Hiya Babe!
Well, today was the long-awaited day! I had a good night sleep, and woke up at 4:30 even before my alarm, got packed up and down in the lobby in plenty of time for our 5:30 gathering. It didn't take long to load up all the luggage and get on the road, stopping after about an hour at a casino for a buffet breakfast, which was included with the package. We finally reached Zion where the horses were and we got matched up to our mounts. I ended up with a buckskin mare name Winematuk, or somthing like that, nickname Whinny. She tried to eat every blade of grass that crossed her path, which reminded me of your old mare Clio. The ride was only about 5.5 miles long, and we had a pit stop in the middle, but it was entertaining with the stories that our wrangler Cash was telling, and the landscape was pretty spectacular. I was a bit far back at first and couldn't hear him, but managed to move forward a bit at one point, so that improved. It was a fairly nice ride, with footing that was both rocky and sandy, and from what I've heard, the worst footing of the week. The stark cliffs were quite beautiful, but it certainly wasn't the most beautiful ride I've ever been on, though it was interesting enough. There were so much traffic on the road, cars, buses, bike riders, etc., so it was slow going in the bus. The bus is a full-fledged tour bus, well-appointed and comfortable, a far cry from the old school bus I was on last year at this time on the Michigan Shore-to-Shore. They had packed us sack lunches, which we ate when we got back to the bus at the end of the ride, though I was still pretty full from breakfast, so I only ate half of it. They split us into two groups today, I was in the first group A (the Angels), and the second group B (the bad guys), started the ride about 20 minutes after us. I think that was to keep group size down, and possible to deal with the fact that it was a lollipop trail, I don't know for sure. After we finished the ride and had lunch, we started to drive to the ranch, with another stop at a souvenir store along the way. This morning, I had tried to reset my wristwatch to the local time, but it gave up the ghost on me, no doubt a dead batter, and after some searching, I found an eyeglass repair kit with a screwdriver small enough to take the back off, and I bought a battery that looked about right, though the number wasn't the same, and tried to repair it. I wasn't able to finish it by the time we left, but once we got to the ranch and got settled in, I was able to finally fix it. Unfortunately, I lost one of the tiny screws, but the other three seem to be holding okay, so at least I have a temporary fix for the week. The ranch is in a beautiful area, surrounded by mostly alfalfa fields, and the cabins are about the size of a small sauna, but I was surprised to learn yesterday that we singles didn't have to bunk in with anyone, we each got our own cabin! So I have one bunk to lay all my stuff out and another one to sleep on, so I'm a happy camper with that. The restrooms and showers are in two trailers on either end of the half circle where the cabins are, I'm in cabin ten so I'm about halfway between them. I fixed finished fixing my watch shortly before dinner, and already started loading up my pix from the day (there's a very good cell signal here, so it's going faster than usual!), then headed down to dinner, which was an incredibly tender steak, so much so I could cut it with a plastic knife! My first steak in months, so I really enjoyed it. Probably their own beef, as they mostly raise cattle along with the alfalfa. After dinner, everyone introduced themselves, then we finished around 9:00, very late for dinner, but they had a breakdown of their usual dinner trailer and had to bring another one in at the last minute. They worked it flawlessly, though, and other than starting dinner a half hour later than usual, it was seamless. Got back to my cabin, then grabbed my shower stuff and headed over, grateful that most of the folks took their shower right after the ride, so no waiting. Finishing off my blog and my Spanish lesson and heading to bed forthwith! A great first day! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
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