Hell On Wheels

Posted on July 1, 2019 by kathousekelli70

2019 Hell On Wheels got underway last Thursday in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

This year it is hot, the stages are utilizing every square inch of the bay – meaning you are going to have to get moving between positions – the glare of the quartz dirt is full on but the stages themselves are good sequences.

Thursday was Warm Up’s and side match day, with an adhoc Doily Gang clinic put together with Shamrock Sadie, Lefty Jo, Honey B Quick and myself for 6 lovely ladies!

Friday its an early start as we head to the range for a 91F day (33C) and 6 stages. We are done by lunchtime before too much of the heat sets in although with all the running around we are really feeling it anyway.

Jack is shooting black powder this match, so plenty of smokey fun for him.

Saturday morning again an early start although its only in the 80’s, more running, fun and laughter. The final 6 stages are done and we will see how it all turns out Sunday. Thanks to a great posse – Grizzly Grumps, Murky Mick, John Sawman, Trudy Hart, Outlaw Josey Wales, Paladin Pete, Pinewood Kid (we missed you Pinewood Rose!), Sandhiller, Panhandle Kate, Sentry, White Raven, Pick, Tin Lizzy, Velvet, Slickbald, Jack and myself.

Saturday evening we spent time with friends – Charlie Wagon, Pearl Starr, Clancy, Wild Horse John, Saginaw Sue, Jack and myself – at Accomplice Beer Company at the historic Cheyenne Train Depot. Pouring your own beer and only paying for what you’re pour, sensational place!! A great concept and not the first time we have been here. Of course, Clancy, Pearl Starr and myself had to have a ‘Margarita Sista’s’ token margarita whilst together.

Sunday morning and we head for brunch with Wild Horse John and Saginaw Sue before heading to the range for awards. Once again with 13 Aussies in attendance we faired quite well against the competition.

Stats: 208 shooters – 14 or 15 clean shooters – Grizzly Grumps, Murky Mick, Mystic Meg, Coyote Baz, Clancy won from prize draw – Senior Duelist 2nd, Sam Balin – Lady Gunfighter 1st, Sister Sarah Carnegie – Frontier Cartridge 1st, Henry Moon – Gunfighter 2nd, Deadly Downunder – 49er’s 1st, Charlie Wagon – Lady 49er’s 2nd, Clancy – Senior Gunfighter 1st, K C Woody – Senior Frontier Cartridge 2nd, Jackaroo – Lady Wrangler 2nd, Pearl Starr – Lady Wrangler 1st, Kathouse Kelli.

Lady Wranglers
Jack, 2nd Senior Frontier Cartridge
The Gamblers contingent.
With our honorary Aussie, Aspen Filly

Hell On Wheels 2019 overall champions for the Men’s was Cobra Cat and for the Ladies, Kathouse Kelli.

Yet again, we had fun and enjoyed it. Now its time for packing, checking, shuffling, re-packing etc.

See you on the trail somewhere!

Kat xo

Onward to Cheyenne

Posted on June 27, 2019 by kathousekelli70

We left Manitou Springs yesterday morning, first visiting Miramont Castle.

Built in 1895 with a west wing being added in 1897, it was built as a personal residence for Fr. Jean Baptiste Francolon and his mother. Might I add right here and now – this place is huge just for two people to be running around in!!

Miramont has 4 floors, with 30 rooms covering 14,000 square feet. It features 9 styles of architecture designed by Fr. Francolon – shingle style Queen Anne, English Tudor, Romanesque, Flemish stepped gables, Venetian Ogee, Byzantine and half timber Chateau.

Inside and the first staircase to the 3rd level
One of the Entrance doors.

Being originally from France (then to New Mexico), I guess if he had travelled often through various parts of Europe before arriving in America then he would have seen many styles, thus incorporating his favorites into the castle.

Having been built in the late 1890’s and having some wealth, the castle included such luxuries as indoor plumbing, steam heat and electricity.

Fr. Francolon’s first house (located above the castle) was donated to the Sisters of Mercy for use as a sanitarium. They named it Montcalme.

Miramont means “look at the mountains” and when you reach the Queen’s Parlor Tea Room and feast your eyes on the stunning windows and view to the mountains you can understand why it was named so.

view from the parlor
this fireplace was hidden behind 2 lots of brick fireplace.

Hitting the road we make a quick stop into Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings. Man these people must have been tiny! Either that or they lived with hunched backs all their life! No room for you to stand normally.

The Anasazi cliff dwellings, built more than 700 years ago, can be touched, you can go inside and there is a 3-story Pueblo-style building housing the Anasazi Museum. Worth a visit!

