GBR-V Update

In spite of all the computer problems this last week, I have also been busy pulling things together for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous coming up in Reno in September. It looks like all of the previous sponsors are on board again this year, and a few more too. The steel shooting session for Saturday morning is pretty much arranged, and it looks like there will be some Cowboy Fast Draw Competition for the attendees on Sunday, although the location has not been determined. The interest in a UTAH CCW class on Thursday morning has been essentially zero, so I'm scrubbing that from the schedule. I've got some other ideas, though, for Thursday, so there will definitely be stuff to do for those of you showing up either on Wednesday or on Thursday morning. KeeWee and I will be arriving on Wednesday afternoon, so if you are getting in on Wednesday let me know and we can probably have dinner together Wednesday night.

Stay tuned!!

Windows 7 KABOOM.....

As you may have noticed, the Mr. Completely blog activity for the last week has been nil. A couple of months ago I built a new computer and moved everything from my old system to the new one, a process that took almost a week to get everything, including all the older versions of software, fully functional, with a few small exceptions. Once finished, though, it worked really well, and I was getting to enjoy some of the newer features of Windows 7. Last Tuesday I used it all day, and it worked fine. Wednesday morning it wouldn't even boot to Windows. It wouldn't boot in safe mode. I tried booting from the Install CD and using Startup Repair. No luck. I tried command line system repair. No Luck. I hooked the primary drive to another computer and checked it for errors and infections. None found. The drive was fully readable, but it just wouldn't boot. In the DOS days you could boot from a floppy and enter one command, "SYS C:" and hit enter and it would fix this problem. With Windows 98 you could reinstall the O/S from the CD and it would leave your files alone, but fix a non-booting Windows. When this happens on anything from XP onward, the fix is either a lot more difficult, or totally impossible. I checked all of Microsoft's solutions, and searched the Net for possible solutions. The bottom line turned out to be that if you didn't have a full backup or a disk image there wasn't much you could do except start over. Since I didn't have everything  fully fully functional and configured as I wanted it, I hadn't done a backup or made a disk image yet. At least the old drive was readable, just not bootable, so I hadn't lost anything, just the ability to boot the computer. I installed a brand new hard drive and clean installation of WIN7, and hooked the old drive up and started moving all of the files and programs to the new drive. Of course, that meant re-installing and configuring every program one at a time, but at least it was something that could be done that would eventually get me back up and running.  As I was copying a fairly large folder filled with blog pictures, WIN 7 froze up completely and stopped responding. I had to re-set the computer to get it running. Once it was re-booted it was clearly damaged, and would take up to a minute or so to respond to a mouse click. Nothing seemed to work. I worked on it for quite a while, and finally decided that there must have been something strange about something in that folder that had corrupted WIN 7. I wiped the primary drive and tried it again, avoiding that particular folder. It crashed again copying a different folder. I took the old drive to a Windows XP computer and copied the entire drive to a different drive and it copied without problem. I reinstalled WIN 7 for the who knows how many time, and hooked up the drive with the copied files. When I tried to copy the larger folders to the WIN 7 boot drive, again it crashed. At least by now I did have a drive image of the boot drive, so re-installing didn't take so long, but it was still a pain in the neck to have WIN 7 keep crashing and have to keep reinstalling everything, just to have it crash again. To see if it made any difference, I tried using a IDE interface hard drive instead of the SATA interface drive for the Windows 7 primary drive. Of course, WIN 7 wouldn't let me use the disk image to restore to the IDE drive, so I had to re-install WIN 7 again from scratch. Once I had everything running OK, I hooked up the original drive that had initially crashed and wouldn't boot. I was able to copy all of the folders and files, regardless of size, to the IDE boot drive. No problem, no crash, no idea why, but it worked. In the midst of all of this fun I had also re-flashed the BIOS, just in case that might have an effect. It didn't.

