Weekend Wrap/Rain, Gun Shows, Red River Gorge Hike, etc

Spring came to western Ohio over the weekend, and in some cases with a vengeance. Celina and south got plenty of rain, my guess is we received an inch or two at the house, those folks like Rick in northeast Indiana, Fort Wayne and northwest Ohio like, Van Wert, Delphos, Lima, and especially Findlay to our north and Northwest got dumped on, probably 4 or more inches and more on way for tomorrow...the steams, rivers, and roadside ditches will be overflowing...hopefully the promised dry weather after tomorrow will take root.

In addition to the rains, we saw plenty of warm weather, Saturday reached 72, and yesterday, despite heavy morning showers, got into the 60s...cooler for today(50) with north winds...60 tomorrow with heavy rains, then back to sunshine and the 40s for the rest of the week.

Both Fort Wayne(55 miles) and Lima(35) had gun shows over the weekend. I met up with Pearson at the Indiana location Saturday morning, we stuck around for 3 hours..Rick bought some boots, I was going to buy a handgun for my collection but forgot about the "home state" rule...If I purchased one, being from Ohio, they would have to take my money and send me the weapon...Hell with that I thought, and didn't purchase...plus the registration of these is something I would rather not do. We headed up north to Rick's Ranch...he has 17 acres complete with ready permits, electric, 3 car workshop, garage, and a large pond...{see photos from the first blog post of 2009}, he plans on building a new house there down the road, within the next couple of years...it was kinda muddy but with the gravel drive we headed back, parked the vehicles, walked the property and smoked a cigar, while bullshitting for an hour or two....I left about 4pm for Celina, got home to sunshine, and warm weather, and fired up another cigar, and popped the caps on a couple of Miller Lites.

Yesterday dawned wet, but still warm...and I decided that I still wanted to look for another gun...have been looking for a snub nosed .38 Special for awhile...so I headed to Lima...being in Ohio, it has obvious advantages for me over Indiana. To my welcome surprise, despite the old fairground barn buildings(all 4 of them) being not as nice as the Fort Wayne Coliseum...it cost only $4(compared to $6 at FW) and no parking fee(compared to $4), so I was ahead of the game already...when I got inside the 4 connected fair buildings, I saw a much larger supply of almost everything(except for new gun dealers that required "registration")..ammo, used guns, parts for antique guns, antique guns themselves, and "junk"....I ended up doing 2 walk-bys of each building, searching for what I might want, before making the 3rd and final trip...where I made an offer to a private dealer for a new, in the box Taurus .38 Special with a 2" barrel. I offered, he counter offered, and we made the transaction....I also picked up a few boxes of ammo, which was in pretty good supply of most(but no all) types. I paid for it, walked out into a major downpour, got to the car, and headed home.

I got home, watched the Duke/UNC basketball game, where my Blue Devils dropped a 8 point decision to their hated rivals, in what in reality was a boring ass game...something rare for those 2 schools...I went outside fired up my 5th cigar of the weekend and tossed down a couple of cold ones....and that ended the long weekend for me..except some tube time.

Hal's Red River Gorge Hike_______

While heading for Fort Wayne on Saturday, my cell phone rings, and it's youngest son Hal on the other end..."71 degrees in Kentucky, and we are heading for Daniel Boone Park, and plan on hiking the Red River area"...having hiked the Hocking Hills of southeast Ohio during my college days at Athens and Nelsonville, I know a little about hiking hilly areas...and the Red is even more mountainous and hilly than those places in SE Ohio..., well I told him, just don't drink and do it...smarter than I, he says the didn't plan on drinking and hiking...I get a call from him yesterday, later afternoon, telling me to check the e-mail and take a look at the photos from their hike. We did and his mom almost had a fit...they had some pretty good shots of the terrain below, with the boys(all in their mid 20s) hanging over the cliffs...Hal admitted some of the photos were "staged" for effect, but some were pretty close to the edge....thing is, they made it back alive. A few of photos are posted here.

Today I have a board meeting at noon, and Sam and I will meet up in Schumm tonight for the North vs South(us) Dartball All Star game....Sam, Cowboy, and I are the representatives from St. John, and will meet 9 other guys to go 12 on 12 against the north boys at 7:30pm.

That should top off a busy day, and give us time to get ready for tomorrow's predicted downpour.

back later>>>>

photos-The Taurus .38 Special w/2" barrel... 4 shots from Hal and friend's Red River Gorge Hike this past Saturday...(11) Hal sitting on the rock overlooking the Gorge...(2) Levi(the Dog), Nick, Styer, and Hal...(3) Hal holding on to a dead looking branch over looking the Red, and(4) Styer standing on the road, making the fall, look mighty far.