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Kings River Regulators |
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Western Regional Championships Last Stand at Chimney Rock |
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Monday 10/4/10 - The trailer is packed with everything except the perishables which get loaded tomorrow. The puppies stuff is in the back of the truck and she’s ready to roll, after having a bath yesterday. Tres and Querida live about 2 miles from us and are traveling with us from the Regional Championships to Las Vegas then to Pahrump then home. Gonna be a fun trip. It looks like about a dozen KRR shooters will be attending the Wild West Extravaganza in Pahrump the weekend after the Regionals so we’ll keep you posted on their doins as well. Tuesday 10/5/10 - Hooked up with Tres Pinos and Querida at Casa de Fruta and headed south to Lost Hills RV park for an overnight stay then an early departure to the range. Wednesday 10/6/10 - Crusty Jim and Pocket Change are here as is Badman Bob. Bob needs to learn how to level his new fifth wheel so he doesn’t keep shearing off his down rigger shear pin. And if he keeps shearing it off he needs to pack his own tool box not rely on the kindness of Tres Pinos, Ramrod and Crusty Jim who provided knowledge, tools and derisive remarks a plenty. Thursday 10/7/10 - Speed Pistol, Speed Rifle, Speed Shotgun, Speed Pocket Pistol, Long Range is done. We’re shooting the “Saloon Stage” next. It’s 10 pistol, 10 rifle and 2+ shotgun, shot as follows: Holding the bottle in both hands you say “Are you calling me out?”. At the beep, pull your first pistol out of the strong box and load five rounds. Five shots on a three foot round target at 30yds, then free your rifle from the gun rack and load seven rounds from your body and knock down the seven targets. Move to the front table and knock the dummy, Neely, off his stool then open the hide out box and grab your second pistol and put five more on the far target. Then run back for your shotgun to pick up any still standing rifle targets then two shotgun targets. Yehaw what a fun stage. Then a two stage Wild Bunch side match and a three stage Plainsman capped off a long day. Friday 10/8/10 - Six stage main match part 1 today. Interesting scenarios and sweeps. We’re on the same posse as Tres Pinos and Querida. Fannie was kicking butt until the last stage rifle jam and shotgun bobbles added 20 seconds to her time. But with only one miss, she’s doing well. Querida is shooting well and has her misses well under control and Tres is hot, hot, hot. I’m doing well, only one miss and feeling good. Here’s a picture of Querida, Fannie and I after today’s shoot, Tres was feeling the heat and went back to the trailer early, we’ll snag him tomorrow or photoshop him in. Saturday 10/9/10 - Second day is over and the weather is hot, hot, hot. Fannie had four misses and Ramrod had two. Last nights poker tournament had Tres Pinos finishing third and winning a beautiful Damascus steel Bowie knife. Mad Dog McCoy came by the campsite and measured Querida up for a new pair of Botas and Tres for a sheath for his new toy. The four amigos went to Letties Mexican restaurant for dinner and came back full and ready to party to the sounds of Fredrick Jackson Turner and the Ploughboys. Good music, warm night. The Telegraph has been burning up with news from the Huntsman Senior Games and our pard Snakebites trials and tribulations getting there and being there. First he drives from Clovis to Bakersfield and notices his slide out on the trailer is wobbling back and forth so he stops and finds a weld holding the slide to the bar has broken. After getting in touch with Bo Bean, he finds a RV dealer see about a fix. Well the dealer doesn’t want to do the work, liability reasons they state, then offer to do if for thousands of dollars as they wanted to tear it apart and rebuild it. Snakebite heads back up to Clovis, de-winterizes his little trailer, moves everything from the big one to the little one and heads out about 4:00pm on Monday. He’s supposed to meet Old Number 4 somewhere down the line so he calls up and changes plans. He gets to St. George Utah and the Senior Games to find out they want him to be a posse leader, you know how he doesn’t like to be posse leader with a big match on the line and small wonder, it does take you out of your game a bit. Then they give him the posse from Hexx. One guy is in a wheelchair and averages 10 minutes per stage and is so bad off someone else has to hold his guns for him so all he has to do is aim and pull the trigger. Then some yahoo had the nerve to get into Snakebites face and told Snakebite “you don’t know the rules”. To which Snakebite says “I know the rules, I wrote them”. Then Old Number 4 and Snakebite decided to shoot the Couples Shoot as a Prop 8 couple. Old Number 4 dressed up as a woman complete with implants and Snakebite was the proper gent. However, Dixie Bell had a fit and wouldn’t let them shoot for fun. Oh well, some folks think too much of themselves to be in a position of power. Everything must have been ok as Snakebite took the Gold medal. Sunday 10/10/10 - Wake up this morning and Fannie has a hot shower and we’re relaxing after breakfast when Tres knocks on the door. “You made the shootout, are you shooting?” A quick dash for B Western clothes, a race to the gun and ammo locker and we’re on our way to the shootout. Querida, Fannie, Pocket Change and Badman Bob made the top 20 shootout. Pocket Change demurs so three KRR shooters hit the range for the honor of the club. None make the final round, won by Sweetwater and Westphalia Phil (from Germany). On to the Awards: Fannie Mostly 2nd Ladies B Western Ramrod 2nd Frontier Cartridge Duelist Tres Pinos 1st Team Shoot, 3rd Poker Tournament, 1st Speed Hammered Double Shotgun, 4th Classic Cowboy Querida 1st Speed Pistol, 2nd Long Range Lever Action Pistol Caliber 3rd Ladies 49’er Pocket Change 1st Speed Rifle, 1st Ladies Silver Senior Badman Bob 3rd Wild Bunch, 2nd Silver