Pre-Convention Travel, Petersburg, Virginia

We got here to Charlotte yesterday a little later than we planned, but not too bad. One thing we like about coming to the conventions is the chance to do side trips in different parts of the country. Yesterday, we got our history freak on and visited the battlefields around Petersburg, Virginia.

The Union troops attacked Petersburg hoping to cut off the Confederate capitol of Richmond. The first attack succeeded, but the commander didn't press his advantage and failed to take Petersburg.

A long siege ensued in terms both of time and distance. Troops built earthworks that stretched forty miles in some places. When you're driving in the National Park, you see unnatural hillocks throughout the forested land. They're the remains of the earthworks; the places where men fought, died, survived.

Petersburg is also the site of the Battle of the Crater. This was one of the most successful failures in military history. The explosion in the tunnel succeeded wildly, but the subsequent attack was a bloody disaster for the Union. Here are a few photos:

Opening to the tunnel Pennsylvania miners dug under Confederate lines.

Reproduction of the "Dictator" mortar the Union troops used to shell Petersburg.

A selection of Civil War cannon including a Dahlgren Boat Gun, Napoleon, Parrot, and a British breechloader.

Whittington Center

One of our "must sees" on our vacation was NRA's Whittington Center nestled in the mountains outside of Raton, New Mexico. If you look for it on a map, you'll find it in New Mexico's northeast corner not far from Colorado. We stayed in one of the smaller and rustic cabins on the grounds.

We arrived a little late, but shooting hours are from sun up to sun down. We had plenty of time to burn powder. More about that later.

The Whittington Center is one of America's premier shooting facilities. It boasts 17 ranges for a number of disciplines--rifle, shotgun, and handgun. Some of the ranges close depending on weather or other reasons, but enough were open for us to enjoy an afternoon of shooting. There is also a gift shop, museum, and offices. A few people are lucky enough to live on the grounds. There are no restaurants, so you either bring food or drive four miles to Raton.

The museum is new and worth a stroll. It features many guns and puts them into context with shooting sports. The center also sponsors guided hunts and other activities. By the way, they sell ammo there--no 9mm or .380 to be found.

We must be rain magnets or something, because it rained there and the gate keeper couldn't remember the last time it had rained. And here is the gate:
We checked in and put a few things in the cabin. They don't allow dogs in any of the buildings, so Cooper stayed in the pickup which we drove to the ranges. Most of the pistol ranges were closed, but the Hunter's Pistol Silhouette range was open.

We had never shot silhouette of any kind before and we had a blast. Another couple were shooting at the steel chickens, so we elected to shoot at steel pigs. We didn't attempt to follow any of the rules (shoot from left to right, or keep score, etc.), we just tried to knock the piggies off their steel pedestals.

We used handguns--a 9mm Smith & Wesson for me and for Yosemite his Colt .45 acp. It was a challenge. Yosemite Sam is trying for bacon:

If you're curious, the pigs are 50 yards away. I wish to say that we knocked them down in short order. Nope, we used much hard to find ammo, but we did send a goodly number of the nefarious steel piggies into the dirt. Challenging, but we had a ball. Now, we want to find a nearby silhouette range (any input is welcome, as always).

We packed up and drove to the "sight in" range, which is the paper on racks-type rifle range. We had brought a couple of rifles, my M1 Garand, and Yosemite Sam's 7mm Rem Mag. When we got out of the pickup, we scared a herd of antelope that were grazing on the end berm. They knew it was no longer a good place for them. For me, the antelope is the mascot of the Whittington Center. They're all over the place.

We shot for awhile, but it was cold there. A damp wind had come up and we broke out our jackets. The brisk wind carried rain and it was in the low 40s. Weather like this, in New Mexico in late May! A founder's cabin under glowering skies.

We didn't shoot the next day, but moved on to new places. If you ever have a chance to get to the center, go. Plan an entire day of shooting. Plan a family get-together, a vacation, a "business" trip, or invent any other reason. Just get there and have fun. If you need any more reasons, here's a picture of their 1,000 yard range as seen from our cabin.

More Adventures in the Southwest

We've left Phoenix far behind and are doing the tourist thing again. We've seen and done so much already. (Still Blackberry blogging, so no pictures or links--we'll put some up later.)

Yesterday, we stopped at the Meteor Crater. Now that's a hole in the ground. What surpised me the most was the rim. It rises from the desert floor dramitically. The attached musuem was informative and one display allowed you to superimpose the crater over a map of Arizona. It pretty much covered Phoenix and this is a small crater compared to some of those on the moon.

