Gigantor In A Midgets Hotel Room.

I was trying to find an interesting story to tell about my abnormally low hotel room. But I couldn't get in a creative frame of mind, so I'll just tell you about it instead.

It feels like everything in the rooms at the Atherton Hotel here in State College is abnormally low. Observe the picture to the right. Normally, the door handle would be right at the bottom of the middle door panel, but as you can see, this door has it at the top of the bottom panel. At 7:30AM when I stumbled in off the bus, this was a very confusing thing. But it doesn't stop there. When I got into the room, everything felt low. Or I was 8 inches taller, which I doubt. Look at the picture of the bed. I almost knocked my head on my knee when I sat down to take off my shoes. First, the bed is low. Second it had the "fat guy" indent in the middle where the mattress springs had finally given in. So when I sat, I came down hard because I was expecting the bed to be 8 inches higher, and then I rolled backwards because the "fat guy" dent collapsed. That's not to say that the bed wasn't comfortable to sleep in. It wasn't. I've been in my bunk on the bus so much, it's now the most comfortable place for me to sleep. How sad is that? Well, in all fairness, I have been living in that bunk since October of 2006. And I'll only be sleeping in it 4, maybe 5 more nights. It's a little sad really.But enough about that, back to my hotel room. I think the only thing at the proper height was the counter in the bathroom. And check it out Jade, this bathroom has counter space!

...

The only other news to report, yesterday was our last chance to shoot Sporting Clays on this tour. I found a place about 40 miles from State College, PA, called Warrior's Mark. It's actually a hunting grounds with a Sporting Clays course for hunting practice. So I was expecting a pretty hard course.

But it turned out not to be the case. We went to the club house and met the owners who were, as always, very nice. They got us two guns to use and then walked us out to the first of 18 stations on the course. As the fellow explained, the first part of the course was fairly easy, then it got progressively harder before getting easier at the end.

And he was right, the first 7 or so stations were really easy targets. But when we got into the ravine, it was almost impossible on some of the stations. As you can see from the pictures, it was a beautiful day in the hill country of central Pennsylvania. Warriors Mark is 1400 arces in size, so I would think, as far as the eye could see, was hunting land.

As for me, I shot poorly. Everyone has a bad day, and yesterday was mine. I couldn't see the target, nor could I get comfortable with the shot gun. I shot okay, 54 out of 100. But my score should have been higher because I missed a lot of easy ones in the beginning.
Warriors Mark is also a kennel/dog training grounds to train hunting dogs. Mel, as you can see, found a new friend.


So there.

...

Every Tour Is Two Weeks Too Long.

First, a correction. In the post, "Little Big Shoot", I got Maddi's rap name wrong. He informs me it's actually "M.C. Madwell Phresh" Please make a note.

And second, an apology. Sorry to Jade and Carla that I've been lacking on the posts. I've not really been sick, and not really been lazy. It's been mostly unmotivated.

Which brings us to the title of today's blog. Our rigger Willy has been saying, "Every tour is two weeks to long. Even a two week tour is two weeks to long." And he's right. For some reason, everyone's body has been breaking down in the last two weeks of this tour. We are done with this on May 6th and I'll be back in L.A. on the 7th for a brief 4 days. But ever since we left Duluth MN last Tuesday night, lots of people have been shutting down. I've been on the verge of sick for a few days, Mel our crew chief threw out his back in Duluth and has no idea how he did it. M.C. Madwell Phresh tells me today that he's getting sick. People are grumpy and everyone just wants to take a nap in the afternoon. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's not coming quick enough. Including today, we've got 6 shows left. So close, but so far.

We do have one more shooting day before the end. We have two days off in State College PA, and we'll be shooting on the second day. Since my last post, we did go shooting in Louisville KY. Well, we were really in Southern Indiana, at a place called Indian Creek Shooting Sports. Mel didn't go because of his back, and M.C. Madwell Phresh, chose to take the zeros on his score card so he could rest one day. So we had openings and invited Jason (Who's rapper name will now be "Lil Redneck") and my friend Tabitha. Although Tabitha's father collects guns, she's not shot one since she was 12. So like Samantha at the last shoot, we got her a 20 gauge shotgun.

When we checked in at the club house, the nice lady there got out the 2o gauge shot gun and said to Tabitha, "This is a good gun, my 11 year old granddaughter shot a turkey with it on Sunday". Good times.