Senior, Clean Match First overall Man Lead Dispencer First overall Lady Penny Pepperbox. Tomorrow on to Las Vegas baby and Cirque de Solei’s Love on Monday and Terry Fator on Tuesday. Pawn Stars on Wednesday and on to Pahrump on Thursday. Yehaw vacation is here. Vegas Baby Monday 10/11/10 - Left the range at 0600 headed toward Barstow and breakfast at IHOP. Great deals at IHOP, all you can eat pancakes with combo breakfast. Boy, they lost money on Tres and I. Pulled into the KOA at Circus Circus around 11:00 and set up camp. We got sites next to each other, no we’ve not got on each others nerves yet but Tres is cruising for a bruising, wait until tomorrow night when we hit Kristophers Steakhouse, I’m gonna smack him with an T-bone. Fannie and I went to the Mirage to see Cirque de Solei’s Love with music by the Beatles. Fantastic show, lots of stuff going on and great music. BB Kings Blues Club has a Nutty Brown Ale that hits the spot for this old home brewer. Must be good, I had five. Man I had to pee after the show was out. Tres and Querida visited their niece and are getting tickets to see Lion King tomorrow night. Can you say Hakuna Matata?.. We’re going to see Terry Fator, that ventriloquist who won Americas Got Talent a couple of years ago. His act is supposed to be great also. We’re also hitting Sheplers, Boot Barn, Cowtown Boots and the World Famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, featured on History Channels “Pawn Stars”. We’ll leave early Thursday morning for Pahrump and the Wild West Extravaganza. More tomorrow. Tuesday 10/12/10 - We went to Sheplers, Pawn Stars and Cowtown boots today with Tres and Querida. Fannie (Debbie) got two new shirts and a pair of red and black boots, I’ll upload a picture tomorrow morning. Querida (Terry) got new boots and a nice leather jacket. The guys got the privilege of paying for them. We got the better of the deal cause we got to see the sparkles in the girls eyes when they tried the stuff on and it all fit perfect. Tonight we saw Terry Fator at the Mirage. You might remember him from Americas Got Talent a couple of years ago, he was the guy who did ventriloquism and sang with his puppets. Great show and he’s a stand up guy. Last year he signed the largest entertainment contract in Vegas and, despite that, he give all the profits from his sales to U.S. Servicemens families. He’s got a song coming out soon about a 6 year old kid who’s friend dies of cancer before his seventh birthday and all the kid wanted to know is “Are there horses in heaven”?. All proceeds from the sale of this song will be going to St. Judes Childrens Hospital. He does visits to autistic kids. They say you should see how the kids react to his puppets. All in all a great guy and a great show.. Joe and Terry went to see Lion King at Manalay Bay, we’ll critique it when we see them. That’s all for tonight. Tomorrow I’m working on my 38-40 and the 1911 to get them ready for Pahrump. Debbie is getting a massage and I don’t know what Joe and Terry are up to. Thursday we head to Pahrump. Wednesday 10/13/10 - Went to Bass Pro to look at the toys. Joe bought 4 cases of Remington STS shotgun shells and had to argue with the sales clerk that they were case priced not individual box price times 10. Found some great raffle prizes for the Fort Miller Annual next year and a neat pan set that makes bread bowls. You just pour the mix in the bottom, put on the top, bake and viola, cornbread bowl for chili or sponge cake bowl for strawberries and cream. Gonna be a good meal maker this winter. Last night in Vegas we went to see the Sirens of Treasure Island show. What a waste of time, good thing it was free. We walked to the Venetian and the Grand Canal Shops looking for Sin City Brewery and something to eat. Found the brewery and the beer is just a good as the last time we were here. Went to Saint Marks Plaza to Otto Pizza and had a great bottle of Italian wine with Gemili and Spaghatini with Mushrooms. The way they painted the ceilings, set the buildings up like it was a real palazzo in Italy complete with traveling musicians made the evening quite enjoyable. Joe and Terry went to the Australian Motown Review and had great comments about the show. If you’re into Motown it’s the show to catch. Thursday 10/14/10 - Left the KOA in Vegas for the trip to Pahrump. The long trip from Vegas to Pahrump (1hr 15 min) took us up a long grade from Vegas to the Nye County valley. Lots of Joshua trees and weird rock formations. Pretty to see but desolate. We’re staying at the Saddle West Casino RV park. The only place to get WIFI is in the laundry room so I write the update, load pictures in the trailer then head to the laundry and upload the page. Picked up our shooters packets and came back to the casino RV park so Debbie could gamble. Shooting tomorrow. Friday 10/15/10 - First day of the match was warm and got hotter. Debbie and I are posse leaders on separate posse’s. I got the shoot through posse. Everyone shot 8 stages today and I’ll have another group of shoot throughs tomorrow. Debbie shot four today and four tomorrow. I shot Frontier Cartridge today and tomorrow, Joe and I are shooting Wild Bunch. Yep, Wild Bunch is a main match category here. All 8 stages of 10, 10 4+ are shot SASS Wild Bunch rules. Debbie will be shooting the last 4 stages in her Ladies B Western category and Terry will be shooting 8 as Ladies Gunfighter. 16 stages in two hot days, dang I’ll be glad to get back to the coast. After the match we all headed out to the Resort at Sheri’s Ranch, yep a bordello, for lunch. The shoot photographer took a picture of everyone in the “reception” room. Here’s a picture of Joe and I outside Sheri’s. Sheri’s Ranch is next door to the World Famous Chicken Ranch of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas fame. Yep, the movie with Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton was filmed in Pahrump Nevada not Texas. Joe, Terry and Debbie are gambling, I’m writing and then settling down for the night. See you all tomorrow. |