EOT day 3

 I shot in the third wave at 2 PM today so I had some free time this morning. Sort of.  Earlier I had seen a certain boot dressing in one of the vendors. I discovered that mine was all dried up so I went looking for it.  My good boots are a bit dry from the rain & mud followed by dry weather.  Couldn’t find it!  Must have sold it.  

So back to the camper to seal the roof again.  My previous job wasn’t quite enough. I pulled off some old sealer and in the better light of full sun this morning I could see where it needed more sealer.  So on with another half tube.  This might be sufficient.  I won’t know until it rains.  I left the ladder up so I can check it again tomorrow.  

While I was doing that Carlene and Skye went to Pleasant Lake for a hike   She came back in time for my last two stages  

Shot the last four stages and now it is over. 8 days of Cowboy and Wild Bunch.  What a blast!  And we had a great posse. Lots of fine folks, they all pitched in to work all the time.  

This evening's banquet was very good.  Nice roast beef. Very good band. Sat with some friends that I only see out here and a young couple that were on my posse. Good time!

Fiddler Grey showing some flame 

The Ladies of Posse 19

This couple got married today at EOT

Carlene’s hike:

EOT Day 2

 Second day of shooting the main match at End of Trail.  Some more great fun stages with a great posse.  

While I was shooting Carlene was making calls to mobile repair people to get the camper furnace fixed.  They all said 1-2 weeks.  I did some more computer searches and we called more.  Found AZ Mobile RV Repair and Kevin came over this afternoon and fixed it!  Dust/dirt/dog hair blocking a small switch preventing gas ignition. He showed me everything he was doing so I can handle it next time.  It’s a lot warmer in here tonight than it was last night!  Rancho Roy had offered the use of his portable propane heater if we needed it.  

EOT day 1

 Today was the big start off for End of Trail, we shot four stages at 11 AM.  So I had a nice easy morning to clean the guns from yesterday and get it all organized.  It had stopped raining during the very early morning, everything had mud on it, a lot still does!  Funny how the bone dry desert does not absorb water very fast.  It all sits around making some very, very sticky mud.

The shooting went pretty well, 2 misses in 4 stages is not all that great but the times were consistent and that helps.  This evening was a swap meet.  We each sold some stuff we weren’t using.  And didn’t buy anything to replace it!

Later tonight is a bummer.  The heat is not working!  I went out to Wally looking for an electric heater but none to be had.  Everybody  else is closed.  I have some leads for repair services to call in the morning, or more stores to look for a heater.  The good luck is that its not too cold tonight.  47 now and might go to near 40. Still 55 inside.  It acts like we’re out of gas but that’s not the problem.  The gas cook stove oaks fine.

Side Events day

 First off was a four stage warm up at 7:30.  I was pretty happy with that. A couple cap jams but no train wrecks.  It was fun.  

A short lunch break while I switched guns for the afternoon.  

I usually volunteer to run the Plainsman side event. It’s one of my favorite events.  It uses my typical cap n ball pistols with a big bore single shot rifle and a shotgun.  We had 46 people signed up; that would take a Long Time to get so many through.  Plainsman is not a fast paced event.  But it was a forecast of rain, a lot of rain.  And it did start raining as the start time approached.  About half of those actually came.  In the 5 years I’ve done this we never ended before 5; today it was 4:30.  By the 3rd of 4 stages it was raining fairly hard, with a good west wind.  We got a bit wet. My left pistol got wet too. So wet that on my last stage the left pistol would not fire!  I had a pretty good match going up until then.  I’ll find out Friday night how much that cost me in placement.  

The evening was the opening ceremony for the main match and a shooter appreciation dinner.  Pulled pork & cole slaw.  But hey, it’s a free meal.  Or one I already paid for in my entry fee!  Walking back to the camper it was raining and blowing even more. But now at 10 it has stopped all that. Supposed to be a nice day for the rest of the match.  I can take that.  

Warm up:

Plainsman, Carlene took some video of me and I cut these stills from that:

Carlene’s day:

Wild Bunch, day 2

 Up early again and on the range at 7:20.  A little warmer today but I don’t know what the temp was.  

Good active posse, never had to ask for help more than a couple times.  Usually not even once.  

I had more rifle problems so that Is back with Jim Bowie for a more thorough fix. Even for him the hitch would come and go.  I used my main match rifle for the last couple stages.  Even with black powder  smoke it was a lot faster than a hiccuping rifle. 

After lunch we browsed the vendors.  Carlene got some custom molded ear plugs for better protection and comfort.  I didn’t buy anything, yet.

Next was the Wild Bunch Top 16 Shoot-off.  That’s the 16 highest scoring shooters who go head-to-head on racks of targets to see who is the fastest and most accurate of the group   It’s fun to watch and anything can happen   

This evening was the Wild Bunch Social and awards. Met up with some old friends and new people.  

Wednesday noon:  I posted this last night but that apparently didn’t work