Last weekend I attended the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association annual awards conference along with my fiancée Donna Rai’ and my friend Brad Isles, who is a fellow writer and member of the organization and designer of this Web site. The event took place in Allentown, PA, which required a long rainy-day drive across Interstate 80, through the “Pennsylvania Wilds” country, over grand rivers, above deep, rain-soaked valleys, and under lush green mountainsides trimmed with fog, one of my favorite road trips in the world.
     At the conference Brad was elected Editor of the organization’s newsletter, and I signed on as chairman of the Membership Development Committee. I finally received the Bass Pro Shops “Pass It On” award announced last fall, and that required me to deliver a short impromptu speech to the group. I also won the “Allegheny National Forest Conservation” prize for a piece I did last year on brook trout enhancements in the ANF and the “Trout and Coldwater Fishery” award for my story last summer on solitary small-stream trout fishing.
     I guess you’ve got to enjoy them while you can. I may not win anything again for the next 10 years.
    Good luck out there. And have a great week outdoors.    

~ Don Feigert, 5-26-08