Jerry's Stardates: High School Graduation

After getting home from Texas with Kyndi in tow, we settled in for “Round Two” of the high school graduation festivities. It was still a secret that the Texas cousins would be here for Brooke’s party and her graduation. On Wednesday morning, Claudia headed for Lakeside to pick up the animals while Kyndi and I went to the shooting range in Escondido to shoot pistols, a varmint rifle and two black powder rifles.

First up were the pistols. Kyndi didn’t particularly like them because they were hard to aim. While we were shooting, the local resident red-tailed hawk flew down and sat on the fence to watch what we were doing. I think it was hoping we might accidentally hit a gopher or ground squirrel and he/she could swoop in for an easy meal. Although a few of Kyndi’s shots missed the target, none hit any of the local varmints or critters and Ms. Hawk flew off with an empty stomach. We then switched to the rifle range.

First rifle out of the case was my new varmint rifle, a Remington 788 bolt-action in .222 caliber, which is a 22-caliber bullet pushed with a LOT of powder. This isn’t a 22-caliber “plinker”. It’s a very serious rifle. Anyway, I set up a target at 50 yards, Kyndi peered through the 9-power scope and torched off 10 rounds. The resulting pattern measured under 2”, an excellent group for her first time shooting a rifle. She thought the rifle was “nice”.

I then broke out the 50-caliber black powder hunting rifle. Although I only poured a half-load down the barrel, Kyndi proclaimed it to be a “mean” rifle, due to the kick when it went off. Two rounds were enough of that one!

I then broke out the 45-caliber Hawken black powder rifle the she immediately dubbed the “cute” rifle. This time I only poured a quarter-charge down the barrel. She put about eight bullets into the target this time and we then packed up and headed for the campground for a picnic lunch that Grandma had fixed for us.

The following day, Claudia, Kyndi and I headed into La Jolla for a tour of La Jolla on Segway’s, an electric-powered HPV (Human Propulsion Vehicle).

Kyndi liked the tour but was more impressed with her instructor and tour guide, Dimitri.

Jacque, Jeff and Rachael flew in the next day and, as far as we knew, the surprise was still intact. Brooke didn’t have a clue they were in town. We picked up the motorhome on Saturday, brought it home and loaded all the food, decorations and party supplies.

Sunday morning…”Party Day”. I took “Godzilla” down to the Cardiff Seaside State Beach parking lot about 7:00 am in order to get one of our pre-scoped out spots.

We had three spots picked out for the party. Two had already been taken by surfers but I grabbed our second choice spot, right next to the sand and rocks and started setting up the rig for the party. Jeff soon arrived with more supplies and we finished setting up as best we could without adult female supervision. Claudia, Jacque and the girls soon arrived followed shortly by Alisa, Corey and Erron. Brooke and Alan (Brooke’s boyfriend) were trailing by about 30 minutes, having been sent on an ice run, which delayed them just enough to set up the surprise meeting when she got there.

All was in place with the Texas family all hiding inside the motorhome. Brooke arrived

and we soon sent her inside on the pretense of getting Gizmo. All I heard was a huge “SURPRISE!!!!!!” from inside the coach.

She was! After all the squeals and hugs subsided, we commenced to party! Jeff, Corey and I began cooking the carne asada, pollo asada, brats boiled in beer and hamburgers that weren’t hamburgers.

Claudia had gone to the store and found a big chunk of London Broil on sale so she had that ground up for “steakburgers”.

Shortly after noon, people started arriving and we soon had out section of the parking lot full of chairs and people.

The food flowed and the conversations dwindled…at least for about 2-3 plateloads of food. Some lifeguards drove by and were waved in by Claudia (and Kyndi) and soon joined the food line.

Kyndi made sure they were made welcome! Jeff, you are going to have to watch her!

I grabbed all the under-18 kids and we soon had a game of Beanbag Baseball going. It was no contest. The boys hammered the girls 8-0. It was then cake time and Alisa brought out a huge Flower Power cake.