[kraigwy]

Nothing wrong with being ready.

But rattling door knobs at motels is quiet common. I've done a lot of traveling over the years, stayed in motels all over the country. Wouldn't begain to count the times I was awaken in the middle of the night with someone rattling my doors. People coming in late to their room, drunk or sober, stopping at the wrong door. Some places worse then others. One that comes to mind is the Motel "6" near the SeaTac Airport, Washington. I couldnt tell you how many times I stayed there. Close and easy access to the airport. Rattling the wrong door was nightly occurance there. Close to military bases and not so richy area of the I-5 Corador. Seems like there was always some drunk party in one of the rooms. People banging on the door all hours of the night. I always had my pistol but in every occasion the subject left after I yelled out WRONG ROOM.

The one time I was in danger I incountered I was the the one at the wrong room. This was just a couple days ago in Iowa. I was given the room and key card. The card was program correctly for the room but when I openned the door I immedetly saw someone was already in the room and they had a rather large geman shephard that was (without a sound) charging toward the door. I got the door slammed just as he reached it. Needless to say the clerk and I had words. I got a new EMPTY room.

The last couple years I've taken to traveling with my Horse/Camper Combo and dont stay in motels much. They dont like my bassetts and I dont like the anit smoking rules popping up.

Still there are incidents: I went to Lander for a Rifle Match. It was before I joined their club so I didnt have a key to the range. (Now I park inside). I was in the middle of no where when I was awaken in the middle of the night by someone/thing banging on my door. Someone/thing else was on the other side of the camper rocking it. I got my pistol to check it out, I looked out the door, pointing my 642 out the window and turned on the outside light to see my laser dot on the nose of a horse. Upon checking I found six of those suckers checking out my trailer. (Guess they figured I had other horses inside.

In short, nothing wrong with being ready. But one needs to be careful because the threat may not be a threat. The only time I was frightened in such situations was with animals not people (dog & horses).

Training and confidence (gained through training and experence) allows one to remain calm preventing serious incidents from occuring where there is none. I'd certainly hate to shoot a drunk at the wrong room, some some dog doing what good dogs do, protecting their masters.