That's what I did for the majority of the last week, and why the blog has been quiet. So for now I am up and running, but I have no idea what caused the original crash, and I have no idea why I can copy large folders  to the boot drive only if it's an IDE drive, although the souce drive can be either IDE or SATA. Unfortunately the IDE drive is noticeably slower than the SATA drive was, but at least it's running. Will it continue to work? Will it boot tomorrow?

Who knows..................

NSSF Firearm Safety Video

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, perhaps best known for the SHOT Show, The First Shots program, and the Scholastic Clays program, are also really active in a lot of other areas, including producing a number of videos. Of course, they are also sponsors of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous (All you can eat pizza, WOO HOO!!), so you know for sure they are good guys! Anyhow, here's one of their videos featuring NSSF's Doug Painter and Bill Brassard. Bill, by the way, was at last year's Rendezvous, and is planning on attending this year too.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Basics

Being totally immersed in putting on the Gun Blogger Rendezvous I tend to forget that many of you are unfamiliar with just exactly whatthe Rendezvous is all about.

Approximately five years ago it dawned on me that although most of the gun bloggers read each others blogs, and are kind of familiar with the particular interests and specifics of the individual blogs,but most of us had never really met each other in person. A few small local gun blogger gatherings would spring up from time to time, but usually very small and local.

I decided that a national gun blogger gathering, even if it was a lot of work, would be a whole lot of fun. It would be  a chance to meet, visit, party, eat, shoot with, and just generally hang out  with a really interesting bunch of folks. Since some of the blog commenters and readers are also interesting folks, the blog gathering should also be open to them. I started to decide on some basic parameters. It absolutely had to be in a gun friendly state, and in a gun friendly county and venue. A good range, open to the public, and that would allow everything from long range rifle to short range pistol to speed steel was a requirement. A good local gun club and a good FFL dealer was also a requirement. It should be held in a location that's got reasonable air service, lots of hotel rooms, and lots of other activities for the rest of the gun blogger families that aren't interested in spending time at the range. It should be family friendly, and the prices for the meeting rooms, hospitality rooms, and hotel room must also be reasonable. The hotel had to be big enough to handle our event, but willing enough that they would handle such a small event. Finally, the hotel group and convention staff had to be a really friendly and helpful bunch, as I would have to put it all together over the phone. After looking at a lot of possibilities and talking to a number of people, I finally settled on Reno. There are a number of other places that would have worked, too, but Reno has sort of a down home feel to it, and the hotel folks were really helpful it sorting out the details.

What should we call the gathering? After thinking about it, and doing a little research, I remembered that many years ago the fur trappers, prospectors, and other frontier folks would gather once a year for a big event that the called a Rendezvous.

One of the best articles on the North American "Rendezvous" is on the Bed & Breakfast Inns and Ranches of Wyoming website:

The rendezvous system was the innovation of William Ashley of the American Fur Company. He had been trying for several years to find a good way to retrieve the year's collection of furs, and at the same time outfit his trappers for the upcoming year's operations. When he hit upon the idea of establishing a central meeting site where all trappers and traders could gather to do their business, the fur trade came into its own. Since an animal's winter fur is more valuable than its lighter summer coat, trappers were basically off work in the summer and the rendezvous became an annual party to end all parties. The traders brought in mail, newspapers, and gossip, plus supplies, including raw alcohol which they watered down and flavored with tobacco, ginger, or chilies, then sold as whiskey.

With alcohol as a lubricant, everything else seems to have fallen under the heading of drunk and disorderly behavior. The trappers rejoiced greatly in their reunions with friends rumored dead. Representatives of all the Indian tribes came for the festivities, and their women folk were a major attraction. New recruits, missionaries, artists, newspaper reporters, and other "tourists" traveled west with the traders, and the mountain men and Indians delighted in initiating them into the spirit of things with rowdy welcomes. Tall tales, dirty jokes, feasts, gambling, horse races, fights, wrestling, shooting contests, songfests, and similar activities filled both day and night. A suit of ancient English armor was given to Jim Bridger at the 1837 rendezvous. Trapper Joe Meek tells of borrowing it and parading around camp in fancy dress.

