Oak Ridge Outlaws Forum
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... => General Discussion => Topic started by: Tombstone on October 16, 2017, 12:00:27 PM
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Well, we are on our way out west again. Horse Doc, Appaloosa Honey, Cactus Red, Lady T and I will be traveling for a few weeks. Our first leg was to Wartrace for the TN State match. What a fantastic match. If you have not shot with the Wartrace Regulators you have missed a great bunch of folks and always a fun and fast match. The crew works to make sure everyone has fun. Put this one on your bucket list if you have one.
We left Wartrace Sunday morning heading west to Russellville AR, just one night so nothing but getting to camp, setting up the minimal amount and dinner. Early to bed and an early start this morning heading to Amarillo TX for a few nights. We plan to eat at the big steakhouse tonight, do a little sight-seeing and visit Long Hunters Shooting Supplies tomorrow. I plan to pick up a few things to go with my cap guns so I don’t have to borrow from Long Gulch and Jackalope.
From Amarillo we will head to Albuquerque for a few days, we plan to ride up to Sandi Peak at about 11,000 ft. on the bikes. We will meet the ladies at the top for lunch, they are ridging the tram up the mountain. Yesterday the high temperature at the top was a balmy 39 degrees. The forecast for the time we are looking to be up there is in the 50’s so much warmer we hope. We may shoot a match in Albuquerque. A small annual called Fall Fandango but not sure yet.
Anyway, I will report more later as things happen. On a side note, this countries interstate system needs major repairs but not how they can do much without messing up the traffic for years.
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Trust you all have fun out there. I'm envious.
And yes, please keep us posted on your adventures.
Sheriff L.
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Let me know if you don't like the steakhouse in Amarillo, because I think you will!
We saw an athletic Russian try to eat the 72 oz. I don't think he made it but he gave it as
good a try as a more or less average size man could do.
Ride safe.
Harley.
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We got into the campground last evening just as they were closing the office, we asked about the Big Texas Steak House. They told us it was pretty much a tourist attraction. We told them since we were tourist we thought we should go see what all the hoopla was about. Well, we were not disappointed. Between the gift shop, the shooting gallery, ice cream pallor, the rattle snake in a terrarium, over size rocking chair and giant boot. We had a hoot. The food was good, service was good. We watched a fellow eat a 72 ounce steak with all the trimmings. Ate too much, ate too late. Everything we should have done as tourist. Well worth the time. They also run a limo service from the restaurant to the camp ground so it was all good.
Woke up this morning to about 45 degrees and wind so did not get an early start. We ate lunch then Cactus, Doc and I went on a bike ride to the Palo Duro Canyon, which claims to be the second largest canyon in the USA. What a wonderful trip. About 75 miles round trip. They have a road that goes down to the canyon floor and wonders around for about 16 miles. Vistas were gorgeous. The weather could not have been better. We saw some deer’s, a few hawks, a road runner. Riding down in the canyon was a great experience. One small stream created the whole canyon over about 100,000 years. Amazing rock formations and colors. They have camping down on the canyon floor that would be fun to spend a few days in but that will have to be for another trip.
Got back to the camper, had a few drinks, dinner and heading to bed for the night. Tomorrow we hope to do a little more sight-seeing then we are heading to Albuquerque. Not sure what all we are going to do tomorrow but I am pretty sure we will have fun.
Hope everyone is having a good week, cant be as good as ours but still hope yours is good. More tomorrow after another bike ride.
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Keep the reports coming. Many of us are living vicariously through you guys. I hope to make this trip when I retire.
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Tombstone, thanks for making Wartrace the first leg of your trip. I liked the pictures at the Big Texan down the hall past the shooting gallery.
We went up Sandia Peak in 2014, took the Tram up in daylight and came down after dark, the views were nice and the restaurant was appropriately named, High Finance. I think the sign at the restaurant said 12000 feet, I got tired just chewing.
Hope y'all have a great time.
Randy
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Funny, everything Tombstone writes sounds like: Nyah, Nyah, something, something, I'm out west,
and you're not! :)
Harley.
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We had an incredible day today. We started this morning with a great breakfast prepared by chef Tombstone. Afterwards we headed to Long Hunters Shooter Supply. Great bunch (two folks) of people. Found out they were heading to Bordertown also, found out they had shot at Back at Cha...with a bunch of outlaws. Seems the young lady I was working with was on the Outlaw posse. Shot with Whiskey Creek, Copperhead and crew. Had a fun time at the small shop. Got my BP supplies except for powder.
