My EOT Trip

It sure has been a while since i blogged here. But moving forward on the site and app has sparked today's blog. Some of you may know that I attended EOT for the first time. Those that don't know End Of Trail is the Cowboy Action Shooting World Championship. Held this past June in Edgewood New Mexico. A couple firsts here I guess, first trip to NM too. Let me tell ya, we had fun. People had me worried about a few things like the altitude, seeing I'm a sea level person and the heat. Neither really bothered me outside of being completely exhausted the first day I was there. The heat was bearable, and they kept the water jugs full. I did use some chap stick while there so my tender lips wouldn't chap but SASS hooked me up with that in my cowboy packet. Almost like they knew Moog has sweet tender lips. Lets get to the good stuff, the range was beautiful to someone who's home range has to wait for the airplanes to land to continue reading the stage so everyone can here it. I spent a good amount of time just looking at the scenery, open fields and mountains surrounding me. I remember thinking wow this is really nice and was very happy to be there playing with my friends. The range was fun, think old western town with building for vendors and sponsors there was even a exhibit of the guns that were used in some Clint Eastwood movies. After all, it was a Clint Eastwood themed match. Range food was decent if you stayed away from the green chili burritos! (don't ask) Plenty of stuff to do with side matches and practice matches, there was even a guy that had some machine guns that for a price you could blast away a few bucks. The match started and it was time for my first world championship stage. I staged my guns and took my normal deep breath but that didn't stop the butterflies like normal. I turned to the timer operator who I shoot with often here in Florida Santa Fe River Stan and said "I'm a little nervous" who replied "you got this, it's just like shooting in Eustis". I gotta tell ya it felt good to be nervous, it was like affirming that i was about to do something special. My first world championship stage. I gave my version of the line adding my "Laws Yes" and got the beep from the timer and I was off. 21.4 seconds and 24 shots later I was done. Probably one of the best runs at a stage i have ever had. Even though the rest of my match didn't go as good as that first stage I have that memory and experience. I finished 235 out of around 600 shooters, so i guess i will practice a little harder for the next time. Our posse was really good, most people worked and we had some crackpots shooting with us, oh wait, crackers. There were shooters from all over the world and all over the US. I met new fun people and got to experience the championship of the game I play, and had a blast. The hotel parties were fun too, well, how can you not have fun when you're hanging out with guys that use aliases like Shelleen, Delta Glen, Santa Fe River Stan and BeckaBoo. You hear the saying life is about experiences and I truly believe that. Even though i was far from the fastest cowboy on the range, it was still better than a good WEEK at work!