In Winterswijk

Sorry about the lack of blogging, but I've been on the road a bit lately. It is about 7am right now, Holland time, and I and in my hotel room in Winterswijk, Holland. I'm over here for the European Steel Challenge Championships, which start today (Friday) at 8:45 am and I'm in the first flight, so at 8:45 I will be shooting my Tanfoglio 9mm. Gold Custom in Open division. My score today will be recorded both in the individual category, but it will also be combined with the scores of two other shooters and entered in the team category. It was quite an honor to be invited to join a team with two other Dutch shooters, both very good, for the match. They pick a name of the team when they enter, and our Open Division is Team Mr. Completely! Another honor, for sure! I will be shooting Rimfire Optic class tomorrow morning, and again I will be on a team, this time on Team Dragonball, the rimfire team I have been on the last two years. Last year Team Dragonball was fourth, and the year before we were third.

Getting here to Winterswijk was an adventure in itself. It took a bus and ferry ride from Whidbey Island to SeaTac airport followed by a ten hour flight in a very cramped seat in an Airbus. The video controller was broken on my seat, so I wasn't able to listen to music or watch any movies. I was met by friends from Rotterdam at the airport, and I rode with them to their home where mostly I slept, but we got in a little sight-seeing in Rotterdam, and I visited a gun shop there. It was a small but well stocked place. The guys in the store and I had a good conversation, and I might be able to help them out a bit contact-wise for getting some harder to get parts from the USA.

I've gotta wrap this up for now, go get some breakfast, and get over to the range. There's some steel over there waiting for me!