Some R&R before winter settles in

We arrived in Prescott Arizona yesterday afternoon. We are here to shoot in the Arizona State Steel Challenge on Saturday. Today we ran out to the range to check it over, and learned that a small 5 stage match was going to be held, so we came back to town to buy some ammo to shoot the match. It was a fun match and afterwards we came back to town, ate rather well at A Golden Corral buffet and we are now resting in our motel. Neither of us slept well last night so we are tired.
Tomorrow we have a tour of the Ruger factory, then plan to do a little sightseeing in the afternoon. I want to got to the Gateway mall where I worked a number of years ago. I know at least two of my friends still work there so it would be nice to see them again. I will have photos and a report after we get home on Monday.

Cool Stuff, and thought for the day

Thought for the day:

Only by going too far can one possibly find out how far one can go.

Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

I have driven across the top of the Hover Dam in Colorado on journeys to and from Arizona a few times, and I must say it was a rather um! interesting drive. The road is very narrow with some rather tight curves to navigate, especially if a semi-truck, large RV or some other vehicle was coming from the opposite direction.
Although the view is stunning, what you could see of it while trying to keep your eyes on the road ahead, you can now bypass the view from the top of the Hoover dam, by driving an alternative route across the newly constructed Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.
The Federal Highway Administration, in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), officially opened the new segment of US 93, formally known as the Hoover Dam Bypass. Traffic began flowing on Tuesday night, October 19, 2010. Click HERE for more interesting information.

The new Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge Spans the Colorado river's Black canyon, with the Hoover dam with it's narrow winding road leading up to, across and over the other side just 1500 feet away.

What an amazing feat of engineering construction, and a beautiful work of art to boot.

Most arch bridges are cast elsewhere, but this one was built here, 900 feet above the river.

The cost of the project was $240 million, took five years to construct by about 1500 workers.

An absolutely fabulous sight.

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures of the day

Sunday morning we were up at 5:30am to get ready to catch the ferry from Clinton across to the mainland. As there was only one ferry running, the other had been pulled from service due to mechanical difficulties, we thought we would check out the terminal webcam to see just how bad the backup was. The backup was not as bad as we thought so we made sure we were on the dock to catch the 7:30 ferry.
With fog horns blaring now and again, and the fog swirling damp and thick around us, we slowly made the crossing. As we approached the dock at Mukilteo, the sun was beginning to break through the fog just beyond the trees, painting the scene with some wonderful ethereal effects.



To read about the rest of our day click HERE

It's a pea souper

Brrr! it is a damp clammy morning, one we are hoping the sun will burn off after a while. This kind of cold, wet fog seeps into your bones, making you shiver and shake and head towards the nearest warm place looking for a hot cup of coffee.

Wednesday humour

Bill, Jim, and Scott were at a convention together and were sharing a large suite on the top of a 75-story skyscraper. After a long day of meetings they were shocked to hear that the elevators in their hotel were broken and they would have to climb 75 flights of stairs to get to their room. Bill said to Jim and Scott, let's break the monotony of this unpleasant task by concentrating on something interesting. I'll tell jokes for 25 flights, and Jim can sing songs for 25 flights, and Scott can tell sad stories the rest of the way. At the 26th floor Bill stopped telling jokes and Jim began to sing. At the 51st floor Jim stopped singing and Scott began to tell sad stories. "I will tell my saddest story first," he said. "I left the room key in the car!"

There seems to be a trend developing, one which will be nipped in the bud

I can remember a time when I could count on the fingers of one hand, how many times I have fallen down in my life, but can top that now by falling down three times in six months.
My first topple was off a bicycle I rented while in Holland in May, that one resulted in bruises, scrapes and pulled muscles. Last month I stepped back while writing down scores for shooters at a match in Reno, did not see the rock directly behind me, and tripped over it to come crashing down, resulting in more injuries. This morning, while at the grocery store, I turned to look for something behind me, caught the heel of my shoe on the wheel of the shopping cart, and came down hard on the concrete floor. The two young men who were stocking vegetables came running to help me. One asked if I was hurt, I said I will probably feel more as time goes by, and I sure do. I now have both hips which hurt, a pulled muscle in my groin, and a slight sprain of my right hand. Dang! I told myself the last time I fell, "be more careful"

5 stage Steel challenge

The season for steel challenge is winding down as winter approaches, well at least it is winding down for me, as I am pretty much a 'fair weather shooter' and I do not enjoy shooting while my teeth chatter with cold. On Friday, we left for the range which is located just outside of Yakima WA. This is not the first time we have been to this range and you can see previous visits HERE and HERE

Mr C chowing down a cinnamon roll (home made of course) and a cup of coffee before the match commences.

