West Adventure

I had been asking Chris for a few weeks if we could go out west the day after Christmas. I wanted to go shoot and rabbit/coyote hunt and I figured it would give K a chance to shoot her new gun. He finally agreed (he wanted to go duck hunting) and Todd and Jana wanted to come with us. We loaded up the truck and left our house at 6 am with howling winds and 12 degree temperatures.

The drive out was really pretty. The full moon was still in the sky.

We saw a few rabbits off the road when we finally got to where we were going. Todd, Chris and I got out and started walking through the sage brush. It was a whopping 2 degrees. There were bunnies all over but they were staying a good 50 yards ahead of us and werent holding in the bushes at all. We still had a complete blast chasing them.

Todd

Chris

 He couldnt decide what gun to shoot so he had his 22-250 over his shoulder in case he saw a coyote, his new Judge pistol in one hand and his KelTec 22 in the other. He was cracking me up.

We drove around for a little bit and found a place to park to target shoot. Kennedy was adamant she wanted to shoot a rabbit but I told her she couldn't come walk with us with her gun until we let her shoot it and went over some safety rules. 

She did awesome. She listened really well and payed attention. We related a lot of the safety things we were talking about to archery and it made total sense to her. She started out doing the girl thing and leaning back too far when she shot...

But after a few minutes of being comfortable she got her stance right. 

 She was doing really well! I was super impressed. 

 Momma shot her pistol

 And so did Jana and Todd

 She had a pocket full of .22 shells which made her feel super special. She was loading the gun all on her own and was shooting it with out any help.

 I think its safe to say she loved it!

 Chris and his Judge...his new baby.

 When we finished shooting we loaded up the truck and had planned on making our way the long way back to town and be in Tremonton around noon for some lunch. As we were putting guns back in the truck Chris noticed a large railroad spike in the tire. We knew we had a spare so we figured we'd drive as far as we could and see if the spike stayed in. It was pretty buried in the tire and it was holding air. We made it maybe a mile before it fell out and the tire went flat.

 So it was tire changing time! The flat tire wouldnt come off. It was salted on. Finally after about 30 minutes we were able to knock it off.

 We had the new tire on and were still planning on taking the long way home. We rabbit hunted a few more times. Kennedy stayed in the truck and slept. Then we started getting into people people and people! One group drove just past us (they saw us out hunting) and parked ahead of us and started hunting. Another one saw Chris chasing a rabbit, stopped the truck and got out with their gun and said "oh were you gonna shoot that one?" an then started hunting 10 feet from us. They finally got back in their truck and went further down the road. 

We stopped to get back in the truck and take a picture.

As soon as we took the picture I heard this leaking air sound. I thought maybe it was the exhaust on the truck. Nope. I walked over and on the drivers side rear tire this time was a smaller railroad spike in the tire. Remember we already used the one spare tire and we have no more. We decided to hurry to Hwy 30 as fast as we could (we were just a few miles from there) and see how far we could make it back. Chris called Taylor who was at home and told him to grab Chris's truck (since his spare tire will fit Todds) and to start heading to where we were. We were hoping to make it to the Snowville Flying J before the tire went flat. We made it ALMOST to the Curlew Junction, about a mile before, and the spike came out and we limped to pull off right at Coldwater. 

We hadnt seen any coyotes the whole trip and right as the boys were messing with the tire one ran across the road in front of us! It was COLD here. The wind was howling and the temps were in the single digits. With the windchill it was easily -10. Good thing we had plenty of fuel! We come prepared. We had tons of winter clothes and K always has a blanket. Between Jana and I we always pack enough food for 2 days. So we ate some chips and dip, licorice and a few other snacks. We knew Taylor had at least an hour drive before he go to us. So with full bellys, the heater on in the truck and the sun shinning through the windows all of us but Jana took a nice nap. Taylor called when he was hitting Rose ranch and it woke us all up. We were hoping he'd take longer since we were sleeping so well ha! He made it to us in just about an hour. The boys got out in the frigid freezing cold and changed the tire. For fun Jana was keeping count at how many vehicles passed us while we were stuck on the side of the road. 34. 

Tire was changed and ready to go. Chris and Taylor took his truck and followed us. We all went to the Grill in Tremonton for lunch and then to the gun store.. and of course Les Schwab to get the two tires fixed!

It was a really fun and an adventure for sure!