Back from, well... Arizona

I am, unfortunately, back from my vacation. While it does suck to be back at work and whatnot, it was cool to check out some of the things in my own home state that I hadn’t seen up ‘til recently.

The driving force for my recent travels was Vroni, who was in the States for a visit. The first place we traveled to was Tombstone. Now, Tombstone calls itself the “Town Too Tough To Die.” What it really is, is a big and unholy tourist trap. Tombstone would have died long ago if not for the legend of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Shootout at the O.K. Corral. The town too tough to die only exists today by whoring out that memory. All in all, it was a cool place – I’m just saying that I’m happy I didn’t have to drive more than an hour in each direction to visit it. Now that I’ve seen it, I don’t ever feel the need to go there again…

The next stop on the Arizona tour took us to Sedona. Sedona is a cool place, a direct contrast to Tombstone. There was good hiking, good eating and an overall good vibe there. We spend a day hiking around Bell Rock and some other trail before climbing up Cathedral Rock. After that strenuous climb, we kept hiking down to the creek and then back up again. I’m a walking fool but the effort had my legs cramping up on the way back. Bless whoever invented Gatorade.

Still though, after a rather strenuous day, our next stop was the Grand Canyon which pretty much kicked loads of ass. But there is a bit of a disclaimer here too. Namely: I’m glad I’ve seen it and I had a great time there but it’s another place I don’t really feel the need to visit again anytime soon. It’s a great big hole in the ground and the view is basically the same from pretty much anywhere you stop to check it out. We figured out (using checkpoints and trail guides, etc.) that we hiked over nine miles (actually, closer to ten) at the Grand Canyon. Checking the trail guide from the Sedona, we hiked close to eight miles the day before giving us a grand total of roughly 17 miles in two days. Not too shabby for my out of shape ass. Vroni is German and therefore fit, but I’m guessing that even she realizes that was quite an accomplishment.

The last thing of note was Saturday’s trip to the shooting range. Normally, this isn’t something that’s boast worthy but when one of the participants is a first time female shooter from Germany, then it’s kinda unusual. And there’s something pretty hot about a hot chick with a deadly weapon. Maybe it’s just me… Vroni kicked ass though. She wasn’t used to any other pistol so the long, long, long, looooooong draw on the Beretta’s trigger didn’t trip her up as much as it did me and Stevie. I thought the fucking gun was jammed the first time I lined up to fire it because the trigger pull was so long. I put a hole through the target stand costing me a couple of bucks in a moment of lost concentration (I paid up for a second hole in the stand that I may or may not have caused). Still though, my shooting with Ricky’s AR-15 made up for my lack of pin-point accuracy with the pistol. I was pretty consistently in the target area from 100 and 50 yards and had the shot of the day when I killed a roughly 2 inch wide by 7 inch tall piece of wood from 100 yards out. Basically, I’m Randy’s opposite: kick ass with a rifle but not as good with a pistol. Good times.