What an adventure...

Yikes -- missed two days from blogging. It was quite the weekend! Took a day off from training to go to a festival in a town a couple hours away.

Friday night, the three interns (Heather, Sasha, and I) were hoping to drive up to Dulce, NM for the 55th Annual Little Beaver Jicarilla Apache Festival. Unfortunately, we had a little mishap with the directions and took the wrong road towards the freeway -- right into a thunderstorm. Oops... We ended up getting caught in the storm and being unable to go that night. I now have a new appreciation for paved roads... :)

The sky is starting to clear -- too bad the roads were still all muddy!

Saturday morning, we left again. This time we went the right way and made it up to Dulce without complications - yay! We made it just in time for the parade, which was just starting up as we parked.

We also went over to the pow wow and listened to singing and watched the gourd dancers. Ate so much fair food...fry bread, curly fries, amazing lemonade. We definitely felt a little sick afterwards :) In the afternoon, we went to watch the rodeo. I have very mixed feelings about rodeos... Seems a little crazy. I have a certain degree of respect for cowboys/cowgirls for the skill it takes to do what they do, but the animal welfare issue kind of overrides that. Especially in the events involving poor calves who are scared out of their brains and just trying to run for their lives. At least the bucking broncos are actually tame horses trained to buck.

The drive back from Dulce was...not quite so smooth. It had rained in Dulce in the afternoon when we were watching the rodeo, and Pat and John warned us that they had gotten a good inch of rain that afternoon as well. About 5 miles before we got home, we reached a low point in the road where water was flowing and it was questionably safe to cross. So, what other choice did we have? We parked the car along the side of the road, grabbed our stuff and started hiking. Made it home about 2 hours later after walking through a ton of sludgy muck and one flowing creek going through the middle of the road. Phew. What an adventure.

This morning, John and I went back to get the car, and on the way back I got stuck in some mud - again! Luckily John was able to pull me out and we made it back home in one piece. At least now I've learned how to drive in mud...if I ever need that skill again in my life.

Training today went well. After a day off and a long night, it was tough getting back into the routine. Sasha and I ended up taking a nap after breakfast since we were pretty pooped. Started training around 1 PM. It was Sasha's last day here at Mustang Camp today, so later in the afternoon, Sasha, Heather, and John saddled up to go for a ride. Unfortunately, shortly after they left, the winds started picking up, it started sprinkling, and yet another thunderstorm rolled in and that marked the end of the day for anything productive happening anymore...

Luckily, I was able to finish my training session with Spot and snap a picture of him right as it started sprinkling. Look how smart he is!

Spot "stationing" on his mat