Last night Uncle Lynn flew in with Heather (she was on her way to visit an old friend who had moved to Idaho). We thought that we would surprise Lynn by hiding the truck (with our name on the plate), but when he drove in, saw our camper, he knew exactly who was here. This morning we had a pancake breakfast (with syrup that we brought from NH, which we will leave for Penny!) Lynn continued his trip with Heather.
Murtle went out with the girls this morning for a ride. She loved it. She is used to crawling on the ground, but being so high up on a horse was quite a treat.
It has been a day of rest and relaxation so far today. It’s hot again. (I am sitting on the porch outside in the shade and starting to sweat, so I am going in soon.) We have dinner reservations again for tonight, but not until late, so it’s nap time for Rod and Brad!) (Too hot to do much.)
The girls went out riding this morning before it got too hot. If the temperature were 20 degrees cooler, this place would be perfect!
I have already had lots of liquids to drink, but still feel as though I should go drink a gallon of water. I just can’t believe how hot and dry this area is. Penny was saying that last year in August, there was a wild fire just across the road from them. (There is a ridge with some trees on it that burned.) The fires just burn hot and fast round here. I don’t think I want to experience any of them.
The forecast for the next 10 days is for temperatures over 100 each day. I think Glacier National Park sounds like a cooler place to head.
I think we will head south on Tuesday. Our next portion of this journey will take us into the Rockies. Before we left NH we had the truck all gone through for safety reasons. Brad was concerned about the brakes and asked to have them checked. The mechanic assured us that the brakes were fine and would make the trip without a problem, but …we have experienced shaking and just to be on the safe side will have them checked at a garage here before we start through the Rockies.
Tonight we are going out as I stated earlier. Penny wants Murtle to come. Said this will be something that Murtle will not want to miss. I can’t imagine what it might be.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
What a fabulous day! We woke up with the sun, and headed out of the camper to the barn, where Rod was working with the horses. Chores! Many of them, when you have 10 horses, two dogs, two cats (oh, and five kittens), and a goat! (I wondered why they had a goat, but I’ll explain later.)
We had breakfast, then packed for a day at the rodeo. What do you take to a Rodeo? Well, on a day that you hear the temperature is going to be close to 100, you pack lots of water, sunscreen, a hat, etc. It started at noon, but we needed to be there earlier. (You just can’t unload a horse and be ready!) There is a lot to do. We got there about 10:30 and the generator to the horse trailer was all set and ready. (Now, the horse trailer isn’t an ordinary trailer! It was a fifth wheel with a camper living quarters then stalls for four horses!) The horse trailer dwarfed our little Coleman Caravan!) The air conditioner was for the girls to get cooled off between events.
There were some wonderful people (who frequent the Rodeo circuit) that had set up shade tents, packed coolers with water, food, snacks, etc. for the close knit family of Rodeo spectators. I must admit that I was thrilled to be welcomed into their “family” of spectators, because the shade and drinks were a necessity to make it through the heat. (I don’t think I ever drank that much water in one day in my life before!) Just sitting there I sweat like a pig.
Well, on to the Rodeo! What a great treat! The horses are full size horses, not ponies, not short horses, FULL size. Now Kayty and Nici are 10 and 12. Under 5 feet and can’t weigh more than 55 pounds soaking wet. (Some of the other girls in the Rodeo were even smaller!) But to watch those little girls, mount those horses and go through the “barrels”, the “poles” , “rope a calf” and “capture a goat” was just remarkable. Remember: the temperature was near 100 if not over! They did such a great job.
I had never been, and I did not know what to expect. I took lots of pictures! What a sport. They do this all the time. Rodeo is a way of life out here. Spare time is used by riding, roping, tying, all the things that they do to perfect their skills at the rodeo. No mall shopping for these kids! That is the last thing that they want to do.
There are boy events and girl events. The girls don’t ride steer, and the boys don’t do the poles. One little boy rode a steer for the first time. He wasn’t on it very long and actually did get stepped on. He took a minute to get up, but he was fine. He couldn’t wait to try it again at the next Rodeo.
The girls came home with lots of prizes for the day. Belt buckles, statues, and money. A great day for both of them. (They both already have many other prizes displayed in a wonderful case!) I am sure that in the years to come they will acquire many, many more prizes.
Just as the Rodeo was coming to an end, the a thunderstorm came up and the sky got very dark. Then the hail started, the size of peas. It had been 100 degrees and all of a sudden the ground was covered with white hail! What a site. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees while it was hailing, then in the course of about 6.5 minutes the hail to melted, then the sun came back out and the temperature went back up 20 degrees.
We headed back to Penny’s for a shower, then out to eat. We went to Red Lodge and had dinner at a wonderful steakhouse. Both Brad and I love a great steak, and we definitely had a great one. We will have to come back to visit just to go back there again. (Oh, can’t go out to eat and not have dessert, so Brad and I shared a Mud “Cow” Pie. I know, I said I was going to lose weight, but I had to have sweat off 10 pounds so dessert was well worth the calories!)
Friday, July 13, 2007
Today we left the campsite in Buffalo, WY. Before we left Murtle and I went for a walk around the campsite. What adventures we had! Murtle had her picture taken with an Indian, she had a cowboy had on, and she posed with a rattle snake. She was shaking in her shell. The snake was stuffed, but Murtle was still hesitant about being next to it. After the photo opportunities, we headed toward Billings, Montana.
We called Penny in the AM and let her know that we would be in her area around 3:00PM. She gave us directions to get to her home. We had no idea where she lived. On the ride up Route 90, we were commenting on the open spaces on one side and the mountains on the other. We wondered what it would be like to live in such an area as that. Neighbors must be miles apart, if you needed to borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor it would take you an hour for the round trip, etc.
We drove through Billings, MT (a fairly large city), then through Laurel, MT (another larger place, a Wal-Mart was being built!) There were train depots, processing plants, larger companies, etc. As we headed toward Joliet, on Route 212, we noticed that we were moving out of the populated area back into the sparse, rounded hilly area that you can see for miles in with neighbors spread out far and few between. As we made the turn off Route 212 (4 Miles from our destination) we discovered that her house must be one of the few on a hill, just like the directions said, “our driveway is about a quarter of a mile long”.
We made the turn onto Kaynic (finally figured out that it stands for Kayty and Nicole - Kaynic!) Penny’s home is a beautiful new home sitting up on top of a knoll in the middle of beautiful country. As we drove up the drive (probably more than a quarter of a mile) we saw horses in the fields. Lots of horses! Just as we drove in, Kathy called wondering where we were. (Kathy, it is beautiful! Dry, hot, hot, hot, but extremely beautiful.)
We were reintroduced to the girls, (hadn’t seen them in about five years). Had a tour of their home, (it is right out of a House Beautiful magazine! No kidding, just beautiful!) Their view is splendid! Hills, rolling, hills as far as the eye can see, then mountains! Big majestic mountains (with snow still on them)!
The girls are horseback riders and they participate in Rodeos. What a thrill when we learned that they had a Rodeo to attend on Saturday! That was something that Brad and I had never been to, so we were all excited.
We set up our camper on their back driveway, made ourselves at home, had a wonderful barbeque dinner and got geared up for the Rodeo tomorrow. Murtle will probably have to miss the Rodeo, it is supposed to be extremely warm (high 90’s) so she will stay at the camper in the air-conditioning.
No comments:
Post a Comment