Thursday, June 11, 2009

Arches National Park


Mom
Today we drove down to Moab to see Arches national park. It is spectacular. I wish I had been down to see it years ago. I hope to be able to make it down to go mountain biking later this summer.

We stopped a bunch of times to take photos and see the sights. It was our best day of sight seeing yet.

I recommend going to see Arches National Park.

-Gary

Machine Gun

I shot a machine gun today. It was one of the awesomest things I have ever done. It seemed surprisingly easy too. I had no trouble hitting the human sized target at 75 feet. You do have to be careful of course, and shoot as few bullets as possible at a time. Unloading the clip would take less than a second and you would be all over the place, but I found that if you try to do very small bursts you can hold it steady enough that they all his within a small area.

They give surprisingly little instruction about how to go about working the thing, maybe it is as easy as they think, I didn't have any trouble.

This is what they told me.

This button releases the clip. This switch is the safety, it also changes from semi-automatic to burst. Burst actually is fully automatic. We would appreciate it if you would do small bursts and not just empty the clip. You put push the bullets into the clip like this, you don't have to slide them in like a hand gun you just push them in. The clip goes in like this, make sure it is fully seated then pull this lever back to load a shell into the chamber. Press this button down to adjust the length of the stock. Try and go easy until you get the feel for it.

It's not like I have never shot a gun before, but it seems that a person who walks in off the street would need a little more instruction about how to shoot a machine gun.

All that being said, it was really cool. One of the funnest things ever. I think that everyone should shoot a gun sometime in their life. I will probably stop in there the next time I am near Provo.

-Gary

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Utah Trip

I started off my trip to Utah with a fun weekend in Calgary at a Mid-Singles Conference. This photo is from my hotel room. I liked the faux wood paneling so much that I had to use it as a background.

I attended the speed dating and the seminars as well as the dance. Melanie invited me to go to her friend's wedding and so I missed the supper and dance instruction at the mid singles, but we got there in time for the start of the real dance.

We stayed for the whole thing and I danced to every song with Melanie, except for a water break and to reply to a text from my parents. I figured it was pretty important because my mom has never texted me before.

Monday morning we got up early and headed to the states. We got stopped at the border because their x-ray machines picked up my firewood in the trunk of the car. We had to visit the agriculture officer and luckily she decided to let us keep our firewood and apples.

On the way I just about lost control of the car twice, and by that I mean I lost control of the car twice and was able to regain control before it was too late. Before I got to Helena the was a pretty bad rain and snow storm and I hydroplaned across a bridge. Let me tell that my mother is a lot calmer and more helpful in a real emergency than when the emergency is all in her head. We started hydroplaning again in the Salt Lake valley as well. My rear tires are pretty bald and I should get them replaced.