After that we headed to the local Harley Shop, got some advice on a really nice ride so Doc and I decided to give it a try. (Cactus had to do a little work). We ran down to a few small towns, took a few turns we might not taken. We ended up on the south side of the same canyon we were in yesterday. We were riding along in flat plans country, nothing but wide open as far as we could see, I noticed the land to my right had a gap between us and the rest of the plans. We rounded a curve,(the few we had seen) and the road dropped. We rode into the South side the canyon. Down into the valley, some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen; and I have to tell you I have seen some wonderfully awesome sights.
I never thought the pan handle of Texas had much to offer but dang that canyon was amazing. I got to mark something off my bucket list, I had never seen a live rattle snake in the wild ( I know, kind of strange for an East TN Mountain boy but never seen one in the wild). Doc and I ran across one on this ride, got some great pictures to show for it. Maybe I can figure out how to post one or two. It was live and pissed off. Any way we had a wonder full ride, dinner at the camper.
We are heading to Albuquerque tomorrow. On the road for the day may not be much to report but we’ll will see.
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We made it to Albuquerque by early afternoon, got set up at a really nice RV park that is about a year old. It is really nice and is connected to a casino. It is really nice and has a shuttle that will pick you up at your RV site and bring you back so no more driving for today. Had a really good dinner and played a little poker, broke even so I think I won. It is kind of strange here, there is a state law that you can not drink at the gambling machines so it was kind of boring and not nearly as much fun as most of the other casinos we go to. They do have bars and restaurants but no alcohol on the casino floor. Don’t see us spending much time there other than to eat the sea food buffet tomorrow evening.
Lady T and I ran over to the range where they hold the Fall Fandango out here. It is their annual match so it is 12 stages over two days. The range is in the in a state park called Gun Range State Park. (I think) As we drove up Gun Range Drive there were multiple gun ranges set up and hundreds of police officers shooting and training. We got to the Cowboy town and met a few folks, it looks like we will shoot the match on Saturday and Sunday. Targets are smaller than we are used to but the distance is about right. They will let Lady T set up for a day or two, two of the folks we talked to even had Bullet Splat jewelry they had bought at EOT and Winter Range a few years ago. It is always funny when folks know her way out here where we have never even been before.
We plan to ride the Sandia Mountain tomorrow, Cactus, Doc and I. It looks kind of like the Dragoon with about a 4000 foot climb in elevation. Looks like a heck of a ride. I will let you know how it goes and how thin the air is at about 11,000 feet above sea level.
Well, it may only be 10:00 out here but my tired old body still thinks its around midnight.
More tomorrow.
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Well, it’s been two days so I guess I have a little catching up to do.
We got up on Friday to a cool start but a beautiful sun rise. Cooked a good breakfast and Cactus, Doc and I headed out on the bikes for the climb up the mountain. I started out leading (again) I had mapped out the route the night before and we decided we would run by the range and get registered for the Fall Fandango and take the Northern route into the park and up the mountain. After riding for about 30 miles heading towards what I though was the northern route up the mountain, we stopped for gas. I asked the ladies behind the counter how to get to the peak. After blank looks all around a very nice lady asked if I had a map and would be glad to point us in the right direction. I showed her what I had planned she looked at my bike and asked if I was hauling a passenger, I said no, she went on to kindly explained to me that the route I had planned was a dirt road and may not be the best route for a geezer glide like mine (my words not hers) After as short discussion with Doc and Cactus it was decided I was not going to lead again for a while. Doc took over as leader, after quite a few wrong turns, done only to make me feel better he claims; we got on the correct road to get to Sandia Peak. The road was wonderful especially if you have ever been on the Dragoon in our area. We climbed over a mile in 14 miles, temperature dropped from 70 to 44 at the top. We were freezing when we arrived to say the least. Albuquerque is one mile high and we were at two miles at the top. Wind was blowing like a banshee as we say in the south. Did I say we were freezing when we got there? Dang it was cold but well worth the pain. We were overlooking all of Albuquerque and points west. It was a most amazing view. After putting on all the warm weather gear we had with us we headed back down. Again, nothing like the Dragoon, the road was wide, with shoulders, and lines on both sides of the road, easy cruse for us. On a side note, coming back the let me lead down the mountain since there was only one way in and out, no chance for me to get us lost. Doc said he would get us back to “such and such road”, (it was a Spanish name so I can’t reproduce it since I don’t speak Spanish) I looked at my notes I had made to get us home and dang it, it was the road we had started out on in the beginning. I think Cactus put it best, it was a 45 mile ride home and it was a 170 mile ride. You would think that would teach them to let me lead. We had an incredible dinner at the casino with Cash Proffitt and Ginger Ale, very late by that time and incredibly tired, thus no post last night, got to bed late.