A rendezvous was apparently great fun, unless you happened to be one of the unfortunate souls who got knifed, shot, raped, or as was the case at one rendezvous, bitten by a rabid wolf that rampaged through a group of men rendered defenseless by alcohol. Meek told of seeing four trappers playing cards using the dead body of a comrade for a card table, but whether it actually happened or not is hard to say -- Meek was a better storyteller than he was a historian.

 Although the Gun Blogger rendezvous' haven't turned out to be quite as wild as the originals, there's no doubt that a good time is had by all who attend.

So, what are the details for this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous?

Dates: September 9, 10, 11, 12th.

Venue: Silver Legacy Resort & Hotel

Location City: Reno, Nevada

Who's invited: All gun bloggers, Mil bloggers, readers of the gun and mil blogs, sports shooters of all kinds, firearms enthusiasts, and anyone else interested in the same stuff found on the gun blogs. Any one interested in the RKBA and 2nd. Amendment issues, shooting sports industry folks, suppliers,  and just about anyone else with similar interests are also welcome.

Rendezvous Cost: Gun Blogger Rendezvous Registration is $30 per person.

Event Registration: Download the Registration form, make out a check, and mail it in.


Hotel Accommodations: To book your hotel room, telephone the Silver Legacy directly at 800-687-8733 and give them the group code of GBLOG10. Their room rates are reasonable, and considering that the room rates include the use of the Hospitality Room for the Rendezvous, it's a pretty good deal. Yes, there are cheaper places to stay in Reno, but I really recommend staying at the Silver Legacy as you miss out on quite a bit if you aren't actually "On Site" for the Rondy. I have arranged for group rate pricing for not only the three nights of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, September 9th, 10th, 11th, but also the preceding Wednesday the 8th, and for Sunday the 12th. This way you can arrive a day early and leave on Monday for home. I'd recommend staying the Sunday night if you can, as Sunday will be the Cowboy Fast Draw Intergalactic Blogger Championships, and you won't want to have to rush off right after the event.
Once you have booked your room and sent in your registration, please send me an email with the details so I will know you are going to be there.

Beneficiary: All money raised by the Gun blogger rendezvous goes to Project Valour-IT to buy voice actuated laptop computers for injured service personnel wh due to their injuries, are unable to use a regular computer, keyboard, and mouse to keep in contact with their family and friends through the internet. So far Project Valour-IT has given away close to 4,000 voice actuated computers to injured service folks.

For More Information: Check out the Gun Blogger Rendezvous website. Although there may be some changes and additions, the basic schedule and events from last year will remain mostly unchanged since it worked well last year for us.

Off To Paul Bunyan Club Championship

Tomorrow morning far too early for sane people to be moving around KeeWee and I are off to the Paul Bunyan Gun Club's annual championships. It's sort of an unusual setup as it's a one on one double elimination match set up much like a falling plate match. However, you only get one chance to shoot against each opponent and if you lose twice your day is over. No chance to go two out of three and have a chance to recover from a bad run or a malfunction. After one loss, it's then sudden death. Your first round match up is determined by your times on one stage of the fun steel matches over the past year. My times over the past year put me up near the top in the midst of several Master and Grand Master shooters. Those guys also shoot falling plate matches every Tuesday night and are really fast at falling plates. I don't remember my last falling plate match. I can see it being a very long drive and a long day for only five or six seconds of shooting! None the less, I'll give it my best, and then root for KeeWee to work her way up through the pack towards the final. Regardless of the outcome, though, it's always great to get together with a bunch of super nice folks and spend the day shooting and visiting. I'll let you know how it turns out prolly on Monday......

Gun Blogger Rendezvous CCW Class Update

We are considering adding a Utah CCW class on Thursday morning, September 9th., at the Gun Blogger rendezvous. There are several reasons we are considering Utah CCW class. First, the Utah license has a large number of states who recognize it. Second, it can be completed in four hours of class time. Third, no range time is required. Finally, we have the place to hold the class at the Siolver Legacy Hotel where we are already staying, and there is time in the Rendezvous schedule to fit it in, just barely.

