What better way to show our Swiss friends the outlaw ways of the wild west than to take them to the desert and put firearms in their hands? 🙂

 

I wondered, until I started reading,  what the difference between the US and Switzerland  guns laws. There is way too much information to read through and I’m really not that interested..just curious. I quickly bored of the topic and moved on BUT the one thing that stuck in my memory is that Switzerland is number three (only behind the US and Yemen)  on the list of highest per capita gun ownership in the world.

That was surprising to me..but this is not a blog about gun politics and I don’t wish to discuss gun politics sooooo let’s move on to our funnin, gunnin’ and runnin’ filled Saturday! 🙂

Necessary equipment for a day in the dirt..

1. Truck or van capable of driving through a dry river bed

2. Easy ups to protect us from the BRUTAL sun

3. Tables to display and for easy access to the firearms

4. Chairs

5. Water – that should actually be number one but I just remembered so it’s sitting at number 5

6. Firearms

7. Friendly people..don’t bring jack asses — no on wants a jack ass with a gun

Look at that smile 😉 I think He liked it..again again!

Can I try this one next?

Instructions

Carmen was shooting a golf ball launcher in the photo above. There is no purpose of this gun..it’s just funny I guess to launch a golf ball with a weapon. I shot it too – it was neat but every time it was shot, I could never actually SEE the ball fly out of it nor could I see where it landed. It was still neat and pure silliness.

I almost forgot! Make sure to add a portable grill, burger, cheese and buns to the list of necessary items!

You will get hungry having fun in the sun!

Our friends live only five minutes away from the shooting range so after we packed up and CLEANED up our mess,  ** ALWAYS..clean up after yourselves! **, we drove back to their place for more red neck fun!

ROCK CRAWLING!

Our friends daughter and her guy are very much into rock crawling Broncos. Our Swiss friends and a nine year old were the first to hope in an get driven through the homemade rock crawling practice course (set up in the backyard of their desert property).

All buckled up and ready to crawl!

A little harmless one sided ramp..look at how stretched out those blue spring things are…it’s like a big ole slinky on wheels.

Once their ride was over I was a little eager to get in and give it a shot! Those of you who know me..know I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to driving. Getting tightly buckled into the back seat of this beast, sitting in the back seat with a driver – who is btw maybe twenty years old – was a HUGE feat for me. My thought on the whole thing was hey..if the nine year old did it..so can I 😉

 

I love roller coasters so I played it off to myself this was nothing but a roller coaster ride. I LOVED it!

So much fun!

 

Austin, the driver, says, “Do you want to go up the ramp”? My reply, of course, was, “YES, PLEASE”!

He strategically placed both tires on the ramp and slowly crawled up and up and a little further, maybe just a little further. I was feeling a little anxious and thinking how cool is this and also feeling a little like..I think we’re going to tip and then thinking maybe this is how it’s supposed to feel and then… ** screams like a girl, ahhhhhhh ** you know? Like you do when you’re on a roller coaster..and then…

BOOM…

He dumped us. My first off road rock climbing experience and I am the victim of Austins first flip.  Luckily we were basically not moving so it was only a mere jolt when we landed and Austin handled us like a pro. He CALMLY instructed the people on the left side of the Bronco to hold onto the roll bars, unbuckle and climb out. What a RUSH! 🙂

I will do this again and hopefully no flipping will be involved next time!

After we escaped, mostly unscathed, it was time for high fives, hugs, drink and some music.

Do you think we Arizonans provided our Swiss friends a most excellent display of the Wild Wild West?