One of the benefits of living in Las Vegas is the close proximity to the Moapa Paiute Travel Plaza.  Think of it as a small casino with a truck stop, liquor store, smoke shop and fireworks emporium all rolled into one   They’re not really actually in Nevada since it’s an Indian reservation which means Nevada and Clark County laws on fireworks don’t apply – only federal laws.  That means you can buy things that fly into the air and go BANG!!! Now, that wouldn’t be so great if you had to take them home to light them off – you don’t want to break the law, do you?  I didn’t think so   Well, there’s even a “launch pad” (really a big, open field) out back where you can set off any fireworks you can buy inside.  I had a blast (pun intended ) and I expect this to be my annual destination on Independence Day from now on   Of course, Moapa and the launch pad are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year so I can go play anytime.  It’s just more fun when there’s a few thousand miscreants to share the fun with

Here’s what I wrote on the page for YouTube:

After moving from San Diego to Las Vegas a few years ago, I’ve become a bit more personally involved in some things. Things like lighting my own damn fireworks on Independence Day. Don’t get me wrong – the professional shows are cool, but there’s something special about lighting that fuse myself.

I guess part of it’s a bit of a rebellious streak that I’ve always had. I just have to do things because I can and most people think it’s too dangerous for the “average person” to do so. Another part of that rebelliousness on this particular holiday goes back to the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. These were men who owned cannons and all the other terrible implements of the soldiers. I can only imagine what would happen if someone told them a bottle rocket was too dangerous for them to deal with as Free Citizens and adults. I have the notion that such a discussion might beget a duel…

The fireworks in this video aren’t mine. I was on a meager budget and those were too expensive for me. I made due with some firecrackers, sparklers, and roman candles, but it was worth the trip and the expense. And it was great to see “Joe Sixpack” out shooting off the shells in this video

Some people say I’m a “rabble rouser” and that I have issues with doing what I’m told.  OK, there might be a bit of truth in that

4 July 2010 - The first time I've ever been stuck like this

Alas, the night was not all fun and games.  Yours truly found out that the berm that looked so easy to cross wasn’t.  I knew the there was trouble about when the front tires got just over the top and then they kind of sank.  The dirt was seriously loose and the tires found no purchase – I was high centered.  It was bad enough that I could spin the front wheels by hand.  The floor mat did nothing.

So I did what any intelligent (most of the time) GM vehicle owner would do and pressed the blue OnStar button!  Jan was the person who worked with me and the tow truck arrived within about an hour which is quick for where I was   One of the benefits of the OnStar system is that it sends your GPS coordinates to the people in the call center so they actually know where you are.  OnStar and the tow company weren’t the only groups of people who helped out last night – the Moapa security guys were great and offered moral support when they realized they couldn’t pull me out themselves

Hey, I had a good time overall last night.  I still have all my fingers, toes, both eyes, and my car’s OK.  That’s what I call a happy ending

Have fun everyone

4 June 2010 - Flowers at my apartment complex

4 June 2010 - Flowers at my apartment complex

4 June 2010 - Flowers at my apartment complex

4 June 2010 - Flowers at my apartment complex

4 June 2010 - Flowers at my apartment complex

4 June 2010 - Flowers at my apartment complex

Kath’s pictures of the flowers provided a the inspiration for these pics   These are just a few of the flowering plants you’ll find around my apartment complex and I think they’re rather pretty myself

5 June 2010 - Piper Cub at North Las Vegas Airport

5 June 2010 - Piper Cub at North Las Vegas Airport

5 June 2010 - Piper Cub and other planes at North Las Vegas Airport

5 June 2010 - Vision Air passenger planes at KVGT - North Las Vegas Airport - Note the tail art

5 June 2010 - Vision Air plane awaiting passengers at North Las Vegas Airport

5 June 2010 - This Cessna 152 belongs to West Air Aviation where it's used for flight training

Friday after work I just needed to go for a bit of a drive.  So I headed on over to KVGT which is also known as North Las Vegas Airport   I figured we haven’t had enough airplanes around this blog lately so I did something about it

6 June 2010 - Fun at the Clark County Shooting Park

6 June 2010 - Fun at the Clark County Shooting Park - First shots of the day

6 June 2010 - Fun at the Clark County Shooting Park - Uly's target at 7 yards

6 June 2010 - Fun at the Clark County Shooting Park - Yeah, it was a bit warm

6 June 2010 - Clark County Shooting Park - James' guns on the left, mine on the right

6 June 2010 - Clark County Shooting Park - Uly's guns

6 June 2010 - Clark County Shooting Park - Uly with his CZ 9mm

6 June 2010 - Panorama - Clark County Shooting Park - What a clear, blue sky 8)

So, after working Tuesday through Saturday what would you expect me to do on Sunday to blow off steam?  If you figured I might head up the Clark County Shooting Park, you’d be right

