​Our Columbus Day weekend had bright Fall weather, so we went for a drive and a hike in the local area to take some photos of all the beautiful colors.  Then Wednesday, since it appeared that it might be the last good weather day before some rain arrived and the Fall leaves really started to drop off the trees,  we got out and spent a few hours hiking to some of the more out of the way places near us.
 
As if the Fall leaf colors weren’t enough, we even saw a group of turkeys out for a stroll. It's always funny. We see the turkeys in October and early November - but the week before Thanksgiving they all seem to disappear; I think that they have that week marked on their calendar and go hide out.
 
“Leaf Peepers” travel from all over the world to see New England’s amazing colors in the Fall - all we have to do is hike in our town and the surrounding areas.......
 
Here are a few photos that attempt to capture the breathtaking beauty of nature. ​​(click on any photo to start the slideshow):

Last Saturday and Sunday we attended Kalashtober 2022 “the oldest, original and longest continuously run annual AK training, competition and community event in the country”, led by Ken Allen, the head of Ken Allen Training (https://kenallentraining.us/), along with 30 other shooters, 10 vendors and lots of support staff. The fall New Hampshire weather was almost perfect – with just a little rain on Sunday.

The event was a hands-on, live fire course for shooters that know a considerable amount about shooting and want to improve their tactical skills. Although Kalashtober is primarily an AK event, it was open to AK, AR, Galil, SCAR, KP9, and RPK participants. In fact I would estimate that 60% of the shooters had AKs and the other 40% had AR’s. The focus was really on the shooting techniques and not the specific firearms; which was a good thing since no two weapons on the range were the same due to their types and customizations (e.g. grips, optics, slings, Cerakote patterns, flashlights, magazines, etc.,) that everyone had made.
 
The two-day event ran from 8:30 AM until after 9:00 PM each day – with time built in to talk to the vendors and visit with other participants in the community during the lunch breaks and even at dinner on Saturday night.
 
Although I’m not solely an “AK-guy”, since I like to learn new shooting techniques, improve my skills and challenge myself - I try to take various classes throughout the year. This was a good one since it really focused on higher-level skills utilized in activities that require significant range setup and attention to range safety procedures. I primarily used my Kalashnikov KR-9S during the training – with my Norinco MAK-90 as a secondary weapon.
 
The range training focused on moving, thinking and shooting from a wide variety of distances (from 5 yards to 50 yards), utilizing various shooting positions (prone, kneeling, sitting, standing), shooting different target types (paper silhouettes, steel plates,  3-D torsos, deer silhouettes) in a variety of real world situations to include:

• Accurately sighting-in your firearm and understanding the zeroed offsets from various distances
• Shooting from distance after running
• Shooting from behind barrels for cover (utilizing techniques that minimize your visible profile)
• Quickly differentiating “good guys” from “bad guys” - and only shooting the right targets
• Shooting after crawling through tunnels
• Reloading while moving and covering yourself / team
• Shooting in smoke
• Shooting from a car
• Shooting while carrying other equipment
• Moving and shooting in 2-person and 4-person teams

 
Although the majority of the time was spent on shooting, on Sunday morning the participants were broken into three 10-person groups and each group spent an hour on the following:

1. Learning some practical knife attack self-defense techniques from Defend Me
2. Learning how to treat massive hemorrhage bleeding by applying a tourniquet and wound packing
3. Shooting the “Gauntlet” with Ken Allen’s team

​The vendors that attended the event included:

• Ammo Supply Warehouse - https://www.ammosupplywarehouse.com/
• Century Arms - https://www.centuryarms.com/
• CMC Triggers - https://cmctriggers.com/
• Defend Me - https://www.facebook.com/defendmellc/
• Granite State Indoor Range - https://www.granitestaterange.com/
• Nocturn Industries - https://nocturnindustries.com/
• Sureshot Armament Group, USA - https://www.sureshot-usa.com/
• Samson Manufacturing - https://www.samson-mfg.com/
• USCCA / Delta Defense - https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/
• US Law Shield - https://www.uslawshield.com/

​Here are a few photos of what Kalashtober 2022 looked like on the range ​(click on any photo to start the slideshow):

​Here’s a short video showing what running the Kalashtober 2022 “Gauntlet” looked like:

If you have a chance to take any of Ken’s courses at his home base in New Hampshire I would highly recommend that you sign up since his classes will definitely help you improve your shooting techniques and tactics.
 
