THE BLACK GOLD SHOOTOUT IN MANCHESTER, KENTUCKY

It has been a busy week. I also "fell off the wagon" every day. Now that I made my Weight Watchers Goal, I am not as disciplined as I use to be. There is something said when I had to pay the $10 bucks each week. However I am going to get back on the wagon as this party week has come to a close! I am still going to lose another several pounds.

On Sunday, July 12, 2015 our friends from Missouri who we stayed with for a time in their driveway last month, showed up. Titus, Fanny and their lovely female shepherd Zoey arrived along with our mutual friends Ginger and Cash.

Their trip from the western side of Missouri took them 11 hours. I had dinner ready for them as soon as they got their motor homes set up.

By early evening we were enjoying Cowboy Beans, homemade cornbread, parsley potatoes and salad. It was pretty hot outside so we had everyone over to our rolling home. We all had a great time along with lots of laughter.

On Monday, July 13th, the fellas went to help Copperhead Joe do last minute setting up of the shooting stages.

I took my  cup of coffee and went to sit by the pond and relaxed. Well Loader came to sit by me and would not let me enjoy my peace and quiet. He licked and slobbered all over me while he was being petted.

For dinner I fixed country style pork ribs that cooked all day in the crock pot along with another batch of homemade corn bread, sauteed apples and homemade cole slaw. Fannie and Ginger added oderv's, sides of corn on the cob, baked beans, potato and macaroni salad and desert. It was another delicious feast with more laughter and camaraderie.

They had parked their motor homes with their awnings facing each other. This made for a great shady area and also protection from several on and off rain showers that came this week.

On Tuesday, July 14, heavy rain came. Here is a shot looking out from Titus and Fannie's motor home towards our RV.

On Wednesday, July 15th I took a walk around the farm with Tennessee Tall whom I have known for a few years. She and her husband Rio Drifter are from Florida and he is retired from the National Park Service and she from Homeland Security.

There are several ponds here on the farm and this one has gold fish it it.

We saw mushrooms and picked blackberries and of course ate them along the way.

Here is Jill, the other cattle watch dog on the farm. She never came down to where the campers were. We could see her every once in a while through the trees where she would stand on top of the bluff where the cattle pasture was.  She has a serious job to do by protecting the cattle from predators. 

Most afternoons were filled with Happy Hours like this one.

Fannie and Titus busy making everyone dinner. Fannie made a delicious Southwest Chicken dish in the crock pot with a southwest salad. It was so good and I got the recipe.

Zoey loves her belly rubbed. She starts rolling around and making smiley faces because it feels so good. She is such a sweetheart and very affectionate. She actually has anxiety issues when Fannie is out of her sight.

Here she is nice and content resting by mom. As you can see they both like the color pink.

You know that Zoey is loved when she is allowed half of the couch and her owners have to squeeze in the other half.

On Thursday, July 16th the side matches started. This is just fun competition so the shooters can get warmed up for the Main 2-day match that starts Friday. This gives them a little practice time with their muscle memory and to make sure all their guns, ammo and other equipment is in 100% working order.

After the side matches were over, they had "Hill Billy Olympics". Some of the games included ring toss, BB shooting, a water fill game and several other events. I did not get a chance to get pictures because I was the score keeper. There was lots of hoopen and hollaran and lots of friendly cheat'in go'in on. There were also other games like a hill billy spelling contest.

Thursday night dinner was pot luck. Everyone at the match brought a dish to share. Oh my gosh, it was a smorgasbord of delicious nourishment!

I can't remember what afternoon this was, but Tennessee is from the west coast of Florida where delicious key limes are grown.

Key limes make key lime pie and Key lime pie is one of my favorite pies.

We are planning to visit Tennessee and Rio late this fall. So I got to talking to her and I said "when we come down to your neck of the woods I want you to make me a key lime pie."

She said "wait a minute, I'll be right back". A minute later she came back with these miniature key lime pies that she made. Everyone had a nice key lime tart. Oh my gosh, it was absolutely heavenly.

However I let her know that this did not let her off the hook. She is going to bake a key lime pie when we come to visit.

Look at Zoey, what could she be thinking?

