This year we got to go up in our new 2022 Honda Odyssey, which took away all the stress of getting there. Compared to last year in our old 2002 GMC Yukon XL, where we had to draft behind a semi-truck to get there safely...
Once we got there, a friend of mine from First Flight Archery (my archery range) parked next to us, and we were able to walk in together. At the door though, we were met with the Water Bottle Nazis! They told us I had to dump out my full water bottle (they didn't know it had BodyArmor energy drinks inside) and refill it with either the gross water fountains or their WAAAYYY overpriced bottled water. My mom "went along" and "brought them back to the car," but I knew they would "just so happen" to find their way in. I mean, it's not the first time my Mom has dealt with this type of persons😉.
That said, the Water Bottle Nazis were much appreciated over Mask Nazis, which even though the location said you had to wear one, nobody there cared if you did or not. So we were able to take them off for the whole day!
After bow inspections, I found my bale and we got situated. Then we waited for the previous line to end. Once it ended, I hung my target. A nice surprise was the two other people on my bale were from First Flight, so I knew scoring would go seamlessly (except for when the computer cleared all our scores for the first 30 arrows so we had to type them in again...but no big deal).
The shoot itself went by as usual, I had a lot of fun talking with other shooters! A funny point was the stand holding our round bale was very crooked. It was so crooked that while it didn't harm our shooting, I was worried it would tip over and knock down the other 18 bales next to it😬. Thankfully a judge had power tools on hand and was able to fix it.
At the end of the day, my score for Round 1 was 263, and Round 2 was 241, for a total of 504. Not the best day score wise (though I still put up a respectable score with 3 misses in Round 2), it was the highest I ever placed in States, 6th overall! I also was 2nd in States in my team, just under 20 points behind the highest score from First Flight. And other than the misses and a few bad shots, I was staying all in the yellow...It's just when I missed, I missed BAD😜! But I did improve in some small areas, which will help in future competitions.
After the tournament, we ate at the BEST Italian restaurant ever! I had my first Calzone, and it was HUGE!!! Mom and I were able to talk about a lot of topics over dinner and on the drive home, which is always enjoyable.
No medal for the family this time...but getting closer every single time. And we had fun, which is the the whole point of doing anything...right?😉
-Jared Otto
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