You can find out more about Ken Allen Training, and the classes that they offer, on their website:
https://kenallentraining.us/

We visited 5 of the 13 Greek peripheries (e.g. provinces/states) - which included 7 different islands:

• Attica (Athens, Piraeus)
• Peloponnese (Corinth, Mycenae, Nafplion, Pylos)
• Crete (Heraklion, Agios Nikolaos, Kritsa)
• Southern Agean (Syros, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Patmos)
• Ionian Islands (Corfu)

 
We visited 9 cities in Turkey where we saw a wide variety of “Classical” Greek, Roman and Ottoman sites:

• Kusadasi
• Ephesus
• Cesme
• Kepez
• Troy
• Istanbul
• Priene
• Miletus
• Didyma

 
And we got to end our trip by spending three action packed days in Venice where we visited all sorts of fabulous sights to include:

• Grand Canal
• Teatro La Fenice
• Rialto Bridge
• Doge’s Palace
• Saint Mark’s Square
• Murano
• Burano

 
Needless to say every day was filled new wonders. To me some of the most amazing were:

• Seeing the marvels of Athens to include the Acropolis, Parthenon, Temple of Hephaestus and Lycabettus Hill
• Standing at Troy where King Priam, Hector, Paris, Helen of Troy and Achilles stood 4,000 years ago - then standing in "The Palace of Agamemnon" in Mycenae and "King Nestor's Palace" in Pylos; the palaces of two of the Greek Kings who waged the Trojan War.
• Visiting the Palace of Knossos; the center of the Minoan Civilization dating to 1,900 BC - the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably Europe's oldest city.
• Seeing the initial piece of a tablet that had “Linear B” writing on it; the writing system used by the Mycenaean civilization.
• Marveling at the ongoing excavations of the “Terrace Houses” in Ephesus.
• Standing above the Corinth Canal
• Standing where the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation, where the Apostle Paul spoke to the Corinthians, and where the Apostle Mark is interred.
• Visiting Delos - the mythological birthplace of Apollo
• Seeing the actual pottery "ballots" that were cast to ostracize Themistocles from Athens in 471 BC.
• Sitting in the Roman Amphitheaters in Ephesus and Miletus.
• Seeing the internal expanse of the Hagia Sophia and the beauty of the Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
• Standing in the Temple of Apollo in Didyma.
• Wandering through all the Venetian Forts in the Aegean Sea.
• Wondering how much gold there is in the Doge’s Palace in Venice.
• Seeing the actual Antikythera mechanism; a celestial navigation “computer” dating from 205 to 100 BC.
• Visiting the Ancient site of Akrotiri; which was covered in ash by the volcanic eruption of volcanic eruption of Santorini (Thera) in 1,600 BC.
• Roaming through the cobbled streets of the Medieval city of the Hospitilar Knights in Rhodes.
• Visiting the bedroom of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Villa Pisani.

​There was so much to see that it was almost overwhelming.......
 
Here are a few photos from our trip. As always, I'll post more photos on the “Adventures/Europe” page when I have a chance to review and edit the 4,700 photos that I took. 

As mentioned in the previous blog post, on our 11-day road trip to the Southwestern part of the US we visited New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Here are a few photos from the 1,600 mile trip aggregated by State ​(click on any photo to start the slideshow):

You can see all the photos of our trip to the Southwestern US on the Adventures/North America page.

​We just returned from an 11-day road trip to the Southwestern part of the US; specifically New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. During our trip we drove almost 1,600 miles, hiked lots of great locations and saw all sorts of interesting sights to include:

  - Petroglyph National Monument
  - Albuquerque BioPark Botanic Garden
  - Museum of Nuclear Science & History
  - Painted Desert
  - Petrified National Forest
  - Lowell Observatory
  - Sedona Rock Formations
  - Chapel of the Holy Cross
  - Grand Canyon
  - Hoover Dam
  - Las Vegas Strip
​ - Titanic Artifact Exhibition
  - The Neon Boneyard
  - The Mob Museum
  - Fremont Street Experience
  - Mojave Desert National Preserve
  - Joshua Tree National Park
  - Santa Monica Pier
  - Palisades Park
  - Venice Beach
  - San Luis Rey Mission
  - Balboa Park
  - San Diego Museum of Us

As always I took far too many photos - so I'll start posting them in the next day or two.