From here we headed out to Garden Of The Gods, taking the one way road in. It was busy given it is summer holidays here but we managed a park at the Visitor Centre and got that spectacular view of the rocks.

Leaving Clancy at that point we all set off for our next destination – Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Kat xo

The Law West of The Pecos

Posted on June 25, 2019 by kathousekelli70

Well actually we are headed NW, passing Villanueva, El Pueblo, San Miguel, crossing the Pecos River a couple of times.

The landscape is once again changing, with hidden ranch’s amongst a very green landscape and red rock cliffs.

With Clancy in tow, we are headed for Manitou Springs. Others have headed for Deadwood, the Turquoise Trail or back to Australia today.

Our first stop would take us into Las Vegas, NM where a brief trip into the Rough Riders Antiques store saw Clancy buy a gorgeous silver barrette and my score was a nickel silver Mexican hat pin that simply was just too unique to pass up.

Harvey House items!
I resisted this year.
Clancy’s new hair barrette. Handcrafted silver.
The ceiling inside the antique store.
The mexican hat pin that just had to come home with me.

We found that the Castenada Hotel is now open with 7 rooms and the bar for afternoon drinks. The ceiling, floors, windows are still original and yet there is still a lot of work to be done in getting the rest of the Hotel open. I look forward to a future visit to see her in all her glory!

Oh, and my fascination with the Castenada? She was the first Fred Harvey track-side hotel built in East Las Vegas that fed and watered passengers who journeyed the Santa Fe railway routes. When it opened in 1899 Teddy Roosevelt held a reunion of his Rough Riders here. The Rough Riders Museum just up the street is closed Monday’s but we did get to visit it last year.

As per the brochure (and having read the Harvey Girls book) Fred Harvey civilised the west. He developed and ran all the hotels and restaurants of the Santa Fe Railway, eventually controlling a hospitality empire that spanned the continent. He introduced linen, silverware, China, crystal and impeccable service to railroad travel.

We made a stop at Charlie’s Spic n Span Bakery – not for cream puff’s! – but a donut or key lime selection and coffee. We got a view of the mural whilst there. The mural is a documentary of South West and American History. Spanning the decades of time, it was created by some 300 students and additional community members.

We took a short trip past gorgeous Victorian houses and out to Montezuma Castle. Now and International school for students you can not visit the castle as its student use only now. It is truly magnificent in its size and presence set atop the hill in a secluded section of Montezuma.

We left New Mexico over the Raton Pass at a mere 7834ft and into Colorado. We are now in Manitou Springs.

As evening sets on this tiny town of Victorian charm, pubs, and shops, we enjoyed a couple of margarita’s and some dinner before retiring for an early night.

Clancy and I enjoying a margarita together, having a sip on behalf of Ruby and Pearl! Lol!

Some sight seeing tomorrow before getting into Cheyenne for the duration of the week!

Kat xo

End of Trail – Part 3

Posted on June 25, 2019 by kathousekelli70

Friday came and went and Saturday rolled around to the final 4 stages.

This was it. Make or break time and see how things work out.

Another hot and dusty day drew to a close with Jack and I racing then to get changed into our ‘Thomas Durant’ and ‘Eva Toole’ costumes (from Hell On Wheels) and head over to the costume contest.

Costume contest done, photos taken, we headed into the big tent for the banquet. The beer was flowing and everyone had a great time.

Costume contestants did a promenade after dinner and then the winners were announced.

I won Parlor House Madam with ‘Eva Toole’.

Jack placed 3rd in B-Western/Silver Screen Mens.

Best Dressed Mens
B-Western/Silver Screen

In B-Western/Silver Screen Ladies, Lil Magill won 1st place with the ‘Buffalo Gal’ dress I had made.

Best Dressed Ladies
B-Western/Silver Screen

For the Best Dressed Couples, Annie D Vine and Hawkshaw Fred won 1st place with Annie wearing the silver and bronze gown I had made last year. More on that later. Comin’ In Hot and Alamo Andy won 2nd place with their B-Western outfit I had just finished before getting here.

The Shootout competitors were then announced. Top 8 Ladies and Mens for Wild Bunch and the Top 16 Cowboys and Cowgirls. I had made it in! Happy Days!

Top 16 Cowboys and Cowgirls
Top 8 Mens and Ladies
Wild Bunch

Sunday morning the shootout gets under way with a couple of ladies not shooting, as an alternate, Pearl Starr also from Australia, had her first chance at a World Championship shootout.

Jack & Kat
Pearl Starr & Charlie Wagon
Kat & Pearl
Lol! Sassy Dancer getting in on Jack & Charlie’s pic!

