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Published: November 17th 2007
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There is something to be said for having meetings in a beautiful location, because it's hard to get down about having lawyerly discussions when you walk along a peaceful path along a brook to get to them. So although I wasn't raring to go this morning, I did enjoy wandering along by the TPC Stadium Golf Course (yes a PGA course) and by the water of the resort first thing. With breakfast outside the meeting rooms, overlooking the golf course, you just can't complain. The meetings went well this morning, and then it was off to change into my horse ridin' gear. Half of our group would be going out in hummers for a desert tour, and 21 of the bravest opted for a half hour bus ride so that we could ride horses through the desert.
Most of the group decided to wear their cowboy hat gifts that we had delivered to their rooms, which was fun. I had brought a couple of extras along to the bus because I thought that one couple hadn't gotten theirs, so I ended up having to return to the bell desk to have them sent back to my room. The bell captain
was disappointed that I wasn't going to wear mine (I planned on my Devils' baseball cap) and he informed me that there's nothing sexier than a woman in a cowboy hat. Then he asked for my room number - for the delivery of course! It was pretty funny!
Anyway, amazingly, almost everyone got to the buses pretty much on time. I think it helped that we held their lunches captive there - hungry people will show up promptly. Once I gave the okay to go, we headed out of town. The bus ride itself was pretty too - first, we got to see some of the surrounding area and comment on how it's become built up over the past twenty years, and gradually it all faded away until we were left with mountains and desert. I'd seen a lot of it the other day when we drove around, and you start to think that when you've seen one saguaro, you've seen them all, but I was looking forward to seeing the desert on horseback.
We arrived at the ranch and signed our waivers, which can always be touchy with a group of lawyers. One of them checked to
make sure I didn't need any legal advice before signing it, and then we were on our way. I headed out with the first group and almost everyone was at a zero on the horseback riding expertise scale - I was one of the more experienced, having ridden maybe twice in my life and the last time was about two years ago. Luckily, the horses almost don't need a rider, so it was like putting your car on cruise control for the most part. I was riding Ziggy, who was a little bit older and one of the only all white horses. He was very sweet, but reminded me of a basset hound because he was fairly stubborn and it always took him a while to get going. I constantly had to push him to go faster and keep up.
It was a beautiful day though, perfect horseback riding weather, and we wandered around the desert on our horses, looking at the saguaro and learning about the other indigenous flora and fauna, including the prickly pear. I learned that the saguaro cactus takes 60 years to grow a foot - that means it takes five years to grow each
inch! So some of the cacti that we saw were about 350 years old - pretty amazing. Especially because they are literally EVERYWHERE. Ziggy tried to run me right into one - I think he was hoping to knock me off - but I swerved him around with no trouble. I do enjoy horseback riding out here, because you have full (kinda) control over the horse and they do take you up some pretty steep hills, which is neat. The guides showed us a mountain that they said looks like an elephant and pointed out where it's trunk is supposed to be, and how it appears to be lying down atop the hill. It was wonderful to be plodding along and suddenly turn a corner and see a vista of hills and mountains for miles around. We even passed over an old gold mine shaft and listed as the horses hooves echoed deep below us.
Eventually, our ride came to an end and more than one person asked me if they could make fun of the hummer riders for not coming along on what we decided was the "better" tour. I said, of course we could!
After our
ride, we dismounted (with some help) and fed our horses the carrots that had been included in our saddle bags. Ziggy was a big fan of the carrots and wanted to get inside of my bag to see if there were any extras for him. Poor guy seemed hungry - another familiar basset hound trait. I think he was happy to get a break too, so I took a couple of pictures and said my farewells as he headed off to the stables. We then decided to check out some of the other animals while we waited for the second group to return. There were four pot-bellied pigs in an enclosure with what looked like an emu. I agreed with one of the companions when she surmised that the emu looked fairly crafty and we tried to avoid him while we visited with the pigs, who were much friendlier. As we wandered back over to the group and chatted, we suddenly noticed a lone donkey hanging around, just as he noticed us. He decided that maybe we had something he wanted (or maybe he was just being a good host) and started to walk over. I joked that he was
heading right for us, but he actually was heading right for us. He stopped just a few feet from me and let everyone pet him, and seemed to want to have his picture taken, despite the fact that he looked incredibly sad. As we were gathered around him, I noticed a baby donkey in the background. Apparently his name is Roscoe, and he was much more shy than his grey buddy. He let me pet him though, and I took a few pictures of the little guy as well before we had to say our goodbyes and board the bus. All in all, it really was a delightful way to spend the afternoon and everyone genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves. Now, on to Cowboy Ciao for dinner...well after I wash the horse/donkey smell off of me of course!
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