 On Friday, July 17th, was the first day of the main match. Now I did not get any pictures of Ralph because it was "Ladies Day Out". Ginger, Fannie and I headed out to do some errands.

Our Happy Hour was always at 4:00 p.m. every day. Today I made frozen toasted almonds. Now this was my twist on them. Besides Kaluha, Amaretto and half and half, I also throw in a scoop or two of Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream in the blender. After I pour it in glasses I add a dollop of real whipped cream with a piece of hazelnut chocolate stuck in the whipped cream. It was a hit.

We also had home made guacamole, salsa and southwestern dips with chips and veggies.

We headed down to the pavilion for dinner. Here folks gathered to chit chat and hung out waiting for the dinner bell to ring.

The line went quickly and we enjoyed BBQ pork, pork roast, kraut and several sides.

The hard working folks in the hot kitchen.

Well Loader was having a fun day. This little boy played with him all evening, running and jumping.

One of the cowboy shooters had a tattoo of Clint Eastwood on his calf. The picture does not really show the excellent detail, but it was amazing. 

Okay, as you all know we are in the hills of Kentucky and here you could fill your glass with "Viper Juice".

 Entertainment was a nice Blue Grass Band. They were very good and we all enjoyed a nice evening of good music.

By now, everyone was really having a good time as you can see. This week was just a constant good time! What a bunch of nice folks. I loved listening to their Kentucky accent. There were times with their dialect that I really had to carefully listen. But by the end of the week I could understand them pretty good.

On Saturday, July 18th, I headed down to watch shoot. I did not get any still shots of Ralph shooting because I was video taping for a videographer down in Texas. They had tried to video tape Ralph when we were in Texas, but his competition was rained out. So I am sending them some video that I have taken.

They are doing an Internet commercial for Dr. Medina and Dr. Parkhurst of the Parkhurst Laser Center where Ralph had his eye surgery done earlier this year. I had done a tape for them last month and sending them another tape of him shooting. Eventually Ralph will be on the Laser Surgery Centers website along with footage of an interview Dr. Medina did with him before we left Texas.

Ralph had a good match. He shot clean but was penalized 10 seconds. The penalty was a "procedural" and that means he shot a stage out of order. He also had a couple of shotgun fumbles while racing the clock and loading his shotgun and that caused him a few seconds.

With all of that, he did not place. Awards were given from first through third and he placed fourth. Overall he finished around 58th place out of 173 shooters. He loved the match and had a great time.

Soon the dinner bell rang and we had delicious crispy fried fish, hand cut french fries, cole slaw and numerous other sides along with desserts, desserts and more desserts!

After the feast, we stayed a while and visited with folks, but then the music started and it was Rock and Roll. Both Ralph and I are not fans of loud music and I despise Rock and Roll. So we headed back to the RV and let our very big stomachs settle. It has been a very busy and a fun week and it was nice to hit the bed early.

On Sunday, July 19th, Fannie, Ginger and Tennessee had a nice Sunday Branch for everyone before they had to hitch up. No one was in a hurry to leave and we had a wonderful Sunday morning drinking Mimosa's and eating.

Here is Rio making Mimosa's for everyone.

Here on the farm is the family plot. I wanted to ask them about it, but just kept forgetting.

Ralph and I decided to stay another couple of nights with Tennessee and Rio. So we said our goodbyes to everyone else as they hitched up and pulled out.

There had been over 40 RV's here and now just our 2 RV's were left. It was sad to see our friends go.

So for the next couple of days, we ate, drank and played Dominoes. What fun!

Left to right- Rio, Tennessee, Ralph and Bo.

Just down the road is a cold mountain spring. The water was ice cold and delicious!

Kentucky Viper Juice for us.

One morning, Tennessee and I took a walk up to see the cows. Here is their other cattle dog Jill. She does her job unlike Loader who was quite the "free loader" all week. All he did was mooch food, slobber on me and beg for attention.

Jill was a sweet heart. When she saw us, she came running. As we tried our darnedest to pet her through the fence, Loader kept herding her away from us because he wanted all the attention.

However she managed to come and get a few pats. She is the reddish one.

Finally caught up! We are now at Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, Kentucky.

Until Next time...........Happy Trails!