Another post shortly.
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Second posting today.
We got up early to head to the range for the opening day of Fall Fandango, not a really big match, there were 38 shooters there today. We shot 6 stages, I will have to post some pictures of the targets and I will bring Jackalope the stages. We shot some the strangest but fun patterns. I am pretty sure we will see some of them in the future. The folks offered us our own category of Outlaw but we declined claiming we wanted to shoot with the Gunfighters, when we got there, there were three GF’s, Doc, Cactus, and me. Seems we had our own category. Anyway, we had a good time; shot like one eyed, one handed GF’s with plenty of misses a few P’s. I was a little disappointed with our showing as a whole but we did have our moments and stages. I will try to post a picture of some of the targets. It was old days to me, I had 11 misses on 6 stages. I have been there in the old days but Doc and Cactus weren’t shooting back then so they don’t know the feeling of that many misses and still feeling good about the match.
We headed back to the campground had another good dinner at the Casino, back to the camper early for an early start tomorrow.
As a side note, the way we are with guest at both of our clubs makes me so proud when I visit other clubs. I will say nothing negative about this group, they are fine, but I know how much we do to make visitors feel welcome. There was a dinner tonight at the range that none of us was really interested in going to because we did not feel the draw. We would never let that happen to our guest, I know because I am one of the ones that push for involvement for everyone. Always go out of your way to make a stranger feel like family, it helps our sport and might make a friend down the trail. We want visitors to want to come back to be with us. None of us feel that tonight.
Enough preaching, more tomorrow.
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We woke up this morning to 29 degrees…. but it was a dry cold. Dang it was cold. If there was any moisture in the air there would have been a heavy frost.We really did not bring the cold weather gear but we persevered and it warmed up pretty quickly. We actually got a little warm by the end.
It was a little better today at range for the last day and last 6 stages, they must have warmed up to us. Of course it helped that when we arrived I announced that the entertainment had arrived. I also passed out about a dozen hand warmers which seemed to be appreciated by all. Targets were still small and the patterns were hard to keep straight but again we preserved. On the second stage of the day they had a Texas star, a 6 bottle plate rack with 4 inch wide bottles on it, and two flyers. It was the stage from hell. Cactus and Doc both cleaned the star, I left one hanging. We told them that kind of stage was a hanging offence in Tennessee. We ended the day with more misses then any of us had in many years. Doc and Cactus had never had that many misses and P’s. We did not stay for the awards but headed into the Old Town for dinner. Got back to the camper and started packing up for the trip to Tombstone tomorrow.
I understand Whiskey Creek and crew will be arriving tomorrow also along with Cash Proffitt and Ginger Ale. We also will be meeting Hombre Sin Nombre in Tombstone and he is shooting the match. It is about a 7 hour drive down. After the targets we just left Bordertown should seem like shooting sheets of steel.
Tomorrow will be the first day in Tombstone, I can’t wait. I love that town and the atmosphere that is everywhere. True history for our sport.
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Sounds like on your trip back to the old West, you made a stop in "SASS circa 1999."
AM
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Sounds like on your trip back to the old West, you made a stop in "SASS circa 1999."
AM
;D
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Tombstone, AZ. is a very spiritual place.
F.H.
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Tombstone - Cowboy Mecca! I will make the pilgrimage someday.
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Howdy Tombstone,
Really sounds like a dream I'd like to take one day. Please say a BIG Howdy to Hombre for me!!
