Before we drove back to our hotel, my grandparents and I stopped at a local grocery store for dinner. While my grandpa waited for us in the car, me and my grandma entered the store with a small list. I made a beeline for the sushi bar, which was stocked full of my favorite sushi platters, while my grandma picked up some sandwiches for her and my grandpa.

Back at the hotel’s lobby, I devoured about 20 pieces of raw fish sushi in under 10 minutes, and finished off the rest of the grapes in our cooler. While I waited for my grandparents to finish, a man in a hotel manager’s uniform approached us. He noticed that I was still dressed up in full camo and blaze orange, and asked if I was successful that day. I shook my head, but told him we would try again tomorrow. My grandpa took over the conversation and shared a few highlights from our day with the hotel manager, who was very friendly and encouraging the entire conversation. Just as we cleaned up our table and prepared to head up to our room, he wished us luck and told us he’d be around until 9 AM that morning, so chances were we’d run into him again.

In the hotel room, I took a very long and hot shower, and scrubbed the layer of orange dust off my face. My face and eyes were red and sore with windburn, but everything else was protected. My legs were sore from walking, and my arms were sore from carrying my rifle around, but it wasn’t something a little Ibuprofen couldn’t take care of. The next day was supposed to be colder and foggy, but not nearly as windy or wet. I relaxed, knowing I’d have an easier time hunting the next day. The storm raging outside was likely pushing pronghorn from the western mountains into the eastern valleys, and since well over 40 hunters filled their tags on the first day, there would be a lot less hunters out on the plains the next day, increasing my chances of killing a pronghorn myself.

While my grandparents slept like rocks, I tossed and turned, tortured by my insufferable drive to hunt. It felt like I was staring into darkness for an eternity before I started to feel just slightly tired. Thankfully, this slight feeling of exhaustion was just enough to knock me out into a deep, dreamless sleep.