My first CHL day (Warning: Long-winded story)...

[WEC]

I didn't want to steal ClarkLZeuss's thunder by posting in his thread, so I decided to start my own.

After a wait of about four months from the day I took my CHL course to getting the call from DPS saying that my application was complete, I had a sneaking suspicion yesterday that my CHL was going to be delivered to my mailbox. However, instead of setting up camp next to the mailbox in wait for the mailman, I had a lot of business to take care of on my Saturday. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was finally getting home around 9:00 pm. I told my fiancee to go ahead inside the house while I check the mail. And there it was. In the dark night the envelope from the "Department of Regulatory Licensing" seemed to glow with its own heavenly light. I managed not to yell in triumph lest I wake my neighbors. Instead, I sprinted into my house like Ralphie upon receiving his Secret Socity decoder ring. My fiancee heard my quick pace as I climbed the stairs and with a broad smile, simply said to me, "Congratulations." We immediately planned our Sunday activities, the central focus of which, invariably, was the glory that is the Wally Walk. I even read the rules to her, which garnered quite the chuckle, as she was anticipating being my "lookout" for the various rules.

The next morning after breakfast, we packed a few items (including my Sig P229 in an MTAC IWB holster at 4:00) and then went to Central Market to pick up a couple of their delicious sandwiches to enjoy at the park on what was to be a brilliant day. I had read Clark's post about walking into Wal-Mart the first time while carrying and thinking that he was doing something illegal, something wrong. I could not agree more. As I was walking into the store, I told my fiancee that I had the feeling that I'm doing something illegal, even though it was now completely legal. The comment was then followed by the nervous downward tug of the shirt. My fiancee noticed this and grabbed my arm and said, "Don't worry - you'll be fine. Just keep me safe." She understands. She really does.

Waiting in line to order our sandwiches, there were a few people in front and behind us. Everyone was engaging in their own conversations, as I was scanning around and listening casually, I was just waiting for someone to whisper, "Does that guy have a gun?" I ordered my sandwich and started to walk to the line to wait for it to be completed when I hear, "Sir? Sir!" I froze. In a split second, the scenario played out in my mind: Someone would scream, "GUN!" and the crowd would be split between some people who would drop to the ground in the fetal position and others who would simply run to the nearest exit, cell phones to their ears while 911 gets inundated with some crazed gun-toting lunatic ordering a sandwich at Central Market and GET HERE FAST BEFORE HE KILLS EVERYONE. However, when I turned around, it was the guy making my sandwich, simply asking me, "Do you want _______ or red onions on your sandwich?" I write "________" because I seriously did not hear him, but I said, "Oh, red onions, please." I said this even though my fiancee hates red onions and it was her sandwich and I would have to pick them out of the sandwich by hand later. But I guess I was just relieved that he just asked me an inocuous question rather than the alternative.

We left Central Market and made our way to the park. We sat down on some beach towels on the grass, while I made sure that my back was as strategically sound as possible. It was a bit sunny so I took off my jacket, but had it bunched up behind me while I was sitting to make sure that anyone behind me couldn't see my gun or any printing from my shirt. Lunch was great, relaxing, and I could not have asked for a better day. It was one of those picturesque Norman Rockwell sort of picnics. Then my fiancee said with a wry smile, "Let's throw the frisbee around." Which frisbee? The one that she sneakily packed into our lunch bag, with the intention of fully testing the retention and concealment of my sidearm. Well, I figured that now was as good a time as ever. So I got up, decided not to put on the jacket, and threw the frisbee around for about half an hour. Bending over to pick up the frisbee, some light running, no problem. Then, my fiancee threw the frisbee and it's a bit high. I reached up, but the frisbee kept sailing a bit, so I jumped up and did a 180 in the air. I managed to catch it with a maneuver that would have made Willy Mays proud. As I turned around with a cocky "did you just see what I did?" smirk on my face, my smile quickly turned to a gasp when I saw my fiancee with one hand on the back of her hip and her other hand pointing towards my waist. I reach back and was aghast to find that my shirt had ridden up over the handle of my gun, fully exposing it. I quickly pulled my shirt down over my gun again and looked back to see if anyone behind me had seen what transpired. Luckily, no one had spotted me. No one was even looking in my direction. Lucky me...

The next activity on the agenda was to head to my parents' place to check on it, since they are out of the country for a month. My brother, who went with them, asked me to drive his car around the block to make sure the battery doesn't die. When I got there, I was chagrined to discover that the battery was indeed dead (say that 10 times fast). I needed to give the car a jump start. Problem was, it was facing the garage, so I had to move it out of the way to get room to jump it. I disengaged the handbrake and the car just kept rolling into the street. The brakes were hardly working, possibly due to the lack of power. So there was his car, sitting in the middle of the street. I at least had to push the car out of the street, and that I did. Huffing and puffing, I was able to get the car to a position to jump start it, did so successfully, and was able to do what my brother wanted. My gun hardly moved during the entire ordeal. The check of my parents' house was uneventful, so it was now time for the Wally Walk!