Shara draws the score sheet of the person who is to shoot first on our first stage.

Texas two step?... no.....oh look! it is the Outer limits sprint!!

Matt times Mr C as he shoots Outer limits, a stage which can make or break you in a match. It sure did me in this time, as it seems I just could not get my act together. Oh well! I had fun regardless of my performance, and that is what the sport is about. If you are not having fun, then go find something else to do.

I finished third behind MR C who shot two guns
Mr C
62.80
63.34
Keewee
94.48

We had a great time as usual, two meals at our favorite little 50's themed diner in Moxee, and topped it off with a Dairy Queen ice cream when we arrived back on the island. We have a tradition of stopping at DQ when we come back onto the island after a trip away.

The goldies are still around

The goldfinches have been hanging out at the feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds.

WEDNESDAY HUMOUR

A kindergarten teacher handed out a coloring page to her class. On it was a picture of a duck holding an umbrella. The teacher told her class to color the duck in yellow and the umbrella green however, Bobby, the class rebel, coloured the duck in a bright fire truck red. After seeing this, the teacher asked him: "Bobby, how many times have you seen a red duck?" Young Bobby replied with "The same number of times I've seen a duck holding an umbrella."

GBR Part three.....Cowboy fastdraw day

On Sunday morning we once again car pooled, this time out to the Sage Hill Clays for some fun at cowboy fast draw.

The match was held at the home of the Reno Rustlers and fast draw champ Mr Cal Erlich AKA Fast Cal came to coach us in this fun sport.

Here are some of the cowboy/cowgirl names folks of the Reno Rustlers go by. I go by Keewee Belle.

I think I am safe in saying everyone had a great time shooting the firearms of around the 1800's era, and drawing from leather holsters. We of course were not dressed in 1800's attire except for one of us, but at regular matches the shooters do dress in period costume.

The targets are two feet across and you would think there was no way you could miss one. Wrong!! they are easy to miss when you are drawing and firing from the hip, as fast as you can. I have very small hands and had difficulty cocking and drawing the revolver smoothly, all the while aiming and trying to hit the target, but did manage to halfway figure it out after a while.
Yes indeed this is fun and Keewee Belle is looking forward to doing a whole lot more of cowboy fast draw. I did finish 9th out of 16 shooters, not bad for a girl eh?
Go on over to Traction Control to read a more in depth account of the day.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous, part two

Friday morning dawned clear and sunny and when I opened the curtains in our hotel room, we were greeted by this fabulous sight. It was the weekend for the Reno balloon races.

We watched the balloons for a while as they lazily floated against the clear blue sky, then took the very fast, make your ears ring, elevator down from our 32nd floor to the lobby, and from there to the hospitality room to meet up with the rest of our group.

Some of our friends chatting before partaking of the NRA sponsored breakfast. Sadly Rachael Parsons, from the NRA, who was to join us, had to cancel due to illness.

Mr C , Kevin from Smallest Minority, and Lori from Ruger

Closeup of the front of Kevin's shirt. Pretty cool don't you think?

Mr C and Lori

I thought the breakfast well presented and filling, and kept me going until we returned from the range.

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After breakfast we carpooled out to the Washoe County Shooting facility, where we all had a great deal of fun shooting the various firearms the group had brought with them.
Back in the hospitality room later that afternoon, Dan Hall, founder of GUNUP told us about this new website being launched very soon. It is a site which is a little hard to describe, essentially, it brings all aspects of the shooting world together under one roof.
The evening festivities started with dinner at Gecko's BBQ restaurant, I could not eat all my first portion of 'all you can eat ribs' let alone think of more, then we retired back to the hospitality room for more conversation.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2010, part 1

We arrived in Reno Wednesday afternoon, and checked into our hotel. When we opened the curtains in our room on the 32nd floor, we could see the rain falling on the hills in the distance, while downtown Reno basked in the warm sun.

Thursday morning, after a hearty breakfast at one of the local restaurants, a group of us drove to Cabela's. If you have never been to a Cabela's and you like all kinds of sporting and/or camping equipment, enjoy shooting, or other sports, then I am positive you would be interested in cruising this fabulous outfitter.

