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Kings River Regulators |
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Winter Range Blog |
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Check in here often to see what your pards are doing at Winter Range. Starting Sunday March 2, 2008. See you on the range. |
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Saturday March 1...Telegram from Snakebite, the KRR posse number 20 has been changed to posse 4. Meaning first flight Thursday, second flight Friday and third flight Saturday. Fannie Mostly is happy with the change, seems she wants to go garage saleing Saturday morning in Phoenix.
Sunday March 2...5:00am. Folks are milling around the campfire getting coffee. Some are harnessing the mules and checking the wagons. Ramrod says we’re heading east for about an hour then south by south east for the next two days. Tonight we stop in Barstow at a KOA.
Sunday March 2...2:00pm. At the KOA in Barstow. Had a lunch in Mojave at Barbie’s Primo Burgers on Business 58. Great food for a great price. The KOA is what you would expect. Flat, showers, laundry, free cable tv and free wifi. Next is a search in Barstow for diesel. Most places are quoting $3.80 per gallon.
Sunday March 2...The KOA is 3 miles from the old west silver mining town of Calico. If you get in camp early enough you can take a trip back to the 1880’s and visit. Only one third of the town is original, the rest carefully rebuilt to match. The original town was bought by Knott of Knott’s Berry Farm, and moved to that theme park. Neat place to visit. Oh yeah, across the freeway from the KOA is the Vegas Truck Stop, diesel is $3.76.
Monday March 3...5:00am. Cookie has the coffee on the fire and Fannie is first in line. Ramrod’s harnessing the mules up again for a second day on the road. Our pards from KRR usually stop over in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Kingman, but they have a three hour head start on us. We should pull into the Pioneer RV park in Phoenix around 3:00pm.
Monday March 3...11:00am. Best stop for diesel on the road is the Pilot station at exit 9 just over the California/Arizona boarder. Best lunch stop is the Dazzo’s Dog House just north of Wikeup. There are two Shell gas stations in Wickenburg that have diesel, both on the north side of the road. Both about $3.80/gal. Pay attention to the turnoff from 60 to 74, it’s not well marked and will sneak up on you. The Pioneer RV park is as you would expect, flat, level, cable tv and free wifi. Lots of shooters here and a bunch of old residents. Tonight we’ll hook up with Crusty Jim and Pocket Change. Snakebite and Solvang should be here some time Tuesday.
The Sonoran Desert is in bloom this time of year. The yellows, and purples are vibrant and the Joshua Trees are in bloom as well. The crisp air meant sharp scenery and great smells. Take the time to look out of all the windows at the beauty of the desert in spring. If you have never really seen or looked at a Saguaro cacti, this is the time. Some of these beauties are over 15 feet tall and just as big around as a 55 gallon barrel.
Tuesday March 4...6:00am. Went on a two hour run from the campground north around the mountains. Next to the campground is the Pioneer Village Historical Museum. This morning seven hot air balloons launched from there, beautiful sight in the early morning desert. Fannie and I went to the Peoria Sports Complex in Phoenix to watch the San Diego Padres play the San Francisco Giants in Cactus League play. Great weather and a really great park. Snakebite and Solvang pulled in today. We now have Sutter Lawman, Crusty Jim, Pocket Change, Sierra Rider, Fannie Mostly, Snakebite, Solvang Shootist and Flying W Ramrod in the campground. Also camping with us are El Lazo, Middletown Marshall and Lead Nickel. The only folks missing are Slick Rock Rooster and Talon Hawke. Slick Rock and Talon will be staying in a hotel. Tomorrow is the speed matches, plainsman and warm up matches. Snakebite and El Lazo won’t be shooting, seems there’s going to be another TG meeting. Thursday starts the main match. Stay tuned.
Wednesday March 5...6:00am. Went on an hour and a half run, this time east and south. No more runs. Tomorrow we shoot early then Snakebites wife, Fannie Oakley and Solvang Shootist’s wife, Linda, Fannie and I are headed for the Desert Botanical Garden after the shoot. Yep, I get to be seen in public with three good looking gals. Lucky me. Most folks shot the morning and afternoon warm up match. Fannie and I shot the speed rifle and pistol and I shot the Plainsman event. Tonight Fannie and I are bringing out the peach cobbler we got for working the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center fundraiser auction the Saturday night before we left. We’re going to share with all the KRR folks and assorted shooters. More on that later. There are a whole lot of really, really fast shooters here this weekend. We’ve run into a lot of northern California pards who also come to the Shootout at Fort Miller. If you haven’t sent your application in yet, what’s keeping you? Slick Rock Rooster, Talon Hawke and Tippecanoe made it in. We ran into them at the range. More later after dinner and cobbler. Well the cobbler went down great. A little rediwhip whip cream in a can and viola yummmm-o. Sierra Rider, our orphan, had dinner with Crusty Jim and Pocket Change. The members of KRR are always adopting the single shooter and never letting them starve for food or attention. It’s after nine o’clock and time to hit the hay.
