The RSVP’s weren’t accurate and Barb had some extra chair and table space. And the strangest thing was that virtually no one left the kitchen or family room. There were something like another 14 chairs in the dining room and a couple of card tables in the living room that no one used. They either sat around the two card tables in the family room or ate at the kitchen counter. It was more intimate, but a little odd.
Barb had lots of decorations and great food for everyone. That wasn’t without a fair amount of stress. Among other things the oven went rogue when she was trying to bake the cupcakes. It decided to broil them instead. The tops were brown and headed toward black when she noticed. Below a thin crust the cupcakes were completely liquid.
Barb made a quick dash to the store to get another cake mix and I salvaged the cupcakes for more private use by transferring them to a ceramic cup and nuking them in the microwave for one minute. They were still considerably misshapen but very edible.
Thanksgiving was at Bill and Carolyn’s house this year. There was some apprehension about the menu after it was announced there was a South American theme.
The worries were overblown. There was only one dish, I think it was Chilean pulled pork, which wouldn’t have been at home in a typical U.S. Thanksgiving spread. The food was plentiful and good. The people were friendly and the conversations pleasant.
We planned to leave the cabin at 10:00 and were very close to on schedule. We drove the short distance to the parking lot for the trail head for Second Beach and walked through the woods to the beach. Barb and I walked from one end of the beach to the other as did several others.
We left home about 11:00 AM, 15 minutes earlier than planned. We arrived at the Seattle ferry dock at 11:30 and were about car number five in line for the 12:20 ferry to Bainbridge Island. Had we arrived perhaps 10 minutes earlier we probably have been on the earlier ferry. No matter. There were no hard deadlines we had to meet.
We had a pleasant ferry ride and continued our drive. We arrived at our cabin in La Push at about 5:00 PM. We settled in and had supper then started finding other people.
Barb called it a snowball as we found more and more people and our group grew. Here is what it looked like when we had a little more than half of our group:
Bob and family came in about 9:00. We stood around and talked with them for a while then Barb and I got a little chilled and tired of standing and snuck off to the cabin about 9:45. Max drifted off his cousins to the RV spot where Steve and family were parked. They had a fire pit and food so people hung out there until late.
Saturday Barb, Max, and I went to a steel match at the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club on Whidbey Island. Just Max and I were shooting this time. This was the first time Max had ever shot in a match. I suspect Barb will try it sometime, but not yet.
The weather was better than last time but still not exactly warm. The ferry ride was pleasant with a nice view:
The weather was good enough that our friends Elizabeth, William, and Finn also came out to watch. William and Elizabeth have been telling me for months they were going to watch sometime and they finally made it. They live on the island only about a 10 or 15 minute drive from the gun club. It was Barb attending that made the difference. After the end of the match William shot Steve’s rifle on one stage just to see what an open class rifle is like. Then Elizabeth, William, and Finn checked out the rest of the range. The next day Elizabeth texted me:
We had fun yesterday! Actually considering a membership! Lol. Who knew?!?
Thanks again!
Ahhh yes… More people firmly on our side of the gun issue.
Here are Barb and Elizabeth (the quality sucks because it is a frame grab from my video glasses):
I have been having problems with the front sight on my STI DVC again (first time details). The plastic shim lasted several hundred rounds so then I got some “Liquid Metal” built up the base of the sight, sanded it down to where it was a tight fit, then used high strength, high temperature LockTite to hold it in place. That lasted for many months and many thousands of rounds. Then it fell off again last week. I tried just the LockTite. That lasted less than a hundred rounds. I then tried just the liquid metal, building up a layer on either side of the sight. That survived a couple hundred rounds at the practice range on Friday and survived the entirety of the Saturday match. Barb and I met some friends at the indoor range Saturday afternoon and the front sight slid way to the left on the first shot. At least it didn’t fail me while at the match.
Sunday I folded up aluminum foil, put it under the sight, such that it made for a tight fit and put LockTite between all the layers, on the base of the sight and on the sight groove. I haven’t taken it to the range for testing yet but will do that sometime this week. I want this problem permanently solved.
Two of the stages were very challenging and I lost a lot of time with my centerfire pistol on them. I did okay with rimfire despite having three failures to feed during the match.
The following stage is evil. You have to hit the white plate four times then hit the yellow plate once. If you miss the white plate and hit the yellow plate your shots stop counting for hits but they do count for time. Suppose your first shot is a miss on the white plate, hits the yellow plate then you continue to shoot the white plate four times, then the yellow plate for a total time of five seconds. You are scored for four misses with a penalty of three seconds per miss which gives you a time for that string of 5 + 12 => 17 seconds.
I had at least two strings with the centerfire gun and one rimfire gun string with penalties.
The stage below is not exactly easy either. The yellow swingers are for rimfire and the white swingers are for centerfire. The large yellow plate in the center is the stop plate. The two swingers must change side to count as a hit, and must be hit twice. The swingers are small and a centerfire swinger would sometimes change sides from the impact of the other plate changing sides. I lost a lot of time on the centerfire portion of this.
Of course the stages were different but I’m pretty sure my rimfire shooting is getting much better and I think the centerfire is better as long as I take enough time to get hits instead of something approximating “spray and pray”.
Maddy came home from South America last night. She seemed as glad to be home as we were to have her home.
Her plane arrived on time and we hoped to meet her as she left security although the official plan was to meet her at baggage claim. She didn’t have cell phone so we could connect if we missed her so I went to baggage claim while Barb and Max waited at the security exit. Barb and Max met her and I was a little late catching up but Maddy still gave me a big hug:
We waited and waited for her baggage. There was an accident on the tarmac and it was delayed. Finally the luggage starting showing up but her backpack wasn’t there. Barb check with the airline and found that it had come in on an earlier flight. We could have been on our way MUCH sooner. No matter. We had Maddy back in the states on time and that was the important part.
She brought home lots of stuff like native grown and processed chocolate, a necklace (worn by male leaders of the tribe), and demonstrated her blowgun for us:
Now I need to demonstrate to her how to use modern guns.
Barb and Max left Friday afternoon and I followed after work. The traffic was terrible for me and it took me over two hours. But Barb was waiting for me at the park entrance and guided me through the parking and transportation from the parking area to the cabins about, by trail, 350 yards away.
We visited and went on some short hikes until it started getting dark then sat around the tables in front of the cabins and visited until it was time for bed. Most of the people I talked to asked about Maddy and Barb and I filled them in with the latest stories.
The cabins were close to the water and clean. The walls were very thin though. And the cabins were close together. You could hear people snoring in the cabin next you. We gave Max the bedroom and the large bed. Barb and I slept on the rollaway bed. Every movement was a screech of metal and the wall was so thin my snoring kept Max from sleeping well.
