Day 14: June 26, 2011

6:41 pm
91 Degrees F
On the 10, nearing N’awlin’s Darlin’
Writing on June 27, 2011

I awoke to the soothing sounds of Trey Songz ft. Nicki Minaj: “Bottom’s Up”. Delightful. I did a little Yelp research about more cafes (thanks to Adrienne for the Yelp idea—it’s been so helpful to find cool things in new cities). We drove back downtown near the historic district and stopped by “The Opening Bell” which was a hip, stock-market themed shop in the middle of an industrial area. It’s very cool and very relaxed. There were two teenage girls with a baby pet python who I just had to hold. After the rattlesnake, this was nothing. I disapproved heartily of the name “Snakey-poo”—is that really going to fit when the snake is 8 feet long?






Next up was the Dallas Aquarium—more like an indoor jungle thing with beautiful exotic birds flying all over the place. We saw some great creatures, including a sloth—my first, and so close!—a giant river otter and a beautiful jaguar who was having none of the screaming children. Not much to describe, except that we had tons of fun talking to some gorgeous or strange creatures. See pictures.

Pinguino

'Mingos

The picture below is now my desktop photo. It's real. And the jaguar is my new friend.

Big boy!


This is a hilarious view of a shark.
Fantastic octopus. He was so active!
Pulling a Clare Danes in R&J
Manatoots
This was a bat cave. In blacklight

Giant River Otter looks and acts like a kitteh
Big

SLOTHERS!
A little funny pooper. Literally

Teddy writing on June 29th
I haven’t written much, because I don’t much care for it. I’ve been enjoying myself far too much to bother with typing. But Erica is driving for a big stretch to Atlanta, so now seems like a fine time to catch up.

After the aquarium, we went to a Dallas shooting range. I had mentioned the idea of skeet shooting when we were in Colorado. We decided to wait for Texas, the shootin’ capital of the USA to try our hands at firearms.

Mark H., our shoot master (or whatever one might call him), was extremely nice and welcoming. He gave us a full tutorial on the safety procedures and rules of the range, including a warning to Erica about the danger of a hot spent shell casing rebounding off the wall and into her shirt. Thanks guy. We each got a black tote box containing an empty magazine, a box of lugar size ammunition, and a glock.

Erica was sweating profusely by now, I was pretty nervous too. We cleaned and donned eye and ear protection, grabbed a paper target sheet, and navigated our way through the two-door noise-dampening airlock towards the thumping sounds of the range.

We took our places in two shooting stalls and began hesitantly loading rounds into our magazines. Erica was shaking and had a hard time getting the rounds into the spring loaded magigger, I had a pretty hard time too. It’s hard work! And tiring to the little muscles in your hands.

It was finally time to start firing. The first round is always a surprise, as Mark said it should be. But after squeezing the trigger a few times, I quickly felt comfortable. The mystery of the pistol was dispelled, since there really is not that much to it, and I started to have a very good time.

Erica squealed for the first few shots. The noise was probably the most surprising. One thing that always bothers me about movies and tv shows is that they never accurately represent the deafening blast that comes with bullets. Like me, she got the hang of it quickly. Her first shot was a head shot, and pretty soon she was reloading and firing like a pro, not to mention planting rounds in tight patterns in the higher scoring areas.

We both had a blast (hah!), and someday we might give it another shot (hah!).

We then drove to Shreveport, Louisiana. The drive was pretty uneventful, much like Shreveport, Louisiana. It is known for its casinos, which we avoided, so we went down to the “Louisiana Boardwalk”. I was expecting a wooden riverside Coney Island-like experience. Instead, it was an outdoor mall. It was boring, we ate at Joe’s Crab Shack. It was boring. We stayed at Microtel. It was boring.

Here we go!

Erica's turn describing guns!: Teddy did a great job describing it, but I just wanted to add a few things from my perspective. I was completely fine as we were planning the little excursion. I was totally fine driving there, parking there, walking into the door. When I got in and saw the guns on the wall, I got a little nervous. I felt better that there was a hot pink gun; for some reason, that gun brought a sort of non-reality to the situation—as if this was all a game and we weren’t really going to go through with it. When our gun guy Mark H. came over with a real gun—the one Teddy would be shooting—I really started shaking. I had no idea how affected I would be by the mere proximity of the thing. It is terrifying to be that close to such a powerful and deadly weapon. Way, way scarier than the rattlesnake.

When I had to hold one myself (not pink—darn), I calmed down a little bit. I got my little glasses on and my little ear blockers on and picked out my target. Maybe, I could do this. It was so loud in the shooting area that I flinched every time the guy next to me fired his gun. Like Teddy said, I was sweating trying to put the bullets in the clip. I basically just had to get the first shot over with. I shut my eyes and did it! I screamed for the first ten shots, but got better afterward, and started getting used to the sound. I feel good that I overcame a fear and of course I felt like a total badass, but I really don’t think I’ll ever do it again—nor do I ever want to see a gun again.