Again it was a nice course. Lots of varied terrain and challenging presentations. We had a trapper with us, Teresa. It's been a while since we've had one of those. We shot a practice round of 25 on the trap field they had before heading out onto the Sporting Clays course with Teresa. Here's some pictures:

After bragging about it, here he is in all his glory, just for Jade, "Lil Redneck" shooting a station over a pond. This was a good challenge because the first clay came from left to right above the trees and then the second went away over the pond and over the trees. Tough first shot.

Power poles again?!? Yep. The clays weren't really near them, they actually went down and away into the ravine ahead of the pole. Still strange to see them on the course. But I guess the land is cheap, and no one would really want to live under a power line.
Here's a nice shot of Tabitha at the same power line station with Teresa in the background trapping for us. It was interesting because there was a mix of auto launchers and manual launchers at each station. Sometimes we would push the button while Teresa was way back in the woods with a manual launcher.

I must commend Jason on his fine photography. I look goooooood. Look at that form! So sexy with the matching hat and vest.


My beautiful darling, my wife, my Nicole, I WANT THIS GUN. Can I buy one? Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please? I won't ask for anything else! I promise!

...

Cycling In Another Form.

Among the things I do on a daily basis, besides wake up and wonder where then heck I am, is check the KITV news feed on Yahoo!. KITV is one of the television stations in Hawai'i, and the only one, I guess, that has a connection to Yahoo!, so every few hours or so, they update with the latest stories.

Today's story was close to home(probably a bad turn of a phrase), because it was about the phenomenon known as "Critical Mass".

Here's the best description I could find of "Critical Mass". It's off one of the official/unofficial sites:

"Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists' right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world.

Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city -- there's a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you'll really need to find out what your local ride is like.

Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born.

CM is an idea and an event, not an organization.

Some CM riders try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be otherwise confrontational with motorists. Such riders are missing the point about Critical Mass. CM is a celebration of cycling, not a war against motorists. CM is about asserting our right to the road, not denying others their right to the road. Those who want to play juvenile games are encouraged to stay at home instead."

All that being said, I found it interesting that there is a Critical Mass ride in Honolulu. I discovered the joys of riding my bike when I was a lad in Kane'ohe, and found lots of people to ride with. Compared to many of the other places I've ridden, Hawai'i always seemed like a safe place.

But perhaps times have changed, or I've just been very naive. Maybe the pace in Hawai'i has picked up a bit and it's not the best place to ride a bike anymore.

I was in downtown L.A. once when a Critical Mass ride came through. Motorists were honking and shouting and some of the cyclist would shout back or give them the "one finger wave". I had torn feelings about it myself. While I do agree with the cyclists, that we should ban together and show that as a "critical mass", our voice should be heard and respected. What I don't agree with is returned aggression at motorists. Like the the quoted statement above says, "CM is a celebration of cycling, not a war against motorists. CM is about asserting our right to the road, not denying others their right to the road." I guess I'm very Gandhi about the whole thing, Civil disobedience is best.

As another aside to the story, it seems that a lot of civil disobedience things start in San Francisco. The anti war movement against Vietnam, and "Critical Mass" rides are two good examples. If you are a fan of the TV show South Park on Comedy Central, then you've probable seen the episode where Kyle's family moves to San Francisco to be with other people who are better than the rest because they drive hybrid cars. I don't know for sure, but I'm sure it's jab at San Fran for being ahead of the curve when it comes to global warming. If you haven't seen the episode, I think it's got a pretty good message.

But I digest...

So as a favor to me, if you ever come across a cyclist in the road, give them the space they deserve. We do have the right to the road same as you. And don't get mad if you get stuck in a "Critical Mass" ride, as long as there's no shouting and "one finger waving", they are just a rolling protest.

House For A Dollar.

This morning I've become obsessed with this place called, Mud Butte, South Dakota.

View Larger Map

The above map show the location of Mud Butte. It's the place mark at the top and the bottom place mark is Rapid City where I am today.

I was sitting at breakfast this morning while the chef was talking to one of the caterers about how everyone in Mud Butte was moving out because government farming was taking over and there was nothing for people to do. It was so bad, they even closed the post office. He was saying you could go up there and buy a house for a dollar from the government.

So started looking on line for property for sale in Mud Butte.