We ended the travel day at the Petrified Forest National Park. The petrified logs are interesting. You're looking at a rock that used to be a living tree. You see knots where branches had been attached, bark, and tree rings--all in stone now. At the gift shop, we bought a little hunk of it. More junk for the mantlepiece, but it's purty. (The source of the petrified wood was from private lands.)

We saw more places and did more than I can mention here. I'm glad we decided to make this one a road trip.

Pains in the Neck

It's my turn to be the sad clown now. Yosemite Sam and I wanted to go to the Ben Avery Shooting Facility north of Phoenix. In fact, it was on my list of must dos.

When we got there this afternoon, we found out they had adopted their summer hours (on May 12 no less) and they are closed this afternoon.

To really put the pain in the neck, the engine light in Yosemite's truck came on. We're now sitting in a PepBoys waiting for news. Sigh.

UPDATE: We finished at PepBoys. The problem was a gummed up throttle linkage. The heat probably softened some old dirt and was giving the linkage fits. The mechanic cleaned the throttle body and sent us on our way, a little poorer.

Continuing Adventures

It's Friday. We ended up in a hotel with virtually no Internet connection and a very busy schedule of vacation goodness. We're in Phoenix now. We arrived here late last night--best laid plans and all. We're slowly pulling ourselves out of the vacation mentality and into the convention mentality.

We've had a good vacation. As I said in Monday's post, we stayed and ate dinner at The Big Texan in Amarillo. Here it is in all it's glory:

Note, the white limo. They have a fleet of them to take you to and from the place. Only in Texas.

After Amarillo, we beat feet to Tombstone, Arizona home of staged gunfights, tourist trap souvenir shops, western schlock, and we loved every minute of it. Here's the view from our motel room:

I grew up in a desert state. I felt at home here. We did a few of the typical Tombstone things. We visited Boot Hill, took a stage coach ride, walked on wooden sidewalks, spent money, took in a gunfight show at Six Gun City, and more.

One thing else we did there. We shot real guns at an ingenious shooting gallery, called Big Iron Shooting Gallery in a downtown storefront (link goes to a list of attractions). Someone had the bright idea of swaging brass down to hold small paintballs while still fitting a single-action revolver. A primer drives them out. We had a blast and a good conversation with the person running the place. Good times. Here's a gratuitous Tombstone pic:

We used Tombstone as a base and saw the Pima Air and Space Museum near Tucson where we saw the world' ugliest airplane and a lot more besides:

We did many more things including a trip to a Titan missile launch facility. But, my favorite place was Tombstone itself. I know it is now a cheesy tourist trap, but once past our modern cynicism we enjoyed ourselves. Despite all the souvenir shops, history really happened here. We walked past the Oriental Saloon where Wyatt Earp dealt Faro. We're still watching movies about a certain gunfight that happened in this little town.

Now in Phoenix, we're getting ready to attend the Convention. Talk to you all later.

Morning From Amarillo

We're on the road again to the NRA Convention. I'm writing this from my BlackBerry, so there will be no links. No guarantee on no typos either.

We left Maryland on Saturday morning and drove 806 miles to Jackson, TN. Getting too old for long drives. So Sunday we up and drove 812 more miles to get to Amarillo, TX.

We stayed and ate dinner at The Big Texan Hotel and Restaurant--home of the "free" 72 ounce steak. Eat it all, plus salad, appetizer, potato and it is free along with the bragging rights. Saying we took it on and won would be a good story, but that's all it would be. We ate a much more prosaic dinner.

We're heading to Tombstone, AZ today and just left Amarillo. Another long drive. Pity me.

Over The River

Well, I tried to blog yesterday, but I am taking today off and the boss kept tossing stuff on my desk to get done before my mini-vacation.

Of course I could have blogged from home, but packing took precedence. I am posting this from Yosemite Sam's truck from my Blackberry (phone-blogging, is this a great country or what).

We're on our way home to New Hampshire where we will eat, shoot our new and old guns, and have fun. Talk to you all later.

We're Back

This is just a quick post to let you all know that we're back from our travels. We couldn't get an Internet hook up that didn't cost an arm and a leg and didn't post all weekend. Besides, we were too busy having fun. We arrived home about 1:00 this morning and are still pretty tired.

It seems like the NRA Convention was a month ago. We enjoyed the convention, our travels in southern Utah, and our stay in Las Vegas. I'd like to say it was profitable, but alas I hit a blackjack dealer who couldn't lose and my winnings tanked. Fortunately, I didn't lose much and in several cases I enjoyed playing (winning would have been more enjoyable yet).

