Loooong Weekend

I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend. Ours was eventful and rather tiring, but good.

I posted last about our plans to go to the team penning in Templeton on Saturday. After getting up about 4, we were hooking up the trailer at the ranch only to find that we had no trailer lights - not a good sign and we should have taken the hint! They had worked fine the last time we pulled it a few weeks ago, but not this morning. As usual in our little podunk town, nothing was open and wouldn't be til probably about 9am. Needless to say, our early departure with plenty of cushion built in was delayed until about 6:30 when it was light enough to try to get down the road to the truck stop so we could find our parts.

No parts at the truck stop, so on we went, full daylight by now. It wasn't quite as nerve-wracking, but I was still driving very cautiously. Besides Dad, Michael, and I, we had Cinderfella and Dad's dog Adolph along for the ride.

About 8:30 Dad receives a return call on the cell from one of his partners. Dad had called her earlier to leave a message that we were going to be cutting it close getting there on time. Well...get ready for this....the team penning was on Sunday - NOT TODAY!!!

I just pulled the rig over and started laughing. I think Dad was afraid I'd lost my mind. Michael was oblivious as he'd been watching a DVD in the back seat with headphones on. Dad finally busted up and started laughing too. Their other partner had given us the wrong date (originally he had told us the date was the previous weekend so we should have double-checked his info to start!).

We turned around (about an hour away from our target) and found an open parts store near home. We fixed the lights and then went to a Black Bear Diner and had a huge breakfast or actually brunch by this time. Adolph always enjoys trips to Black Bear as he gets lots of left-overs from their giant meals.

We did go ahead and try again on Sunday. The trip over was fine with no hang-ups. Dad did very well with his first run and ended up winning the first go-round. The weather was beautiful and we had a great day. Michael got to see his first team penning and is now wanting to give it a try. We'll have to work on that since his horse Whiskey isn't too keen on the big scary cows!

(BTW, Michael got to do part of the driving on the way home. He is getting more experience pulling the horse trailer and did a great job. Since I'm almost ALWAYS the driver, it was a nice break for me. I finally got a chance to read my favorite magazine The Essential Herbal from cover to cover.)

We spent most of Monday recovering from all of the running around over the weekend. The great finish to the holiday was a lovely dinner with my Ant Darla (not a spelling error, I've called her that since I passed her up in height at about age twelve. I'm only 5'6" so she really is a shortie). She was down for a visit from Idaho so I'm thrilled we got to spend some time with her. We have always been very close & we are hoping to get a chance to go up to see her and my Uncle Jim this fall.

We do love our road trips!