But before I go any further, I can hear people snickering, thinking to themselves, "Who'd want to live in a place called Mud Butt?" First off, it's pronounced "byoōt" not "butt". And second, I don't want to live there either, I just want to buy a house for a dollar!!

I've not had much luck in finding a listing for anything for sale in Mud Butte. But I have found interesting facts about the place. Here's a list I got from Nextag, a website more or less dedicated to getting you a mortgage. The first number is the amount in Mud Butte, the second number represents all of South Dakota, and the third number is the total for the U.S.

Population
110
750,397
281,979,334

Male Population
63
372,317
138,171,410

Female Population
47
378,080
143,807,924

Population over 25 years of Age
75
471,327
182,538,428

Male High School Graduates
11
76,616
24,054,948

Female High School Graduates
16
78,263
28,168,403

Males with Bachelor's Degree
0
34,539
14,047,167

Females with Bachelor's Degree
4
38,663
14,319,692

Males with Master's Degree
0
9,701
5,251,904

Females with Master's Degree
3
8,691
5,528,648

Total households
51
288,567
105,726,278

People in a household
2.0
2.0
2.0

Total Housing Units
66
320,770
116,090,300

Urban Housing Units
0
166,783
90,205,622

Rural Housing Units
66
153,987
25,884,678

Median No. of Rooms
4.8
5.5
5.3

Median Year Structure Built
1956
1955
1913

Median Rent
$0.0
$206.0
$340.0

Median Value of owner occupied Housing Units
$48,800.0
$52,656.0
$99,133.0

Median Price of vacant Housing Units
$10,000.0
$27,162.2
$76,766.6

Total Housing units no mortgage
0.0
80,171.0
32,338,376.0

I don't know when these stats were taken, but I find some really interesting things in there. For instance, there are no men with bachelors or masters degrees, but there are 4 and 3 women respectively. There is a population of 75 over the age of 25, of that, only 27 have a high school diploma. And the vacant house median price is $10,000. Which probably means if I dig further, I'll find the $1 house.

But now I have to work. So I guess my search is over.

It would have been fun to say, "I have a house in Mud Butt". Hee hee!

...

Little Big Shoot.

Yes, it's another blog about shooting. Can't help myself. I have a really great time doing it. And it's my blog and I'm going to write about it. Sorry Jade and Carla.

I was going to arrange another big shoot like the one we did in Tampa. I made fliers, and a sign up sheet and went around seeing who would like to shoot. There was again, a really good response. But as the days wore on, people started dropping out left and right. Denver is a good hub for beautiful outdoor activities, so I can't complain that people wanted to go hiking or skiing. So I stopped organizing it.

Then, three days ago, people again became interested and were asking if we were going shooting or not. I didn't feeling like trying to organize it, so I just told people, if you really want to come, be in the lobby at 10 AM on Tuesday and we'd sort it out.

Besides the regular 4 shooters, we had 4 others. One of them was my friend Samantha, who lives in Denver. The other three shooters were the three that didn't change plans, Willy our rigger, Rick our bus driver, and Jason, our redneck (don't get your panties in a bunch, Jason will gladly admit to being a redneck). We piled into three cars and headed out to Colorado Clays.

Once again, a nice facility and nice people. Doug, my contact at Colorado Clays opened the club up for us, because Tuesdays is the only day they aren't open. Which means we had the whole place to ourselves. He's got all the shotgunning games, including one they invented called Colorado Trap, but I'll get back to that in a bit. We decided to make a day of it and were going to shoot all the games they had, so we figured we'd need at least 200 shells a piece.

In an effort to save money, we went to Bass Pro Shops on Monday night and purchased enough shells for everyone. We're not really sure if we saved money or not. Bass Pro was having a big sale on their shotgun shells and were completely sold out of the big boxes of shells, so we had to settle for buying a bunch of little boxes. We had a heck of a time trying to figure out how many boxes we needed to buy that would fit the criteria we were given by Doug (shot size and amount of gun powder per shell). We pieced together 1400 shells but with the headache and time we wasted, it would have been easier to just buy the shells on site.

Colorado Clays is a very nice facility. It's about 30 or so miles from downtown Denver, right near Denver International Airport. We arrived at the club house, signed in and then loaded our shells and guns onto golf carts and headed out to the wobble trap to warm up. We figured, we'll try wobble trap (which I've shot before), and at the same time warm up for the Sporting Clays course. We shot one round of wobble. I won't go into the details of wobble trap, but let's just say it's something that offers little different challenge from Sporting Clays. Some people liked it (me), but most were on the fence.

