On the plane to fly home. Had a great time. Many, many stories.

Don't expect a row of trophies. Got a bunch of life lessons. Haha.

Eric and family were wonderful hosts. I had a great time.

eagerly awaiting the "ADVENTURE" stories

Well, you're still managing to type on the Iphone so by default you're still alive, have a minimum of one working finger, and can see out of at least one eye.

Can't have gone TOO far wrong, I suppose.

Sorry for the blackout. The cell service (for Verizon) was ..... Disappointing. I could sit in the blind with one bar barely flickering in and out, and get a text from Peurto Rico. Could have four bars showing and not br able to send to Eric a hundred yards away. Could be in the truck and have five bars. Drive 20 yards and have no service. Impossible to post anything.

Eric has an amazing ranch out there. He really put the effort into making great time for ne. Nobody could do more.

I'll have dozens of stories. You'll go through the trip with me. It was full of life lessons and learning curves.

Let's started:

It had not rained in this area of Texas in a year. Everything was understandably ... dry. I landed in Austin to runways just getting their first drizzle of light rain. It then proceeded to rain harder and harder ... And lightening ... And thunder ... for several days. And the bottom dropped out of the temperature. When it wasn't raining, the temps in the 30's were ... Unexpected.

You don't just go on a hunt like this with a carryon bag. I'd shipped two gun cases, and three other boxes ahead. Some of them got there. The rest got there days later.

When I

When I fly, I just wear some slip on cheap shoes to aid in assuring the authorities that I have no explosives in my shoes. I have concluded that this type of footwear is not good for hunting in 33 degree rain ... among cactus. I would also suggest the use of a coat. My golf jacket proved to be ... inadequate.

We're driving today. It might give you a smile to hear my return routing. Fly from Austin to Baltimore's BWI International (40 min from my home) only to change planes on my route to NC to pick up Kelly and drive home. Austin to Baltimore to Raleigh.

Much, much more to come.

;?)

Eric is in the process of acquiring a charging station. He purchased the HAWG on the reverse ledger, and for some reason didn't immediately purchase a new HP AIR compressor.
I informed him of the lease option on Nitrogen tanks. This seems to have been a successful option for many people enjoying PCP guns.
In Eric's area of Texas, we found this to be ... complicated. About two solid weeks of effort succeeded in the delivery of a fine 2,200 psi nitrogen tank. Regulator? Well I'll be derned ... It does say ... Regulator. 6,000 psi?!!!! What do you boys want to do with THAT!!! Those tanks are monsters. Lawyers will get us after you blow yourselves up. Explaining proved to be ... difficult.
Once we had established that fact. We went on to invest the time in proving it to be ... impossible.
Many people find that local fire departments may fill there HP tanks for them. Eric's area is full of small volunteer fire departments. We know, because we visited most of them. Eric was able to reach a couple by phone. And, they were very willing to help us out. We just needed to catch them when someone was in the station. Attendance of volunteer fireman proved to be ... intermittent, at best
We proceeded with the fine hand pump method. This did limit our desire for long sight in sessions. ;?)

So...air compression by the aerobic method?

Truth be told, all that shoveling that Sean and some of you other guys were doing was making me a little jealous. Had to find something that mimicked that repetitive shoveling motion of up and down, up and down about a hundred thousand times. We don't have much snow here in TX so........ On a positive note, my wife can't stop staring at my new found upper body tone. If any one is interested, I'm thinking of even producing a P90-X style video, "Pump Yourself to a Better You (in only 9 days!)"
(I've got to pay for that compressor I ordered somehow)

Better yet, run your own fitness pyramid scheme. You recruit fellow fitness buffs and/or airgunners who you convince to pump up your empty air tanks by a set number of PSI. They then forward the tanks to the people that THEY convince to pump up by the same PSI, who then forward the tanks to THEIR friends and so on.

Since the last couple of hundred PSI is about ninety percent of the work, you just have to make sure that you are the one that puts the first hundred in the tanks and have the other suckers/investers do all the work. Oops, I mean, you make sure that all of your valuable clients get the chance to get a proper workout...yeah...that's the ticket.

Back when I was flying Blackhawks, they'd try and talk the new guys into the same deal if we had to pump up the hydraulic accumulator that supplies the energy to start the APU. You only fall for that one once... "since I'm such a nice guy I'll go first and pump up the first half". Hmmm...with friend like that...