If you can't wait to see some of the photos the we took each day of our trip, you can always check out our Facebook page at:  www.facebook.com/HikingCampingandShooting

As mentioned in the previous blog post, on our 11-day road trip from Chicago to Colorado and back we visited Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. Here are a few photos from the 2,750 mile trip aggregated by State ​(click on any photo to start the slideshow):

You can see all the photos of our trip to the Plains States on the Adventures/North America page.

​We just returned from an 11-day road trip from Chicago to Colorado and back - driving 2,750 miles -  on I-70 going out and on I-80 coming back.

As always we hiked lots of great locations and saw all sorts of interesting sights to include:

  - Mid America Motor Works
  - Cross at the Crossroads: America’s Largest Cross
  - Kaskaskia Dragon
  - Combat Air Museum
  - Kansas Cosmosphere
  - Monument Rocks
  - World's Largest Easel
  - Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Areas
  - Garden of the Gods
  - United States Air Force Academy
  - Wings of Change Statue
  - Statue of Liberty Replica
  - Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles
  - Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum
  - Iowa 80 – World’s Largest Truck Stop
  - Retro Rocket Ship
  - Moai Dude
  - Rock Island Arsenal Atomic Cannon, National Cemetery and Confederate Cemetery

​As always I took far too many photos - so I'll start posting them in the next day or two.

If you can't wait to see some of the photos the we took during our trip, you can always check out our Facebook page at:   www.facebook.com/HikingCampingandShooting 

As mentioned in the previous blog post, on our 14-day trip from Budapest to Prague we visited Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. Here are a few photos from the 560 mile trip aggregated by Country (click on any photo to start the slideshow):

​You can see all the photos of our trip up the Danube on the Adventures/Europe page.

​We Just returned from a 14-Day trip to Central Europe. We started the trip by spending 3 days in Budapest and ended the trip with 3 days in Prague. In between we spent 7 days cruising up the Danube River. What a spectacular trip (even allowing for the additional Covid paperwork and restrictions). During our trip we visited:

  - Budpest, Hungary
  - Bratislava, Slovakia
  - Vienna, Austria
  - Krems, Austria
  - Durnstein, Austria
  - Spitz, Austria
  - Melk, Austria
  - Linz, Austria
  - Mondsee, Austria
  - ​Salzburg, Austria
  - Passau, Germany
  - Vilshofen, Germany
  - Regensburg, Germany
  - Prague, Czech Republic

Because there were so many magnificent sights I took almost 3,000 photos - so it will take me a little time to process and upload them. But I will........

​This Monday, 26 April, was another Pink Super Moon.  The Pink Moon occurred 12 hours before the Moon reached perigee (the moon’s closest position to Earth due to the fact that the moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly elliptical) so that made this Pink Moon also a Super Moon – the term used when the moon is full while closest to the Earth. Here are some photos showing what we saw of the Pink Super Moon here in New England: ​(click on any photo to start the slideshow):

The moon actually reached perigee at 11:22 AM EDT on 27 April; when it was just 222,064 miles (357,377 kilometers) away from the Earth. During a super moon, the full moon can appear up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than when it is at its farthest from Earth. Monday’s Pink Super Moon was ~8% closer than the distance of an average full moon (240,000 miles or 384,400 km) and was the first, and one of only two, super moons of 2021.
 
So why the term “Pink Moon”?  In the 1930s the Maine Farmer's Almanac began publishing American Indian Moon names for the months of the year. Accordingly, the April full moon was called a Pink Moon, named after creeping phlox; a plant native to the eastern United States that is one of the earliest flowers of spring. Other names for this moon include the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and the Fish Moon.
 
Last year, on 7 April, we also had a Pink Super Moon. Here’s our blog and photos from that night: "April’s Pink Super Moon - How Beautiful Are These Night Sky Photos?"

If you want to learn more about Pink Moons, or other phases of the moon, you might want to check out the Full Moon Phases website. Here’s the link to their Pink Moon information:

http://fullmoonphases.com/pink-moon/