Gone Shootin'

If you'll remember, my loyal readers, my dear friend Tyler has a family house outside Austin on Lake Travis. It is awesome, and up until this year I was completely unaware of it. Likewise, it turns out, my dear friend Adam also has a family house. His, however, is outside Fredericksburg near Enchanted Rock. It too is awesome, and, likewise, I was once again completely unaware of its existence. Who else has a luxurious beach house or mountain home? I can't say, but I certainly hope to find out soon. All that aside, two weeks ago we went out to Fredericksburg for a weekend of relaxing, hiking, and shooting stuff.

Despite my illustrious military career which, my loyal readers, you'll recall has so far consisted of playing dress up, I have fired a firearm only once before -- and that guy deserved what was coming to him. Actually I only shot a rubber duck decoy, but if ever a duck decoy deserved it.... Regardless, that weekend I was given intense training in the loading and use of a twelve-gauge shotgun and 22 caliber pea shooter. The shotgun was cool because I could explode gently thrown clays with it while the glorified rifle was cool because it had a scope on it with which we tore up various soda cans. Though I probably fired a couple dozen rounds of both guns and only shot one legitimately thrown clay, I feel now that I am finally, officially an Army of One. Unfortunately the Army's changed its slogan to Go Team or Sea the World or something like that now, and the Air Force doesn't seem to use shotguns all too much, but at least when I do finally see a gun before deployment some years from now I will at least know what that I am in fact a terrible shot.

Of course all of our time wasn't spent shooting because no trip to Enchanted Rock is complete without a trip to the cave. Neither Adam nor Kate had been before and it was a joy and a privilege to take them there. Despite my outstanding record of being a generally great guy, my motivation in leading them through the caverns of E-Rock was not entirely benevolent, however, as when they exited through the birth canal at the end of the cave complex we were ready for them with cameras in hand. There are few sites more heart warming or completely hilarious than Moleman Adam struggling to exit to the light of day. We looked at the pictures and laughed. Later we thought about the pictures and laughed some more. Even two weeks later the thought of the pictures make me smile. Amazing that one moleman can bring so much joy into so many peoples lives.

Anyways, we also hung out at Adam's family's place which was beautiful despite being under the constant threat of scorpion attack, the jerky burgers we had Saturday night were fantastically salty as well, and affixing a headlamp to an akathisia burdened Bella (one of Adam and Kate's dogs) was worth at least 30 minutes of entertainment. What's important, though, are the photos. Those glorious molemen photos:

Pictures!