Got My Country On

With Jason Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem” playing on the radio, we drove up the bumpy dirt road to Uncle Joe and Aunt Cindy’s house.  From about half a mile out we could see the expansive house Joe had built himself—a structure we knew stored an arsenal of weapons, trucks, tools, heavy machinery, and just about every other toy a man could ever desire.  As we walked up the porch a pack of 5 dogs greeted us excitedly and our hosts welcomed us with arms outstretched. 


After we spent a few minutes getting settled in, the ensuing activities were like a montage of country songs.  We took out a quad and an old jeep-like vehicle to drive all over the dirt trails on Joe’s and his neighbor’s properties.  We then swung by the shed where Joe stores his back-hoe, dozer, tractor and giant water tank.  After lunch we headed out to the wash for a few hours of shooting.  We loaded up a wagon with enough guns and ammo for a small army.  We had pistols, revolvers, a shotgun, magazine-fed rifles, bolt-action rifles, and even an assault rifle.  As a bunch of city boys, we’re used to driving out to a shooting range where the operating business produces a very controlled shooting experience.  Way out here in the country, we just drive down to the wash, set up some targets and fruit and blast away.  The only rules are: There are no rules.  Just kidding parents!  We observed all safety protocols with the utmost orthodoxy—weapons always pointed in a safe direction, unloaded until we reached the firing line, and so on.


For Jake it was the first time ever shooting a firearm and he did great.  For the rest of us it was an opportunity to enrich our palette for guns and hone our skills.  One of the greatest moments was watching Joe’s neighbor, Dan, shoot a watermelon with a WWII M1 Garand rifle.  The watermelon exploded, sending water and fragments in every which way—leaving nothing behind where it had been sitting. 


Four hours passed with the blink of an eye and before we knew it, the sun was coming down.  We loaded the toys back onto the wagon and drove back to the house.  Brad fired up the grill and cooked up some awesome steaks.  After dinner we sat on the porch and saw a filled with stars unlike anything you would ever see in the Bay Area.


It was the perfect conclusion to the most country day I had ever experienced.  Having just written my senior thesis about country music, all that’s been on mind are guns, trucks, backwoods, dirt roads, small towns, the simple life, American flags and so on.  I had been itching for months to put on my cowboy hat and let loose, and yesterday I got to do just that.  Joe urged us to make our next visit longer so that we could play on the heavy machinery and help him build something.  That is definitely something I hope we get to do.

The four of us would like to thank Uncle Joe and Aunt Cindy for so kindly hosting us and showing us a great time way out here.