Shooting the S**t

 Got an invitation from a neighbor to try out his new .44 lever action and reloads, as well as his father's Winchester Model 94 that he'd found when his father passed, and just got around to loading up cast rounds for.

Shooting other people's guns? Hell yes, I'm up for that.

Of course, courtesy demands I bring toys to share, so an AR and S&W Highway Patrolman went into the truck for the trip to the family acreage. Shooting is informal compared to my local range. The backstop is the far bank of the creek, 150 yards from the well pump house, which also serves as the shooting rest. Which leads to less than ideal sighting in with a new never-rifle using an 8-inch shoot-n-see target on a piece of 2x2 cardboard with a couple hundred bullet holes in it.

So what does one do when tired of shooting a small target with poor feedback? Horse shit. Stands out great against yellow and green grass, misses are easily seen by the chunks of dirt flying in the air, and hits are, well, very easily seen as the material flies better than the dirt does. Revolvers at 100+ yards keep it interesting.But there are things more engaging blasting horse apples at long distances. Like having a copperhead pop up while crossing the creek recovering targets at the end of the day.

 Two men emptying revolvers into water a couple feet away, without prior planning or coordination, is very interesting indeed.

Happy Halloween

I dressed up as a collection of bad habits, portraying a fat guy smoking a cigar and drinking Jack Daniel's while handing out candy on the porch tonight.

Hell, I enjoyed it. Didn't seem to bother the kids any either.

Old Rifles

With an "obsolete wooden stock rifle match" (we'll get into the concept of "obsolete" down the road) coming up this past Saturday, I thought I'd get into the spirit of the match (as I perceived it) and get old school. As in a Czech 98/22 formerly in Turkish service. This particular model is chambered in 7.9 x 57 mm Mauser. For its age, and who was using it, it's in reasonably good condition. The bore is darker than I'd like, but with strong rifling and what appears to be a muzzle in good condition. Unfortunately, using 154 grain Romanian military surplus ammunition off of a bench rest, I was getting "groups" of around two feet. No keyholing, just really, really bad accuracy. I've a feeling the muzzle is more worn than I'd thought. I'll probably end up running some Yugoslavian 198 grain rounds through it to see what happens, but when groups are that big, I think it's more than simply ammo preferences.

Lord Of The Fleas

Spent a weekend recently with a bunch of other vets who are bikers. Sometimes that means lots of hours in the saddle, sometimes lots of hours sitting around a fire drinking beer. This time it was the latter, which is fine, but: the older I get, the more I've realized I can sit around drinking beer far more often than I can get out in nice weather in a new location and ride. Drinking beer is pretty consistent from place to place; new places often have new things to see. So in attempting to balance both, I drank beer late into the night, slept late, and rode in the afternoon. As the weather was marginal that day, The Wife and I stopped in at a large flea market by Lake Park, IA. And there were many interesting things to see.........

Fine metal working:

Really ugly children:
State of the art shooting accessories:

Folk art (I couldn't fit these on the bike):Interesting motorcycles:
And the people (I think) who ride them:

Camping, Non-Military Style

Recently spent some time with The Wife out in the woods to get away from the house for a bit. We headed to Ledges State Park, taking the main bike along with the Cracker Camper on the back of the chase truck. Ledges has some beautiful views, proving that Iowa is not flat in the same sense as Kansas or North Dakota:


It's also a great area for those interested in butterflies; one has to dodge them when the sun is out. Of course, there are other critters wandering about also:

That critter tried to land on the wife; at around two inches long, she wasn't having any of that. Then there are these:


These were running about four inches long, and moved pretty quick. Creeps the hell out me; never much cared for critters with lots of legs.

But there's always something pleasant to do when camping, like playing with the cast iron:



Pan-fried soft shell with refried beans, then piles of other goodies. You can eat that sucker like a pizza, and it tastes damn fine with a beer.

Shots From The Road

Springtime in Iowa. How could anyone want to live somewhere else, when you have vistas like this?


