01-09-2020, 10:29 AM
I did this one back in 2009. Things have changed a bit, don't go shooting as often and shotguns seemed to get more and more heavier over the years. Getting old does screw up a lot of good plans.
How to keep busy in the winter
Just what the heck do we people that live in Arizona do all winter while you guys there are all busy shoveling snow and trying to keep warm? I guess the fact that we that live in the southern half of the state and don’t have to do things like that, really gives us time to pursue other activities. Yeah, we have our pro sports teams that play in the winter, basketball and hockey to name a few. Outdoor activities seem to prevail more during the winter months for obvious reasons. There are pro golf tournaments along with tennis and then of course, there’s shuffleboard and pickleball, both top attractions around the Sun City area. For those unfamiliar with pickleball, it’s kind of a cross between badminton and tennis. For the elite, we have a couple of auto shows where they sell cars worth millions, and there are a few horse shows where horses sell for equal amounts. Something that is very big here is golf. I’m guessing that maybe half the landmass of Arizona is dedicated to golf courses. I don’t play golf, but I’m quite sure there are at least a dozen courses within walking distance of our house.
One activity I like more in the winter than in the summer is shooting. We used to go out target shooting once a week, but times change and we just try to go out as often as we can. If we shoot pistols or rifles, we go out into the desert and when we shoot shotguns, we go to the range where they have both trap and skeet. Trap is where you stand in one of five different stations, and you shoot at a clay target that comes out of a trap house near the ground at various angles. Skeet is where targets are thrown across the field from the left and right, and you shoot at high and low targets from different positions. We have probably the largest public shooting range in the country just to the north of us. Right at the junction of the Carefree Highway and I-17 is a 1650-acre facility that encompasses all types of shooting. There are several different pistol and rifle ranges including a quarter-mile long power rifle range, there’s a clay target range with trap, skeet and sporting clays, and there’s even several archery ranges. We go there when we have time and we rarely keep track of our scores; I guess you can say that we’re casual shooters. However, there are those here that are as passionate about shooting as anyone can get about a sport. There are quite a few winter shooting events here, where hundreds of shooters show up at any one of the shooting ranges around the state. Some park their huge motorhomes at the range for a week of tournament shooting, then moving to another range for yet another week of shooting trap or skeet. We sometimes go to these tournaments usually to look around, watch them shoot a bit and maybe look over merchandise for sale. This is one of the few times that we’re able to experience the feel of a $50,000 shotgun in our hands. Ours cost just a small fraction of that and we find we can miss the target just as easily with the less expensive gun and not feel quite as badly about it. A while back, we watched as archers tried to qualify for the Olympics and once we were amazed by the shooting skills of the US long-range rifle team practicing for the Olympics.
You can find lots of locals crowding the ski resorts to the north of us. There’s plenty of snow up there to keep them happy. Some, less daring locals can visit the Botanical Gardens or zoo in Phoenix, and then there are the outdoor rodeos, trail riding with either horses or ATV’s and other special activities such as skydiving and rock climbing. One of the few things that the locals here don’t do in the winter is swim. Yeah, some people with heated pools will, but for the most part, we leave the winter swimming to the visitors that come here and show us how brave they are because it’s a bit over 60 degrees out. If they’re that brave, I dare them to come back here and do all this when it’s 115 degrees in the shade. So now, you know why we do these outdoor things in the winter and leave the indoor playing for the summertime.
How to keep busy in the winter
Just what the heck do we people that live in Arizona do all winter while you guys there are all busy shoveling snow and trying to keep warm? I guess the fact that we that live in the southern half of the state and don’t have to do things like that, really gives us time to pursue other activities. Yeah, we have our pro sports teams that play in the winter, basketball and hockey to name a few. Outdoor activities seem to prevail more during the winter months for obvious reasons. There are pro golf tournaments along with tennis and then of course, there’s shuffleboard and pickleball, both top attractions around the Sun City area. For those unfamiliar with pickleball, it’s kind of a cross between badminton and tennis. For the elite, we have a couple of auto shows where they sell cars worth millions, and there are a few horse shows where horses sell for equal amounts. Something that is very big here is golf. I’m guessing that maybe half the landmass of Arizona is dedicated to golf courses. I don’t play golf, but I’m quite sure there are at least a dozen courses within walking distance of our house.
One activity I like more in the winter than in the summer is shooting. We used to go out target shooting once a week, but times change and we just try to go out as often as we can. If we shoot pistols or rifles, we go out into the desert and when we shoot shotguns, we go to the range where they have both trap and skeet. Trap is where you stand in one of five different stations, and you shoot at a clay target that comes out of a trap house near the ground at various angles. Skeet is where targets are thrown across the field from the left and right, and you shoot at high and low targets from different positions. We have probably the largest public shooting range in the country just to the north of us. Right at the junction of the Carefree Highway and I-17 is a 1650-acre facility that encompasses all types of shooting. There are several different pistol and rifle ranges including a quarter-mile long power rifle range, there’s a clay target range with trap, skeet and sporting clays, and there’s even several archery ranges. We go there when we have time and we rarely keep track of our scores; I guess you can say that we’re casual shooters. However, there are those here that are as passionate about shooting as anyone can get about a sport. There are quite a few winter shooting events here, where hundreds of shooters show up at any one of the shooting ranges around the state. Some park their huge motorhomes at the range for a week of tournament shooting, then moving to another range for yet another week of shooting trap or skeet. We sometimes go to these tournaments usually to look around, watch them shoot a bit and maybe look over merchandise for sale. This is one of the few times that we’re able to experience the feel of a $50,000 shotgun in our hands. Ours cost just a small fraction of that and we find we can miss the target just as easily with the less expensive gun and not feel quite as badly about it. A while back, we watched as archers tried to qualify for the Olympics and once we were amazed by the shooting skills of the US long-range rifle team practicing for the Olympics.
You can find lots of locals crowding the ski resorts to the north of us. There’s plenty of snow up there to keep them happy. Some, less daring locals can visit the Botanical Gardens or zoo in Phoenix, and then there are the outdoor rodeos, trail riding with either horses or ATV’s and other special activities such as skydiving and rock climbing. One of the few things that the locals here don’t do in the winter is swim. Yeah, some people with heated pools will, but for the most part, we leave the winter swimming to the visitors that come here and show us how brave they are because it’s a bit over 60 degrees out. If they’re that brave, I dare them to come back here and do all this when it’s 115 degrees in the shade. So now, you know why we do these outdoor things in the winter and leave the indoor playing for the summertime.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD