Gun Blogger Rendezvous Report - Part 1

KeeWee and I arrived in Reno on Wednesday, the day before the Rendezvous. The shuttle ride from Whidbey Island to Seattle, the Horizon flight to Reno, and the shuttle ride to the Silver Legacy were all uneventful, in other words, just as I like it. We checked in at the hotel, and dropped our bags in the room. We stopped by the hotel offices and checked in with our account representatives to make sure everything was in order for the Gun Bloggers for the next four days. The tables, chairs, and layout were just as we had requested.

KeeWee had to try out the huge ornate chair in the lobby of the Silver Legacy.

After making sure we were all set for the Rendezvous, we headed back to the room to relax a bit before heading out to dinner. The view from the 28th. floor was spectacular.

Looking in the general direction of Virginia City.

28 floors up means it's a L-O-N-G ways down!

We arranged to meet for dinner in the El Dorado buffet with Monty from the Western Nevada Pistol League club to sort out the final details and logistics for Saturday’s Steel Challenge shooting. Monty had recommended the El Dorado’s buffet as being exceptionally good, and it was as he had described, good food, lots of variety, and lots of choices for deserts. I think I gained ten pounds in one meal!

After dinner we stopped by the hospitality room to see if any gun bloggers had shown up yet, and a few were starting to arrive. We visited a bit, then it was off to bed early, as Thursday the Rendezvous started up in earnest.

Thursday morning we had breakfast in the Americana Café in Circus Circus. After breakfast we wandered around a bit to get our bearings. By now more of the gang were starting to arrive. At 2PM. We stopped by the Hospitality Room to get car-pooled up for our field trip to Scheel’s, the largest “All Sports” store in the world. Is it? Don’t know, but at approximately 300,000 square feet, it truly is huge. We had arranged for an employee of Scheel’s to show us around and tell us a bit about the store. If you are in Reno, it’s definitely worth a look, and be sure to try some of their fudge. There must have been thirty or forty different flavors, and they’d give you samples to taste for free! Scheel’s also has quite a large gun department, and most of us spent some time there eye-balling their inventory.

After browsing through Scheel’s, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. On the way back from Scheel’s Phil and David, the editorial staff from Random Nuclear Strikes, stopped and picked up soft drinks, mixers, and munchies for the Hospitality Room. By now even more of the gang had arrived, and we all headed back to the El Dorado Buffet for dinner. After another big dinner, we staggered back to the Hospitality Room for an evening of enlightened conversation, a spirited and enlightened discussion, OK, a BS session that went well into the night.

Not too late for me, however, as tomorrow was the first range day. Don’t want to be too groggy for that!

— To Be Continued —

Prescott, AZ Steel Challenge

I've barely got rested up from the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno, haven't got any of the pictures posted yet from Reno, and I'm already planning my next shooting expedition.

On October 24th, a Saturday, there will be an eight stage Steel Challenge Match in Prescott, AZ. I've never been there, but the weather should be pleasant, and I've got a few frequent flier miles to use, so why not?

Plans are to fly into Phoenix mid-day on the Friday 23rd, rent a car at the airport, then drive to a motel in Prescott. Saturday night after the match I plan to kill some time in Prescott, then drive to Phoenix and catch a red-eye home early Sunday morning.

If any of you are within a reasonable driving distance of Prescott, why not come and shoot a Steel Match with us? I'll get more info on the match in a later post, but for now I'm curious if there is anyone in the Prescott area I can correspond with about arranging a motel and finding a place to eat. If you can help, drop me an email at blog(at)whidbey(dot)com.

Thanks!

GBR-IV Raises $8243.80 For Valour-IT

The Gun Blogger Rendezvous is over, and everyone has returned home safely. The work to finish it all up, however, still remains.

Yesterday Jenny at Barrett Escrow, an angel in her own right, and I sat down and went over all of the receipts and finances for the Rendezvous. As you know, Barrett Escrow has received all of the registration and donation money for the Rendezvous, maintaining a good paper trail of the receipts. Jenny, and the rest of the folks at Barrett Escrow have done this at no charge as a donation to Soldier's Angels and Project Valour-IT. It's a lot of work, but they did a fantastic job. (They also don't mind when I eat the candy in the big basket on their counter.....)

Anyhow, after sorting it all out, and adding in all money received from

• On line raffle ticket sales
• GBR-IV Registrations
• Donations
• Raffle Tickets sold at GBR-IV

We cleared a grand total of

$8243.80

and we had a ball doing so!

I should also mention that National Shooting Sports Foundation (AKA NSSF) at the last minute donated an additional $1,000 to Project Valour-IT. This is in addition to their buying us pizza on Saturday night! If you would like to thank them for their generosity, an email to

info@nssf.org

should do the job!

For all of you who attended the Rendezvous, it was great so see you all, and if you weren't able to make it this year, it's never too soon to start planning for next year.

I'm still wiped out, but a few more naps and I should be back up to speed.

Finally got back from Reno.....

