Santa Fe for the Day

 

Jem, Jen and I drove up to Santa Fe on Saturday to explore The City Different and the original Mile High City. We were also planning on doing some Letterboxing.

(An artistic door near the Plaza)

 

We’ve been Letterboxing for almost 4 years now. One of the goals we made last New Years Eve was to reach 300 Boxes Found by the end of 2010. Last January we were at 241 Letterboxes found, and as of today we are just 4 boxes away from our goal. Woohooo!

(Some musical art in front of an Art Gallery on the Plaza)

During our visit to Santa Fe on Saturday we only found 3 boxes, mainly because we didn’t even leave our house until after lunchtime. I keep forgetting that it gets pitch black dark by 5:30pm. bah!

(Some equine art near the Plaza)

Next time we head up to Santa Fe, we’ll leave in the morning, so we have more time. We still had a great visit, although one letterbox we searched for seemed to have gone missing, and for the last letterbox we tried to find, we got there right at dusk, and it was getting too dark for us to even read the clues, much less hike into the woods peering myopically into the darkness.

(A bison on the famous Scenic Turquoise Trail)

Still, the letterboxes we did find provided us some unique and entertaining photo opportunities……..

(An interesting architectural installation near the Indian Art Museum and Folk Art Museum)

(A caprine art sculpture near the Wheelwright Museum)

 

(A quirky art piece located near the Folk Art Museum)

(A magnificent art sculpture located in front of the Indian Art Museum)

 

And best of all on the way home, we always drive on the scenic Turquoise Trail, which scoots us right through the historic, eclectic, artsy town of Madrid, which is famously known as Christmas Town every year during December.

We had the extreme pleasure of following behind an old stagecoach pulled down the beautifully decorated street, by a pair of handsome draft horses.

Really made me smile and was the perfect way to end another wonderful day exploring New Mexico.

 

Harvey Wallbanger, Jr

 

Harvey is a 2,600lb handsome, gentle bison. You can read more about him and the first Harvey Wallbanger HERE.

Getting to see Harvey and meet T.C Thorstenson, his owner/trainer has been a small dream of mine. So I was very excited to discover that they were going to be in my neighborhood, less than 10 mins from my house.

I was thrilled to be able to get so close to this mighty bison and speak personally with TC Thorstenson as we walked together toward the show arena.

His breath smelled a lot like my mare’s…..sweet hay breath.

Then the show began. TC showed everyone how he side passes with Harvey.

And how he is able to get a 2,600lb behomoth to back up quicker than my own 1,100lb mare will do for me.

 TC shared a playful moment showing how a tame bison could be used to keep a man warm during a bitter cold Wyoming snow storm.

They tried to light this hoop on fire, but the wind wouldn’t cooperate and kept blowing it out. So Harvey and TC jumped through it when it was just partially lit, which was still very impressive.

At one time bison roamed from Canada to Mexico and numbered approximately 60 million. But in the late 1800’s, bison were on their way to extinction. Since then, the public has realized what an important part of American history the bison are. And ranchers and breeders have recognized the obvious economic potential of bison, and have expanded their efforts to preserve, protect and reestablish the American Bison.

 

The National Bison Association estimates approx. 150,000 buffalo in public and private herds currently in the United States. Of these animals the federal government manages approx. 6,000 and tribal authorities at least 5,000. A small number of buffalo are managed by city and state governments but 90% are owned and managed by private entrepreneurs. The largest public herd (approx. 4,500) is in Yellowstone National Park, and the three largest private herds are owned by the Houck family of Pierre, SD, Turner Enterprises and Durham Ranches, Inc.

 

Pretty amazing, eh? I remember reading somewhere a while back how ironic it would have been, if instead of choosing to ride horses and herd cattle, we would have chosen to ride cattle and herd horses.

Seems silly, I know, but when you meet an intelligent, strong, fast, and powereful animal like a bison, it actually makes sense. Did you know that TC trained the first Harvey Wallbanger to do team roping events as a Heeler? And he was good at it, even outshining the horse-riding cowboys.

And TC also raced his first Harvey Wallbanger….yes, against horses. His bison easily won by two and half lengths! And his total record of winning was 76 out of 92 races all across North America!

Makes me wonder why we didn’t domesticate bison before horses. Probably because horses are prettier, easier to mount, and fit a saddle to. haha!

TC also enjoys mounted shooting off of his ginormous bison.

 

And TC can get his big friend ready for bed and tuck him in at the end of the day, too.

 

At the end of the show, TC invited us to come over and give Harvey some scratches and have our photos taken.

Harvey was so calm, gentle and soft. What a sweetie. And what an immense honor. wow.

 

 

From the Tower of,

A Little Sass!

 

Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) that is. Over the weekend, I attended a local event here in the mountains, called End of Trail, hosted by SASS at the Founders Ranch, only about 10 minutes from my home.

Over the next couple days, I’d like to share some of the photos and experiences my son, Jem and I had there. End of Trail is the nation’s oldest and largest Cowboy Action Shooting Contest and Wild West Festival, with live entertainment, shows, music, stage coach rides, Living History Encampments, Equestrian events, Exhibits like the Gatling Gun, a Shooting Range, lots of great food, and tons of western merchandise to buy.

(Like this bison coat, for only $1400, that Jem and I tried on.)

(Ummm. My son looks a little like a pimp, don’t you think? What a poser. lol!)

(Shooeee! That coat was hot!)

But most of all, SASS’s End of Trail Event is an opportunity for over 1000 SASS members, dressed in authentic or replica dress from the 1800’s, to compete for prizes and fame in different shooting categories.

(Like these two guys practicing their gun twirling)

(And these two cowboys discussing the mounted shooting event planned for later on……how do I know this? Well, I met the guy on the right and we got to talkin’.)

(Jem said the cowboy on the right reminded him of The Old Prospector in the movie “Toy Story”. What do you think?)

Cowboy Action Shooting is a sport in which shooters compete in fantasy scenarios based on actual events from history, Western movies and Western TV series. Designed to preserve the history of the Old West, competitors (men, women and juniors) must use authentic or replica single action revolvers, lever action rifles and old-time shotguns of the period.

As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed the many different kinds of period style clothing that the SASS members and some of the visitors wore, too.

But that’s not all we saw and experienced while we were there.

We saw roping tricks.

Knife throwing tricks.

 

Hat tricks.

Horse tricks.

And even Bison tricks from the famous Harvey Wallbanger Jr.!

We had a lot of laughs.

And I mean….a lot!

We had the opportunity to ride in uniquely decorated vehicles.

We got to see some fancy shooting (of water balloons).

And Jem was invited to volunteer for a bull whip trick. (He was next!)

 

And some rope twirling, too.

We enjoyed some delicious meat-stuffed sopapillas with green chile while listening to some good Western music entertainment.

 And we made some new friends, too.

Come back soon to learn more about Harvey Wallbanger, Jr. and his owner T.C Thorstenson, in my next post.

From the Tower of,