...Ponderings...

Here is a summarized version of the insanity I like to call my trip to Colorado.

Day one was Thursday, it was average. I waited till the last minute to pack, like always. Car ride was incredibly uncomfortable. We ended up in Socorro, NM for the night. Got about 6 hours of sleep and headed out.

Day two was long, tiring, and frustrating. We couldn’t find the E-85 ethanol fuel that we can put in our car. We drove around Albuquerque for three hours before finally finding a place to eat. We stopped at a JB’s and their food was surprisingly good. In Tucson at least they had really gone downhill. Everyone was so nice so it was a pleasant breakfast. We finally arrived at the hotel around 5:30 central and kicked back for a bit before heading out to the Black Bear Diner. Their food is awesome and if you ever get a chance to eat there, do it!

Day three, the competition. To say the very least, it was exhausting. Got up at 5 am and mom and I headed out to get some coffee at Burger King. Trust me when I say they have the best coffee I have ever tasted. I got a really awesome opportunity to take a few photos of Pike’s Peak at sunrise. It was really stunning.

The competition itself was fun. My brother, commander of the armed team, made one mistake from what I was told by the Colonel. I pretty much hung out on the field with Colonel all day. He is such a riot! The “meat grinder” is one of the moves they do, we just call it the grinder, but the Colonel always has to make some sort of comment about it. Its an insane move where one line of boys stands there while two lines walk on either side of them, spinning their rifles as they go. I told Colonel he was making me nervous and he laughed.

Here’s a list of the awards we got that I can remember:

Unarmed- 2nd over all, 3rd place Outstanding Commander Award
Armed- 2nd place Outstanding Commander Award
Armed Drilldown- Top three
Unarmed Drilldown- 2nd and 3rd

And as a nice very special surprise, one of the former members of the team, Salvagio who attends the UofA, won the Solo Armed Exhibition.

The rest of the day was somewhat unpleasant. My brother’s dad was being a total butthead to my brother. My brother never cries and his dad said some pretty awful things to him and he cried. It was a pretty screwed up night, my mom was totally depressed all night. I tried my best to ignore her mood but it was really hard. We ended up eating at Dairy Queen which was the second best thing that happened all day.

Day four was hysterical to say the least. It started off in an odd way. We went to Starbucks to get some coffee refills and my dad told the girl to have a good day and she said “you too, seize it!”. Needless to say that poor girl became the brunt of many many poor in taste jokes. We’re still joking about it as a matter of fact. We had lunch in Santa Fe at a Furr’s Cafeteria. There was a Mexican girl working there and she asked us if we wanted mashed potatoes and brown gravy. Except all she could say was “mash and brown?”. We just thought it was hysterical. The best part was our server. He was black and when he came to the table my mom was sneezing like crazy. He said “I had another lady doing that and I asked her ‘ma’am, are you allergic to black?’”. Oh Lord was he ever funny! The rest of the trip was interesting and since we were all so tired, everything was so funny.

I guess it was pretty fun, kind of disappointing, but amusing.