Located out front of the store is this huge sculpture of bighorn sheep.

Handsome guy.

I am mostly a shooter and know not a whole lot about guns, other than the pistol I shoot, but I do enjoy browsing the gun library in Cabela's. There are many very interesting firearms to study and ask questions about. Gary was there to show us some of the weapons, and answer any questions we had. I asked about a revolver which had a price tag of $29,000. I wanted to know what was there about the revolver which made it so expensive.

Cabelas has a wonderful display of mounted animals from all around the world, an aquarium, shooting gallery, a restaurant, a shop which sells all kinds of delicious goodies including fudge, and much more to tempt you.
As usual we all enjoyed our visit to Cabelas and many of the group left carrying bags of goodies, either ammo, other gunny related merchandise, or in Mr C's case, fudge, which I will have to help him eat *grin*

GBR TIME AGAIN

Some of you may know Mr C and I go to Reno every year for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. where we will be raising money for Project Valour-IT
We will be on a plane at 1:20 today heading for Reno and the Silver Legacy where the event is held.
Blogging will be light until we return home.
HERE is our very busy fun schedule.

Some past Rendezvous posts
HERE
HERE
HERE
HERE
See you when we get back.

2010 YAKIMA FALL CLASSIC STEEL CHALLENGE

For the second time in two months we drove East across Snoqualmie Pass to Ellensburg, and from there South to Yakima, and then East a bit more to Moxee, WA. and the Sun Valley Gun Club's range. This time they held a full 8 stage Steel Challenge match.

Even though we were out in what is semi-desert, the range has some lovely irrigated green lawns along with the dry brown dusty bays of the range. We parked where we had some shade for part of the day.

Looking out across dry parched land and irrigated crops. It really is quite beautiful in it's own way.


Mr C waiting for the range officer's command, " are you ready? stand by" then a buzzer goes off and firing commences.

Mr C showing off the tee shirt, advertising the maker of the barrel on the gun he is using.

JD loading his magazines for the next stage.

Our friend Matt shooting while his lovely wife Shara (lady with pony tail) loads more magazines for him.
We had a great day shooting the match with our friends, and both Mr C and I came home with awards. I was tickled to be presented with a certificate awarded for 1st place lady and also winning a gift certificate for $35 to be used at Guns West in Yakima, and Mr C won 1 st Place Overall Rimfire and 1 st Place Rimfire optic also receiving certificates we can frame and place on our trophy wall.
Mr C and I were not the only ones in our squad to do well, everyone in our squad went home with an award, how cool is that?

HOW OFTEN DO YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE FLOAT OVER YOUR HOUSE?

Before I tell you about this, I report, thank God, my family in New Zealand are all OK. They all live on the North Island, and the earthquake was centered on the South Island It was a miracle no one was killed.



The Farmers Airship is a Zeppelin named Eureka. One of only two flying commercially in the world, she is the only Zeppelin in the Americas and is owned and operated by Airship Ventures.
The zeppelin came very quietly floating above our house a couple of days ago and I must say it is a wonderful sight to see. It was very quiet with the barest hum from the engines being heard by Mr C and I as we stood and watched it go by.
This particular airship, not a blimp, was flying as a fundraiser for The March of Dimes. I would have loved to go for a ride.

On another note, I have been very busy so blogging has been light. Yesterday, Mr C and I shot in a Steel Challenge match and we both came home with awards. There will be a story coming up when all settles down around here. We are off to help a NRA membership drive today (at least Mr C is going to help).

World Steel Challenge Piru CA 2010

This was our fourth year at Piru CA where Mr C shot in the World Steel Challenge. The range is located about 15 minutes Northwest of Magic Mountain, half-way between Lake Piru and the town of Piru. As usual it was hot, dry, and dusty, a far cry from what we are used to here on Whidbey Island so we both were feeling quite wilted from the heat, but we made it through. Thank goodness for air conditioned vehicles and hotel rooms.
Every year at the event I have said "next year I will shoot this match" But when the time came around I chickened out. Next year I do intend on shooting and will certainly have to put in some practice time before doing so.
We enjoyed re-connecting with friends from past years, making new friends, and watching the best in the world compete.
The pictures in the slide show of our squad members, 'on the move' are taken as they shoot 'Outer limits' not one of the most liked stages by many competitors.

