Don't let life pass you by...

[LowPlainsDrifter]

There's a twice-yearly gathering of people who legally own machine guns, flamethrowers and light artillery in Westpoint, Kentucy.
Anyone can go to watch, and even fire some of the weapons, if the people on the firing line are renting them out.
I've wanted to go to this since I read about it ten years ago (I'm sort of an armchair gun and military history enthusiast, but live in an anti-second amendment state). I mentioned this event on SoSuave about *three* years ago, in a reply to a different thread.
I'm finally going there this October (have plane tickets, nice car and beautiful hotel room in Louisville reserved).
Now... here's my point: I've known about it for ten years, seriously thought about going for the last three or four years, and then finally made up my mind to finally just go, in late January (the April 'shoot was cancelled due to flooding).
What changed? The desire to go finally overrode any concerns about time management, and money.
In fact, when I mentioned the 'shoot in that long-ago post, I was probably in a better position financially to go!
But I realized that we mostly regret what we didn't do, rather than what we did (unless it's something truly evil!).
Although I enjoy running my business and the income it affords, without a goalpost in the distance to strive toward, it's still a real drudgery.
The frame through which I see the work/life/money balance has definitely changed - making a living is still important, but I am also driven now to bring new places and experiences into my life... or else... what's the point?

 

[Sun Tzu]

Good points, LPD. The subject of regretting the things we don't do comes up fairly often on the forum, but it's good to hear of a real-life example of someone actually following through. This can help us all to get ideas on how we can reach beyond the comfort zone.

As an aside, you might get more readers/responses by splitting your paragraphs like this. I never read posts with run-on paragraphs, but for some reason I read yours. I figure that's why there are no responses yet.

Good post. Thanks for giving a real-world example, and enjoy your shoot.

 

[theunflushables]

Oklahoma an anti-second ammendment state? Are we in bizarro world? Here in Michigan, we're moderate. We have our liberal areas and our conservative areas but we still all own a gun. You'd think Oklahoma, being less populous and part of that frontier mentality that still exists (Texas, anyone?) would be quite pro-gun.

 

[LowPlainsDrifter]

Oklahoma an anti-second ammendment state? Are we in bizarro world? Here in Michigan, we're moderate. We have our liberal areas and our conservative areas but we still all own a gun. You'd think Oklahoma, being less populous and part of that frontier mentality that still exists (Texas, anyone?) would be quite pro-gun.

LOL... I don't really live in Muskogee, OK, I live somewhere else entirely. In fact, there is a video circulating around from an Oklahoma shoot similar to Knob Creek in which a four or five year old girl attending the event is sitting at some sort of tripod-mounted machine gun, just firing away under the supervision of her father.

Most people that I tell about this event I'm attending are plainly shocked that machine gun ownership is legal and widespread enough that a confab of that size would happen twice a year.

 

[LowPlainsDrifter]

Good points, LPD. The subject of regretting the things we don't do comes up fairly often on the forum, but it's good to hear of a real-life example of someone actually following through. This can help us all to get ideas on how we can reach beyond the comfort zone.

As an aside, you might get more readers/responses by splitting your paragraphs like this. I never read posts with run-on paragraphs, but for some reason I read yours. I figure that's why there are no responses yet.

Good post. Thanks for giving a real-world example, and enjoy your shoot.

Glad you liked the post... the odd thing is, I usually write postings in block paragraph format.

Is there a formatting command I'm missing out on?

 

[LowPlainsDrifter]

Good post. Thanks for giving a real-world example, and enjoy your shoot.

WOW... all I can say is WOW... I'm so glad I booked the trip, and spent the time and money going there. It was one of the rare times something exceeded my expectations - from the flight out, to the city of Louisville, to the hotel and of course, the Machinegun Shoot itself.

It altered my perspective substantially... it was truly a "peak experience" one which I want to duplicate as often as possible.

 

[penkitten]

glad to hear you had fun here in louisville... we have lots of gun shows.

 

[speakeasy]

I've had this same dillemma. I've been wanting to take a long trip to S. America, backpacking around the continent. But I admit, fear has kind of kept me from pulling the trigger on that one. Fear of all the banditry I hear down there, not speaking the language well, getting yellow fever or malaria or something.

 

[user43770]

But I admit, fear has kind of kept me from pulling the trigger on that one. Fear of all the banditry I hear down there, not speaking the language well, getting yellow fever or malaria or something.

South America isn't the ideal place to go backpacking. You could easily get your ass kidnapped.