Thanks...Sam Buca
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We made it to Tombstone yesterday afternoon and met up with the rest of the crew. We have Copperhead, Ms Bo, Iron Maiden, Whiskey Creek, Cash Proffitt, Ginger Ale, Hombre Sin Nombre, Cactus Red, Horse Doc, Appaloosa Honey, Lady T and Tombstone. We are all staying at the campground or the B&B run by the campground. We have not seen Judge or Yazoo yet but they are out here somewhere and staying in Sera Vista. Everyone came over for dinner last night then we headed to the Four Deuces far a few night caps. Town was closed down early trying to recover from Heldarado, Tombstones largest event of the year.
Trip down was uneventful which is always good. Hombre rented a trike and rode over so we now have 4 bikes, we are going to run to Bisbee and give Hombre a day to recover before we take a longer ride tomorrow.
We will go the range on Wednesday to take a look and get registered.
Not much to report from yesterday but tonight or tomorrow will be a different story I do believe.
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Howdy,
I've enjoy your daily reports of y'alls adventure. Wishing everyone a great shoot at Bordertown.
Hasta Luego, Keystone
PS Your email seems to not be working.
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Having a grand time in Tombstone. Yesterday we went to Bisbee with the whole crew, now up to 12 with Judge and Yazoo still just a rumor but I know they are here because there had been a sighting.
Spent the day in Bisbee, came back to the RV and hit town for dinner and drinks. Too many drinks more than likely. Whiskey is trying to get the best of me already with pool at the Cristal Palace. He got hot for a while, good thing we were not betting drinks or anything. Seems the ladies had more fun in Bisbee than the guys did, they took an early crash. We stayed out a little later and ended up at the Four Dueces, surprise, surprise.
Got up this morning and Doc, Cactus, Hombre and I rode up to Chiricahua National Monument. It was one of the most impressive sights I have seen, this has been a trip of amazing sights. If you google it there are pictures that do not do the monoliths justice. The views were breathing taking.
Got back and headed to the range to get signed in. Cactus is going to get to shoot with us on our posse so everything is grand. Our posse is all of our folks and about 10 we don’t know yet. We will know them before it is over. Sassy Dancer and Windy City Red are with us again this year so this will be a great time. Hope we all shoot our best and make a good showing for the South.
I am sure we will go to town again tonight. I will let you know how the side matches and warm up blast goes. I am so psyched up for this one. Can’t wait to get it started, will hate to see it end.
More tomorrow I hope.
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Yesterday was a full day for me, I started out by going to Fort Huachuca which is the place where I was born many years ago. It took a while for me to get through security since I do not have a military ID. Full vetting with a background check. I now have a military ID that is good for a month. Anyway, I went to the museums and got to wonder around the base. Saw a picture of the hospital where I was born, it has since been torn down. This base is where the drone technology was started and it is still where they do the training here. It also has a large intelligent regiment stationed here. It was a very interesting visit and slightly moving to see the pictures from when Dad was stationed here.
Got back to Tombstone and headed to the range for side matches and the warm up shoot. Targets were like is expected at Bordertown. Large and close, shot the warm up clean with mostly no problems. Averaged sub-20 over 4 stages so this will be a fast match. Did the Posse Marshal walk through, stages look pretty much straight up with a few twist in shooting patterns. Should be pretty easy as long as we stay focused. The match director and stage writer is on my posse again this year so I guess he liked the job I did last year. We are all shooting on the afternoon flight today so early flight tomorrow. I will let everyone know how it went today this evening I hope. Kind of hard to post with so much to do each day and more to do at night.
We went to town last evening for dinner at the Crystal Palace again, they have a great open face roast beast sandwich which is comfort food for me. Ended up at the 4 deuces again for the evening night cap.
More after todays shooting
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Here's a thought: The targets at Bordertown are about the closest one's out there. I wonder If, and probably not,
that has anything to do with the proximity of the participants in the O.K. Corral?
Harley.
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Two days without a report. Bordertown is over, we shot the first day in the afternoon and then again this morning. It is now official; I cannot shoot Bordertown well. The timing for our group was pretty neat, the sun was setting as we finished last night and was rising when we started this morning. The only way to describe the match is it was Good, Bad and Ugly. Whiskey Creek took me again (this is getting to be a regular happening) Copperhead had some good stages but also a few bobbles along the way so Slick McClade probably took B-Western. Iron Maiden did well as she normally does.