My fiancee and I actually had to buy a few things, so I was confident that we would be there longer than the obligatory 45 minutes. No BG's in the parking lot, good. Granny in the electric scooter -- right, not a drive-by threat. The security truck drove by me. I looked to see if the guard was watching me. Nope, he just drove right by, going about his business. I insisted to be the one controlling the cart, much to the pleasure of my lovely female companion. First stop, cereal. "I want that one!" my fiancee says, pointing at the top shelf. I said, "I'm going to try something. Let me know if my gun shows." She stood on my right side, looking intently at my hip. As I reached up with my right arm, she starts to chuckle. "Oh yeah, it's showing alright. All the way down to your boxers." That earned a chuckle from me, as well. Lesson learned: I guess I'll just have to reach for everything with my left arm. We went through the steps. Items at the top shelf, items at the bottom shelf. No problem. Went to go see if by some snowball's chance there was some ammunition. Nope, the case was barren, just as I thought. The entire time, I was scanning for BG's and any other suspicous activity. The only thing close to suspicous activity was some guy walking around munching chips out of the bag in his shopping cart. Hope he either brought those from home or he intends to pay for that bag... Time for checkout. For once, there was a good ratio of checkout personnel to shoppers, so the longest line had a whopping TWO people in line, so I got into that one. I even helped bag some of my items. Time for the food. This particular Wal-Mart had a McDonald's, so we ordered a chicken sandwich, some fries and a sundae. We sat down and ate and chatted. It was at that moment that I finally felt comfortable. It was just like any other meal any other day at any other Wal-Mart. The only difference was that I was now armed and ready to handle any potential threats to the safety of my life and those of my loved ones. It gave me a warm feeling and I sat there for a little while, basking in that warmth.

We walked out and again I did the scan. Still nothing. This Wal-Mart was now secure, at least from my standpoint! As we started loading our items into the car, my fiancee reminds me. "Don't forget to face outwards." She understands. She really does...

Hope that everyone who read this enjoyed it. I also hope it brings back fond memories of those who had done their Wally Walks many years ago, and brings as much anticipation for those who will do their Wally Walks in the future. As a final note, please allow me to say that I was extremely impressed by the MTAC holster. Not once did I have any issues with retention, even while running, jumping, reaching, bending over, and pushing a car. In my book, it deserves my full endorsement.

[longtooth]

Congrats & goood writing skills along w/ it.

[ClarkLZeuss]

Haha, great story! Well written. You really put us in your shoes for the day. I can totally relate to you waiting to hear "GUN!!!". Sounds like you got quite the workout of your concealability skills. It's such a great sensation, too, to be feeling apprehensive about something, but then charge ahead anyway with it, like at the WM front entrance (because in your mind you know that it's OK).

The only thing I would have done differently is gone into your folks house with gun drawn yelling, "Look out bad guys! There's a new sheriff in town!" That, and made a citizen's arrest of the chip-snatching guy.

[LittleGun]

Good report. That's an excellent CHL walk. It took me much longer to get comfortable with carrying.

[WEC]

Thanks, guys! I read on this forum a while back that during the wait, it was a good idea to wear concealed around the house and experiment with different holsters. Four months was more than enough time to do so, haha. That may be why I was so eager and comfortable with trying different activities and methods to my first full day of concealed carry. I learned quite a bit just from that one day, and I anticipate learning many more lessons with the days, weeks, months and years to come.

[kd5zex]

Great write up, thanks! Congrats on the successful Wally Walk and the engagement.

[atxgun]

I can totally relate to the feeling of impending failure and being "made". Now you just have to wait a few weeks to where you feel odd when you walk out the door with out the weight of your weapon on your side

[WEC]

After my first week of carry, I feel a lot more confident in not getting "made." With each passing day, my confidence grows.

I have a question to ask. Perhaps you could blame it on the novelty of it all, but for the past week, I've been downright craving to run to the store, walk around, or attend social situations simply because I can carry legally and want to test how effective I am at concealing. Am I crazy?

[Daltex1]

I have a story I will share, I have had my CHL for a couple of years now and me and a buddy from work who just recieved his in the mail headed out to his father in laws place to go shooting. Well of course we had to stop at walmart and empty their shelves of all the ammo before our shooting was to begin. As we are walking back to the truck he turns to me and says "Did you carry your gun in there?" And I responded in amazement " You mean you have not done the "wally Walk" yet? I was disappointed that he had his CHL and was not carrying his gun with him, which in turn costs him a whole day of good old fashioned ribbing from me.

[iamomeed]

Thats pretty funny. You just have to realize how many times can YOU tell someone is carrying a gun. Almost never.

[bkblaw84]

Nice write up. I can't wait!

[WEC]

I can totally relate to the feeling of impending failure and being "made". Now you just have to wait a few weeks to where you feel odd when you walk out the door with out the weight of your weapon on your side

Boy, you said it, sir! A friend calls me to say, "We're meeting up with a couple of old friends at such-and-such bar. Can you make it?" I think to myself that it's probably a 51% establishment, and I say, "Eh, just call me when you think of where you want to meet up for dinner and I'll meet you there." No one told me that a CHL was a great way to curb miscellaneous expenses like bar tabs. Now I have more money to buy holsters!

[jkvan87]

The whole time, while reading, I was just thinking.. "is he pretending that he has a wife..and in reality, he was spending the whole day by himself"...Kinda like the 6th sense..

[bryang]

Congratulations!
...on a job well done, both the wally-walk and your writing of your story...very good! Also, I noticed you have an MTAC IWB holster, a very good choice it will serve you well.

-geo