We went for the pre-measured distances to the targets, the shaded shooting positions, and the air conditioned pro shop with its refreshments and nice restrooms – you don’t get those in the middle of the southern Nevada desert

Between the three of us (Uly, James, and myself), we managed to drink nearly a gallon of water, a couple of Arizona Iced Teas, and seven quarts of Power Ade.  We needed to as we’ve entered what I call “hair dryer” weather.  When it’s about 110° with winds at 7 gusting to 19 MPH, you either drink or you die.  No kidding.   And that was in the shade

I’d say it was completely worth it and I’m sure James and Uly would agree with me as well.  I made some more friends at the range, had fun with other people’s guns, and enjoyed sharing some trigger time on my own

I might be back at work today where I’m thankful I’m in an air conditioned office, but I’d  have to say that life was pretty good yesterday, too

Have a fun day, y’all

So the weekend was long and I didn’t use most of the time for fun stuff like going to the Clark County Shooting Park.  That doesn’t mean there wasn’t some sort of fun activities to be enjoyed   Far from it actually today.  Yep, I saw that it was snowing up on Mt. Charleston about the time I left work for the day and figured why not?  Why not go and have some fun in the snow?

I’ve got to say that it strikes me as pretty unusual to have snow near Las Vegas when we’re only about a week away from June.  If we’re still dealing with “global warming” then I’m glad we have it – I’d have frozen my tail off if we didn’t

Folks, I’d planned to do some sort of commentary on each pic and whatnot, but it’s way too late/early for me to do that now.  Editing the pics and the video took quite a bit of time as did choosing the best music from YouTube’s “audio swap” function.  Throw in the time it took to upload all these pics (I upload the full size files so you can get ‘em big if you click on them in the post), so they’re not all that small and it takes some time.  Therefore, please see the captions for descriptions and be sure to comment or ask any questions in the  comments

With all that out of the way, let’s get to the pics

23 May 2010 - Clouds rolling in on what started as a clear day

23 May 2010 - Heading toward unsettled weather

23 May 2010 - I'm not the only one interested in the strange atmospheric happenings

23 May 2010 - Stormy conditions ahead but sunshine behind

23 May 2010 - Getting closer...

23 May 2010 - Snowflakes on the HHR

23 May 2010 - Snow on the sage and aloe vera

23 May 2010 - Fog hovering just above the road

23 May 2010 - Sunny mountains in the distance

23 May 2010 - More snow on the HHR

23 May 2010 - I've never driven on a road with this much snow on it!

23 May 2010 - The HHR did great in these strange conditions

23 May 2010 - So different from the middle of summer!

23 May 2010 - The snow wasn't too deep here, but rather dry and powdery

23 May 2010 - I love doing stuff like this And yes, I swear this was Sunday, 23 May 2010!

23 May 2010 - Why do I feel like I was in C.S. Lewis' book The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?

23 May 2010 - I had to get a pic with the HHR and the sign for the area

23 May 2010 - Just more snowy forest - sorry, but I can't quite get enough of this 8)

23 May 2010 - Yours truly up as high as it's possible to drive on Mt. Charleston

23 May 2010 - This is actually a parking area for the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort

23 May 2010 - Sunset from a ways off from the mountain

That does it for the regular pics – now it’s time for some panoramas   Do make sure to click ‘em for full size – they’re big and they’re much more impressive when you can see the details

23 May 2010 - Panorama - Storm on the mountains

23 May 2010 - Panorama - Sun and shadows on the other mountains

23 May 2010 - Panorama - A dusting of snow and some low clouds

23 May 2010 - Panorama - A dusting of snow and some low clouds

23 May 2010 - Panorama - Snowing on the semi-desert part of the mountain

23 May 2010 - Panorama - Lower Lee Meadow on Mt. Charleston

23 May 2010 - Panorama - This might have to be part of a Christmas card!

Last, but not least we have a new video that I managed to put together and upload to YouTube tonight 8)  It’s a combination of still pictures in a slide show that I added some video from the trip to and swapped out the (mostly non-existent in the original) audio with YouTube’s “audio swap” to make it a bit better.  Here’s hoping y’all like it

Well, that does it for tonight – I’ve gotta get some rest so I can get to work on time tomorrow morning.