Whiskey and I had stages from 15 seconds to 35 seconds. I had a P and a miss, he had three misses so the penalties evened out. The stages were wonderful, well written and fun to shoot. Fast and fast, my miss came on the last stage but since I already had a P it did not matter too much at that point. We learned a few new sweeps that you all may see in the future. Different but not too complicated. We also had a fellow on our posse that used to shoot with Jackalope and Anita Margarita, an incredibly fast BP shooter named Lefty Eastman. He said to tell then hello.Judge had a few problems but still had a good match, Yazoo was wonderful to watch and did well. Made us all proud.
We will be in town tonight along with a large group of shooters after the crew gets back from side match awards. Most of us did not seem to interested in going tonight since we were not even in the running’s. It will be a calm day tomorrow with the awards starting around noon.
We had a great posse, most of the folks had been on my posse in the past. Seems everyone likes to shoot with the crazy folks from Tennessee. If you want to make this match next year I will post when the applications come out and you will need to get your app in quickly. I will be coming back if the Creek don’t rise and road goes on.
More after the awards tomorrow.
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It is all over, scores are posted and awards are awarded. Iron Maiden won first in Ladies Dualist, Copperhead won second in B-Western. Gun fighters were Cactus 9th, Tombstone 8th, and Whiskey Creek 5th. Judge and Yazoo both took home metal, not sure what ranking they were but in the top 5 in both of their categories, Cash also placed in duelist but not sure of his standings either. My good friend Sassy Dancer won everything she could, top lady shooter, top of her category, Arizona State champion. She was literally walking on air buy the end of the awards. Although Doc did not place in the top 10 he won a gift certificate in a raffle for a very top end Cowboy hat. He was not at the awards so I picked up his winnings, I even offered to swap my award for his but that did not fly.
We are packing up camp tonight; this is our last night in Tombstone for a year. Sad but still have a few stops to make on our way back home. Cactus and Hombre left this morning for their respective homes. It was so good getting to spend time with Hombre again. I think he is already planning on meeting us again next year.
From here we go to Ft Worth for a few days for world champion Appaloosa Horse show for Honey, then will be heading home. As I was packing up I counted left over bullets. I started with about 1500 when we left for Tennessee State and I will be bringing about 300 home. That is a lot of shooting over three weekends. It was fun but I will take at least one week off before shooting with my home club the second weekend next month. It is still hot out here and we noticed it is pretty cold back home. It will be a shock to our system in more ways than the temperature. They have no humidity out here and seem to lack some oxygen too.
I will post a few more adventures as we travel first north then east moseying back towards Tennessee.
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Thank you for your posts. I have been looking forward each day to see what mischief you guys have gotten into.
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We have decided to take our time going to Ft Worth so we are going to make it three 5 hour days instead of 2 eight hour days. We are in Ruidoso NM tonight actually in Lincoln County staying in a RV park that has a path that goes to a monument where John Tunstall was killed. Lots of Billy the Kid places of course. Also lots of little green statues around since we are also very close to Roswell. We got to town around 4 and got set up. While we were checking in we were asked to use our water tank and not stay hooked up to the water since it was going to get below freezing tonight. It was 80 degrees when we came through Las Cruces, we climbed from 5000 feet to about 7500 feet and the temperature dropped to about 50 in just two hours. Tonight it is going to drop to about 29 degrees and get this, it is going to snow. Not what we had planned to say the least. Assuming it does not really stick we plan on getting out tomorrow morning. Also when we checked in we were told the local casino/hotel had a dinner special on Mondays for people 55 and over. Half price on the meal, it is the first time Lady T has used a senior discount but it is hard to beat a buffet for two for $10. We had a great meal played a little video poker and came back to camp to get ready for the big freeze. We plan to come back when we can stay a few days and hopefully the weather will be a little warming. There is a mountain here that climbs to around 13,000 feet and we want to go up that one too. Maybe next year. A little earlier in the month.
We plan to be home this weekend and shoot with all my partners next Saturday. Hopefully better than I did in Tombstone.
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We traveled to Snyder TX today from Ruidoso NM. About a 6 hour trip on highways all the way. We saw more Antelope then was possible to count. We saw one herd that had at least 75 Antelopes in it. We saw many herds on the way mostly in New Mexico but also saw one large herd in Texas. New Mexico was mostly cattle; we passed one ranch which went on for miles on both sides of the road. When we passed into Texas the product changed from cattle to crops. Cotton for as far as the eye could see. Also sorghum fields, vineyards, and what was probably blue berrys. I figured the vineyards beside the cotton fields is where really dry wine comes from.