Our plans to return from Reno and the Gun Blogger rendezvous didn't go exactly as planned, but it worked out anyway. We had reservations (but chose to fly anyway?) on Horizon Air from Reno to Seattle, then catch the Whidbey/SeaTac shuttle bus back to Whidbey Island. We were scheduled to leave Reno around 5:45pm and arrive in Seattle a couple of hours later. I checked the monitor at the airport before we went through security and our flight showed as on time.

Once we got through security (it seems that TSA has trouble differentiating between fudge from Scheel's and C4) I checked the a monitor and our flight was delayed 3 hours. That would get us to Seattle too late to catch the last shuttle of the day, and we'd have to spend the night at the airport, then catch the shuttle home in the morning. The guy from Horizon was great when I explained the problem, and he gave us vouchers for a night's stay at the Holiday Inn in Sparks (nearby) and also vouchers for our dinner and breakfast. He also gave me 4,000 frequent flier miles.

We grabbed the Holiday Inn shuttle and headed for the Holiday Inn. I was a bit apprehensive, fearing that the airline was putting us up in whatever was their cheapest option, but boy was I wrong. The Holiday Inn in Sparks was beautiful, nice people, great room, and a decent restaurant. Not having a gambling casino was nice, too ,as we were more interested in a quiet place to stay after the previous week's excitement in downtown Reno.

We took the free shuttle over to visit the Nugget casino to have a look, and I even managed to win about fifteen bucks! We only stayed at the Nugget for a short time, though, as we were both dead tired and needed to get some sleep.

We shuttled back to the Holiday Inn, got some sleep, and resumed our travel plans the next day.

This time, everything went as planned, and we arrived home weary, but glad to be home. The Rendezvous had been by far the best yet. We are already looking forward to next year!!

GBR Report - One

So far everything has gone smoothly here at the Rendezvous, although Mr. Murphy is surely not far away at all times. A lot of the attendees were arriving Thursday night late, so last night's hospitality room only some of the folks in attendance. Tonight just about everyone should be here, although some folks are arriving late Friday night.

Some of the gang after dinner at Thursday night's hospitality room.

Yesterday we went as a group over to Sheel's Sports store, which they advertise as the world's largest all sports store. At 300,000 square feet, it was really impressive.

KeeWee and I are off to breakfast with the gang, then we' head out to the range for some target shooting. Today is the long distance shooter's day, with targets out to 700 yards or so.

More later......

Good Morning, Reno!

It just so happens that this weekend is not only the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, but also the Reno Balloon Races. When we opened the curtains this morning we could see a few balloons starting to inflate in the park a short distance away. In minutes the sky way full of balloons, and more are rising by the minute.


As I sit here the balloons are increasing in number and in closeness. It's quite spectacular!

We've Arrived In Reno @ GBR-IV

The view from the hotel window.

Starting your morning at 4am. is bordering on criminal abuse, but at least we've arrived in Reno without mishap. I brought a full sized keyboard to use on the netbook, and it really makes typing a lot easier. I'm sitting at a table in our room for the next four days in the Silver Legacy. We're on the 28th. floor, and the view is quite nice through the rather large picture window.

That's it for now, so I think I might just take a nap.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

On the Way to GBR-IV

It's four twenty (expletive) eight in the middle of the night, and I'm not even close to conscious. Yesterday was a long day trying to get work caught up and all the last minute details taken care of for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous that starts tomorrow in Reno. I'm sure I've forgotten something, but I'll just have to sort it out when I get to Reno later today.

Safe trip to all of you traveling to the Rendezvous, and we'll see you in Reno!

GBR-IV Driving Directions to Pyramid Range

Driving Directions from Hotel to Washoe County Regional Shooting Facility – Pyramid Range Friday for long Range Rifle and Pistol, Saturday for Steel Challenge Pistol shooting.

• Start at (Silver Legacy) 407 N VIRGINIA ST, RENO going toward E 5TH ST - go 0.3 mi
• 0.3 Turn RIGHT (East) onto E Maple St 131 yds
• 0.4 Take Ramp onto I-80 1.1 mi I-80
• 1.5 At exit 15, turn RIGHT onto Ramp 0.2 mi US-395 / Susanville / Carson City
• 1.7 Take Ramp (LEFT) onto US-395 1.3 mi US-395 / Susanville
• 3.1 At exit 70, keep RIGHT onto Ramp 153 yds N. McCarran Blvd / Clear Acre Lane
• 3.2 Keep RIGHT to stay on Ramp 0.1 mi North McCarran Boulevard
• 3.3 Keep RIGHT to stay on Ramp 87 yds N McCarran Blvd / Sparks
• 3.3 Bear RIGHT (East) onto N McCarran Blvd 1.8 mi
• 5.1 Turn LEFT (North) onto SR-445 [Pyramid Way] 0.3 mi
• 5.5 Bear RIGHT (North-East) onto SR-445 [Pyramid Lake Hwy] 11.5 mi
• 17.0 Keep STRAIGHT onto SR-445 [Pyramid Lake Rd] 9.8 mi
• 26.8 Turn LEFT (West) onto Local road(s) 0.7 mi
• 27.5 Turn RIGHT (North-East) onto Local road(s) 43 yds
• 27.6 Arrive Range

SUMMARY

Driving distance: 27.6 miles Trip duration: 31 minutes Driving time: 31 minutes

GBR-IV Thursday Breakfast Added

For those of you arriving in Reno on Wednesday, we have added a Thursday morning breakfast to the agenda. If you are at the hotel, The Silver Legacy, in Reno on Thursday morning, we will be leaving the Hospitality Room (Silver Baron "B") at 8:30am to go to breakfast.