Congratulations to Texas Tiger, Ladies Wild Bunch and Last Chance Morales, Mens Wild Bunch shootout winners and for Cowboys, Cowboy Carty and Cowgirls, Bonnie Macfarlane.

Awards got underway just after. Posse 33 won the posse shoot with 5.04sec, so close! Our posse shot it in a 5.17sec.

Clean shooters? You heard me say it was a different kind of match and this was about to prove it. Only 29 shooters from a total of 565 shooters were clean. Sam Balin, Alvira Sullivan Earp and myself, all from Australia were clean and received the elusive white buffalo pin. 111 of those shooters this year were also first time participants to End of Trail.

The Ladies of Cowboy Action Shooters (LOCAS) announced its Cowgirl of Honor awards and this year it went to 3rd place Little Red Sure Shot, 2nd place Shotglass and 1st place Shamrock Sadie. Well done ladies!

All in all the Aussies faired well again!! 25 of us went this year.

Spirit of The Game – Bat Masterson, K C Woody, Doc Carnegie

Lady Gunfighter 4th place – Sister Sarah Carnegie

Senior Gunfighter (oops didn’t write down what place) – K C Woody

Duelist 7th place – J P Remington

Elder Statesman Duelist 9th place – Virgil Earp

Silver Senior Duelist 4th place – Sam Balin

Frontier Cartridge 8th place – Henry Moon

Ladies Silver Senior 2nd place – Alvira Sullivan Earp

Ladies 49er’s 9th place – Mystic Meg

Ladies 49er’s 8th place – Clancy

Wrangler 8th place – Bat Masterson

Cowboy 10th place – Deadwood Gunslinger

Lady Wrangler 2nd place – Pearl Starr

Elderstatesman 9th place – Jackaroo

Lady Wrangler 1st place – Kathouse Kelli

Elder Statesman
Lady Wrangler
Australia!
Pearl Starr 2nd, Kathouse Kelli 1st
Lady Wranglers

Yay!! Another successful World Championships, a tougher match than some previous, just had to aim a little more. Dang kids ripped out some awesome times still and a huge congratulations to this years 2019 Overall World Champions – Bonnie Macfarlane and Matt Black.

Overall Men’s – Matt Black
Overall Ladies – Bonnie Macfarlane

Thanks SASS for another whole heap of fun!

Kat xo

End of Trail – Part 2

Posted on June 21, 2019 by kathousekelli70

Its now Thursday night and should be catching some zz’s as tomorrow we have the early start!

However, let me quickly catch you up.

Yesterday, Wednesday – Started out the morning with the Doily Gang Clinic, instructors this year, Shamrock Sadie, Lefty Jo, Honey B Quick, Iron Maiden, Sassy Dancer, Cooncan and myself Kathouse Kelli.

Was a great clinic, we had 2 shooters each to offer transition tips for pistols and more with long guns as well. Shot a couple of stages for critiquing and all in all, think they were all pretty happy to say the least when we were done. Thank you ladies for coming and glad we can offer something back to the sport for all.

Yeehaa ladies! Hope you are having great match’s!

From there it was grab some pictures of stages ready for main match. Go take a few runs at speed events. Pearl Starr and I then spent a couple hours in the LOCAS tent and in the down time helped Shamrock Sadie with a ‘craft task’ for later in the week.

Open ceremonies were held late in the afternoon. Alvira Sullivan Earp carried the flag for Australia! Legendary Lawman for Canada. Bloody Mary for Denmark. Chrissy Carson for Netherlands. The Kiwi Kid for New Zealand and in his uniform for the United States of America, Cash Cassidy.

With the anthem sung, the Wild Bunch, Match Directors, 111 first time attendees recognised it was on to the announcement of new Regulators. The 2018 Class of Regulators included many great recipients with none other than my very own Jackaroo!! Way to go man.

Two more from Australia – RC Shot, Mrs H, our Oklahoma friends – Flat Top Okie, Missouri Mae, Dutch friends – Dutch Bear, Justice Anne, Texas sweetheart – Sopapilla Sue and many more!! Congratulations to you all!

As the beer flowed, the Margarita party started at Hot Tamale’s and then it was time for sleep as Main Match was due to start today.

Now we arrive into today, Thursday – First day of main match. Jack and I are in Posse 21 with Red Haymaker our illustrious posse leader, Pepper Shot, C N Double, Captain Clark, Cowboy Jon, Deadly Don, Estancia Kid, Fast Fingers, Garrison Joe, Gilly Boy Hellbender, Huachuca Slim, James Colt, Lil Rob, Longcolt, Mick E Mouse, Old Frenchy, Sharpeye, Sunshine Belle, Jackaroo and myself. A big thanks to Nacho Momma for keeping score for all of us!