I'll let the pictures and video tell you the story of the Sporting Clays course.

This is my friend Samantha (rapper name "Sammy D"). Before this day, she had never shot a gun, much less a shotgun before. She's about 5 foot nothing and weighs less than 1oo pounds soaking wet. Needless to say, we gave her a smaller gun and a smaller shell to shoot. You can also tell from the picture, we were on the highland plains with lots of short grass and some scrub brush. No smoking on the course.

Here's another attempt at arty farty picture. I remember my dad teaching me about photography and how sometimes using things in the foreground to "frame" photo can make for a good picture. Tried to frame Maddi (rapper name "Madwell") with the tree on the left. How'd I do?


Here's another station being shot by Samantha. This one was unique in that the shooting stand butted up against two trees, so your firing lane (where you could see and hit the targets) was extremely narrow. One target from the left, the other from the right.


Here is Willy (rapper name Will.I.E.), shooting one of the fun stations. They had built a berm of dirt and then built a platform about 15 feet from the ground where you shot down on targets that were released from below you.

And finally, here's a video of Samantha shooting the 15 foot platform that Willy is on in the previous picture. Nothing fancy other than to note the really short barrel on the shotgun and the shells that fly out of the gun are yellow.

Why is yellow important? Because all 20 gauge shells (which she was shooting, I shoot 12 gauge, which is bigger) are yellow. Where as, 12 gauge shells can be any colour the manufacturer wants to make them. Why does this matter? Because you can slip a 20 gauge shell into a 12 gauge shotgun and it will slip down the barrel out of sight and get stuck. And if you didn't know you did it, and loaded another 12 gauge shell behind it and fired, a very large and bad disaster can happen. So remember, yellow shells do not go in a 12 gauge gun.

After the Sporting Clays course, Willy and Rick (rapper name "Lug nut"), headed back to the hotel, while the rest of us returned to the wobble trap field where Doug let us shoot his trademarked game, Colorado Clays. Again, I won't bore you with details, but it's a cross between 5-stand, wobble trap, and skeet. Here's a picture of Maddi, Jason (rapper name "Redneck") and Mel (rapper name "Mel") shooting the Colorado Trap.Although you can't see it in the picture, just beyond the tree line on the left is a golf course, and while you are shooting at this field, you are basically shooting at the golfers. A little unnerving, but rest assured, the shotgun pellets can't reach them. You can also note that the concrete walkways are how skeet and trap fields are designed.

After shooting a round of Colorado Trap (some people were impressed, but most were on the fence), Doug led us up to the Trap fields and let us shoot the rest of our shells there. I think trap is by far the easiest of the shotgunning games, because it's only one target launched away from you from the same place, every time. Granted there is a little bit of left to right in the launch, but the height and distance never change.

And finally, I was stung by a bee, ouch.You can see the dot where the stinger went in my forearm, and a little bit of redness and swelling around it. Now I know I'm not allergic to bee stings, but today the same spot is a little tender and the dot looks like a whitehead zit.

I wonder if I should try and pop it...

...

Toe Pick.

Wichita KS today. And with everything about today, I think I'm in a different place. For some reason, I keep telling people I'm in Topeka. Guess to me all of Kansas is the same. No offense to Kansas, or it's people, but this is one of those unremarkable states. Sorry folks.

Everyone should take pride in their state. I know I get proud when I hear about or meet another successful person from Hawai'i. In case you're all wondering, here's a list of famous people from Kansas:

Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle actor
Clarence D. Batchelor political cartoonist,
Gwendolyn Brooks poet,
Walter P. Chrysler auto manufacturer,
Clark M. Clifford secretary of defense,
John Steuart Curry painter,
Bob Dole politician,
Amelia Earhart aviator,
Milton S. Eisenhower educator,
Carl A. Hatch politician,
Dennis Hopper actor,
William Inge playwright,
Walter Johnson baseball pitcher,
Buster Keaton comedian,
Emmett Kelly clown,
Stan Kenton jazz musician,
Harold Lloyd actor,
Edgar Lee Masters poet,
Hattie McDaniel actress,
William C. Menninger psychiatrist,
Gordon Parks film director,
Zasu Pitts actress,
Charles Buddy Rogers actor,
Damon Runyon journalist,
Barry Sanders football player,
Eugene W. Smith photojournalist,
William E. Stafford poet,
John Cameron Swayze news commentator,
Vivan Vance actress,
William Allen White journalist,
Charles E. Whittaker jurist,

And now for some famous people from Hawai'i...

