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Dear Mr. Munhollan,
I cannot begin to express my feelings of gratitude to you and
the Safari Club international for allowing by daughter
Kimberly to go on the Antelope hunt to New Mexico. This was
a very difficult summer for our whole family due to Kimberly’s
diagnosis with a brain tumor in June. I could not have
envisioned a better way to repay her for her summer of tests,
doctors, hospitals, X-ryas, and MRI’s is I had tried. It was
amazing to me that she was recuperated enough to go, but
she was. There is something about youth that allows the body
to heal much faster than we do as we grow older. As you can
imagine, there were many tears and sleepless nights for all of
us.
Through all of it, Kimberly remained positive, brave and
strong. But there were fears and thoughts just under the
surface which she kept hidden. She would no allow herself to
become negative or depressed. She is an amazing young lady
and I am so very proud to have her as my daughter.
The hunt was truly the experience of a lifetime that I told her
it would be. All of the people involved were outstanding and a
true credit to the human race. Tony Martinez took right to
Kimberly and she felt very comfortable and relaxed at the
ranch. Although animals were hard to find on the tour, there
were plenty of Antelope to hunt. We did not have animals
close on the first hunt of the morning, but it was a glorious
morning in God’s great outdoors. We saw Antelope, but they
were well over 1000 yards away and did not pose an
opportunity for Kimberly. After the hunt, we returned to the
ranch and made plans for a second hunt. It was at a section of
land south of the Ranch headquarters. There was a nice buck
that was hanging almost in the center of the property. This
hunt was not to be for Kimberly either as the buck became
alarmed and headed to the north out of the property at a
high rate of speed. By this point, Kimberly was beginning to
get a little discouraged. She remained positive outside, but I
could see the doubt in her eyes. The third hunt was quite an
experience that I will allow her to tell you. Let me just say that
she finally realized success on hunt number three.
The flashback ends with my dad and me
arriving at our rest-stop for the night in Clayton,
New Mexico. I remember searching the small town
of Clayton for at least half an hour for an available
hotel room that wasn’t expensive, and then finally
we found one! We had arrived at the hotel around
10:30 to 11:00 P.M. and naturally I was extremely
tired. The next morning, however, all weariness
had left my body.
I was pumped and ready to get on the road
to see the Martinez Ranch. My dad and I headed
out from Clayton around 7:30 A.M., to make sure
we had enough time to get to the ranch before the
tour started. We were glad we did allow some extra
time because we got lost! We had accidentally
passed the road and did almost an extra hour of
driving away from where we needed to go! So after
getting the correct directions from a police officer,
we were back on track to the Martinez Ranch. The
road was fairly abandoned, us being the only
visible car for miles. The wide open prairies and
the occasional group of pronghorn were the only
thing to see. This only hyped up my anticipation for
arriving at the ranch, I was extremely eager to meet
the ranch owner and to see what the ranch had to
offer.
Finally we had arrived at the Martinez
Ranch. From looking around the ranch, I noticed
that many tents and campers were already set up. I
knew there was a fairly large crowd of hunters
already there. It was shortly after we arrived that I
met the ranch owner Tony Martinez. I had spoken
to him on the phone a couple of times before
visiting the ranch and I had been very eager to meet
him.
After my dad properly introduced ourselves
he took us on a short tour of the camp where we
could set up our tent anywhere. My dad had also
made it a point to remind Mr. Martinez that I had
just had brain surgery less than eight weeks ago,
just so he would not forget about my circumstance
as well as for him to understand that I would
possibly have some difficulties during the hunt.