Thursday March 6...5:00am. Huddled around the campfire drinking coffee getting ready for the first day of shooting. The guns are loaded in the wagon, the ammo has been checked and the carts ready. Today we shoot stages 1,2,3,4. The only strange sweep we do is a thing called a Blackjack Sweep. Which for us KRR folks is a Nevada Sweep of three targets starting in the middle for 9 shots. Should be easy. On stage 1 we hold a toy rifle at the ready and at the beep replace it on a shelf and start shooting. Stage 2 is double tap all the targets, shotgun any order. Stage 3 is the blackjack sweep. Stage 4 is a 2-3-3-2 sweep with the rifle and sweep either direction on 5 with each pistol. After the shoot, it’s back to camp, change clothes and off to the desert botanical gardens. We’ll upload pictures tonight also. See you on the range. 11:00am First 4 stages are done. Snakebite had a rifle jam leaving 8 in the tube. Solvang had a P on the last stage. Ramrod has one miss and Slick Rock has a couple. Crusty Jim and Pocket Change are burning up the range and Fannie hasn’t got a miss yet. Talon had a brain fade, lucky it was before the first round went down range and got a re-start. Sutter Lawman is fast but was putting away the pistol before he shot it and has a miss. Sierra Rider is the sleeper on this posse, quiet and fast. We’re off to the Desert Botanical Garden, taking Connie and Linda away from Snakebite and Solvang for safe keeping. Ya’ll stay tuned. Click here to see a picture of the posse. 3:00pm Well, we’re back from the Desert Botanical Garden. Neat place. Lots of weird cactus like the octopus and the devils tongue. Don’t want to fall in either of those. The wild flower trail had some neat flowers, Fannie wants to grow some at home since they’re drought resistant and I forget to water the flowers a bit. They have some saguaro catci there that are over 20 feet tall. Check out the pictures. Click here to see the roses between the thorns Click here to guess which is the bigger pain
Friday March 7...7:00am. Got to sleep in this morning. Fannie woke up at 5:45 and I crawled out at 6:45. The first round for our posse goes down range at 11:00. If you think all we’re doing is shooting and having fun, when Fannie got her coffee, she started tweaking the Fort Miller Shootout scenarios. Just be glad she had her coffee first. Today we shoot through the new river boat prop, we’ll upload pictures when we get back. Speaking of pictures, we’ll try and get some action shots of the KRR members today and upload them also. Well the toaster just popped up, full hookup camping is soooo much better than dry, so I’m going to pour my milk and juice and have breakfast.
3:30pm. The mid day stages are done. Some interesting props and scenarios including a long range shotgun bonus. Everyone on our posse went for and got the bonus. The day started off lucky for Snakebite, he drew the winning ticket for a new colt revolver. If you don’t think having a shotgun shell belt on you at the start of the first stage is important, ask Tippecanoe, he’ll set you straight. The mid day weather was warm boarding on hot with a little breeze. Just four stages left in the heat of the Arizona sun, then the congratulation/commiseration party at the RV park. It’s hard taking pictures when you’re shooting but I have some shots of some of the KRR members. Click on the links below to see them.
7:00pm Crusty Jim, Pocket Change, Solvang Shootist and his wife Linda, Snakebite, Fannie Oakley, El Lazo, Fannie Mostly and I went to dinner at the Pioneer Village Historical Center’s Restaurant. If you get the chance try this restaurant for dinner. They’re open Wednesday thru Saturday. A card magician came to the table while we were waiting to order and completely entertained us all with his tricks and magic. He held and invisible deck of cards and had Pocket Change pick an invisible card out of the deck and put it back upside down. Then he put the invisible deck back in the invisible box and into his vest pocket. Then he asked Pocket Change if her card was the Ace of Spades, no, was it the Queen of Spades, no. Well what was it? Pocket Change said the three of spades. He reached into his vest and pulled out another deck of cards with red backs, this one had only one card upside down in it and had a blue back, yep, the three of spades. Then he had Fannie Oakley sign her name on a card the proceeded to pick it out of every place imaginable. From under wine glasses, other decks, places you couldn’t understand how it got there. Then the last trick he stood the deck of cards in her hand tapped on it a couple of times then moved away. All of a sudden, a card started to rise out of the deck, it was the card Fannie Oakley had signed. Weird stuff and right at out our table. Oh yeah, the meals were large and good. The two Fannies, Snakebite and I had the all you can eat fish fry for $9.00 each. All you can eat fish and chips. One helping was enough. 10:30pm Well back to camp to get ready for the last day of competition. We don’t shoot until 2:00pm so I’m going to go for another run. Good Night.
