Ben Avery 5 EOT

 Today is the start of End of Trail, the SASS World Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting. Today's event was the first 5 stages of Wild Bunch match. This is a side event competition based on the movie “The Wild Bunch” set in 1913.  It has a western flavor without being Cowboy.  We use a 1911 pistol and 1897 pump shotgun along with or regular cowboy rifle in scenarios much like our cowboy match. I felt like I shot pretty well, but didn’t really check the score sheet too carefully.  I had fun.  What more do I need?  Saw a few people I have become acquainted with over the past 4 years events, always good.  Met a few new people which is another thing I come here to do.  And my left arm didn’t notice all the shooting again today.  I had still “worried” that the pump shotgun might be an issue.  Even when I had to do a reload on the stage I supported it with just my left arm while loading with the right.  Didn’t even think about it until after and it worked fine.  Apparently all the caution and PT paid off.  It’s still sore at night but I’ll take that trade off.

We came back to camp after a quick cruise of the vendors.  We each had some gunsmithing to do, Mike had discovered a weak spring in his rifle and I discovered yesterday that my cowboy shotgun must be dirty since it was not reliably firing the second barrel.  Last ime that happened it just needed a detail cleaning inside the action.  So we had to run out to the store for some spray cleaner.  Sitting outside in shorts cleaning guns.  Nice afternoon!

After supper we sat out in the driveway and watched the sunset.  If you’ve read this blog in previous years you know the sunsets here are pretty nice.

Some Wild Bunch shooting.

Sunset, first is the hill behind the range.and then a couple views from our campsite.

Ben Avery 4, Fire & Ice

 The second day of the Fire & Ice match.  Another beautiful sunny day in the low 70s.  Had a good day again, lots of fun.  Mike had a little trouble with his shotgun so we spent some time talking to a couple gunsmiths about repair or replacement.  Got a friend (ET) to find a spring and washer that may (or may not) have fixed it.  Also have a gunsmith bringing both springs and another shotgun on Wednesday.  We’ll, that took just about the whole day.

We went to dinner to celebrate Becky’s birthday, Henry went with us to a Chinese restaurant she recommended.  It was excellent!

Tomorrow is the EOT Wild Bunch event, the first five stages.  Safety meeting at 7:30.  I guess that means we’ll be eating cereal instead of taking the time for eggs.

A few more views of Cowtown

Ben Avery 3, Fire. & Ice Shoot

 Today began what we came for, Cowboy Action Shooting.  This was a warm up match held at a different club 8 miles from camp.  The Fire & Ice shoot at Cowtown in Peoria AZ.  It’s a working ranch which devotes a portion of the land to shooting ranges.  One is set up with permanent stages for Cowboy, another area for modern shooting, another for paintball, more for motorbike/4 wheeler.

There were perhaps 200 shooters for this weekend, about 20 on each posse (shooting group).  I shot pretty well, only 1 miss, especially since I have not shot CAS since October.  My left shoulder, the one I hurt when I fell on that ice covered rock during deer season, was fine!  My right shoulder is still weak when it comes to holding a pistol out straight in front of me.  That was the rotator cuff injury and repair a couple years ago.

it was 67 degrees with full sunny sky this afternoon.  So comfortable!  We sat outdoors to clean the guns and relax in the sun.  i didn’t come in until it was cooling off at 5.

Back to Cowtown tomorrow.

Some views of the match

The view from the living room tonight.

Ben Avery 2

 A calm day of being here.  Move the camper to dump the waste tanks.  Took a tour of the Cowboy stages we’ll shoot next week.  They are still being built, and that started a week ago.  Go to the camper store for some heat fluid to make the liquid exchange heat system work.  It has leaked.  Had lunch at a cool Mexican place & do some shopping in my favorite ethnic grocery store Then find the leak before adding more fluid.  Yup, Mike found the leak and fixed it.  Didn’t need to call the mobile camper repair guy!

Load the car for an easy start tomorrow.  

This is a great place for sunsets and hot air balloons.  Had both tonight.  

A view of downtown Phoenix as we drove around  

Ben Avery 1

 A day without going anywhere.  Wow.  Mike and I got all our gear out of the coach cargo bays, put our gun carts together; we had to take wheels, axles and handles off so they’d fit in the bays.  Put them in the Jeep to prove that they’d fit so we can drive to our weekend match a few miles away.  They did!

We had a lot of company too.  Single Rose came by with some camper supply Mike had requested.  ET and Nantucket Dawn found us to say hello and finally Half-a-Hand Henry came over for a while.  We can see her camper from here and had spotted it yesterday.  

After all that was done I got to sit outside in the sun and read for a while   

We went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Pretty good!  