George Ariyoshi first Japanese-American elected governor
Salevaa Atisanoe (Konishiki) sumo wrestler
Hiram Bingham missionary,
Charles R. Bishop banker, philanthropist
Tia Carrere singer, actress
Samuel N. Castle missionary
Amos S. Cooke missionary, educator
Father Damien leper-colony worker
Sanford B. Dole territorial governor,
Jean Erdman dancer, choreographer
Hiram L. Fong first Chinese-American senator
Don Ho entertainer
Daniel K. Inouye senator
Gerrit P. Judd advisor
Kaahumanu Hawaiian queen
Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Olympic swimmer
Kamehameha I first Hawaiian king
Kamehameha V last of the dynasty
George Parsons Lathrop journalist, poet
Liliuokalani queen, last Hawaiian monarch
Ellison Onizuka astronaut
Kawaipuna Prejean Hawaiian activist
Chad Rowan Yokozuna sumo wrestler
Harold Sakata actor
James Shigeta actor
Claus Spreckels developer
Don Stroud actor
Merlin Tuttle mammalogist,

Huh, this isn't a very good site for famous actors. I'd better look again there has to be at least one really well known actor from Hawai'i and Kansas...

Hawai'i - Jason Scott Lee? Anyone? Anyone? He played Bruce Lee in the docudrama about his life, "Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story".

Kansas - AH! Here's one that's good for me - R. Lee Ermey! He's from Kansas. He play the ass kicking drill sergeant the movie "Full Metal Jacket". A role he constantly repeats in other movies. He can also be found hosting the show "Mail Call" on the History Channel. And if you are ever near my computer when it receives and email, it's his voice that says, "You've got Mail, maggot!"

Well there you have it, every state has somebody famous from it... Guess it's a slow day in Kansas for blogging...

Auntie Em! Auntie Em! It's a twister!

Don't Tell CBS I Met A Pirate.

It's been at least 22, maybe 23 years that I've loved the sport of cycling. I recently read an article in a cycling magazine, that talked about the "Greatest Decades in Cycling History", and they had chosen the 1980's as the greatest decade. Among the reasons were the great rivalry of Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond, and the first time the United States fielded a team (7-Eleven) in the Tour de France, essentially paving the way for Lance Armstrong. The 80's were also a time of great leaps in science of cycling. In 1989 Greg LeMond won the Tour de France on it's final day by the slimmest of margins, 8 seconds, and credits the win to his new aerodynamic handlebars. It was also in the 80's the CBS Sports Sunday, brought the U.S. coverage of the Tour de France.

And it was these CBS broadcasts that helped inspire me to ride my bike everywhere. Matthew and I would sit glued to the TV every Sunday in July watching the 45 minute long dramas unfold. There was colourful and clever commentary by none other than the great Phil Liggett, the most recognized voice in the cycling television. There was great inspirational music, some of it written and performed specifically for the Tour de France by John Tesh, some of it from Yanni. With the Beta tapes dutifully recording the event (it was the 80's and my dad was ahead of the VHS curve), I'd replay the Sunday coverage for myself and other cycling friends during the week.

Cycling became an all consuming passion for me during the late 80's. So much so, that my first real job was my dream job, a mechanic at a bike shop. There, I met other cyclist who loved the sport as much as I. I created cycling monsters out of my closest friends, and every Sunday morning, we'd head out onto the open road. Like children playing touch football in the park, we dreamed of being like the great cyclists of the time.

Years later, after I got my degree, and started my mostly real job in lighting, cycling was still a passion. But touring left little time to put the miles in on the bike. I would get what information I could about the world of cycling from magazines. CBS had stopped broadcasting their Sunday Sports specials on the Tour de France, and television coverage of any cycling event was few and far between. The old Betamax tapes I had, got lost in the shuffle when VHS pushed Beta out. The memories were now left in my head, until recently.

Technology has brought cycling many wonderful things over the years. And one of the wonderful things was finding a pirate on the internet who had the same passions as I did. He was posting snippets of videos from those CBS Sunday Sports coverages of the great races of the 80's. I would watch the little 5 minute videos feel myself well up again with the same inspiration I had felt all those years ago. The driving music, colourful commentary, all made me feel young again.