Here's a list of state honoring the Utah Non-Resident CCW permit:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming.

The Utah class, as we are considering, can also count as the first part of an eight hour class with range time which would add additional states. The additional training and range time would have to be arranged separately, if there were enough folks interested.

If you would like to look at more information on which states recognize which permits, or combinations of permits, Check out US Carry.com


If you are going to attend this year's Rendezvous and would like to take the CCW class please let me know. We need to have enough people taking the class to make it worth the instructor's time to come and teach it, and we need to know the approximate number of students well before the Rendezvous.

Emai lme at blog (at) whidbey (dot) com and put Utah CCW at GBR-V in the email title so it will get into the right pile!  

Thanks, and we'll see you in Reno!

Banks Lake Weekend Report

Once again KeeWee has taken all the good pictures and got her post up before I got anything at all posted. The best news of the whole trip was that the RV, and particularly the rebuilt engine, ran perfectly all weekend. I still wish it had another hundred cubic inches  for getting over the mountain passes, other than that I couldn't be happier with it. Our six and a half hour drive each way across the North Cascades Highway was spectacular. It looked like there was quite a bit more snow than usual for this time of year. KeeWee has a spectacular slide show on her blog, and if you've never been across the Highway 20 North Cascades before, it's something to see.

Once we reached Banks Lake and Coulee Playland Resort we launched the boat and pulled it up on the beach directly in front of our campsite. Then we parked the boat trailer and the RV in our campsite and hooked up shore power. The wind was blowing harder than I liked, so I decided to kick back and see if the wind dropped off by evening. It didn't, but I took a nap instead.

Friday we just took it easy, but I did get in a little fishing, picking up and releasing a couple of small mouth bass. Grand Coulee Dam was pumping a lit of cold Columbia river water in and out of Banks lake, so the North end of the lake was running around 54 or 55 degrees. When it's that cold the bass fishing suffers as the fish are either lethargic, or have headed farther down the lake in search of warmer waters. Half way down the lake near Steamboat Rock (approximately 15 miles?) the water temperature was nearer to 65 or 66 degrees, and fishing was lively. With my 12' boat that was farther than I wanted to go, considering just how quickly Banks lake can get dangerous if the wind comes up suddenly, and it DOES come up suddenly there!

Saturday we spent most of the day on the water, both casting for bass, and catching a few, and trolling for Walleye. I hooked one walleye, but it was 3/8" too short to keep, which was OK as I really didn't want to clean fish anyway. We also picked up a few small yellow perch trolling for the walleyes, but they were small so we put them back to grow some more for next year.

Saturday afternoon our fishing club had a potluck dinner, and the food was wonderful. Everyone was stuffed beyond what a sensible person would have eaten! Saturday evening I got back out for a little more fishing, but the North end of the lake was still slow, and I only caught one bass. The fishing was fun, even if the catching was slow.

Sunday morning we loaded the boat back onto the trailer, hitched the trailer to the RV, and drop the six and a half hours back over the North Cascades to home. We put the boat back into the barn, and shortly thereafter were sound asleep. I did manage to get in some quality bunny lap sitting and petting with Bun, though, as she missed us and was glad to see us back home again, however, before zonking out for the night. Driving the RV across the winding North Cascades highway on a gusty and windy day was a cross between herding mice and wrestling with a small grizzly bear, and I was bushed. Bed felt good.................

Utah CCW Class At Gun Blogger Rendezvous

It looks like we will be offering a Utah CCW class on Thursday morning, September 9th. at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. The class will run from 9am to 1pm. and it will be held in our Hospitality Room. The cost of the class will be $60, and that will include the photo and fingerprinting. After taking and passing the class, all that you will have to do is sign the application and have it notarized, and mail it, along with $65 to Utah. This course can also be extended to include the Arizona CCW permit, but that requires some range time and four more hours of class time. Unfortunately we do not have time in the busy GBR schedule for that, but we may figure out some way to arrange it anyway, if there is enough folks interested. If you are going to come to this year's Rendezvous and are interested in the class, please let me know by email so we will have some idea of how many to plan for.