We started a list of all of the animals we have seen on this trip. We started with too many hawks to name or count, went to rabbits and quail (yes they still have quail out here) a tame deer that would come into the camper if you left your door open, mule deers, elks, more mule deers, a golden eagle, coyote, lots more quail, and I am sure there are more that I have forgotten.
We have had a fantastic trip and I have seen more animals this trip than ever before. Cant wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Ft Worth tomorrow so I should have more to talk about then.
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I am still very jealous of you and Lady T. out west, but then I realize just how much money
your reports are saving me! Have fun and keep up the good work! ;D
Harley.
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We made it to Ft Worth, most of the way across Texas without getting on an interstate. No traffic but not the smoothest road out there. We did not see much wild life but did see lots more cotton and other crops. We passed a few hunting preserves which is always a great place to see strange and exotic animals but nothing this time. Lady T and I actually saw Kudus one time when we were passing one of the hunting preserves, we had to look it up on the internet to see what they were. Anyway got set-up and decided to ride the bikes to the Stockyards for dinner.
We ate at Joe T Garcia’s Mexican restaurant. We had been told by no fewer than four different people that we had to eat there if we were in the Stockyards. So we went. We got there to signs thatsaid it was cash only, no problem, they did not have any draft beer just bottles, slight problem but manageable, no menu, just two dishes offered, back to no problem. We ordered one of each for each couple. Food was good, prices were reasonable, not sure what the hoopla was all about. I for one would have stopped at one of the many steak houses we passed to get to the Mex place but we can say we ate there. Anyway we are heading back tomorrow for a day of shopping and sightseeing. They have stars in the sidewalk that feature all of our heroes, that is really neat. Plan on seeing every one of them. I also will be looking at a new pair of boots along with some duds. I may even dress cowboy and get my picture taken with some of the tourist, it’s a lot of fun and really pisses off the locals.
I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.
By the way I do have some pictures if someone can tell me how to post them.
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Summary:
4600 miles at 10 mile per gallon with the camper, around 800 miles on the bike, walked around 125 miles.
4 nights in Wartrace, 2 nights in Amarillo, 5 nights in Albuquerque, 7 nights in Tombstone, 1 night in Ruidoso, NM, 1 night in some small town in Texas, 3 nights in Ft Worth, 1 night in Vicksburg.
38 CAS stages in three week-ends, around 1200 rounds shot,
Got to spend some time with a lot of good friends, saw some beautiful country.
We are home. Fantastic trip. We are already planning on next year. We plan to spend some days in Ruidoso, NM. It was a beautiful place, where we saw all the animals, looks like some good bike rides. A mountain around 13000 feet.
See everyone on Saturday.
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Nice summary Tombstone, happy you made it home safely.
Thanks for the real time updates on your trip, thoroughly enjoyed them.
Welcome home, see you on Saturday!
Sheriff Langston.
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Happy that you had a good time.
Even happier that you're back safely!
See you soon!
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Will you recover in time to buy Jackalope beers this Saturday?
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Thats the plan. Except I might get lucky and he buys me one.
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Luck might not have anything to do with it.
Jackalope is trying something new Saturday.
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This is the hat band I was looking at, he was not agreeable with that decision. (http://)
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Here are some of the rifle targets we were shooting in New Mexico. This is not Bordertown
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Don't let anyone from Cleveland see this picture; they'll get ideas!
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Is the picture of the Rattlesnake to scale? Is the picture of Cactus and the targets to scale?
How would we know? :-\
Harley.
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Tombstone,
I can tell the scale from the background asphalt. That rattler wouldn't have fit around your big head! Besides, he's a fairly young one (count the rattles). Leave him for another day.
I'll ask my brother if he has kept any of the skins from his recent kills (He's been clearing the barn at my sisters ranch.) One was over six foot and the other over five foot. Maybe a hat band and a belt!
Sam
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... he's a fairly young one (count the rattles)....
:D
All you can tell from counting the rattles is how many rattles it has!
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Each button (rattle) is revealed when a skin is shed. That can be once a year or several times a year, but this one still has a small number of buttons, so I consider it young.