OKC AND AMARILLO

 The rest of  the story for Friday 3-26
 TORNADO, WHEAT,
  After a couple of  meals at Bush's Chicken,a local Texas Chain chicken restaurant, and a bit of  snooping around town looking for something interesting to do. We checked on the trailer, it was almost ready,I was hopeful that the cam lock latches would come in while we were were there. That didn't happen so I told them we would just pick them up in the fall.

We headed to Ft. worth with our newly repaired trailer. It was getting late in the afternoon when we got to the Ft. Worth club.This was our lucky day all the shooters were parked on the East side of the club house and we need to be on the west side. I backed in and unhook the trailer. While Jeanie was exploring the club from the sidewalk, to avoid Fire Ants, I set up the Igloo.

 I started to unload the first bench/cabinet. As I got it started down the ramp I almost had a runaway. I was not ready for that!!! Junior and his friends had loaded them at Waco, I had no Idea how heavy these suckers  were. The next one was worse and the last one was about the same as the first.

Remember a few post back I said that I had made a decision that would prove to be dumber than a rock? This was my first indication of that. I began to think ,you could have designed the Texas on/off ramps. What was I thinking when I came up with that brilliant idea?  I decided to see how hard it was going to be to get them back up the ramp into the trailer. They roll around easy enough on the asphalt. I line one up and start up the ramp. The first 1/2 goes easy enough but the last half wants to come back down the ramp. It was all I could do to keep it from rolling backwards.

I had learned after the first bench. Don't pull it off , push it off, unless you are really into pain. I pushed  the bench off again, and called it good for the night.

 When Jeanie Got back from socializing, I told her I thought I had made a slight miscalculation. I had been doing shoots for years, some on asphalt lots, some on grass, some on dirt, some on gravel. Shoots usually dont stop for rain, lighting yes  rain no. I could see some potential problems ahead.  

The shoot was going pretty good. A lot of the guys and gals came by to see the new trailer and Jeanie's Bottle. We were having an above average shoot and it was much easier to handle the accessories sales out of the new vendor trailer.

On  Sunday night evening when the shoot was over, it was much easier to get things cleaned up and the only packing to do was the Igloo and the benches. It was tough getting the Benches up the ramp, in fact it was almost all I could do to get them in the trailer. This is not how I had envisioned the set up working.

 Shortly after I got packed up, the club Manger came over and said that we had a severe thunder storm on the way and we were under a tornado watch. RUT-ROW, The Thunderstorm at San Antonio scared Jeanie pretty bad and had resulted in a seizure. We turned on the  TV and watched the storm approach. The  Weather reporter with the radar gave a great description of where the storm was , where the tornado were touching down right down to the block.

So far we were going to be ok, then the storm shifted and It was  time to get ready to get in a trap house. Trap houses are where the clay target is launched from and for the most part under ground. I got some warmer clothes on both Jeanie and I and some bottle water in the pockets along with her meds and a flashlight. We watched as the storm got closer, we were just about ready to go out the door, when the storm broke up.Jeanie handled it like a champ, her only question was how were you going to get me in the trap house. My answer was "carry you",she was satisfied with that.

Our next planned stop was 2 weeks away,in Amarillo. About an hour after the storm, the Manager from the Ok Trapshooters Association called and ask if we could come to a shoot there the next weekend. He said the only Vendor for the shoot had just called and canceled and he needed a vendor. They had been very good to me when I was the new kid on the block, so I told him we would be there.

On  U.S. 77 near the Arbuckle  Mountains in OK. on the way to El Reno OK.

The most memorable part of this shoot was how much Jeanie enjoyed watching the wind blow in the 1000's of acres of knee high wheat.

When the wind blew across the emerald green wheat fields it looked like ocean waves, It was absolute beautiful. I grew up  in wheat fields in the Texas panhandle and  had been at this club dozens of times butI had never seen it before. It is not that it wasn't there,it was that I just had not seen it.  That was the beginning of me realizing that Jeanie was teaching me more about life and living life than I had learned in last 6o years. It still continues 6 years later in 2010, for that I am very grateful. When I walked  down those stairs at the airport to meet this lady for the first time, there is no way I could have imagined what a positive influence she was going to have on my life.

 I learned from the Ft. Worth shoot to hire some of the kids that helped out at the shoots to load the benches.  we had a great time running old  Route 66 back to Amarillo.

A.D.A.S. Another Day Another Shoot but at this one I have a Daughter and Granddaughter and a Great granddaughter.

 Tomorrow:  Amarillo, fun with the family and moving on up.

I plan to have a great day, I hope you will join me

Rojo