Boy, it's tough to keep up ...

This is another entry in the series called "YES -- this is why we moved here."

I have had a lot of good, quality time with my 14-year old grandson, Quinn.  He is sharp as a tack, and one of the things I really like doing with him is going to the shooting range.  Q is a Boy Scout (First Class) and a couple of the merit badges he was recently working on were the shotgun and the rifle badges.

If you are not familiar with this system, Scouts have a large list of educational areas that they study and can earn "merit badges"  when they have mastered that particular area.  Among other things, Scouting has a rich history of teaching boys about outdoor life.  This dates back to its earliest days.

So anyhow, these two merit badge areas were something I could help him with since I've had MORE than my fair share of time on a range.  We started with a .22 Henry rifle. No recoil, easy to shoot and fun. I should mention that he is already quite proficient at archery, so shooting this rifle came easily to him.

                         

This is one of our targets.  He was shooting at the big circle.  I shot at the little box in the lower right.

So, what to you think -- Him?  Me?  Toss-up?  Nah ... I think he got me.

And if you think this is good, you should see him shooting the 20 ga. at clay birds at the trap range. Very good!! Maybe some time I'll tell you about my experiences with the 20 ga. pump ... pretty embarassing. Oh, and one other thing -- he learned how to clean both of the rifles afterwards. Oh yeah!!

All-in-all, it was a proud moment for him and me when he received both of these merit badges.  Good job.

Merit badges are your doorway into countless possible lifelong passions. Take your time and enjoy them!

Hooah

What a view ...

Pam and I recently traveled to Ohio on some family business, and had a little bit of time so we decided that on the way we would finally stop off at Pilot Mountain outside of Mt. Airy, NC.  We have driven past that iconic landmark hundreds of times and even played golf at a course located near there with the guys on the Man Trip outings. But we had yet to actually stop there and go up to the top.  So this was a chance to check an item off our bucket list.

This was one of the team pictures from a recent trip.  I believe this was 2021.  We didn't play there in 2022.

As I was saying, we had always wanted to stop at this site because it was always mentioned in the Andy Griffith's shows, and Pam's brother, Chuck, always talked about it. He was such a huge fan of that show.  Anyway, it was a beautiful day, so up we went.

It was pretty cool once we got up there. Actually, it was COLD. But what a view.

It was quite a winding road up to the parking area.  Really reminded me of the bus ride up the alps on the way to the Eagle's Nest. Switchbacks, 10-15 miles per hour, with the edge of the road right on the edge of the mountain. YIKES.

So, once you got to the parking area, you still had to hike up to the end of the walkway ... and that wasn't even the top of the mountain.  To get there you had to hike some more and then I don't think you could even get to the actual top. We didn't go there.  Weren't dressed for it.  No -- that isn't the real reason ... we are too old to be climbing around on mountains.  That's what they make telephoto lenses on cameras for. 

As we were getting ready to leave, we decided to stop at the gift shop.  I'm usually a sucker for gift shops and this one was worth the stop.  In fact, we bought a couple of Christmas gifts for our grand children there, and I bought a lego (a knock-off brand I think) "eagle" to put together.  It consists of miniature pieces complete with "directions" that must have originally been written in some language and then translated into English (poorly translated). I tried it once, Quinn tried it once and gave up, Heath took one look at it and passed.  So here it is:

I'll get to it one of these days.

We met some nice people up there and thoroughly enjoyed that little diversion to our trip. That's one of the nice things about having some time available -- one just never knows what's up the road, 'round the bend. All you have to do is go there. Makes me appreciate Emerson's quote a bit more:

"It's not the destination, it's the Journey."

Hooah

Aw, c'mon, coach!!

I don't think I ever told you all about one of the funniest times I ever had as the head wrestling coach at Troy high school. We had a dual match one evening between my guys and the wrestlers of Springfield North High School, and it was at their school.

There were some people around the area who might not have known my team, because they were saying that Springfield was far and away the better team. My guys and I obviously knew better, but it was kinda funny watching the Springfield guys warm up with a real cavalier attitude, laughing and not knowing that they were in for a real bad whoopin'.

So, just in case we needed any motivation, I kinda made up a little story and fed it to them.  

Springfield North in those days was a pretty affluent school.  They went out and recruited all the good athletes in that town (which was a pretty good sized district) and they kinda walked around with their noses up in the air. Plus -- they had something that pretty much no other high school in that part of Ohio had -- a swimming team and their own pool, right in the middle of their athletic building. 

So, I was pretty sure my guys knew they had a swimming team and a pool, but I was also pretty sure they didn't know where that pool was. I told them that it was under the floor beneath the wrestling mat they were competing on.  They would just push a button and the floor would retract, revealing the pool's waters. I'm pretty sure that I also told them it had been reported that there had been instances in the past where the floor just started to open and the mats fell into the water. I told them that they had better go out there quickly, get the takedown, get the pin and get off the mat -- just in case.

It was a thing to behold.They went out there like mad men.  It might have been the quickest meet we ever had,  Even the referees were amazed. Out of the 13 matches we had 6 or 7 pins, with several of them in the first period.

After the meet was over and the guys got dressed and came out to the gym to get ready to leave, I saw some of the sophomores kinda lifting the mat, looking for the place where the floor came together.  And just when I was about to tell them the story, some of my seniors  came running out and jumped up and down behind them.  The Sophs thought the floor was opening and hightailed it right off that mat!! Everyone had a big laugh. I doubt that anyone other than the sophomores believed my story, but they didn't let on.

Oh yeah, we educated some doubters that night and made it happen.

There are three types of players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what just happened. (Tommy Lasorda, former Los Angeles Dodgers manager and two-time World Series champion.)

Hooah