Good morning! Needed to sleep in some after a relaxing Glenlivet + Cuban filled evening out on the back porch just laughing and nostalgically reminiscing over the past 21yrs. Great fun and therapeutic.
Yesterday, Saturday, was designed to be a boys vs girls day out. The boys would be travelling out to Dos Lupes Gun Club to unleash hell (OK, maybe overly dramatic :-) ), while the girls were headed out to Bluffton, near Hilton Head, for a day of shopping. A perfect day for both activities... highs in the 80s to low 90s, clear blue skies.
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| Our destination on this Saturday |
Chuck and I were out the door first in his Dodge Ram 1500. Of course, before we departed, we needed to load up the club cab with a variety of 2nd Amendment accessories which included: 2 pistols; an HK-45C and a GI Expert 1911 semi-automatic service model .45 (my favorite and, the type of pistol I qualified 'Expert' with while in the Service). 3 rifles: an M1 Garand; Armalit AR-10 and; Marlin 4570... plus, plenty of ammo! :-)
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| Typical assessories in most SoCar pick-ups with club cabs... |
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| Top: GI Expert 1911. Bottom: HK45C |
Headed out around 0800 and made a quick breakfast stop in downtown Beaufort at Blackstone's. It's the Pepe's of Beaufort. On the way to Blackstone's, stopped by to admire a beautiful '57 Chevy Bel Air! Didn't take long to get seated inside Blackstone's and we made our selections: I ordered eggs, over easy, with homemade corned beef hash, grits and a biscuit. Chuck's breakfast differed in that he ordered bacon and rye toast. Great start to the day!
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| Cherry '57 Chevy Bel Air |
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| The cockpit of a '57 Bel Air |
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| Classic chromed rear end |
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| Coming up on Blackstone's |
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| Inside |
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| Almost to Dos Lupes.... |
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| We are there! |
It's about a 40mile drive all along back roads to get to Dos Lupes and not a place one finds on your GPS. It's a 25 acre property, relatively sparse on accommodations, nestled within a state wildlife refuge and purpose built for gun enthusiasts. I loved it!
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| In the parking area of Dos Lupes. Chuck catching up with friend, Billy |
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| Walking to the handgun range |
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| Safety first.... |
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| Downrange |
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| Chuck setting up some targets |
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| Looking left along the firing line |
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| Looking right.... |
When we arrived it was unusually quiet according to Chuck, only a few vehicles along with ours. We holstered our .45s and headed over to the handgun range with our ammo bag to warm up. Good thing we brought along all natural bug spray, Skeeter Beeter... these SoCar mosquitos love my blood. Nothing fancy about the gun range but more than adequate for anyone's needs. Between the 2 of us we fired off ~200 rds of .45. What fun but, man, was I rusty! More members started trickling in including the owner, Russ, a very personable gent who, in his spare tim,e is a very successful lawyer out of Hilton Head. I got to meet several of the other club members, Chuck's friends, all good ol' boys. What good folks! They were very friendly and quite kind to me - even though I was from New Jersey - each and every one packin'! :-)
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| Looking towards the firing line |
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| Taking aim |
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| Checking my weapon |
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| Ready.... |
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| Fire! Nice flames... |
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| He's ready |
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| Is that a holster'd pistol or am I happy to see Chuck? |
After we'd finished expending the ammo we had and picking up the brass it was time for lunch. Turns out it's just one of the side benefits of membership. Tucked off behind and to the left of the pistol range, Russ had set-up a rudimentary BBQ pit with a handful of picnic tables and he had cooked up a potluck of chow including: hotdogs, sausages, pork chops, fish, steak and mixed veggies. Most of all the sides and beverages are brought by whomever remembers to. Very informal and a great opportunity to just chat over good, basic food.
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| Rifle range with 3 positions |
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| First up, AR-10 |
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| Chuck calls this his California clip, 10 rounds... |
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| His 20 round clip. |
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| He had 2 of them! |
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| Chuck home on the range... |
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| Ejected cartridge caught in mid-flight. |
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| My turn... note the ejected brass. |
We finished lunch a bit sooner than everyone else and headed over to the rifle range which could accommodate 3 shooters at a time. The range had 3 target areas: close (100yds), medium (200yds), long (300yes). We broke out all 3 rifles. Unfortunately, we'd left all of the M1s ammo back at the house... having said that, one of Chuck's buddies, Billy, gave us a couple of rounds of AP ammo and Chuck let me shoot both of them at the long targets. What a gun! Not only is it a classic rifle, friend to 1000s of GIs but, really packs a punch... glad I never had to be on the receiving end of it. Very accurate too.
