Arizona
Snowbird
1-7-2020: Arizona or BUST
I am a snowbird. It sounds better than:
I am an old lady doing what all the other old folks do in the
winter... head for Arizona. It was time I found out what being
retired is all about. I shut off the water to the house, turned down
the oil heat to just above freezing, shut off the lights and packed
every pair of underwear I own.
And waited...my traveling partner was
having a hard time getting free of work and other obligations. We
were leaving Tuesday for sure...then Wednesday, then maybe Thursday
if everything comes together. I have two issues with that: 1. I was
watching the weather and some gnarly looking storms were coming in starting Thursday. I'm a huge chicken when it comes to hauling on bad
roads. 2. I packed every pair of underwear I own. I had to leave!
I finished cramming my LQ full of
everything a person, two dogs and two horses might need for who knows
how long. I had a set plan on day of departure in my head – the
rest...pretty much shooting from the hip. I was told not to
de-winterize my LQ since it can get pretty dang cold down here in
Nevada. I can attest to that as I sit here typing this in Wells
Nevada in my triple layer fuzzy socks my mom got me for Christmas. I
packed a 7 gallon container of water to flush the toilet and water
the horses in the event I didn't find a place to board.
Boarding. Nobody knows what their
address is here in Nevada. Google doesn't know either and I thought
the big G new everything. I got on-line to hunt down boarding
facilities along the way. I found several...none with an actual
address. I called numbers on each one – no answer. Finally, a
fellow shooter got a hold of another fellow shooter ...who possible knew of a place to board. No address though - and the phone number
was one of the outdated information on the website. I figured how
hard can it be? If I actually make it alive to Wells, I'll worry
about where to park my ass at that time. If all else failed, I would
pull into the local rodeo grounds – which, by the way – does not
allow over-nighters. Perhaps whoever comes to throw me out will
know of a place to board!
Armed with vague directions to a
boarding facility; “Turn into town – go left – go South past
the ugly blue barn – go down three houses – turn left at the sign
with the cow on it. Something like that. Hard to read the text when
your frantically trying not to run over grandma on her way to the
slots.
I pulled into a gas station to ask
directions. The only thing I really learned at said gas station is
gay men, really hot gay men, have no clue about horse boarding
facilities...but damn it, he would give me directions even if they
were wrong. And they were.
5 miles out of town on The Great Basin
highway toward some place called “Melandco” it was apparent I
needed to find a spot big enough to flip a “U-E” in a 33ft
goose-neck. Back in the correct general direction (really just a
guess) and barely avoiding colliding with granny once again – I
stumbled onto the rodeo grounds. Sure enough – just past the rodeo
grounds stood a big blue barn. Was that the really ugly barn? Didn't
look ugly to me at all and it appeared to have stalls. I like blue.
I'm checking it out.
I inquired at a double wide parked
on-site. The folks inside didn't own the barn/arena anymore – but
they were more than willing to let me board my horses and hook up for
the night. The not-so-ugly barn turned out to be a fairly nice indoor
arena with stalls along both sides. I settled the horses in and went
about setting up camp.
The electrical didn't work. I was going
to freeze my ass off here in Wells. I called the number on the wall
and left a message. “Wilde Brough” (coolest name ever) called me
back in short order. Wilde walked me through where to find the
breaker box. Was I on the south end? The South East end? By the time
I was finished trying to explain which side of the barn I was parked
on – I had Wilde doubting I was even in Wells.
With a little deductive reasoning on
which direction the sun was setting and a LOT of trial and error –
I managed to flip the correct breaker. I called Wilde back to let him
know he didn't need to make a trip in. He was happy to hear I
wouldn't be freezing my ass of in Wells Nevada and I promised to tell
all of his Snow Bird friends HI when I got to Arizona. He failed to
mention just who those people are by name – but I get the feeling
after talking to him that just about anybody you ran across in these
parts would know Wilde Brough.
Before I go to sleep tonight – I will
pray for clear roads again tomorrow. I keep hearing that if I make it
to Ely – I'm golden. My weather app says 40% chance of
precipitation for Wells tonight. I will try to put more faith in Gods
answered prayers than the weather bug app.
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