Frontsight Fourth of July

I love the Fourth of July party that Frontsight puts on for the first family members every year. We haven’t been down for a couple years but I knew I wanted to come down in this my year of doing what I want. Today was great and I got to do some things I enjoy like shooting full automatic weapons, long distance sniper rifle, and I won a nice Emerson blade (Funny, the very first time I went down there I won a knife in a skills contest involving throwing rocks at a target.)
They had a fantastic giveaway where the wives who weren’t first family members got to come up and answer questions about their husband’s shooting habits. Some great questions were asked and answered, “Who is your husband’s favorite Frontsight instructor?” (My husband’s answer is Brad Ackman) What is your husband’s favorite gun? (His PSS that I bought him) and my answer brings up the one question I would have love to have heard – “What was the last firearm you bought your husband?” (My answer; the left handed shotgun that I got at the end of a really fun bargaining session with Leo from Gallenson’s.) That would have been just as fun to hear as “When was the last time you cleaned your husband’s gun?” (The winning answer was NEVER). I was glad to see some of the women that I met (like Katherine and Kathy) win custom Frontsight memberships.

I did something else for the first time ever; I rode on a zip line. I have to admit that if I hadn’t spoken to Jim before I went, I possibly would have chickened out. But before I ever put on the climbing gear, Jim told me that I would love it. He said that when I first got on the tower I would look over the edge and say, “Oh, #$(%& what have I gotten myself into.” Then when I was about 1/3 of the way down I would tell myself, “This isn’t so bad.” He added that about ½ way I would be saying, “This is kind of fun.” and at the end I would be asking how soon until I could go again. Jim was right on the money.
After putting on gear and climbing up the 4 interior ladders to the ledge of the tower overlooking the arroyo, I was ready to turn around and climb back down except I wasn’t sure I could navigate the ladders with all the climbing gear on. Thank goodness for the instructor who hooked my safety line to the tower, helped me up onto the ledge and suggested that I look up and to my left at the beautiful moon in the sky surrounded by lovely clouds. Eventually I was ready to face west and look at the horizon but still not ready to look into the arroyo. Soon, I was sitting on the edge of the tower’s ledge with the cable above me, instructions to let go of the rope as soon as I was off the tower and just pretend I was flying. Jim was dead on – I sat on that platform thinking “OH #$(%&!!!!!! What have I gotten myself into?” The final instruction was to either scoot forward or if I wanted, the instructor would push me. I did manage to scoot forward off the platform on my own. I will admit that I skipped the “This isn’t so bad” step and went straight to “This is fun!” Although by the time I hit the bottom, I was so ready for that cherry picker to come up to the wire and get me (rather than hitting the ground, the line ended with the rider hanging in the air and a platform on a cherry picker coming up and getting them). I should clarify that my anxiety didn’t come from the ride but I must not have had my “seat” tightened down right because one of the straps slipped and I was hanging in an uncomfortable position. It was so worth the ride. Jim was right about another thing - - I wanted to do it again but didn’t have another time slot close to the time that I was there. The other reason that I wanted to do it again was that my husband was trying to use my digital camera instead of his analog camera and thus, we have no pictures. Next year, we’ll take the kids and the video.