Banks Lake - Here We Come !

All I've got left to do is latch onto the boat trailer and we're on the road to Banks Lake in Eastern Washington for our Fishin' Club's Banks Lake weekend. Three days of sunshine, food, kickin' back ,and fishing. Bass, perch, walleye, yup, they're all there, along with some big rainbows and other species too. Hopefully the internet WiFi is better where we're staying than it was last weekend in Ephrata. I'm pretty sure it's a ton better, so a blog post just might show up from over there. Either way,

WE'RE OUTTA HERE !

Back on line Monday....................

Washington State Steel Championship Results

Well, KeeWee's got a really good post on the Washington State Steel Challenge Championships, complete with pictures and videos. I did manage a post about all the fun we had getting there and getting home, but I haven't said anything about the results, so here you go:

Overall match winner, Winner of Centerfire Open Division, and Top Junior, was Ryan Leonard with a time of 91.80. Ryan has also won the World Steel Challenge Championships for the last two years, so no surprise here. Ryan runs just below world record times regularly and he keeps improving. Chris Saylor, up from California, and another Junior, was second in Centerfire Open with 106.52. Carl Carbon, the assistant match director, was third.

In Centerfire Limited, Gerald Olsen was first with 120.01, followed by Robin Taylor (Co-Editor of Front sight Magazine) with 128.58, and match director Patrick Kelley was third with 137.42.

In Rimfire Open, Nick Leonard, Ryan's Dad, was first with a score of 93.09, I ended up in second with 99.35 and was also Rimfire Top Senior. Tom Kettells with 106.51 was third, and John Davidson from the Kitsap club was 4th. KeeWee came in 5th and was top rimfire lady.

In Rimfire Iron Sight Tim King took the top spot, closely followed by Debbie Kurre, also from the Kitsap club. Terry Schweye was third.

So there you have it! The weather was fine, the match was well run, and we all had a grand time.

Thanks to Patrick Kelley and Carl Carbon for organizing and running the match. Great Job!

Millisecond Molly at Cheaper Than Dirt Blog

There's a great interview with Millisecond Molly over at the Cheaper Than Dirt blog. Check it out!

Utah CCW Class at Gun Blogger Rendezvous?

Are any of you that are planning on attending the Gun Blogger Rendezvous coming up in mid-September interested in arriving a day early and taking the CCW class to get the Utah permit? If so, drop me an email at

b l o g (at) w h i d b e y (dot) c o m

and let me know right away. If  there is enough interest I'll see if it can be set up for us.

-Postal Match Results / Help With HTML Formatting

Danno has the results posted for the e-Postal match just concluded, but when he put the results into his blog Sandcastle Scrolls he ended up with about a page and a half of white space between the header and the top of the results. If any of you know about HTML & Blogger, why not stop by his blog and have a look at the code and give him a hand getting rid of all the white space. Here's the post with the results that's giving him problems.

Thanks!

Steel Championship Report at KeeWee's Corner

KeeWee has a really good report on the Washington State Steel Challenge State Championships over at KeeWee's Corner. She's got lots of pictures and four videos too, so go check it out!

International Revolver Championships Results

I haven't got all of the results from the ICORE International Revolver Championships held this last weekend, but I got an email from Molly Smith's Mom, and I just got off the phone from talking to James Austin. James and I usually squad together at least once a month, if not twice. Here's the info from Molly's Mom:

"Molly did GREAT at the IRC this weekend.  She was 1st junior (limited), 1st limited "D" class and came in 3rd Ladies Limited overall!!!!  She had the best time ever."

Here's a link to a video of Molly teamed up with revolver legend Jerry Miculek in a team event.

