery hunters. They have all kinds of skills we can’t even imagine. I love meeting random people who do stuff we are unfamiliar with and when they are happy to talk about the different shit they do and answer all my questions, I love travelling in America, I love drinking in bars, I love my life right now. I’m a little drunk. but not too much. I’m pretty goddam happy is all.