2/6, 7 & 8/2009

Yes I have been slow in getting my blog updated but that is one of the privileges of being retired… you can do most things when you want.  These past few days I have also been set straight about my blog.  If you are going to be a cowboy (as in Wrangler Dave) I am supposed to call it my TALLY LOG.  In days past and even today, many cowboys carry what city slickers call a small note book in their pocket.  They use this to write ear tag numbers of cattle that they want to take note of or other pertinent information.  Also when counting cattle they note the “tally” in their “tally book”.  So I guess from here on out this is my Tally log.

The past couple of days Wrangler Dave has been doing a lot of roping which also requires a lot of horsemanship.  We have been practicing on live cows as well as skinny cows.  It is amazing the number of refinements one has to make with each loop thrown… they are getting more and more subtle and just require a lot of practice.

Friday night we went to dinner at Betty’s (Bob King’s wife) sister’s place (Karin) where we had an excellent Lasagna dinner and Pineapple Delight for desert.  We played cards which for some reason Bob won.  We are still trying to figure that one out.

On Saturday Tom, Arda and myself went to Tuscan to Campers World to pick up a few items that we needed (wanted?).  We also had to pick up 2 new tires for Biker Arda’s bike as she had over 4000 miles on the old ones and then wondered why she had flats the last couple of days.  The store would not put them on the rims so Arda opted to mount them on the rims herself.  She did a good job and did not pinch the tubes… at least that we can see so far.

Saturday night we met up with Willie and Vicki (Arda’s cousins from Petawawa Ontario (an hour north of Ottawa Canada), Tom, Bob & Betty and Karin and went to the Chute-out in Benson for a steak dinner.  I would recommend this to anyone who likes steak as the meat is first quality.

Sunday morning we woke up to rain on the plains and snow in the mountains.  It was really neat to see the sun shining on the snow and then part-way down the mountain it changed to rain.  The rest of the day has seen intermittent rain with sunny periods.  The temps have only gotten into the high 40’s… gee winter is rough!  We also went to church again this morning. It is always interesting to go there as there are about 50 people with a lot of elderly people (yes some even older than us) and a lot of young children but very few in between.  We had the blessing of the throats this morning because St Blaze, the patron Saint of throats, was celebrated this past week.  Everyone in the church was blessed.

Gee I almost forgot we had 2 correct answers of thousands of responses submitted to our quiz earlier this week… remember this picture?  Well Mary B. and Arda’s sister Ellen both guessed correctly so the tie breaker was the time of submission which was unfortunate for Mary as she won first prize.  And now for the BIG surprise… Arda and I decided that since Mary is so quick and intelligent it won’t take you long to learn what we like to eat and drink and when so we are going to stay at your house for the 2 months we are back in GR… you know, sorta like a B&B.  Mary if this doesn’t work out for your schedule we can find another time to do something.  Sorry to disappoint you Ellen.

As an added feature to Wrangler Dave’s Tally Log, we are adding Biker Arda’s 2 Cent Corner.  It is not clear how often this will appear but it will be there sometime…

BIKER ARDA’s 2 CENT CORNER:

I can't believe we are here for a week tomorrow. The time has gone so fast... Dave is on his last day of cowboy school already. This week has been just great, with Dave gone all day it gave me a chance to get things organized in the trailer the way I want to..... (How do you like my shoe closet????)

It also gave me a chance to get used to the fact that this is going to be my home for the next year. As much as I love the fact that we are going to travel all year and see this beautiful country of ours, it is still a big adjustment to know that this is your home. I don't think Dave has a problem with this at all, so it must be a woman thing. I do have to say though that it has many advantages too. For example, I started house cleaning at 2.00 pm and was finished at 3.00 pm that included washing all the windows inside and out. Cool eh....It is also amazing to find out that we can do just fine with a lot less space and many less things... But I have also come to the conclusion that I could not live without a coffee pot and a microwave!!!!

All in all there was lots of time left over to get back into biking, and it will even be more fun next week when my butt doesn't hurt anymore.....

Well these are my thoughts and two cents for week one of our adventure...