And then I noticed, in small print in one of the video summaries, "I sell DVD copies of this and other cycling videos." So I contacted the pirate and bought copies of these cherished memories of my young adulthood. He didn't charge me much, in fact, he charged me less than I expected. I had Nicole send me the DVD's two days ago, and I have since watched coverage of two of the greatest cycling events of the 1980's.

The video quality is poor. It's very grainy and there's quite a few moments of "tracking" problems. But the DVD's are basically what I expected. After all, converting 20 year old analog VHS tapes to digital DVD's was not going to produce an IMAX movie. This guy is a pirate, he's not the president of CBS releasing these videos to the public. I just wanted to have a copy of my memories.

When I see them today, I still feel inspired. The music still drives me, the commentary is still classic Phil. Now more than ever, I want to pull on the lycra and head out on the open road and pretend I'm Raul Alcala, or Andy Hampsten cresting a great mountain in France, or Sean Kelly, showing the world how to stomp on the pedals in the greatest finish the Paris-Roubaix has ever seen.

20 plus years later, cycling is still a passion.

...

Artsy Fartsy Shooty Wooty.

We've all been knocked down a peg. It's about time really. Our shooting scores weren't really reflecting how good we are. We just proved yesterday that none of us should be joining the NSCA (National Sporting Clays Association) anytime soon. Nor should we even be contemplating shooting a tournament.

Yesterday, about 1/2 hour south of Birmingham Alabama, we shot at Tannehill Sporting Clays. Like most of the contacts I find online, this day was organized mostly via email. We ended up shooting late in the afternoon because I had to attend a pre-rig at the venue, but that was fine because it was a gorgeous day, perfect shooting weather.
We arrived and checked in at the club house, got the guns and shells and headed out onto the course. It was a really nice course. 10 stations tucked back into the Alabama woods. There were 5 of us shooting. We were supposed to have two guest shooters, Jason and Jenn, but Jenn backed out. Guess she thought working on her day off would be more fun.

And she was partially right. This was a tough course. I had the feeling we were in for a long afternoon when the first station consisted of two very fast crossing targets. Crossing targets are regarded as the hardest shot in Sporting Clays and this was no exception. And this was just the first station!

As we progressed it became a good mix of hard and easy shots, lots of crossing stuff and some high fliers. We even had one shot that crossed through the sun. Well, it crossed through the sun for the first two shooters (Wayne and myself), but as the day wore on, the sun got behind a tree for the other shooters, but that still didn't make it an easy shot.

Needless to say, none of us shot as good as we had in the past. I had the top score of 47 out of 100. And Wayne was second with 40. We could honestly say we were on par with our standard shooting. It's just that the course was harder than some of the others we shot. But as we say, the worst day shooting is still better than the best day working.

As a final thought, I don't know if it's a southern hospitality thing, but just like the course we shot near Columbia, South Carolina, there was no "key" keeping track of how many clays we through, nor was there a trapper counting either. It was just us 5 shooters, 3 guns, 2 golf carts and buttons at each station. No one was counting and charging per target, they just said, "Have a good time, don't throw too many extra clays."

I'll shoot here again.

And now some pictures and video...Here is Artsy Fartsy Shooty Wooty picture #1. Shooters in the background, trap in the foreground.

Here's a quick Artsy Fartsy Shooty Wooty video taken from the same station as the above picture. This is the target that went up and away through the sun. Needless to say, many of us missed these targets.

And here's Artsy Fartsy Shooty Wooty video number two. There was a station that sent a really easy target out over a small pond and then a second target in a high overhead arch. You can see Wayne take out the first target, but I couldn't get the second target into frame. But what I did capture, which I thought was cool, is the splash of the many bits of shot hitting the water in the distance behind the now expired target. Kind of gives you and idea of what comes out the front end of a shotgun.

And finally, who's that handsome devil?

Look at that form! Relaxed, cheek gently resting on the comb of the shotgun, target lining up...

Too bad I missed.

...

Because Nicole Thought It Was Really Funny.

I'm committing the map from Tulsa to a blog post. I thought the comment was rather funny myself...

Tulsa, OK. Oral Roberts University, the Maybee Center. Why is it called the Maybee? Because Maybee we fit the show in and Maybee we don't. And riddle me this Batman... How come two days ago, we were in Oklahoma City, then we drove to St. Louis, then we drove BACK to Tulsa? A tour routed by large wall map and handful of darts.



