If I knew it all I wouldn't be on the road and so alive!

Okay, no one knows what they don't know until they learn about something new (that they didn't know), get the idea? I am officially William Earl Dungey, Media, Spectator at Boomershoot 2009. I have thought about my mother, my wife, my two friends, my relatives and people I am relating to, and wish you could be here sharing the great stuff I have been soaking up as fast as I can. Oh, and I should have brought the Trusty Triumph because there is this series of long climbing and descending twisty two lanes that I made the Caravan purr through - I would have been so leaned and rolling into it on the motorcycle. The landscape is all of God's best, rivers, rocks and green clad, the people who don't know me from anybody actually wave a welcome, the local public library is open, helpful and busy - how else would I get on the Internet to post a blog? WiFi - costs and I am so overloaded now. Speaking of libraries, Breda has been mentioned by Joe saying that we have something in common - but it was the shooting that keeps them coming back. I also saw the famous almost Tam's pistol from Blackwater (?) some people have such interesting lives and adventures.

Joe is a wonderful host, a very nice man and extraordinary. I wish Mrs. Clark, my highschool Chemistry Physics teacher could have gotten my attention like Joe did while giving us the history of Boomershoot and the mixing of the reactive agent that would explode when shot by a rapidly moving bullet - better than 1500 fps. All except for his current mix are on the internet, which he is using today while I type, his target manufacturing team is creating the booms for this weekend: a few today, more tomorrow (used for the shooting clinic being held) and the really big day on Sunday.

One bit of Joe's best wisdom I share: Change a veriable and don't do the testing and get burnt. He has lots of stories to prove it. Three chemicals, one fuel, zip lock bag and cardboard box, garden stake and rubber band. Some hot accurate shooting sport and no neighbors and you could have a smaller version of this event. But watching the coordination, the pride in performance and the amount of work that is going on to make this happen - this will not become common any time soon - this is way beyond my lazy bones and levels above my scientific/technical expertise. This costs about $1.00 per pound for the target chemicals. Lime is added to change the boom effect, and GREEN!, help leach away the lead bullet core badness from the soil - farmers and grass lawn growers like it for acidity change. I learn so much more than how to hit the target, not having even talked about that.

After discussing safety, history, short demonstration of reactive mixture mixing followed by a two round two burst demonstration of the power of small targets, a hands on (for those qualified and trusted by the certifiable, oops, certifying ATF) practice of building their own targets was done, with the intent of blowing them up. Those involved got to wear plastic gloves, aprons and eye protection, when setting off targets we added hearing protection and I got to take notes, pictures and add my questions and comments (hopefully when it was helpful). I did also help put the fire out that the one extra punch Fireball and its potential got started in the already burnt area of a field. I can do putting out small fires having done it once in a while in my life. I did get some great shots, and can't wait to get back to my computer to download them and work on them, others have posted some great one.

At the dinner at the Ponderosa in Orofino, Idaho, I was explaining something about my camera that I couldn't do, and one of the shooting/bloggers took my camera and showed me how to do it, and I have been doing strange stuff with it ever since - another thing I didn't know that now I do. Always learning. Met the father of one of the Boomershoot Crew (First Mate) and his fine dog Ebby, met the husband and wife team (Ma and Pa) of the food stand, they have a son in the Navy, in Naples, Italy with their grandson - whom they met when they travelled there more than a year ago - Idaho is famous for their sailors? Small world or just getting smaller, not being a real Gun Blogger, just the library keeper is very happy that everyone he has met on this trip is acting like we've known each other for years and being comfortable. I was listening the past two days to a bird in the field, and figuring it must be quail and knowing that someone watching birds, taking pictures and making a dairy home would like to have seen the quail run across the road this morning as I tooled up that twisty road, and probably gotten a great picture. Eagles flying, does and fawns are out and one herd of brown steers in a fenced lot and on the other side one lone loose steer nibbling at the greener grass - for the last two days - he must have the secret password.

Dear Mister President (knowing my friends (2) and family might miss this blog) I do want you to know, that real Americans are having a wonderful time learning new things, sharpening old skills and creating a better community of citizens - all wrapped around rifles, long range shooting and exploding targets - with safety and good sense always in mind. Don't you wish you were here, but then the Secret Service would be taxed to the max, just remember we did think of you while we were having fun with guns, and wish you all the best in what you do in our service. Take care, Earl.