A typical Weekend

My weekend..."Ma'am are there any weapons in the car?"

"Yes." lol.... Well, they asked.

Son #3 had a shooting competition at Ft. Benning this weekend. We go there once a month. Every time we arrive at the Guard Gate, a guardieguy asks us that question. And it makes me smile to answer "yes." I mean it's just soooo weird. Ya know? And then we get that look. And sometimes they bring the dogs to search around the Jeep and sometimes they don't. It just depends on the current mood on base.

Yesterday's and today's mood was kinda tense. Not only was it the weekend for the "Gary Anderson" (a youth air rifle and small bore competition) but it was the weekend for protesters en-masse to protest against the College of the Americas. oy.

We arrived Saturday morning around 8:30am (a 2 1/2 trip from home). We took our usual route only to find the gate blockaded and tons of police, and people in black shirts with stop sign logos printed on them, everywhere. We had to go enter the base thru the main gate. So we turned around and headed there.Now they have a new "visitors building' you have to stop at to get a pass.

It's a good thing I keep registration and insurance in the car. Rather, its a good thing I FOUND it in the car.... So they passed us through after a few brief questions and issued us a pass. We got back in theJeep and proceeded to the gate. "Yes, we have weapons. No we're not here to protest" .... and after looking at us critically, the guardieguy decided we weren't subversive and let us in. Our Coach's van got the dog treatment..lol

This event was a two day event for us, normally they are just one day. So this meant staying at a hotel.

A hotel full of protesters. 5 adults, 4 kids, 6 guns and 100 protesters.

Ummm. Do we bring the guns in from the car at night? thru the lobby? In plain site? We did. Those guns are too expensive to leave in a car. We got stares, but we always do when carrying around gun cases. No biggie. Things were quiet. The evening passes with no problem.The next morning Coach #2 comes banging on my door yelling it's late, it's 7:30am. We overslept. It was actually 5:41am. Her sons set the clock wrong. She brought back coffee in apology. lol

Son#3 goes down early to meet everyone in the lobby for breakfast. I shower and take my time. Making sure we've gotten everything out of the room, I arrive down about an hour later. While standing at the front desk waiting to check out, I see Son#3 at a table with a group of protesters. He was making his way to our group and gets stopped. And boy did that "mom/lioness" thing hit. You know, where you are instantly alert and ready to pounce and annihilate whatever it is threatening your child.... I stood there looking and watching him closely to see if he was being made to feel uncomfortable. He looked fine. He was smiling, and talking. I relaxed as he made his way to our group.

I finished at the front desk and joined our group.

I have to say that the protesters were really nice. We talked to the table next to us. They did not give him any trouble about the shooting event or his military goals, in fact they made it veryclear they supported the military. They just didn't support the College of the Americas on base. I was proud of my son and how he stopped to talk, ask and answer questions from the people at the hotel.

What could have been an uncomfortable situation, he handled with maturity and ease. Sometimes that child just amazes me.They invited us to the protest, lol. But not even the tease of Nuns, Jesuit Priests, Susan Sarandon or Martin Sheen could entice us. I was going to go by and take pictures, but decided to avoid the mess....sorry. I didn't want to get stopped by the police with a rifle in the car in the midst of a protest. Even if it would have made this story far more entertaining. lol.

I just heard on the news there were over 10,000 protesters. I'm glad we didn't try to get near it now.