Monday 3rd September | Written by Matthew Button
The coach was early and packed before 6am for a prompt departure. Travelling with rifles and lots of heavy bags is never easy but the smiling faces and helpful team at the United check in desks made the process about as easy as any of us could remember. After the security checking of firearms there were even a few spare minutes for coffee purchase (in part to remove the taste of soluble aspirin taken neat – most didn’t agree with our tour Captain that there was a similarity to sherbet).
We landed on time after an uneventful 9 hour flight, collecting Amy after her internal flight from California and arrived in Colorado Springs at 4.30pm local time. A quick change then out for food where the quote for the day went to a non team member. “Oh you are Charlie Sykes” from a random English national met in a bar who had done a little shooting with the Army some years ago. Some discussion of his potential employment locally followed – perhaps embellished by the action films watched on a long flight earlier in the day.
A previous edition of this diary entriy asserted that Alex had allegedly arrived 25 minutes late. This has now subject to some dispute!