shootin' and swampin'

The grand finale of our weekend in Atlanta was an excursion to Ms. Casey's "Cherokee Road Sporting Resort" to try out shooting clay pigeons with my aunt and uncle and their shotguns.

It works something like this: a mechanical device launches a small, orange, clay frisbee in some odd direction, supposedly mimicking a bird or rabbit or some other poor defenseless small creature, and then you frantically shoot it out of the air. Not being very interested in shooting things, I mostly went along for the ride, but it was very educational anyway, and I was our designated "puller," which is where you hit the buttons to launch the clay frisbees.

Chris Liam actually managed to explode a few of his targets, and now has sore shoulders (shotguns are heavy!).  Uncle Glenn and Aunt Kathryn (a.k.a. Aunt Annie Oakley) really showed us up.  All in all it was a very educational experience... I think we can safely say: curiosity = satisfied.

Aunt Kathryn with her pink, noise-blocking headphones

Uncle Glenn coaches the newbie

A clay pigeon getting launched

I think we're a bit out of our element, don't you?

...But the trees were beautiful!

Now we're just outside of Mobile, Alabama, where we're relishing a delightful hotel room (Thanks Uncle Glenn!!) and exploring the oil-tainted but still beautiful swamps of the Gulf coastline.  We feel like we're experiencing fall in reverse, wherein leaves seem to be flying back up onto the trees as we drive ever south.

Tomorrow: We hitch a grand right turn to head West, attempt to locate Kait in the thriving metropolis of Pascagoula, Mississippi, and then head to New Orleans!

Oil in the swamps

On "Alligator Alley", a walkway along the swamps under the interstate bridge to Mobile

No alligators yet, but still pretty!