In all seriousness, midwestern small towns often embody values that I wish we'd see more often in our politicians. This monument may be small, but relative to the size of the town it's in, it wasn't cheap. Especially in terms of the names on it.


You can still find some old gas stations scattered here and there, although most of them have gone through a host of different purposes over the decades.

With a little luck and some time, I'm hoping to get some more riding time and pictures in before deploying. I'm definitely not a photographer, but there are many interesting (to me, anyway) things I run across on the bike; stopping to get a closer look makes the ride even more enjoyable.

Gimme More.....

Should a barracks-mate down the hall receive a brand-new X-Box with a brand-new Guitar Hero game in it, and should he happen to be playing "Don't Fear The Reaper" while doing a fine imitation of the drone pipe on the bagpipes while accompanying himself, the standard-issue canteen cup will provide superior ability to penetrate his closed door while accompanying him on the field-expedient cowbell.

Also, I've just surpassed my personal record for the use of hyphens in one post.

And, Jim Beam Black will substitute for Jack Daniel's in a pinch.

That is all.

Yum....

Harp Irish lager for $6.79 for a six pack at the local grocery tonight. Smooth alcoholic goodness, taking me back to college in Iowa City, where there was a small Irish pub a mere six blocks from my abode. Serving Irish and English brews, a long, dark hardwood bar almost the length of the bar, and (horrors! the liability risk!) a genuine dartboard with no electronics where score was kept on a chalkboard, and you brought your own darts or didn't play.

Great Advertising.......

doesn't always precede a great film. The wife and I have a passion for horror films, and are always looking for the rare horror film with a decent budget, good acting, high production values, and an outstanding splatter factor. 30 Days of Night has all of that, but seemed rather slow after a promising start. It was worth the money and time, but I wouldn't feel I was losing out if I didn't see it again.

I believe there's a recently released DVD called "Black Sheep" about vicious, flesh-eating sheep that recently came out. Sound like my kind of film.

POSers

I'm not sure if this was some kind of stupid protest, or another fashion trend among the idiots. Walking through the gates into the renaissance Saturday, I see a guy in his twenties, wearing BDUs, with a soft cap. I've never seen anyone in uniform at the renfair, and it's a pretty unlikely place for someone to be authorized to do so. Getting closer, I see a chain for one of those trucker wallets hanging out of pocket; when he turns around, I see the whole Che Guevera beard. They both go very nicely with his rank of Major.

Then there was the E-1 Private, in his new ACUs. The only two patches he had were a name and "U.S. Army". The rest of the velcro on them looked like nothing had ever been attached to it, and his spiffy black tennis shoes really set of the uniform:

And then another young guy, running around in BDUs, no cover, and tennis shoes:

This kind of crap begs for judicious application of a large cluebat to the head. Jackasses.

On the bright side, most of what I saw was a lot of people having a good time:

Plus, as I had The Wife's approval, I picked up a new addition to the armory at the blacksmith's. Pictures of that later this week.

Upcoming RenFair

This weekend is the last one for Renaissance Fair up in Shakopee, MN. The Wife and I will be taking the son and one of his friends, who has never attended one. I'm strapped this year, so no fresh off the forge spears this time around, but I'm still looking forward to it.

And This Evenings Entertainment Is......

Dead Clowns, which should fulfill my expectations of B-movie horror: low budget, no-name actors, and an odd low-brow twist to get one to look at the container in a video store. In this case, zombie clowns. I love me some zombies. And I've never seen living dead clowns, so it's a must see.

July Bike Trip, Pt 1

Spent several days on the bike recently, for a little relief from work. We decided that we would try to do all two lane roads for our trip, since there's more to see and less traffic. We did manage to pick some hot days for riding, since we drank a bottle of water nearly every stop. Our (my) first bar stop was in Ottumwa at the Yankee Inn Motel & Restaurant.

