Arising early is part of the game if you are a hunter or angler.

But this morning's rise-and-shine call was not so that I could hustle to be archery deer-hunting blind. Nope.

Neither was it required so that I could thread my way in the dark to a pond where Canada geese frequently reside. Not there, either.

My task was to set a course to Gander Mountain's Mentor store and check in with its staff as well as customers. Fueled with a cup of regular coffee I was ready to do the Flipcam video interviews.

While most of the customers wanted to hurry in and hurry out of the store, I did find several shoppers who were relishing the opportunity to share their Black Friday experiences; for which I am grateful.

All in all the process was a blast with some really great comments coming from the store's manager and (especially) two shop-till-they-drop patrons.

Take a look at The News-Herald's web site and the "news video" portal.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. I took advantage of Gander Mountain's Thanksgiving Day-only set of sales items, on Thursday dropping what would have been nearly $90 but by using a $10 Gander-Buck card I was able to shave that figure a little bit.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com