On to Phoenix

When I wrote the blog last night I stated that the wind had lessened to some extent, well, that wasn't for long!! It blew all night long, we were awake off and on, Michael got up at 4am, put his clothes on and went outside to find whatever was banging. He came back inside, got back in bed but fifteen minutes later he was up again and said, "let's go." He loaded the motorcycle and other miscellaneous things like chairs in the dark and I scurried around and got the inside ready. We were packed up and out of there in about an hour. The wind was much lighter as we left. We got to Phoenix and WestWorld about 10am.

We have friends renting a home for 3 months in the Scottsdale area of Phoenix and we wanted to be near them. Our friends Jeane and Steve also were arriving today from Montana and renting a house for a week. When we got on the internet looking for a place to stay in this area, we found two regional county parks and this WestWorld, a equestrian center that has RV sites. The county parks are extremely full this time of year and difficult to get into. I called WestWorld and they took a reservation. When we arrived today, we were amazed at the size and complex nature of this facility. It is over 300 acres with arenas, restaurant, stall barns, event buildings and a bunch of RV spots. While it is located in Scottsdale just off busy Highway 101, it is relatively quiet. Lots of room to walk the Jazzy dog, too.

Our friends Gwen and Arch ride and have trained reining horses and as a wonderful coincidence, were attending a reining horse competition this weekend here at WestWorld. Reining horses are ridden in prescribed patterns then the horses are stopped very quickly with the horse sliding its rear legs underneath its body. It is amazing to watch the quickness and grace of this animals and their riders. We spent the afternoon enjoying the competition. Jeane and Steve arrived late afternoon after fighting absolutely horrible snow storms all the way into Arizona, it was 25 degrees at the Grand Canyon this morning with horrible wind.

This is a photo of one of the patterns where the horse and rider turn in very quick tight circles. This horse had a very long white mane that flew out as he turned.

Sliding to a stop

It is great to be back in this area and to be seeing Montana friends.