I guess this would more appropriately be titled “Summer and Fall 2025 Classes and Traveling Adventures” but highs are still in the 80s here in Texas and the pools are still open. That’s still “summer” in my book.
Since my cancer metastasized, I’ve been intentionally spending less time on social media. I’ve also been writing a bit less on this site as well. Even before I reduced my writing output, the number of viewers on my website had dropped to about 20% of what it was in the height of the site’s popularity from 2015-2017.
Very few people read my stuff any more, so it doesn’t make sense to spend 20-30 hours a week writing here when no one sees my work and the advertising revenues barely pay my hosting costs.
Even though I haven’t been writing or posting on social media as much, I’ve still been really busy. The picture below shows all of the cities I’ve visited this calendar year. I’ve spent a lot of time on the road.
I haven’t been sharing my travels and activities recently so I thought you all might want to know what I’ve been up to. Here we go…
I started out my summer adventures by flying to Dayton, Ohio in mid-May to take a class from my long-time friends Dave Spaulding and Rich Nance. The class was one of Dave’s last classes since he announced his official retirement last year. I partnered with training legend Aqil Qadir for the weekend. It was great to hang out with the guys and put some rounds downrange.
With the entity, Dave Spaulding
Working close range stuff with Aq
May 23 marked the anniversary of the ambush that killed Bonnie and Clyde. The ambush was planned by former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. Hamer was one of the most legendary gunfighters of the 20th century. He was involved in over 50 gunfights and was shot 23 times.
I was researching the ambush when I remembered that Hamer was buried in a cemetery not far from my house. Instead of my normal daily hike in the woods, on the anniversary of the Bonnie and Clyde ambush I took a long walk at the cemetery to find Hamer’s grave.
He was buried under the same live oak tree as his long time partner Maney Gault (who also participated in the Bonnie and Clyde ambush shooting). On my walk, I also found the grave of James Michener (one of my favorite authors) in the same cemetery.
It was a fun adventure for being only 20 minutes away from my house.
At the end of May, I flew back to Ohio to teach my armed school staff in rural Indiana and an extreme close quarters shooting class at Blackwing Shooting Center north of Columbus. I’m a crappy photographer and didn’t get any photos of those classes.
The very next weekend I taught an instructor class at Karl Rehn’s place east of Austin.
With Karl
All the KR Training staff who took my class.
After Karl’s class, I had two weeks off before I flew back to Ohio at the end of June to attend a huge community music and art festival as well as teaching a couple more classes at Blackwing.
In mid July, I taught a full close quarters shooting instructor class in Culpeper, Virginia. I arrived two days early and spent them with John Murphy touring Culpeper and the National Air and Space Museum. I’m not that into planes, but I like history and the museum was absolutely amazing.
Old machine guns make me happy
I had no idea that the Enola Gay still existed
A very hot weekend on the range in Virginia
At the end of July, I flew to Miami to visit one of my favorite people on the planet and attend her 40th birthday party. We toured Miami, ate some excellent seafood, and visited the beach. It was a nice break.
Nathalie’s birthday party
Enjoying fresh seafood with an ocean view
August was a month of concerts and teaching. I taught two more weekends at KR Training (only about an hour’s drive from my house). I saw the Teddy Swims and Jason Aldean concerts in Austin. I flew to Columbus and saw the Red Clay Strays there. All of them were great shows.
Outside the Red Clay Strays show in Columbus
At the end of August, I flew out to Nevada to attend my 7th Burning Man event. This one went a little more smoothly than the last one I attended when we were trapped there by historic rainfall and flooding (in the desert).
The “man” that gets burned at the end of the festival
My future looks bright!
Surprisingly, the event was far less dusty than usual
Where else can you fight in a full scale replica of ThunderDome?
I couldn’t fight because I weigh more than their 250 pound weight limit
The Man at sunset
Art on the Playa
A lot of Burning Man consists of riding bikes around with friends exploring all the strange and wondrous art and events
At the beginning of September, I had a few days off. I’ve lived in Texas for four years now but haven’t explored much of the state. I took a couple days to meet up with a friend in Dallas. We toured the JFK assassination site and spent a couple days at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. I really enjoyed both locations.
A Texas and Gorillafritz sized flask
After Dallas/Ft. Worth I flew to Ohio and taught another weekend with my armed school employees and a day at Blackwing. The following weekend I helped Lou Ann Hamblin teach a private A Girl and A Gun group near San Antonio. I taught some marksmanship instructor development and a class on self defense using walking canes. It was a great group and we had lots of fun.
The following week, I drove to Las Vegas to teach at the Thunderstick shotgun summit. I made some stops in New Mexico to study some of the Billy the Kid Old West history and went to the Billy the Kid Museum in Fort Sumner.
Thunderstick was held at the old Front Sight training facility outside of Pahrump, Nevada. I hadn’t been there since 2003. It’s an excellent facility and we had a lot of fun teaching there. I’m looking forward to returning there next year.
On the range at Thunderstick
Solving some of the problems of the world after class with instructors, sponsors, and students
The Thunderstick instructor cadre
After Thunderstick, I took the long way home, stopping in Santa Fe to spend a few days with a girlfriend. It was the first time I had been to that city. We really enjoyed a low-key visit checking out the museums, restaurants, and art galleries in the perfect autumn weather. I’ll definitely go back.
A rainbow over an Indian reservation in rural New Mexico on the road to Santa Fe
A perfect fall day on the historic town square in Santa Fe
Hanging with a robotic gorilla buddy in an art gallery
Sunset over rural west Texas on the 12-hour drive home
The next week after I got home from Thunderstick (a 1400 mile round trip), I started a two week (and 3100 mile) epic road trip to teach at RevolverFest in South Carolina and then the following weekend at Blackwing in Ohio. In between the two classes, I spent some time at my friends’ house in rural North Carolina. We did some hunting, hiking, and 4×4 off roading. It made for an excellent break in between classes.
On my way to RevolverFest, I stopped by the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush site and the Ambush Museum to further fuel my obsession with this period of history. This was my second time visiting both sites. And yes, the museum still smells of cat piss and the owner has a slightly skewed version of the events of that day. It’s still an interesting place to visit.
The ambush site
The ambush museum
The museum was housed in the same building as the cafe where Bonnie and Clyde got sandwiches just before their deaths
RevolverFest was an amazing training conference and social event geared around revolvers. We had nine instructors teaching blocks to more than 150 students.
RevolverFest students and instructors
Teaching revolver retention shooting
After visiting my friends, I drove to Ohio and taught full medical and shotgun classes. I got to visit several old Ohio friends and eat some good food before driving 19 hours back home to Texas.
Since I’ve been home, I went to one more concert (The Revivalists) here in Austin. It was another excellent show.
It’s been a busy, but amazing, summer of adventures.
I have two more classes to teach this year and then I’ll be taking a couple months off. I’ll be spending all of December in Mexico and all of January in the Dominican Republic getting caught up on some book writing. I’m feeling pretty good and will be working on my 2026 teaching schedule soon.
I hope to see some of you in classes next year!