James finished 3rd. in Limited, and that now moves him up to Grand Master. Congratulations, James! Scott, who also usually teams up with us, went to the Championships as a B class shooter. There was a qualifier that he shot just before the main match, and he did so well he was promoted to being an A class shooter, so he shot the main match in the Limited A class, and he won it! Big congratulations to Scott!


..... and I get to shoot with these guys! How cool is that!

Seems It's Always Something......

There's a saying about living in interesting times, and this last weekend certainly qualifies. While driving back from the Man of Steel Championships a few weeks ago I noticed a very slight hesitation in the engine, but only at the end of a long hill on the freeway at close to 70 MPH, far faster than I should have been running the brand new engine. It sounded a little like it was running out of gas, like maybe a fuel pump or fuel filter was in need of replacement. Since I was supposed to be breaking in the engine anyway, I decided to just take it easy on the trip to Eastern Washington for the Washington State Steel Challenge Championships held last Saturday in Ephrata.

The engine ran quite well for most of the trip, but as we were nearing Ephrata is was getting a bit worse, so I stopped at an auto supply and asked for a fuel filter and a new fuel pump. They were out of fuel filters, but the pump was in stock, so I bought it and we headed to the campground where we were planning on spending the night before and the night after the Championships. The fuel pump on the Toyota 22R motor is on the right side of the cylinder head and right in front, so it's really easy to change. Installing the new pump took less than half an hour, counting clean up and putting the tools away. I ran it for a while and it seemed to be just fine. Saturday morning we drove it over to the match and back, and again it ran perfectly, although we didn't get up much over 45 MPH.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed home, but within the first mile it started acting like it was not getting enough fuel. We limped a few miles farther and it started to rapidly get worse, so we limped back to Ephrata. By then it was running terrible. I stopped at another auto parts store and they had the fuel filter in stock. As easy as the fuel pump was to reach, the fuel filter was just the opposite. The fuel pump is underneath and in back near the fuel tank, and up on top of the frame where you can barely see it, let alone reach it. As it always seems to go, the beautiful 70+ degree weather of the day before had deteriorated into steady rain. I resigned myself to getting soaked, and slid under the RV, flashlight in hand to find, and hopefully replace the fuel filter. Whoever designed this fuel filtering setup, however, did have his brain in gear, as the inlet and outlet fuel lines were both flexible rubber, and long enough that you could un-snap the filter from its retaining bracket, allowing the filter to be dropped down low enough that you could just barely reach the fuel line clamps to loosen them, and then to move the fuel lines to the new filter. Of course, I was doing this by flashlight, lying in a pool of water, with muddy water from the underside of the RV dripping in my face. Finally I managed to get the lines swapped onto the new filter, the clamps back in place,  and get it snapped into the bracket. I blew through the old filter to see just how plugged it might be. I was hoping it was really plugged so I'd know that was the problem. It seemed a little bit plugged, but not really blocked. I hoped it was plugged enough to be the problem.

We headed back out of town listening for any sounds of fuel starvation. It seemed to be running pretty well, but there were a couple of huge hills that we would have to climb, and that would be the big test. Once we reached the I-90 freeway and got up to freeway speeds it was obvious that it was running quite well, far better than before I changed the filter. Climbing the I-90 grade out of the Columbia River Gorge at Vantage was the big test, and it climbed it without any problem. The new (well, rebuilt) motor was running strong and smooth, just like it should. WHEW..................

Good thing, too, as next weekend we are heading back to Eastern Washington to do some Bass fishing, and this time we'll be pulling the boat, so we need all the engine power we can get!!

Off To The Washington State Championships

It's Friday morning and KeeWee and I are just about to head East to Ephrata, Washington for the Washington State Steel Challenge Championships. It's one ferry boat ride and about five hours on the road to get there, so that's not too bad. Our route takes us across Snoqualmie Pass, so our new motor in our "Land Yacht" will get a bit of a test, but it seems to be running well, so it should be fine.

