A Snowy Rooster Roadtrip To Take To The Bank!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 12:14PM 
Where's the road?
Well, you can take this story to the bank, so to speak... Ha! Friday morning, we hit the road and headed west, right into the heart of an early winter snowstorm to meet up with hunting buddy Jason Markkula. The Jeep bounced around a bit as it cut through half a foot of powdery snow blowing around in the wind. Way out in the country, you lose sight of the horizon in this kind of weather and it can just about make you dizzy! For a good chunk of our trip, we snuck along at 30 miles an hour in near white-out conditions. I wondered, as I white-knuckled the wheel, if we'd be hunting in this same rough weather once we reached Hendricks.
The Jeep! Hendricks is a small Minnesota farmtown of roughly 700 people and it's home to "The Bank"; Jason Markkula's bank. See, a few years ago, Jason, a longtime PF member, paid exactly $1 for Hendricks' old bank building. Yep, he bought a bank for a single buck. How cool is that?
The Bank!
Jason spent some quality time cleaning scraping plaster, rebuilding the roof, leveling the floor, all that kind of stuff and two years later ended up with one of the coolest flippin' places on the planet.
Hangin' in the Bank"The Bank" is now Jason's private pheasant hunting camp complete with 100-year-old tile floors, an antique oak bar/kitchen, a sleeping room, the original old brick walls, even a wash room with the old bank vault door. Talk about having some privacy!
The old logo on the vault door
The old vault door has a cool three-door system with multiple bolt locks....
Jason said he always wanted to own a bank. Now he's got one and it's become quite the social spot. It's certainly the local watering hole for Pheasants Forever members. Friday night, we hung out and drank a little beer while Franz, the "celebrity chef", whipped up a few of his favorite wild game appetizers.
Franz Starting on the Wild Game Buffet - Notice the Chef's Coat?Outside, Hendricks' winter festival parade slowly rolled by. A pretty cool thing to experience. 
Watching the Parade
I even stumbled upon the "bread trailer". A guy in town bakes bread in a modest mud oven and then parks the trailer in town where you drop in a donation and take your bread.
The Trailer...
Think super-dense, chewy, homemade stuff.
The Bread...
Saturday, we woke to sunny skies and hit the field. We hunted a good chunk of the day fighting wind and temps right around 12 degrees. Chilly. Chuck, our "semi-pro hunter" managed to bag the first bird.
The "Semi-Pro" with another bird
We followed with a few more as the day progressed. Then we settled back into the bank and drank a bit more beer. Our choice? "Rooster Lager" and "Walleye Chop"....for good reason too. See, Jason brews both those beers and donates some of the profit from both beers back to "The Build A Wildlife Area" program. Pretty cool As Jason says, "The more beer we drink the more wild land we save..." I like the way he thinks. Check out www.beerforwildlife.com for more info...
Up next, we've got ice. I'll be out fishing this week and I'll follow up with a report shortly!
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When it comes to traveling and roaming around Edmonton, I just rely on our Dodge Journey (Edmonton). I bought it through car dealerships in Edmonton a few years ago. At first, I was hesitant to buy them but when a friend of mine told me that Dodge is better than the others, I got so interested and so, I bought it.