Saturday March 8...6:30am. Caught Fannie going over the scenarios for today, darn gamers anyway. So for her penance she had to tell me about the stages so I could game them. There’s a trail I saw heading over some hills to the east that I’m going to do this morning. Then back at camp we’ll pack up the trailer except for gun cleaning supplies and what we’re wearing tomorrow for awards and the drive home, head out to top off the diesel tank and go to the range. Tonight is the final congratulation/commiseration party and we’ll be having a good time. 8:00am. What is with the people in Phoenix? This is the second hill trail I’ve tried to run and both of them only go to the top. Not one has continued down the other side. Run up, turn around and come down. How boring. Anyway, after that hill, I ended up running north to the town of Anthem. On the way back, I counted 12 hot air balloons rising over the desert. Looked peaceful. Time for breakfast then go look for a station to top the tanks, back to the range and shoot. See you later. 10:45am. Just sitting around waiting, waiting, waiting. Dang I hate shooting this late. We’ve got the trailer pretty much packed up except for the cleaning stuff and dinner tonight stuff. We’ll have pictures of the other shooters to upload tonight and pictures of the potluck. Ya’ll stay tuned. 5:30pm. Welcome to train wreck central. Snakebite had a problem with his rifle on two stages for a total 17 rounds. Solvang had a MSV. Crusty had a P, Fannie had a P. Slick Rock, Talon, Sierra Rider, Sutter and I did good. On the first stage today, while running from shotgun position one to shotgun position two, Pocket Change dropped a loaded pistol and got MDQ’d. She cowgirled up after and worked posse and photographer duties for the rest of the day. Tonight we commiserate and congratulate and tomorrow we find out how we did overall. Here’s some pictures Pocket Change took.
Sunday March 9...6:30am. It’s pack up the trailer morning. The sweet sixteen shoot off is at 8:00am and the awards are scheduled for 11:00. Since checkout time is noon, we have to move the trailer from the RV park to the range. The range doesn’t have WIFI so we’ll have to wait until we can find a connection to list the KRR award winners and the overalls. The wind picked up early this morning so Snakebite and Solvang Shootist left to try and beat it over the desert. Sierra Rider has to work on Monday so he left also. We’ll see who’s left when we hit the awards tent. We’ll take award pictures and upload them when we stop also. See you on the range. 1:00pm Well awards are over and we’re on the road. Actually stopped in the Walmart parking lot in Kingman. We were driving up 93 when Fannie noticed a bubble forming in the siding on the passenger side of the trailer. We pulled over in Wikiup and noticed the siding pulling away from the trailer and pushing out into the wind. We picked up some hundred mile and hour tape and mended the seam until we could stop in Kingman. Once we hit 40, some folks drove by honking and pointing at the driver side of the trailer, yep, the siding had pulled free there also and had bent back. We stopped at the Flying J truck stop and bought some sheet metal screws and screwed it back in place. Here at the Walmart, we’re going to get some real screws and do it right.
As far as the awards went, Fannie took second in Ladies B Western, Sutter Lawman took ninth in Men’s Senior, Crusty Jim took seventh in Men’s Silver Senior and Ramrod took sixth in Frontier Cartridge.
Stayed the night in the Walmart parking lot. Next door, the Office Depot has unsecured wifi so I was able to update the blog. Sure is neat being a pseudo geek.
Monday March 10...1:00am. Getting ready to depart Kingman. Walked next door to the 24hr Del Taco for breakfast burritos and coffee. Del Taco drive thru’s don’t allow walk ups. Well they lost my business. Right before we left, we talked with the Walmart security guard and found out the 24hour Walmart in Kingman closes at midnight. Seems there was too much stuff getting stolen in the early morning hours when the staff was small.
Here’s the award pictures we took. Fannie Mostly 2nd Ladies B Western
12:30pm. We’re home. Time to unload the trailer. We’ve made an appointment with the RV place to have the siding taken care of.
Since this is the last update of the blog, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed our trip as much as I did. Fannie and I decided we’re going back next year and will do another blog.
Ya’ll stay safe and we’ll see you on the range.
Ramrod |