Well that was an adventure!

Today seemed like a perfect day for Kenny and I to go to the desert and burn some gunpowder and since I had my new black powder revolvers waiting to be tried, that's exactly what we decided to do.

We had a great time. The new revolvers, in spite of their labor intensity, are great fun to shoot. I neglected to bring the target cardboard so it was difficult to see where the bullets were going but I did manage to shoot both guns several times and they were a (literal) blast to shoot.

After the black powder was put away we shot all the other guns that we had brought along with great effect. I finally got to shoot my SKS with the Sailor Curt improved trigger group and its so good now it is almost like a different rifle. I was able to hit the water tank that is 245 yards away, with open sights and from a sitting rest time after time, which I never could have done before the modifications.

And then it was time to drive home... We decided to stay off the paved road and to return to the highway down an unmarked, dirt county road- just for fun. And it was fun, splashing through the snowdrifts and mud puddles with no real care for 5 or 6 miles, using the 4WD just the way Ford intended. But then we came to a snowdrift, a big snowdrift that completely covered the road...

It seems the snowdrift was much deeper than it appeared through the windshield of the truck! After 40 yards or so, we were stuck! The truck was buried, stuck on snow completely filling the bottom side of the truck and with a bow wave of snow in front of the bumper that was taller than the bumper. On the sides, the snow was deeper than the running boards!

We got out. We used 2 2"X2" posts for the target stand to try to dig out the snow that was holding us up. We tried pushing and rocking, all to no avail. Kenny had a little bit of cell phone connectivity, so he called home. His spouse began trying to contact their roadside breakdown service but they wanted an address and zip code before they could send out a wrecker. I decided to walk to the magnesium plant, that I thought was just 2-3 miles away, figuring I could find a wired phone connection to call for a wrecker.

Turns out the plant was really 5 or 6 miles away... It was a long walk! But I found a security guard and he found a supervisor and he rounded up his big truck and a tow strap and took me back to the buried truck. Just as we arrived back at the stuck truck, a friend of Kenny's who had been summoned by Susie also arrived with his truck. It took only a few minutes to unroll a tow strap and to back the truck out of the deep snow and up onto the dry ground and safety.

After sincere thanks all around for the long distance assistance we headed out, still with 5 or 6 miles of slippery mud to slop through before we reached the paved road and real safety.

Needless to say, we were very late getting home! Its going to take a whole bunch of quarters tomorrow night at the car wash to get all the mud off my truck!

Kenny has pictures, no doubt he will be posting them over at his blog, Coffee in the Morning so check him out for the pictures of our big adventure.