Cowboys and Indians, 2 weeks and counting.

An awful picture of the three of us, but there aren't many, so I thought I would post it, haha.

On Friday morning, Willy and I got up bright and early and headed 3 hours north to see Allan. If you look closely in the above photo, on the left hand side, you can see our current RV. It's a little Springdale tow behind. That's where we stayed while visiting Allan. In case you haven't guessed, it's in the yard of his shop, you know, where all the big trucks are running and driving, and starting at 6am. It's great. (Yes, that was sarcasm) The shop is also wedged between Highway 16 (a major highway) and a railroad. The railroad isn't just a set of tracks either, it's the rail yard. Where the trains stop and load and unload cars. So...it's a nice spot if you don't like quiet. Ever.

Despite our less than ideal spot (it is free, and handy for Allan who had to work), we had an amazing time. Friday, we set up Willy's archery target and shot arrows in the shop's yard. The yard is quite large, so there's lots of room to shoot. We had a great time, even if Willy's bow is too small for either of us.

Once it got too dark to shoot, I went into the trailer and the boys...I wasn't sure what they were doing, until I heard a lot of noise, engines, beeping, gravel grinding, etc. I went out to look and saw this:

Allan and Willy playing in the skid steer.

Really, what more could a boy want in one day? Besides, the next day promised even more fun.

Saturday, we headed out to Hinton's Fish and Wildlife Shooting Range. It's about 45 minutes away from where we were 'camped', but they were hosting a shooting event that we didn't want to miss. It's called 'Funday'. They have it every year, and the public can go and try their hand at archery, rifles, trap shooting, and big game shooting. Not having parents who hunt, Allan and I have very little experience shooting anything. We both have shot gophers for farmers with a .22 at some point in our childhood, and that's about it for our firearms experience.

The view on the way to Hinton.

When we arrived, the members of the club were amazing. They came over and introduced themselves, and took Willy off to go shoot trap. If you are ignorant like we were...trap shooting is shooting clay pigeons that are fired from a 'house' buried in the ground. You then shoot the clay pigeons with a 20 or 12 gauge shotgun. (20 gauge is smaller)

Bob, from the club, showing Willy how to hold a 20 gauge shotgun. Willy found it to be quite heavy.

The cement 'house' on the left is where the clay pigeons are shot from. In the photo, Willy was shooting at a stationary target first, to get the feel of things. Willy hit the stationary target, but didn't hit any of the moving ones. I think it was because the gun was so heavy for him, he had problems moving it. My son isn't exactly muscular, to put it mildly. Lol. 

After Willy shot, it was my turn.

Long story short on me shooting...they created a monster. I LOVED it! Who would have thought shooting a chunk of clay flying through the air could be so exciting! I hit 4 of the 5 pigeons Bob sent out in the air. We were on a modified house, so the birds only went straight. Apparently 4/5 is pretty good for a beginner, so they took me to the 'real' area where the birds are shot in one of three directions...and you don't know which one. I hit 5/5 on that. 

Well...people were flocking to me. I heard things like, compete, try international, join, member, etc among the members. I wasn't sure what I had done, but everyone was very excited. Turns out...most beginners can't shoot that well, and I was a natural. Who'd of thought? So, I was invited to shoot with the members the next day, and get a couple of free rounds. It was exciting. 

After I peeled myself away from the trap shooters, we moved on to the rifles. Allan didn't try trap because his phone kept ringing, and he told me he really had no interest in shotguns. Fair enough. Compared to trap shooting, hitting a paper target with .22 was quite anticlimactic, but we still had fun, and Willy did very well. He hinted that he may like to have a .22 of his own one day. His groupings were wonderful, and one of the hunters offered to take him rabbit hunting some time.

Then we were off to do some archery. William was obviously quite excited, this is his thing now! He's always loved archery, and even though he likes the .22, I'm sure he would far rather rabbit hunt with his bow than with a rifle. 

Willy waiting for Allan to finish shooting so he can retrieve his arrows.

Allan and Willy had a great time shooting the bows. The club had compound bows available for the public, so Willy set aside his long bow and played with compounds. He had a lot of fun and hinted VERY strongly that he had perhaps outgrown his longbow and his next bow should maybe be a compound. <grin>

In the photo above, on the right hand side, you can see a man in a white shirt taking pictures of Allan shooting. He took pictures of William too. Was he a stalker? No. A reporter. Allan and Willy made it into the local newspaper! Willy thought that was quite awesome!

After a long day of shooting stuff, we said goodbye to all the wonderful people we had met and headed back to the trailer. Was our fun day over though? Not quite.

At 11pm, we headed out of town to a pipe yard Allan's company has. We parked the truck in the middle of the dark yard, laid blankets out in the box of his truck, and watched the Perseid meteor shower. What a cool ending to our day.

Photo was taken from here.