BARREL RACING & MORE SNOW

Under dark, cloudy skies, the gals started the morning with a horseback version of an obstacle course.  Barrel racing is an exclusively ladies event, that requires a turn around 3 barrels, and lots of coordination between the rider and the horse.  While watching the action yesterday morning, I couldn't help but be amazed at the athleticism, and the speed of these magnificent animals.
  

From a full gallop, to a sudden sharp turn, then back to full speed, is the scenario that's repeated 3 times, as the riders maneuvered their horses around the 3 barrels.  A good time was just above 17 seconds, as Patty and I alternated watching the action.  By 9:30am, all of the ladies had taken a shot at the course, and the winter storm warning hadn't yet delivered anything more than some cool temperatures, and ugly clouds.  When we learned that the only other action scheduled for the morning was a short bit of gold buckle team roping, we decided there was no reason to stay open.  With no spectators, we were lucky to make a couple of sales before everyone disappeared.

OK, now what do we do for the rest of the day?  Sitting in the motor home wasn't an option that I wanted to exercise, so we drove uptown, and stopped at a couple of furniture stores.  We're in the market for a larger coffee table, and we may have found one that we both liked.

We had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, one of our favorite salad bar/soup restaurants, and when we were just about to sit down, we noticed that the white stuff was once again falling from the sky.  All through our meal, we watched the snow come down, causing the parking lot to go from a multi colored gathering of vehicles, to one that was all white.  We're both thinking that we didn't sign up for this when we decided to move from Lake Havasu to Tucson.  This was the third time in just a few weeks, that a dusting of snow has been responsible for turning our landscape white.  I keep looking on the bright side, that when the warmer weather gets here, Tucson won't be quite as hot as Lake Havasu.
 

The 3 slow sales days during the slack competition is now over, and the world famous Tucson Rodeo Parade starts at 9am this morning.  We learned a few days ago, that Gabby Giffords is the parade Grand Marshall.  The rain & snow has stopped, and it's back to rodeo performances for the next 4 days.  With a little bit of luck, we're hoping the bad weather will stay away.