These are some views around our camp, 

 starting with us   

Ben Avery Shooting Facility, Phoenix—We have ARRIVED!!!

 It was not such a bad night in the rest area.  Actually quite peaceful.  Hardly any engine idling even though it was mostly full of truckers.  I’d heard that most western rest areas allowed overnight parking but had never tried it.  When we arrived and found it full of trucks and barely had room to squeeze into a space behind a truck we realized it must be OK here.  

We could not put the slides out so had to suffice with rather cramped quarters.  Much like a few submarines I’ve toured.  That’s because there is not room for much besides the normal width of the trailer in those spaces.  

It was a nice chilly 36 this morning too.  As we traveled it did warm up, to 60 something.  And the WIND!  Geez.  Must have been a steady 30 mph almost all day.  Depending on the direction of travel it was a headwind or crossing from the left.  Never quite steady.  We saw a lot of truckers blown around too.  Talk about a tiring drive.  AND the dust storms.  Actually by AZ standards the dust storms were not bad.  It did make a haze on the scenery, I didn’t see Mt Graham until we were well into AZ, and I know it’s visible from NM.  That’s where Carlene and I spent most of March ‘20 hiking while in COVID hiding.  Nice to see it again!

Then we got up around Tucson and the wind was mild.  The came the heavy rain.  We heard from a friend who was already at the EOT range that it rained a lot in Phoenix today.  The radar had a lot of dark green and yellow spots.  But lo and behold, it moved SE and we drove through it to find partly cloudy sky when we arrived.  

But we arrived!  And we’ll be here until March 7.  Got the camper set up, as a basic start that is.  Lot more to do to be ready for a shoot on Saturday.  Then for some grocery shopping since we had eaten just about everything we had.  Nice Albertsons store just a couple miles away.

This camper was in the rest area too

Sights along through El Paso

Into New Mexico

 

New Mexico and Arizona

A Phoenix tunnel

Fabens, TX

 Wonderful drive today!  Well, ok, the bumper to bumper traffic in San Antonio wasn’t that great but after that…

The Texas Hill Country is always nice, followed by the transition into the Chihuahuan Desert area is so unique that it is a treat every time I come out here!  That first finding of Prickly Pear Cactus along the road is great proof that we have finally arrived the West!  

Splendid drive along a couple hundred miles of that scenery as it slowly changes into full desert mode.  That’s what I come for!

We had selected a campground in Sierra Blanca that is halfway between last night and Phoenix.  That’s all it had going for it.  I had checked the sketchy reviews and showed Mike the satellite view this morning.  We agreed it was ok for one night.  We got there and we’re just about parked when Mime decided it would be difficult to level the rig.  Well, that and the dead cat laying in front of the pick up across from us!  The whole town had a run down look.  I was right at home. But I thought I was back in Guatemala!  

We headed down the road again. Mike driving the coach and me the car ( we had unhooked it by then).  Could not find another campground so we are now parked for the night in a rest area on I-10 abou t60 miles east of El Paso.  And listening to one of the many Spanish radio stations here.  Cool!

And that extra mileage makes it less than 500 miles to reach EOT tomorrow

Update, apparently this didn’t publish last night.  Should have, but…

San  Antonio

On the road

The campground in Sierra Blanca

On the road to the rest area

The final straw

Luling, TX, Patriot RV Park

 Drove a lot today, 450 or so miles.  We are about 60 miles east of San Antonio, TX.  Nice quiet little town.  Mike and I wen to town for some Mexican food.  We’ll, we really wen in to get BBQ but only the Mexican restaurants were open!  Everything (the other 6 places) either were not open or closed at 4 or 6 pm.  But I had been in the mood for Mexican anyway.  It’s central south Texas.   Where Mexican is real!  This place was entirely staffed my Mexicans who make everything fresh every day.  No carry over.  And it was deliciosa!  

The park is pretty basic, but it’s just what one comes to expect from a rural RV park beside the interstate.  it’s a blend of seasonal, full time and transients like us.  Most of the permanent rigs are a bit well aged.  

Speaking of campers I’ve seen. The only New England rig I have seen anywhere was one Massachusetts camper seen on the highway.  Not a NE rig in any campground.  One Quebec.  Not what Carlene and I usually see.  

The drive through Houston was much easier than I had expected based on previous experience.  Hmm, that’s what I said about Atlanta too.  Except for one car crash that caused a big slowdown in traffic.  And that was going right through the midtown Interstate rather than the belt line.  

It is quite warm here.  It was 83 when we arrived and it is down to only 70 now 9:20 PM.

Onward to far West Texas tomorrow.

Some views around last night’s campground in LA

The Mississippi

Atchafalaya Bayou Bridge

Houston