During our visit to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday, we took the short drive from the main road to a place called Keys View. From that point, you can see the Coachella Valley and the Palm Springs area five thousand feet (1525 meters) below. You can also see the San Andreas Fault (underlined in red) which has been the cause of many Earthquakes in California, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Click on the image to enlarge.

In the distance behind the ridge of hills thrust up by fault motion, you can see desert communities including Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Indio and La Quinta. All of these places will have a front row seat for the next major San Andreas movement in this area.

Speaking of quakes, the ground here at home is still shaking from aftershocks form the earthquake that happened in this area last Sunday. That was on the Inglewood-Newport fault, not the San Andreas. We missed the main shock since we were in Wickenburg, AZ when it hit. No damage here at home, thank goodness.

We’re home again after our wonderful spring vacation & NRA 2A Blogbash trip. No time left in the day to write anything extensive, so enjoy these beautiful beaver tail cactus flowers we saw today at Joshua Tree National Park.

We’re back in California (for the time being) and planning to spend our last day on vacation visiting Joshua Tree National Park. We drove through the park from the south entrance today, so we have our preview of tomorrow’s tour. We’re camped in Twentynine Palms, CA, tonight, and plan to head back to the park in the morning. After the visit to the park, we’re headed back to the grind at home - for now.

We enjoyed our trip and look forward to our upcoming retirement and eventual return to Arizona when we get our affairs in order. While in Arizona, we both enjoyed our 2nd amendment rights to carry in a place that gets it. We can hardly wait to get the freak out of liberal California.

We drove out of the campground today and headed toward Wickenburg, AZ. We had a great time in Phoenix at the NRA convention and afterward just relaxing and camping.

The picture below shows typical scenery along Arizona SR74 en route to US60 on the way to Wickenburg, where we currently are camping. Among the several varieties of vegetation seen here are Saguaro cactus, Cholla, Ocotillo, and mesquite. We think these are very beautiful and many are flowering. Click on the image to enlarge.

Yesterday, while visiting the Para Booth at the NRA Convention, Para’s public relations director, Kerby Smith, showed us this Para PXT LDA 9mm pistol. Since this one is on the restrictive California DOJ ‘acceptable firearms’ list, Kerby asked us to consider acquiring one of these 9mm pistols.

According to the Para Website:

Small, light, fast and carrying 8+1 rounds of low-recoil 9mm Luger ammo, the Para PDA 9mm is a lot of reassurance in an ultra-compact package. PDAs are sized like Snubbies but they have 3-inch match grade barrels because you need accuracy in a defensive pistol.

• Caliber: 9mm
• Rounds: 8+1
• Barrel: 3″
• Weight: 24 oz.
• Length: 6.4″
• Height: 4.75″
• Hammer: Spurless
• Sights: Night Sights
• Receiver: Alloy
• Finish: Duo-Tone

I did like this pistol a lot when I handled it and it is a pretty gun. But, it didn’t make my eyes glaze over like my stainless steel Warthog did the first time I laid eyes on her. But, that being said, I did like this gun a lot. I would have to put a few rounds downrange with one of these before I ultimately decide if it’s for me or not.

Sadly, we didn’t get to attend the Second Amendment Blog Bash activities at all this trip. We brought our eleven year old dog with us because a) she likes to travel, and b) she is a large breed and may not be with us that much longer. We missed meeting our blogging comrades, but being convention ‘virgins’ this is a learning experience for us. We plan to tune it up next time.

First, we took the dog to ‘day care’ recommended by our RV park director. Then we headed into town. Traffic, traffic, traffic, then finally got into a parking spot. Gracious thanks to Bitter and the organizers of the Blog Bash, the rest was all downhill. We checked into the media room and picked up our passes and kits and headed into the exhibits.

Toys, as far as the eye could see! So many guns, so little time!

One stop we had to make was at the Para booth. We wanted to personally meet Todd Jarett and Kerby Smith, both of whom helped get Damsel on the right track shooting her Warthog. It was Michael Bane who introduced us to the Para team in the first place and they took it from there. Damsel spoke briefly to Todd, who virtually gave her instruction on short barrel large caliber firearms training for women via a video that Kerby sent her. We wanted to thank them both for the training and for the extraordinary Para customer service.

When we walked through the Glock exhibit, none other than R. Lee Ermey - the Gunny from Full Metal Jacket - was signing autographs for Team Glock. We didn’t get in line to get his autograph and would have liked to have done so, a lot, but it was starting to get late - we needed to get back to pick up our dog. Besides, look at the lineup this guy gets for autographs! Must have been thirty minutes wait or more. The Gunny was posing for pictures, giving hearty handshakes and personally talking to the folks at length. This guy is the real article - a person who, despite some celebrity status, is a down-to-Earth guy with conservative and second amendment values. Click on the image to enlarge.

It was a lot of fun to see this today. I guarantee the next time we attend one of these, we will be able to show up at all the events and meet our comrades in arms. We’re already looking forward to our next NRA Convention. We can hardly wait.

One of the interesting things about crossing our southwestern deserts is the large variety of vegetation. One such variety is the desert tree known as palo verde - green wood, literally. In the springtime, it sprouts tiny yellow flowers. Click the image to enlarge.

Tonight we’re going to relax at the RV Park and plan to head to the convention sometime tomorrow. We have the dog with us and need to get her into day care.

We’re on our way to the 2A Blog Bash and NRA Convention in Phoenix. Tonight, we’re camping along the Colorado River in Blythe, CA. Here’s a photo Damsel took of the river from our campsite just as we arrived.

OK - So I was reading the RSS feeds today and I found a post at Robb Allen’s Sharp as a Marble entitled Basal Smear Harp. Hmm? I had to go take a look.

That was a mistake. For the next half-hour I was sucked into futzing around with the on-line anagram generator Robb referred me to.

But it paid a little dividend when I started typing in the names of some famous people:

• Nancy Pelosi - Spacy Online
• Harry Reid - Hairdryer
• Joe Biden - I Need Job
• Hillary Clinton - Carillon Thinly
• Tim Geithner - Tiger Hit Men
• Eric Holder - Clod Rehire
• Rahm Emanuel - Ah, Elm Manure
• Barney Frank - Fanny Barker
• Patrick Leahy - Chalky Pirate
• Janine Garofalo - A Ninja Rage Fool
• Barack Obama - AAA Bomb Rack

Two out of our three shotguns have a magazine capacity of four rounds with a fifth in the chamber. It’s only natural that we usually load up our six plus one capacity 12 gauge with only four rounds in the magazine. Every once in a while, however, we put all seven rounds in the gun.

As you will see when you play the video, it can be easy to lose track of how many are loaded. Damsel discovers her seventh round has yet to be discharged.

Range report

With the current ammunition shortage, many ranges, including the one we use, have taken to the practice of rationing ammunition. Our local proprietor has established a rule that you can buy a limited amount of ammunition only if you pay the range fees, whether you shoot or not.

We showed up there yesterday and bought 100 rounds of .45 before going into the range with our pistols (her Warthog and my G-30). We only shot 50 rounds each. We were in and out of the range in under an hour.

Hope the ammo logjam breaks. We’re going to shop for some over in Arizona this week as we head for the NRA Convention and the BASH.