Four stages on the mid wave – 9, 10, 11, 12 were shot today with some degree of difficulty and success, blue skies, sunshine and a hell of a lot of New Mexico dust! Once we finished we shot the Posse shoot and we have a pretty good running time for that at the moment!

With weary feet, smiles as wide as you can get, we head to have lunch then back to the Motel for rest, relaxation and cleaning dust out of guns, nose etc. Haa haa haa

Coupled with a chat with Clancy, the occasional beer and a bit of hand sewing to finalise costume it is now getting late. Oh and a bit of cream puff for dessert. (groan after creammmmmm)

Charlies Spic n Span, Las Vegas NM ultra large mega cream puffs!

It is time to hit the hay, for the posse rides early in the morning with first shots down range at 7.30am.

Night peeps! Here’s to another awesome day tomorrow. Make it count! We are all still in the game! It ain’t over, til it’s over!

Hugs

Kat xo

Who wants mega dessert!!!!

Posted on June 21, 2019 by kathousekelli70

I got spoilt! Wild Horse John brought a cream puff from THE best bakery I’ve found.

From Las Vegas, New Mexico, Charlie’s Spic and Span have the biggest cream puffs you ever will see!

It’s huge, I don’t know whether the photos will give you enough of an idea of size. 🤣🤣

Oh and it was laying down in the box!

Suffice to say, thank you John and thank goodness Jack and I are sharing AND we get to run around again tomorrow to work it off!!

Mmmmm creammmm

Kat xo

End of Trail – Part 1

Posted on June 19, 2019 by kathousekelli70

We are 3 days in to being here at End of Trail, the cowboy action World Championships!

Saturday afternoon after domestic duties we headed to the range to register and pick up our shooter packs. We found Charlie Wagon and Pearl Starr and of course a bit of nonsense ensued.

Sunday Jack, myself, Pearl Starr and Clancy went to Albuquerque to shoot a club match with the Rio Grande Renegades. A good little side match as an extra warm up to the start of a very busy week.

We had a few little hiccups (and a not so good, somewhat broke pistol) but all in all a great day, thanks Rio Grande for having us!!

We had dinner with Cooncan and Bertie Winchester, our friends from Kansas, at Pizza Barn along with a good portion of the cowboy community!

Monday and we are set to begin with warm ups, shopping at vendors, catching up with heaps of cowboys and cowgirls. We did 4 warm up stages and then called it a day to go drop my pistol off for fixing.

Tuesday and its all smiles! Now there are more cowboys arrived and everyone is having a blast looking for matching numbers. In our packs this year you were given a Posse pin in addition to your shooters badge. The Posse pin has a number on the back and this is where it gets interesting. So you go and talk to new people, you try to see if they have the same number as you, when you find 1-9 other cowboys or cowgirls with the same number you go and put your name in a draw to win a custom knife and sheath from Action Shooting Network.

The square timber posse badge has your number on the back to go seek out the other 8.

More warm up stages! A little more shopping! Wild Bunch Awards!

A shout out to the SASS team for putting together a polished ceremony again. Whilst Jack and I didn’t shoot Wild Bunch this year we still went to support Charlie Wagon just in case he should buckle. We are happy to report however that our Oklahoman, Elwood James won a few side match awards and finished 7th in Mens Modern!! Way to go EJ!! AND outstanding costuming for awards my friend!

Stage and ceremonial flags.
A few less at the bar now!
Our EoT bar tenders! The best!
The Judge & Justice Lily Kate
Misty Moonshine & Wild Shot presenting

Congratulations also to Mens Modern winner – Last Chance Morales, Mens Modern Senior winner – Evil Roy, Ladies Modern winner – Idaho Sixgun Sam, Ladies Modern Senior winner – Second Fiddle Sue, Mens Traditional winner – ?? new guy, his name escapes me, Mens Traditional Senior – ??whoops, did it again, and Ladies Traditional winner – Lady Jane!

Overall winners for Wild Bunch were, Last Chance Morales and Idaho Six Gun Sam.

2019 Wild Bunch Mens Overall – Last Chance Morales
and
2019 Wild Bunch Ladies Overall – Idaho Sixgun Sam

Congratulations to all participants!!!

Tomorrow is another fun packed day. Til then, these weary feet must make there way to bed.

Kat xo

Durango – Moriarty

Posted on June 16, 2019 by kathousekelli70

We left Colorado yesterday morning to the haunting sounds of a steam train whistle.

Heading along highways, through small towns and crossing the Animas River more than once, the landscape has again changed to a somewhat green desert. A lot greener than we have seen in the past.