Last weekend was the Minnesota State Indoor Tournament in Redwood Falls, MN (which is about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Minneapolis). I was going alone, and since my line time was at 1:00pm on Sunday, I decided to go up on Saturday and stay in a hotel. My drive there is a story of its own, but I'll give you the short version.
I printed off directions to Redwood Falls before I left, but I also had my brother's GPS with me. I typed in the address before I left, and was on my way without realizing that they were not giving me the same directions. It was when I got to Albert Lea that I realized they were telling me to go in two different directions. I decided to follow the directions I had printed off, which went more like the crow flys as opposed to going straight west and then straight north. This was probably not the brightest idea I've ever had.
You know how when you're using a GPS and you don't do what it tells you to, it usually recalculates and gives you a different route? Well for 15 miles it kept telling to me "Turn Around". I thought about turning around, but decided I was going to go with my gut (especially since I technically had until 1:00pm the next day to get there). When the GPS did finally recalculate, it ended up telling me that there was no route I could take without taking unpaved roads. Although I didn't have to take any gravel roads, and I did make it there just fine, the route sure was interesting. Here's just one of the neat things I saw:
I printed off directions to Redwood Falls before I left, but I also had my brother's GPS with me. I typed in the address before I left, and was on my way without realizing that they were not giving me the same directions. It was when I got to Albert Lea that I realized they were telling me to go in two different directions. I decided to follow the directions I had printed off, which went more like the crow flys as opposed to going straight west and then straight north. This was probably not the brightest idea I've ever had.
You know how when you're using a GPS and you don't do what it tells you to, it usually recalculates and gives you a different route? Well for 15 miles it kept telling to me "Turn Around". I thought about turning around, but decided I was going to go with my gut (especially since I technically had until 1:00pm the next day to get there). When the GPS did finally recalculate, it ended up telling me that there was no route I could take without taking unpaved roads. Although I didn't have to take any gravel roads, and I did make it there just fine, the route sure was interesting. Here's just one of the neat things I saw:
After I got to my hotel, I realized that I had forgotten my phone charger, and naturally it wasn't fully charged when I left on my trip. Also, my computer charger quit working, and like my phone, my computer was basically dead. Turns out I wasn't very prepared for my stay. Because I had nothing to do, I ended up going to the local casino. This is where I lost twenty dollars, and had to drive back in the pouring rain on dark unfamiliar roads. Luckily I'm an excellent driver with great vision. It ended up storming so bad that the power went out at the hotel, which is fine with me because when it turned back on my computer charger worked!
The next day I woke up and headed to the Redwood Area Community Center. This place was HUGE! I got myself registered, not realizing that we were supposed to be pre-registered. Now that I think about it, I probably should have asked how to pre-register so I don't have to pay the late fee again. Because I registered late, I was told I'd be put on a random bail, and possibly not with people in my same division. After I registered I headed to the area where we could practice. Since I arrived there so early I ended up being able to shoot about 40 practice shots with plenty of time to rest after. I'm glad I did get the chance to practice for so long, because I really think that helped calm my nerves.
When I got into the building where the actual shoot took place, I found my bail and hung up my target. It turned out I was on a bail with all children. I would say all the girls were in about 6th grade. I was a little upset that I wasn't by any adults that I could ask all of the questions that I had, but I was also glad to be on a bail with these girls because I really wasn't too intimidated. However, I was a little nervous at first that I was going to get beat by a child.
There were 63 bails in this place, with 4 people on a bail, meaning close to 250 people were shooting at a line time. There were 4 line times total over the weekend, so I'm assuming close to 1,000 people shot at the Minnesota State Indoor. When I actually shot I was quite nervous, but throughout the shoot my nerves did calm down quite a bit. My score ended up being 291 30X. My goal going into the shoot was to shoot better than a 289, so I'm glad I achieved that.
When I was done shooting, it was after 5:00pm and I was pretty tired. Since I still had over a 4 hour drive home, I couldn't decide whether or not I should stay for awards. I was almost positive I hadn't placed, because I knew what the scores in my flight roughly were because they sent out a magazine called "The Arrow" which had everyone's scores from regionals published in it. This reminds me, my robinhood at regionals made it into "The Arrow"! (pictured below)
Even though I didn't think I had placed, I decided I'd stick around anyway just in case. I sure am glad that I did, because the second division they gave awards out to was mine, and I ended up placing 3rd place in the 1st flight! I felt pretty awkward going up in front of everyone, receiving my plaque, and standing on the podium because not a soul in the building knew who I was. I'm a little disappointed that no one was there to witness it, but below is a link to the 2011 Minnesota State Indoor Tournament Results, as well as a picture of my Minnesota shaped plaque. Even though it was a little boring going all the way up there myself and not really having anyone to experience it with, I had a pretty good time and I'm extremely glad that I went. Hopefully next year I can convince a few people to join me!
2011 State Indoor Results
2011 State Indoor Results
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