THIS TIME WE ARE GOING FOR SURE

Last week at this time, we were ready to leave for California, but there was a major glitch in our plans, but to day we are ready. I did make use of my down time last week, and managed to get some yard work done and a few chores around the house which need attending to.
I checked the weather for Piru, where we will be spending two days outdoors at the range, and it will be in the high 90's, better than 118 + degrees it has been in past years. Mr C is competing in the World Steel Challenge match.

A NICE WEEKEND WITH A RANT THROWN IN

First comes the nice part. Early Saturday morning we drove the freeway and took the first of two ferry rides to get to the range in Silverdale where we had a good, but warm day shooting a fun steel match. After the match we enjoyed dinner with friends at one of our favorite restaurants in the area, then around 5pm we went to another friend's home where a block party was in progress.

Here, under the shade of a very large tree, was more food and beverages set out to enjoy. I especially liked the wonderful very cold margaritas, which certainly hit the spot on this very hot day. I drank one or two, or was that three, who was counting ? and felt quite relaxed *grin* Thank goodness we had taken our RV and parked it in the yard, so we did not have to make the long drive home.

The neighbors had built the stage specially for the band, which played for our entertainment until about 9:45pm.

This morning, Sunday, I was up early and strolled down to the dock, where I sat on a bench to enjoy the tranquility of the morning, before the first boats pulling water skiers made noise. The photo is taken looking back up to wards the house.

The water lilies growing near the dock were starting to come out. They sure are pretty.

There were many dragonflies flitting here and there, and one happened to stop and hover right in front of me, almost as though posing for the camera.

RANT TIME
When we left Silverdale this morning, we decided to drive to Port Townsend and try to get on the ferry there, instead of driving to catch the Kingston ferry then more driving on the busy freeway to catch the Mukilteo Ferry back to the island. We knew that most people make reservations for the crossing, but we also knew that they do leave a little room for standby travelers, so we crossed our fingers and hoped to get on one of the crossings at Port Townsend.
As we approached the ferry dock at Port Townsend, traveling in the lane designated for ferry traffic only, we saw one of the ferry personnel sitting on a bicycle by the curb, in the little bit of shade offered by a planter full of flowers hanging from a lamp post. He sure had a surly look on his face as he motioned us forward so he could speak to us, telling us in a snappish voice, that we may be on the 3:45 ferry or the 5: 45 one, and to pull forward behind the vehicle in front of us. As we moved forward, Mr C and I looked at each other and commented on his demeanor.
Anyhow, we sat there in the heat and waited, then as the ferry finally approached the dock, the gentleman in the vehicle directly in front of us, stepped out of his vehicle obviously with the intention of speaking to the SFW who was approaching on his bicycle. As the SFW came abreast of the open window on my side of the RV the gentleman waiting spoke to the SFW who completely ignored him and went on down the road and onto the dock. Mr C and I were outraged at SFW's rudeness and called to the gentleman who had tried to speak to SFW. All the gentleman wanted to ask, was how likely was the possibility of making the next ferry. We said to him that earlier on, we had not been impressed with the SFW's behavior, so the gentleman, not knowing which, or if he would be on a ferry anytime soon, decided to pull out of the ferry line, drive back the way he had already come, to return home by a longer route.
By this time the ferry had docked so we were able to pull forward, pay our fare and pull onto the dock to wait in the standby lane. Gee! guess who, with a surly face, was there impatiently motioning us forward to park as close as possible to the vehicle in front. This time I knew Mr C had had enough of the jerk as he climbed out of our RV to confront the SFW. Mr C asked the SFW his name, and the SFW put out his hand expecting a handshake. I chuckled to myself when Mr C did not offer his hand in return, instead explaining very firmly how displeased we were at the treatment the gentleman in front of us received from SFW Of course, SFW tried to make good with an apology, but he was apologising to the wrong people. I did not hear the rest of the ahem! conversation between my honey and SFW but I know Mr C certainly got his point across.
Then as we waited for the next ferry, we wondered if we had really ticked the SFW off and he would retaliate by not boarding us on the ferry There is a sign on the dock which states something like,vehicles may not be loaded in order etc. etc. Anyhow, all worked out as we did manage to get on the next ferry and make it back to our home, and we do have the name of SFW, so we just may make a phone call to the Washington State Ferry authorities, to lodge a complaint on this SFW who needs to work on his people skills. Dang it anyway, we, the taxpayers, are paying his exorbitant wages, so a little respect and customer service, is certainly not much to ask for.