Have a great week everyone

15 May 2010 - Lunch time at the Nevada Shooters shoot and clean-up

15 May 2010 - It's not all snakes and scorpions and machine guns in the desert

15 May 2010 - We shoot Nazi zombies

15 May 2010 - The old highway AKA Las Vegas Blvd. South heading north into town

About yesterday – it was a truly great time 8)  Once again Infinite Arms brought an awesome selection of machine guns, short barreled shotguns, short barreled rifles, suppressors, exploding targets, and a few other things California would likely frown upon   What’s kind of funny is that the rest of the people out there had a collection that consisted of many of those same things   I brought the PSL, Maverick 88 shotgun, Ruger 10/22, Marlin Model 60, CZ 50, Heritage Rough Rider, and PF-9.  I just didn’t want to bring everything   Quite a few of the others out there took me up on the offer to shoot my guns and reciprocated with offers to shoot theirs.  Life was GOOD

I’d be remiss if I forgot about Mark and James showing up   They’re a couple of co-workers who also happen to have been bitten by the gun bug lately.  James just got a Savage .22 bolt action rifle and Mark got a similar gun made by CZ that’s a beautiful example of engineering and craftsmanship 8)  Both of ‘em tried out most of the guns I brought and had a good time, but Mark was the one who really surprised me.  First off, Mark isn’t the tallest person around, nor is he heavy or very heavily built which is part of the reason I was so surprised when he said that it wasn’t all that bad when he touched off a 3″ magnum 00 buckshot round from my 12 gauge.  The other thing that surprised me a bit is that he absolutely couldn’t get enough of my little Heritage Rough Rider .22 single action revolver.  I’m glad they made it out and look forward to going shooting with them again in the near future

Aside from all that fun, we also had one helluva pot luck barbecue   A couple of people brought grills, Adam and a couple other members cooked the burgers, hot dogs, and sausages, and we all chipped in with other things like water, sodas, chips, plates, and plastic utensils.  I’d call it a great success

We didn’t just shoot off our guns, make lots of noise, and eat good food this trip.  We also hauled away a considerable amount of trash as well   One of the things we like to do whenever possible is to leave the place cleaner than we found it.  Hey, we live here and we don’t like trashy desert

15 May 2010 - Dinner at Mr. Lucky's

15 May 2010 - Santana memorabilia at the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas

15 May 2010 - Santana memorabilia at the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas

After shooting I went home, got out of my smelly and dirty clothes, took a shower, and headed down to the Hard Rock and Mr. Lucky’s 24/7 once I was feeling somewhat civilized again.  Korey wasn’t there, but dinner’s always good at Mr. Lucky’s and it’s fun to look at all the memorabilia

15 May 2010 - Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, MGM Grand, and New York, New York

One of the things I keep thinking about when I’m in a place like the Hard Rock or when I’m out shooting in the desert is just how many people pay thousands of dollars for the chance to do what I do and see what I see on any given evening or weekend.  So many of the locals avoid the Strip because it’s crowded and a hassle to get around.  They don’t go out in the desert much because it gets windy or it gets hot.  I’m sorry, but I don’t see things that way.  Carpe Diem and Carpe Noctem while you’re at it is what I say

15 May 2010 - Panorama - Our shooting spot seen from a short distance away

15 May 2010 - Panorama - The fabulous Las Vegas Strip at night as seen from the Hard Rock Hotel

I also thought y’all might like a couple of panoramas while I was at it   Make sure to click ‘em for full size – they’re both pretty darn big

Finally, as I’ve promised I have some video   Yep, that’s yours truly and a couple of friends with some full auto awesomeness out in the Nevada desert   Big thanks go out to Infinite Arms for bringing out most of those goodies (especially the Uzi as I’d always wanted to shoot one of those) as well as the very generous member of Nevada Shooters who let me fire his Browning 1919A4 8)  Of course, we can’t leave out all the rest of the people who brought and cooked the food, helped clean up, and hung out making the day one of the most enjoyable I’ve had in a very long time

That’s it for this post – y’all have a good night and I’ll catch ya a bit later

Cash money’s a bit thin on the ground for everyone these days.  Somehow, I managed to get myself two full days of overtime this weekend.  That’s 16 hours

So thanks for the understanding and sticking around in the mean time

Have a great day