The Silver Baron "B" room is on the mezzanine level, which is the same level as the lobby, and if I remember correctly, it's only a short distance from all of the restaurants. There are 23 restaurants in the multi-hotel complex from which to choose!

Here's the latest version of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous Agenda:

Tentative Schedule For
The 4th Annual
Gun Blogger Rendezvous

Thursday, September 10th

8:30 am. Leave the Silver Legacy "Silver Baron B" Hospitality room for one of the restaurants for breakfast.

2:30 pm. Leave the Hospitality Room to car pool to Scheel’s Sports Store in nearby Sparks.

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Guided tour at Scheel’s Sports and browsing/shopping. Pick up munchies and soft drinks on way back to hotel.

6:00pm. Leave the Hospitality Room to go to dinner. Location to be determined later.

Thursday Evening until midnight: Refreshments and conversation at the Silver Legacy Hospitality room. Bring your own refreshments and munchies.

Friday, September 10th.

8:00am. Leave the Silver Legacy "Silver Baron B" Hospitality room for one of the restaurants for breakfast.

8:45am. Leave the Silver Legacy Hospitality room to car pool up and head out to the Washoe County Shooting Facility, the Pyramid range for rifle and pistol target shooting out to 900 yards.

9:30am – 2:00pm. At the range.

3:00 pm. – 5:45pm. Show-N-Tell at the Silver Legacy Hospitality room.

6:00pm. Leave the Silver Legacy Hospitality room to go to the ground floor to Gecko’s BBQ Restaurant for dinner.

Friday Evening until midnight: Refreshments and conversation at the Silver Legacy Hospitality room. Bring your own refreshments and munchies.

Saturday, September 11th.

8:00am. Leave the Silver Legacy "Silver Baron B" Hospitality room for one of the restaurants for breakfast.

8:45am. Leave the Silver Legacy Hospitality room to car pool up and head out to the Washoe County Shooting Facility, the Pyramid range for an introduction to Steel Challenge Action Pistol shooting.

9:30am – 2:00pm. At the range.

4:30 – 5:15pm. Rachel Parsons of the NRA

5:15 – 6pm. Bill Brassard of the National Shooting Sports Foundation

6:00 pm. NSSF all you can eat pizza feed at the Silver Legacy Hospitality room. After dinner will be the fund raiser raffle for Project Valour-IT and the drawings for the door prizes.

Saturday Evening until Midnight: Refreshments and conversation at the Silver Legacy Hospitality room. Bring your own refreshments and munchies. .

Sunday, September 12th.

7:30am. Leave the Silver Legacy "Silver Baron B" Hospitality room for one of the restaurants for breakfast.

8:15am. Leave for the Virginia City Camel Races Festival and Cowboy Fast Draw Blogger Match.

9:00am – 10:00am. Cowboy Fast Draw Shooting.

The Cowboy Fast Draw shooting is the last scheduled event for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, but many attendees will be staying Sunday night and returning home on Monday. The Camel Races Festival, The Reno Car Museum, the Downtown River Walk, the new Reno Museum, and a number of other things should be considered for the rest of the day on Sunday.

Note that many of the times shown are departure times. Plan on being there a little earlier than the departure time.

GBR-IV On Line Raffle Ticket Sales Ends Saturday Night

The Gun Blogger is now only days away, and the on line raffle ticket sales are about to end. In fact, tomorrow night (9/5/09) the on line sales will be shut down for the year.

Go get your raffle tickets and maybe YOU will be the lucky winner of the Para GI 1911 or the 4 Days of Training at Front Sight Academy. Here's the link:

Gun Blogger Rendezvous / Project Valour-IT Raffle Tickets

Remember, if you can't legally own the Para GI 1911, either because of the state you live in, or other reasons, and your name is drawn to win the Para, your entry will be disqualified. If your ticket is drawn for the Front Sight Training, however, you will get to enjoy four days of excellent training in Las Vegas. You DO have to get to Front sight on your own, but for a course like that, I think you'll be able to figure out something!

We all owe a big thanks to Brian and the gang at Lucky Gunner Ammo for hosting our ticket sales and processing the bankcard transactions for us.

August e-Postal Results + New Match Announced

The August e-Postal match, dreamed up and hosted by Curtis Lowe of the blog of the same name, has ended, and the results are now posted.

If you missed out on the August match, the September match is now underway under the expert guidance of True Blue Sam - The Travelin' Man.

Don't miss out!