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!

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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.

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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!

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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.