I like my bars with some character, and this place had it. It's been a bar since the '40s, and the owners have used that as a draw by allowing some of the age to show. The bar runs nearly the length of the wall, with a pool table, wooden plank floor, plenty of room, and fast service. The owners tend the bar, and if you get the wife, you'll get some interesting stories told with a lot of......animation. After a few beers, got back on the bikes and headed the rest of the way to Cedar Rapids for an overnight stop. Stopping for gas on the way, we got to watch some excellent horsemanship at a county fair area across the street from the pumps.

This was the first time I'd seen barrel racing live, and it's impressive to watch the skill the horse and rider demonstrate.
Sunday we got back on the road to head over to Galena, IL. First we stopped for lunch in Anamosa at Knuckleheads.

It's basically a small biker bar, with a limited grill menu. Nothing fancy, and not much room, but the food is good, and overall it's pretty laid back.
Arriving in Galena, we had some time to kill before checking in, so stopped at a bar called Benjamin's.

I'd call the place upscale casual. You can walk in wearing leather and boots or khakis and a polo and still feel comfortable. Large menu, lots of wood, staff in uniforms, no pool tables/pinball machines. The staff was welcoming, so we knocked back some rum and whiskey while discussing tattoos with woman next to us at the bar. After some really good drinks, we head over the night's shelter.
We've decided that we'd rather spend some extra money and stay somewhere interesting than stay at cookie cutter hotels. So we usually try to find a local bed and breakfast. This time it was the Steamboat House.

It's probably the nicest place I've ever stayed. On the first floor, a billiard room, formal dining room, study, library, and huge foyer.

Five bedrooms on the second floor,

all connected by a large common social room. The third floor apparently had another three bedrooms and a ballroom, but this was being converted into a living area for the owner's extended family on visits, so I didn't get to see that. This is a place you could go to many times and still notice something overlooked before. We managed to find a copy of Blazing Saddles in the library, so we ended the evening watching one of Mel Brooks' best efforts before sacking out for the night. Nothing like hours in the saddle, lots of beer/whiskey, and a large serving of prime rib to make sure you sleep well.

A Good Weekend

Thanks to a fair bit of callback at work (you can't have more fun than standing in one spot for four hours wrapped in synthetic rubber/lead apron trying to find that one tiny artery filling some one's abdomen with blood, then spending the next two hours putting the images on film so the doc can look at them the next day), I was granted a three-day weekend. I spent most of Friday assembling plumbing for the new sink I installed last weekend. Fat men and small spaces don't mix. On the plus side, the bathroom project from hell is almost done, except for a few small details.

Saturday was spent with The Wife. We decided to take out the cycles for a few hours, stopping first at the annual Greek festival at the local Greek Orthodox church. This is the first time I've been to it, but it won't be the last. Gyros are few and far between here, and the ones they were making were excellent. The wife forced me to finish her Greek chicken, and we ended lunch with a baklava sundae.



After eating, there was a display of dancing. Two thoughts on that: the women performing seemed to really have it down. And, you have to have a hell of a lot of self-confidence to put on this and go out and shake it when your past, say thirty.





Shortly after that, a quick trip into the church to check out the bake sale. Baklava as far as the eye could see, which is damn near paradise to me. The Greek ladies really know how to cook. You can fit a lot of calories into a bike's saddlebags with very little effort.

Next stop, the local Fleet Farm for a new pair of chaps for The Wife. After last year's two hour ride in the rain in South Dakota, she now appreciates that a rain suit can help keep out the water, but it'll still feel cold slamming up against your shins at 60 MPH. Then over to one of the local bike shops to purchase a full face helmet that allows the entire front to lift in addition to the face shield. I started using one of these when I got fed up with taking my glasses off and on every time I removed/put on the helmet. She didn't think much of it until riding in the rain (surprise) with her half-helmet and snap-on visor. Tolerable in town, torture at 60 MPH, with water blowing up beneath the shield.

Last, a slow ride around one of the local lakes. Sunny day with a nice breeze coming off the water, and a couple of stops for some cool drinks.

Father's Day Sunday, I had the company of my son and mother, along with gifts of a six gallon shop-vac, season two of the Venture Bros., and a home-made peach pie.

That is a good weekend.