Sunday night, 9pm.
I really don’t know where to start so I guess we’ll start with breakfast meaning more food! The buffet was once again over the top. Bacon, eggs, sausage, green chile corn bread, breakfast pizzas, strawberry smoothies, fruit, cereals, oatmeal and more. After a few days you finally figure out that you can’t try everything at every meal, it’s just too much.
Right after breakfast the morning activities are about to begin. The activity barn is bustling with people getting ready for fishing, shooting, riding, zip lines, mountain biking, hiking and just about anything you can think of. I headed to the gun range for my morning fix of 200 shells of 12 gage at various clay pigeons flying through the air. Meanwhile the boys and Mom were once again headed to the rope course and zip lines. This time Ed and Ned (the two guys from Texas, ages 27 and 29) along with their wives went along. After I finished shooting I drove the extra mile or so to the rope course to check them all out. Ed and Ned did great just like our boys and the misses which was quite a feat as they weigh probably 260 and 280, they’re big boys. Their wives opted to watch until the zip line portion. They have 5 kids in tow between them, ranging from 1 to 5 years old and Ned’s wife is pregnant again! These guys took over a portion of their dad’s construction business and travel around the country building private roads. Both family’s have 5th wheel trailers (they replace every two years) and the wives and kids all go along. They just finished Kathryn Zeta Jones place in Aspen. They’re really good boys who work hard and know no other life as they’ve been helping their dad since they were kids. They’re also just lots of fun.
Soon it was lunch time and of course the food was again great. Then in the afternoon, Mom and the boys played paint ball while I went on a cattle drive moving about 120 head about 6 miles to new pastures. I was lucky enough to ride with the ranch cowboys as I’ve been riding with them for a few years and they felt comfortable that I could handle it. I was on a gelding named Shasta that’s a spunky horse with quick feet that I had rode before. He’s a great little cow horse. The trick is when you have a good horse to just let them do all the work which he did well. After a few hours of herding cows we finally reached our destination. As soon as we closed the gate to the pasture and turned around to head back, a pelting snowstorm, with almost hail like pellets, joined by 30 mile an hour winds hit us smack dab in our face. You had to tilt your head down while holding on your hat with one hand and the reins with the other. Luckily it only lasted 10 minutes or so. We’d had snow on and off riding up with the cows but nothing like this. Thankfully I had on a couple of shirts, a vest and a coat, and chaps along with my neckerchief and hat and gloves. Imagine the old days when the cowboys had to do this in the winter! After about 4 hours in the saddle we made it back to the corral where we unsaddled our horses and loaded them into the trailers. It was a good day of hard work.
Dinner was a 40 pund pig the chef had been roasting since 5am. Of course there also was steaks, venison chile and tiger prawns along with all the side dishes you could dream of. For dessert there was homemade peach cobbler in a cast iron skillet with homemade vanilla ice cream on the side, enough already! After dinner we headed back over to the saloon as they had a 4 piece band and I swear the youngest guy (or gal, there was 1 lady) was 60! They played old time country music that made me think of my grandfather who used to play in a band at that age also. The misses and I both talked about how much our mothers would have enjoyed it as they would have known every song, cause they’re old! Soon it was 9pm and the misses and I are going on a ride in the morning with Ed and his wife Kathryn so time to go. Lisa, our friend who runs the horse program, is arranging for an advanced ride for us rather than just a nose to tail trail ride like most of the guests take. Her husband Eddie was going to go with us but the two gay guys from New York have requested him personally again!
When we made it back to our cabin the boys were begging me to light the pot belly stove. Being the great dad that I am, we filled her up and got her going. We all sat around talking about the weekend and the meaning of Memorial Day as my Mom reminded me to talk about that with the boys, thanks Mom. There’s more to tell you but it’ll have to wait as I need to get some sleep. Oh, I almost forgot, we’re getting a new bed through the ranch at their cost which is about a 70% discount as they buy thousands a year for over 200 hotels! We are so excited, we just mentioned that we want to find out what mattresses they use and they offered to have one delivered to our door, we can’t wait!
Time to go, I need to check the pot belly stove and put some cream on my wind blown face and get some sleep. Everyone else is already out. I do have my clothes in the dryer so I have some fresh dust free jeans for the morning ride. Take care and God Bless,
p.s. Uncle T, please go fix Mom’s computer and I told her to ask you to throw in 12 short ribs for us for dinner! She said don’t count on it but I said you’d do it! ha ha