I can't make XI Fest now!! Try as I may I can't fit a summer three week vacation out West any other time than during the Fest - one kid has summer school and workload is low in August only. Living on a lake in a short summer here in Michigan, we usually stay home all summer and do short short trips, like XI Fest last year. If we take the family out of state, it's ususally during spring break and this side of the Mississippi, since it's usually only a week. We have had our two sons out west only twice, but they were too young to remember. So, since they will soon be 19 and 17, we suspect it may be the last time we can all do this kind of trip together. One last big trip to remember with our kids (and dog)!
So, we are leaving the weekend of the Fest. We are going to Red Lodge Montana, where my wife and I were married 20 years ago this Sunday. We have friends who moved there 22 years ago and will visit them. Well see Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands and so on, then Yellowstone after leaving our friends in Montana and down to Grand Junction, Colorado where my wife's step mom-in-law lives.Time and sites there, then back through Denver and home on I70.
I tried to get my wife to go to Colorado first, stopping at XI Fest on the way, but she wouldn't go for it. She'll be too impatient to get west. I'll miss not seeing you Idiots from last year going again, as well as meeting some of the family from further south. Midgetnator was especially bummed when he learned you guys are shooting REAL guns! Hope you all have another great one and I guess I'll need to wait another year!!