I was apprehensive about allowing my 16 year old son to explore the hunting arena. He lives with his father during the school year and it was my time to spend with him during the summer. I asked him what he wanted to do during his summer vacation. He mentioned how he would like to go hunting wild hogs.  At first I was like, why?  What would be so exciting about that!!  I can't teach him this! This is a man's job.  I am not a man! Who would teach him gun safety?  I would not know where to start.

     As a single mom, doing the best I can with what I have to work with, I agreed to do some research to see if we could make this happen.  I went straight to the internet.  Wilderness Calls popped up in my search engine so I clicked on the link.   As I navigated through the site I was quit apprehensive.  I thought to myself, is this safe? How much this will cost me, and most of all, who will be training my son.  What experience does this person have?  As I scanned over the site, I found it very informative.  Wilderness calls had Simple terms that I could deal with.   So I booked a wild hog hunting trip.

     As we arrived at the Wilderness Calls camp site, we were welcomed by the Redneck Guru himself, Sam and his partner James.  They both made us feel right at home.  Sam took Brandon to the side to begin his gun safety training.  I stayed on the porch with a glass of ice tea engrossed in conversation with James.  James explained all stages of the wild hog hunt.  He was professional at all times.  He explained the number one goal at Wilderness Calls is to have a safe hunt.  The second is a productive hunt.  He went over the camp rules with me and Sam explained the camp rules to Brandon.  I watched from a short distance away, I could see an intense look on my sons face. He was actually listening very closely. I could tell He was very intrigued, hanging on every word that Sam spoke.  It was as though I was watching my son crossing over to man hood before my very own eyes.  After the safety class and some gun safety training, Sam took Brandon to a tree stand.  A few hours later, my little boy came back with a very large smile on his face, and a wild hog on the back of the Honda.  From the beginning to the end, Sam and James made our experience a pleasure. Thank you, Wilderness Calls team for helping my little boy cross over from a boy to a man. Some weeks have passed since the trip; I have noticed a great difference in Brandon.  He appears to have grown up over the summer. Sometimes I think as parents we just need to let go, just a little to let this happen. He will return back to school late August with some great memories.  I could not have done this without the experience of Sam and James. Thanks again.