Monday 3 March 2008

Weekend in Houston

Flew down to Houston last weekend to see Pete (and Ben and Adrienne and their two boys - they're all working for Macquarie there).

Random points:

* the TSA staff at Little Rock airport are friendly and chatty. The staff at Houston airport, not so much. In both places it takes an hour to get through security.

* Houston is a damn nice place. Good restaurants with deliciously fresh sushi and NZ wines (as well as many good American wines of course), suburbs with footpaths and flowering trees and friendly neighbours. I really wasn't expecting that; my mental image was of cowboy boots and oil-men. This is Pete, under a cherry tree in a park.

* the Johnson Space Centre is like a super-Motat. (That's a good thing). Highlight of the visit: touching an actual Moon rock! Whee!







* shooting a Glock 9mm at the Top Gun Range. It's VERY LOUD. And it kicks up rather than back. I feel like a real American now. (I'm not a very good shot).

* sculpture in concrete: someone gave the Texas highway engineers a lot of money a few decades ago and they paved most of the state. When they ran out of ground they went up into the sky, layer upon layer upon layer....

5 comments:

Morgan said...

Did they make you hold it like that? Looks like a very strange grip with your thumb tucked out of the way there.

Carolyn said...

I agree, but yes, that's the way they told me to hold it. The slidy bit on top of the gun comes back v quickly every time you fire, and would chop off your thumb if you left it up there.

Anonymous said...

Pete here, Carolyn's shooting partner. We were both novices and didn't know how to grip the gun properly. What it turns out Carolyn should have done is wrap the thumb of her right hand around the stock (the natural grip, if you like) and there would have been no danger of being carved up by the action or getting burned by hot cartridges ejecting.

benj said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
benj said...

Considering you're shooting in weaver stance, this is a weird way to hold a pistol, Pete is correct to say that your right hand should have been wrapped around the butt before your left hand was wrapped around the front of your right. Most people have issues with their left thumb getting hit, but only usually once, as it hurts like a sonofabitch. All in though, there's nothing quite like seeing girls with guns! Go Carolyn! Next up you want to try a .50 cal sniper rifle :)