View Larger Map

...

Like Watching a Re-run.

I was talking with one of the truck drivers this morning, who was on this tour the last time we played this awful arena. And we both agree, it's like being stuck in a time warp. Our own personal Groundhog Day. So far, every venue we've played on this leg of the tour, we've played before, within the last year and half. The biggest difference this leg... Not a single sell out. We get close in the big cities, but there's always lots of empty chairs in the upper parts of the arenas.

The Maybee Center, here on the campus of Oral Roberts University, is a very memorable building. But not in a good way. This place is not designed for us to fit into. I won't go into details or bore you with pictures, but anywhere you have to pull seats out and build the stage into the stands, or are forced to lift 600 pound lighting racks between chairs, is a place we shouldn't be in.

But we stuffed it all in here before, and here we are stuffing it in here again. People are grumpy, and it's a totally boned situation. And to make matters worse, some people are trying not to swear, seeing as it is Oral Roberts University.

I think the most memorable thing I can share with you all is the story of Luciano Pavarotti playing the Maybee Center. The last time we were here, the building manager was telling us about how much worse it was to put Pavarotti in. It was, of course a sold out show, which often means the artist has a certain amount of leverage when it comes to bizarre, often unrealistic requests. For Pavarotti, the list started with having his dressing room built on stage, with hot and cold running water and well as an oversized commode.

I was just searching online for this oversized commode, but to no avail. The building manager assures me it exists. With hot and cold running water, and this oversized commode on stage, they had to have custom built a "black water" or waste water tank built to fit under the stage. They had to build 4 walls, sound proofed so he could warm up on stage without being heard, and they had to pull out more chairs then they did for our show.

Guess our show is easy, but still, 1o pounds of s**t, 3 pound bag. See, even I'm censoring myself for Oral Roberts University.

...

Welcome Back Wayne.

Wayne's back. The quartet is back together, except today. Maddi had to go play nice with his boss. But that wasn't the case on Monday.

One of the really great things about Sporting Clays is that you meet lots of really nice and genuine people at the clubs. Oak Ridge Gun Club, just outside of Peoria, IL, is one such place. Oak Ridge is a private club that exists almost solely for it's cooperate memberships. Namely Caterpillar, the heavy equipment manufacturer who's based in Peoria.

I took a chance and emailed the contact name, Matt Roth, for the club. I explained our situation, that we were in town for one day with Blue Man Group and that we'd like to shoot their Sporting Clays course if we could. I didn't hear back from them for quite a while, but when I did, Matt was more than welcoming. He was out on a fishing trip when he emailed, but he told me that he would use his personal membership to sponsor us into the club. He going to let us his personal shotguns, because the "rentals" they had were of sub par quality (pump action). How nice is that?

Monday was not looking like a good day, it was raining and the forecast called for thundershowers and high winds in the afternoon. I called Matt and he said he'd keep an eye on the forecast and call if he saw an opening. So we waited until noon and then I called him back and said we were coming any way, to at least see the course. it was wet when we arrived, but not raining, so we got out on the course. It rained a bit on the first few stations but it stopped and all we had to contend with was the wind. Matt and his buddies came out with us, not to shoot but to be social. We talked and laughed and had a great time. The course was really challenging. And it was made harder by the wind. Here's some picture I took between gusts of wind.

Welcome back Wayne!

Here's Mel standing in one of the fun stations. They called it "The Pit". Two targets would come straight at you, as you can see in the video below:

Here's another unique presentation. They called this "The Possum". The trapper sat at the top of the hill and dropped the clay into the wooden ramp and... Pop! There it was!

Despite the rain, it was a great day. And great people always make it a great time. We shot again today in Oklahoma City. I forgot to bring my camera, but it was probably a good thing because it rained the entire time. We shot at Silverleaf Shooting Sports. They have three courses and we shot the "silver" course. They had just changed the traps for a tournament they had coming up, so a lot of it was a real challenge. Not to mention that it was raining and the only gun they had to rent was a pump action. Wayne was most unhappy with the gun, but he still shot fine. We brought Lyle with us again in place of Maddi.

Silverleaf is a really nice course. We had a golf cart and the entire path was laid out with gravel so it was easy to drive around and we weren't standing in mud.

And that's all I have to say about that.

...