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| Up next, the Marlin 4570 lever action rifle |
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| Hornady 'Lever Revolution' rounds... they are sizeable |
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| 458 grains of punch going down range and leaving a mark on my shoulder! |
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| Chuck's turn. |
Spent the rest of our time alternating between the AR-10 and 4570 (which packed the biggest kick-back and left my right shoulder with manly raspberry bruising!). Between the 2 of us, we expended between 200-300 rounds. I can't describe to you all how much I love shooting and how fun it is! :-)
Departed the club at ~1430 enroute to an icy cold, non-alcoholic beverage... the day had gotten hot. While we were headed back to Lady's Island, it occurred to me that I'd need to wash everything I was wearing due to all of the gunpowder residue on me! No doubt TSA would have some issues with me checking in at Columbia Airport. :-)
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| Picked up some shrimp here... |
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| Fresh veggies here including... |
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| Picaso bi-color corn and, |
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| Restocked the bar at casa Cozart |
Stopped by Gay's Fish Company on St. Helena Island off of Rt. 21 to pick up some large shrimp and scallops. It's a tiny port for about 5 fishing/shrimping vessels. Unfortunately, they were sold out of scallops and we walked out with only 3lbs of headless shrimp. Jumped back in the pick-up and headed back to Ladys Island via Dempsey Farms fresh vegetable stand and Bill's Liquors to get some more Glen and Goose. Got back to Chuck and BJs by ~1700.
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| Kisses from Deuce before heading out to dinner in downtown Beaufort |
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| The girls in front of a home purportedly haunted just off Main St |
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| Spanish Moss adorns many of the trees particularly, live Oaks |
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| Out in front of another large, stately building hamming it up |
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| BJ tells us this is a 'joggling' board used in civil war time dating |
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| Low tide on the Beaufort River. See the 'coon oysters |
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| Close-up of Raccoon Oysters during low tide |
On this evening we decided to get dressed and have dinner downtown at Saltus right off the boardwalk in Beaufort. Rosie drove while BJ navigated and the 'kept' men enjoyed cocktails in the back row. :-) She did a bang-up job of parallel parking off mainstreet, in fact such a good job, that motorists had stopped to watch and gave her approving looks and thumbs up. We were all pleased with her effort. Before heading to the restaurant, we strolled around the waterfront area just looking at the various old/historic buildings/homes of the district and admiring the flora, fauna and edge of sealife.
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| BJ providing us with some local history |
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| Everyone looks fabulous in white |
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| BJ & Chuck |
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| Rosie and I |
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| Entrance to Saltus |
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| Seated in Saltus with a view to the back patio and river |
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| Seared Tuna for BJ |
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| Grilled Salmon for Rosie |
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| Top Sirloin for the Author |
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| Tenderloin for Chuck |
Saltus, off mainstreet, is a very nice upscale restaurant. You can be as dressed up as you'd like or not. We sat inside right by very tall windows overlooking the Beaufort River. We were pleasantly surprised at how much we liked our young waitress, Megan. She did a great job all night of putting up with our 'isms while never losing her charm or sense of humor - not to mention that she knew how to play to her audience. All of our meals were excellent! Started off with a spicy tuna roll and stone crab claws for appetizers and flowed into scrumptous entrees for all. We also enjoyed 2 bottles of Malbec from Argentina. After dinner we strolled around the boardwalk a bit enjoying the sunset and revisited a couple of other places we'd patronized before: Hemmingway's (which was quite slow) and Luther's where we stopped in for after dinner drinks before heading back to the homestead.
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| Sunset approaching over Beaufort |
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| Just enjoying the company |
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| Some very vibrant flowers along the boardwalk |
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| Hemingways |
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| Luthers... we stepped in for a quick cocktail |
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| BJ relaxing on the porch |
We closed down the day enjoying our friends company on the back porch over cocktails and cigars... we lost track of time and by the time we figured out we needed to hit the rack, it was after midnight - not bad for folks of our age bracket!
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