HORSE'N AROUND

Monday morning began at the Tucson Rodeo grounds, our 14th day of dry camping without any water or electrical hookups. After I got the scooter loaded onto the rack at the back of the motor home, we drove down the street to Lazy Days RV park, and checked in. Oh No, "the water is turned off for the entire park" was the admonition from the person behind the counter. She thought it would be back on around 2pm, and thankfully, we still had water in our fresh water tank. Patty wanted to get started on our mountain of laundry, but it would have to wait.

Like whirling durbishes, we both attacked the inside of the motor home that had become a bigger dust bowl than the mid west of the 1930's. After a couple of hours, everything was back to normal, and we both felt a lot better. The outside will have to wait, but I did get over to the quarter car wash, and the jeep is also back to it's normally clean self.

Marc called to remind me that Laila had another horseback riding lesson at 3:30, and when the water was turned back on at 2:30, I took Patty and the mountain of dirty clothes over to the Laundromat. She started 3 washers full of clothes, only to discover that in just a few minutes, the water had been turned back off. Swell, now there were 3 loads of wet clothes that were still dirty.

While Patty was dealing with that problem, and was waiting for a friend to arrive, I drove to the stables, and along with Chandra, watched Laila ride Magic for about a half hour. I think this was her 4th lesson, and she has learned how to use the reins, and according to her instructor, has a pretty good kick to get the horse moving. A small child on a big horse can be a bit intimidating at first, but Laila was pretty much in control. When the instructor got Magic to trot, Laila was still trying to master posting, where the rider alternately stands and sits in rhythm with the animal. She did let go with both hands, which was a progression in her learning to be more comfortable on the horse.

The wind was blowing pretty good yesterday, so the dust was getting in all of our eyes, but Laila was pretty focused on what she was doing. When the lesson was over, I said adios, and that Patty and I would be over to the house in an hour or so.

When I got back to the motor home, Patty's friend Joan, and her husband Ted, who live outside of Tucson, were visiting. They were reminiscing about their first meeting on the trail at the Grand Canyon this past summer, and we shared some of our stories about traveling to varied places like Alaska. When Sami started her feed me dance, we knew the visit with Joan & Ted was about to end, as we had to be back at Marc & Chandra's, where we were going to head out somewhere for dinner.

We gathered up all of the wet clothes, Patty got her quarters back from the office, and we drove over to see our kids, and granddaughter for one last time. We had dinner at Buddy's, a restaurant close by that we've eaten at before. After dinner, we said our goodbyes, got big hugs, and firmed up our next visit to Tucson in about 4 weeks, when we'll be picking up Laila during her Easter vacation. She knows that she's going somewhere with us, but the destination is still a secret. Should be lots of fun with all of the attractions in the San Diego area.

This morning, after we turn the wet, dirty clothes back into clean, dry clothes, we're heading to Yuma for the Gypsy Journal RV Rally, where we'll be meeting our buddy Nancy, who's towing her 5th wheel trailer down from Merced, CA.