We saw Penn & Teller's show at the Rio and, as advertised, it included guns. The performers did a double bullet-catching routine. They used Colt Pythons with supposedly a .357 magnum load. The two gun shots didn't sound loud enough to be .357s and I know those two men are too smart to stand in front of loaded guns and actually catch bullets in their teeth. Still, it was a good act.

As many of you know, Penn & Teller slammed gun control in an episode of their Showtime series Bullshit. They believe very much in the First and Second Amendments. In the live show, they showed our Bill of Rights--a parchment-like poster with all ten amendments on it and then the Chinese Bill of Rights--a clear acetate poster with no writing.

I was impressed with their love of country and of speech and gun freedoms. Also, Penn (the talking one) listed the four rules of gun safety as well as the don't try this at home warning.

Well, as I said, a quick post. We still have unpacking to do and new books and souvenirs to put away. We'll start posting again tomorrow.

Vegas and Zion

My last post got a bit truncated. One of those Blogger mysteries I guess. I'd actually written a lot more on Vegas, but a middle part of it disappeared into the bit bucket.

I'm not going to try and reconstruct the last post, but I will reflect for a moment. I grew up in the desert west. When I visit here, I feel homesick although I haven't lived here since graduate school. I like the dry desert air and how the nights cool down so dramatically.

I need to make my way back west to live. If looks like retirement may be the best possibility unless I want to make a major career change. Hey, I can count to 21, maybe I'll be a blackjack dealer!

In my last post, I also included more photos like this one:
Binions Horseshoe

If you follow the World Series of Poker you'll recognize Binions. Benny Binion got an ideain the 1970s, invited several friends for a tournament, and then it took off getting bigger each year. It's too big now to hold at Binions and Rio hosts all but the last few tables which are still played at Binions.

I like to play a little penny-ante Texas Hold'em. I'm actually quite good in a limit game. However, I don't have the killer instinct, and I'm too cheap, for big-money no-limit hold'em. Still, I may enter a tournament one day just to try it out and only risk the entry fee.

As far as gambling, I am cheap and avoid big losses. I like Four Queens five dollar a hand blackjack tables and poker slots. I'm slightly ahead right now thanks to a good run of luck at poker slots. Bill is still ahead.

Enough Vegas, right now I'm near Zion National Park and Bill is still there hiking a trail. We'll have more photos soon of Zion, but here's one for right now:
Zion National Park

Thanks for sticking with us and gunnie goodness will soon resume. See you all later.
(Posted at 4:26 pm Mountain Time)

Vegas Vagaries

Bill and I are waking up in Las Vegas. It’s almost noon in New England and we’re feeling almost decadent. I think that’s part of Vegas’s charm—giving you a relatively safe place to experience a little decadence. Like pretending to wake up at noon when it’s actually 8:00.

We’re going to Utah this afternoon to explore canyons of twisted rock and spires so eerie even geologists call them hoodoos. After a couple days in the real desert, we’re back in Vegas’s more tamed desert.

As I mentioned yesterday, we plan to see Penn & Teller’s show on Friday. Most of you have probably seen them bashing gun control on their Showtime series, Bullshit. They used the best weapon of all, ridicule. When we got to the airport the other day, here is what we saw over the luggage carousel:


Not a bad omen. (Posted at 9:20 am)

Viva Las Vegas

Bill and I are in the second leg of our vacation. Our first was the NRA convention and now we're in Las Vegas.

We're staying at Four Queens on Fremont Street. We always wanted to spend a little time on Fremont Street (not that there's a lot to see here compared to the EuroResorts on the Strip) and now we did. As I write this I can see Binion's and part of the street. Compared to New England, it's warm here--though a cold front is supposed to have moved through. You couldn't prove it by me.

Tomorrow we'll be in Utah exploring Zion National Park and the next day other places of interest in Utah (Bill has the list of things to do and he's off somewhere). After Utah, we come back to Vegas. We'll be staying at the Luxor and we have tickets for the Penn & Teller show. It'll be our one-year anniversary that weekend, so we plan to have fun (blush).

When we come back from our nature hikes in Utah, we plan to go to one of Las Vegas's gun clubs and shoot up a little ammo (mabe a lot).

As we find free or cheap internet connections, we'll keep posting our travels and anything gun related that comes to mind. Thanks for reading. (By the way, I'm down about $30.00 in gambling, but Bill's up about $200.00, sigh.)

Posted: 5:20 PM Pacific Time