We have reservations at a really nice RV park in Ephrata for Friday and Saturday nights. The RV park has WiFi, so I'm taking the netbook along in case we get a chance to do a blog post or so. Some folks from the Kitsap Club are staying at the same place, so we'll probably burn a few hotdogs and set fire to some marshmellows, weather permitting, of course.

I'll try to post once we get there, WiFi permitting.......

"Coming This Fall" Video

The video and email below is from Nathan Daschle of the Democratic Governor's Association, and he emailed me asking that I spread it around. I thought you'd enjoy it!





Nathan's email:

"You heard from me recently about the new fear-centric marketing campaign by the Republican Governors Association. It's called 'Remember November,' and is based on the story of Guy Fawkes, the 17th-century English terrorist who tried to blow up Parliament.

Well, the DGA is responding to these sick tactics. But instead of using images of violence to incite fear, we went in a slightly different direction.

Click here to find out how we turned the RGA's ridiculous tactic on its head! Watch the DGA's "Coming This Fall" video! (NOTE: No click needed, the video is shown above)

The future of our country should be driven by the vigor of America's great debate, not seditious flame-throwing rhetoric. Utter nonsense like 'Remember November' might be good for firing up the angry fringe, but it does absolutely nothing to move our country forward.

So please, check out our new video today -- and then forward it to 5 friends!

We need your help to show people that these dangerous antics by the GOP won't work. Show them we will hold them accountable and respond in a way that brings them right back to reality.

Thanks for all you've done, and all you continue to do, for the Democratic Governors Association.

-Nathan

Nathan Daschle
Executive Director
Democratic Governors Association"

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Registration & Reservations Reminder

It's barely 98 days until this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous will be underway in Reno at the Silver Legacy, and if you haven't got your room reservations and Rendezvous registration sent in, now is the time to do it! It's very important that as many attendees as possible send in their Rendezvous Registrations early so we will have some idea of how many to expect. It is also helpful when soliciting sponsor donations for door prizes and the Project Valour-IT fund raising raffle as one of the first questions they ask is "How many will be attending?" The more that attend, the better it is for the sponsors, and the more they can afford to donate. If you've never been to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous before, this is the year to finally do it!

We will be having all of the same activities as last year, three range days covering all sorts of gunnly goodness, food, conversation, and a lot more. We are also working on some new things for this year, and I'll announce the new stuff once everything has been sorted out.

This year's Rendezvous will be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, September  9th., 10th., 11th., and 12th. There will be activities continuously from Mid-day Thursday through late Sunday afternoon. A number of us usually show up on Wednesday and leave town on Monday. The Hospitality room is reserved for Wednesday through Sunday afternoon. Our special hotel group rates are available from Wednesday through Sunday nights.

To Register for the Rendezvous, download the registration form and mail it in as soon as possible.

To book your hotel room, telephone the Silver Legacy directly at 800-687-8733 and give them the group code of GBLOG10. Their room rates are reasonable, and considering that the room rates include the use of the Hospitality Room for the Rendezvous, it's a pretty good deal. Yes, there are cheaper places to stay in Reno, but I really recommend staying at the Silver Legacy as you miss out on quite a bit if you aren't actually "On Site" for the Rondy.

Once you have booked your room and sent in your registration, please send me an email with the details so I will know you are going to be there.

See YOU in Reno ! ! !

June e-Postal Match is Now Underway!

All Righty, then!! Phil, chief cook and bottle washer over at Random Nuclear strikes, is hosting this month's e-Postal match, and it's going to be a little different from previous matches. In this match, the idea is to see how many balls you can hit in a row without missing. To make it more challenging, you can only shoot odd, or even numbered balls, but not both. If you miss a ball, or hit odd when shooting even, or vice-versa, you are done, and your score is the number of balls hit up to that point. There's lots of different classes, and if you want to use a rifle, you can send that entry in too! To get the target and match info, Click Here.

Don't forget, Cheaper Than Dirt is also awarding a $50 Gift Certificate by random drawing to one of the lucky entries, so drag out everything in the gun safe, print a pile of targets, and have a fun day at the range!