11-20-2020 - I REMEMBER THE ALAMO!
The Pumpkin Cheesecake diaries II? TPCD – The Sequel? Pumpkin Cheesecake The second? Sequels are often, in my opinion, not nearly as good as the original. Usually lacking in plot uniqueness and originality. A title for this years Snowbirding Adventure has not yet presented itself. The thought crossed my mind that returning on this adventure might lead to a disappointing sequel-like experience: been there...done that. So far, I'm relieved to say that has not been the case.
I had planned to head down around Christmas or shortly after...maybe before if I could swing it. I planned to stay until the Las Vegas shoot the end of February. Like all good plans...they went out the window in short order. Somebody posted something about the Helldarado Thanksgiving Shoot in Tombstone. Cindy posted something about how dang hot it was in Aquila. About the third day of pouring rain, lightning storms and 30mph wind, and I was packing my Arizona Kohl's underwear and making plans to get the hell out of Dodge.
I got entered in the Tombstone shoot and called Cowboy Doug to reserve a dry camp for me and two horses at the Livery.
More miraculous is I managed to talk my youngest, Blake, into traveling down with me by promising to fly him back as soon as he wants. I don't mind traveling alone, but there is comfort in having another heartbeat along that does not belong to a quadruped....or, tetrapod if you happen to be fluent in Latin. Which I'm not. Thank you Google.
I threw everything together with much less planning than last year and made arrangements with my neighbor to take care of the cats, pick up my mail, water the plants and feed Blake's dog, Remi. Remi seems to have made herself right at home at my place. So much so that she won't let my neighbor in the house. He's mentioned something about bribing her with an elk bone if she doesn't warm up to him. I hope it works. Good neighbors are hard to come by.
Blake and I loaded the horses and were on the road by 7:30AM. Cindy had text there was going to be a clean shooter jackpot on Sunday at Ben Avery. I haven't shot in a while and hoped to make the jackpot as a warm up for the Tombstone shoot. By leaving early and having a second driver along, I hoped to make it all the way to Alamo without stopping in Wells over night.
The weather/roads could not have been better. I tried not to get overly smug as I watched Wells shrink from view in my rearview mirror. I considered giving the finger to the parking lot where the previous year I'd gotten a flat tire on my trailer and had to spend most of the morning at the tire shop. Then thought better of tempting fate and simply smiled.
A few stops along the way to stretch our legs (code for pee), let the dogs and horses out to water and roll and pulled into Alamo by 6:00 PM. It was a balmy 53 degrees. A far cry from the iced over water buckets I dealt with last year. With Blake's help, we had the horses situated and the LQ hooked up to power and water. We de-winterized the trailer and nuked yesterday's pizza for dinner.
Several large rigs pulled in through the night. Panic struck. What if somebody steals my horses! I grabbed my locking cable and headed back out to the pens to secure the gates. I was about to secure the lock when my youngest piped up: “That's all great mom...but what's going to keep them from stealing your horses out the other five corners?” Smart ass. I trod back to the trailer in the dark with padlock in hand. Your on your own, Jack. Hopefully nobody wants a shaggy buckskin covered in mud and a cranky mare with her ears pinned to her head.
The night passed without incident and we both slept well. Jack and J'Lo were still secure in their pens come morning; mud, pinned ears and all.
11-21-2020 – PEACHES MEETS SAM
Sam the Saguaro
The five hours from Alamo to Aquila raced by. I chattered nonstop with excitement pointing out all the cool vegetation and rock formations to my last born. My last born...who slept through 95% of the entire orientation. Dang Peaches...you're missing some cool stuff!
We arrived in Aquila with plenty of time to set up and situate the horses. Dave and Cindy have put a lot of work into fixing up an even nicer setup than last year. Jack and J now have their own pen and I'm backed into a spot that's been perfectly leveled with access to power. It's like the Hilton for squatters. I'm in squatter heaven.
First stop: The Coyote Den. The first thing I wanted to do was take Blake to The Coyote Den. The food was better than I remembered. Maybe we were just really hungry and/or really happy to be here and anything would taste good. Whichever, the three mini-tacos where the best I've eaten anywhere.
Dave and Cindy pulled in from a cutting in Wickenburg shortly after. I introduced Blake and took him to meet Sam before dark. Sam didn't say much...being the prickly old stoic he is. I imagine he will reserve his opinions of my offspring until he gets to know him better.
We made quick plans for the clean shooter jackpot tomorrow and the Tombstone shoot next week. I got on-line and booked a flight for Blake back home. I wish he could stay longer, but a deal is a deal. I'm hoping he can come back and stay for a while longer once he gets his cows sold. I know he'd love it here.
I have found that blogging the first couple of days into an adventure is difficult. It's an overload of experiences and emotions. I find it hard to put it all down in anything short of a novel to rival the lengths of those such as: Gone With The Wind or War and Peace. For fear of rambling on the point of overwhelming any potential readers, I've set a limit on the time taken to blog each night (hopefully). I've reached that limit for this first edition of: The Pumpkin Cheesecake Diaries – The Sequel. Title subject to change because that takes a damn long time to type.
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| Patty would be proud |
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