WYO’s Field Notes #2: Never Know Who You Might Meet

Many of you reading this know I live in the po-dunks of Wyoming, hence the WYO thing. And some of you probably know I’m a bit of a recluse. So when I share this story with you it should bring a chuckle.

About a week or so… give or take… a white pickup truck drove up to our house. I did my usual run into the house and lock all the doors because it’s odd for people to stop by unannounced. We keep it that way on purpose. The neighbors love us because we are quiet and keep to ourselves. As they say, “it’s the Wyoming Way”.

It’s not uncommon for hunters to stop by to ask for access to the state owned property we border. As long as people are respectful of the land and abide by the law we generally don’t have a problem. But that usually happens in the fall, so I was unsure who these folks were coming up the driveway. So I waited until they left and went about my business. Quite a bit going on outside in our yard in the springtime.

I didn’t think too much about our visitors until a little while later when I received a text from a number I’ve never seen before. Figuring it was just another spam call, I ignored it.

A little while later I got a text that said, “Ms. Robyn, you’ve got two tom turkeys in your front yard and we were wondering if you would mind if we stopped by and hunted on your property”. I reacted like any old woman and freaked out thinking somebody’s been watching me in the yard. Unnerving to say the least. Especially when you’re outside wearing muck boots and a big sombrero. I’ve got thigh highs but they ain’t what city folks think.

No reason for panic, it was our friends the turkey hunters… they happened by and thought maybe I’d respond better to a text.

They were right.

Turns out these fine gentlemen were having some difficulty filling their turkey tags and saw the old woman on the hill with a yard full of turkeys. As painful as it is, I do subscribe to keeping the “gang” population (real name for group of turkeys, lol) under control in our little valley. After living here for 31 years, we’ve found a proper sustainable size for our area. So we allowed our friends to get themselves two toms to fill their tags. We do have some very stud-like toms in the hood if I say so myself, so there’s plenty of fellows to go around.

It came as no surprise to me their first attempt failed. The guys were text book turkey hunting, but after studying turkeys for over 30 years… these turkeys… are smarter than the average tom, so to speak. They will eat out of my hand in the winter months only to go back to their wily ways when the hormones flow. When the toms would have nothing to do with this misadventure and ran off, the gentlemen thanked us and called it a day.

Then we had a wet spell with a lot of wind over the last week. I figured our hunting friends were long gone.

Nope.

I see a phone call with what looked like the same number… the gentleman hunter called from last week. Then I decided to look up the area code the number was calling from and it was from area code 913.

913??!!!!

KANSAS CITY MISSOURI.

I’m like… Are you kidding me? I have been texting and talking and letting some Kansas City Chiefs fans on my property? What took me so long to realize what in the hell I was doing? So when the familiar white truck came up the driveway, Gary stepped out to visit with our guest. They chatted for a bit, and the gentleman from KC filled his last turkey tag. I sent Jason the gentleman a text because he also dropped off a very nice gift card.

So of course I had to bring up my long time standing as one of the Godmothers of BillsMafia… and that he was busted for not coming clean about his fan-hood as a 12-year season ticket holder at Arrowhead Stadium.

As you might expect, Jason thanked me for the Bills giving the Chiefs Xavier Worthy. And for the Bills letting KC draft Patrick Mahomes.

Of course he did.

But he was kind enough not to remind me of 13 seconds, and for that I’ll be eternally grateful.

See ya next year, Jason!

Editor’s babble: I had so much fun with the KC/Bills banter I just had to share this with all of you. Just be sure not to tell any KC fans what we have up our sleeves this year ;) You can find this and all sorts of other nonsense of mine on Xwitter @RobynMundyWYO.