Well... I made it to Missouri then Ohio back to Missouri and home again all in one piece! Yippppeee!!!

Mary and I had a BLAST on our trip! Everyone should make the trip to Columbus, Ohio in October for the Quarter Horse Congress at least once in their lifetime. It goes on for 3 weeks and is non-stop! It is the 3rd largest gathering of people in the U.S. behind the republican and democratic conventions. Mary found out this little tidbit of info from the vet tech while she was waiting on her horse to be drug tested after one of her runs.... Yes, DRUG tested! Mary didn't have anything to worry about because 'Wimpy' isn't a 'druggie'. But, none the less it kinda gummed us up for the rest of the day. It was the day it rained, and rained and rained some more...when Mary and Wimpy finally made it back to the barn they were both soaked. Mary tried to tell the Vet that she had left her mother-in-law unattended way to long and needed to get back to her. That she really didn't have time for all this unnecessary waste of her time. No one cared. They obviously didn't realize the danger of leaving me unattended!

Now let me back track... I left Florence Tuesday a little before 1pm and got to Cape Girardeau, MO between 5 and 5:30. I met Mary at Target we bought a few things we needed for our trip and then went to Qdoba's for supper. I'd never been to Qdoba's but I really liked it. Fast food Mexican prepared like at subway...right in front of you! Really good stuff! We headed on up to their house in Oak Ridge and started packing the trailer and truck for our trip. Mary set the alarm for 4am Wednesday morning! We were up and on the road by 5am. Is anyone besides me impressed by that? I thought so! When we woke Matt up to tell him goodbye he just muttered something about 'did you get your horse?' That's my boy....... We made it to Columbus by mid afternoon and soon found out what chaos really means..... Horses everywhere. People everywhere. Golf carts everywhere. Trucks everywhere. Trailers everywhere. The people in the stall office said, "just find a vacant stall and use it, call us and let us know your stall # when you find one." Did I mention the word chaos? Camper parking.... Mary's trailer has a living quarters so that was our home for the duration of the Congress. We parked, unhooked and had trouble with the electric. Had an electician come out and fix that, then we found a better place to park and hook up and we moved. This place was right beside our barn. We were lucky to find it! We went to bed early and got up at 2am for Mary to ride in the coliseum. The arena was open for the barrel racers from like 1am to 6am. Thursday was her first run. Thursday the ground was horrible and horses were not just slipping but they were falling all the way down. It was scary. No, not just scary it was SCARY!!! I felt certain that Wimpy would handle the ground well because of her turning style but I was still very nervous. She did great! Mary was a little apprehensive ( I totally understand) and didn't 'push' her. Her time was good but not good enough. We were both pleased that Wimpy nor Mary got injured because of the ground. After the barrel race it was off to shop at the trade show. We were just scoping things out and getting ready for the "moonlight madness sale" at Rod's Western Wear later that night. Mary is more of a shopper than me.... she found some good buys. Me, I bought stuff for Zane! SURPRISE! Despite the fact that there wasn't much baby stuff there. I bought some boots for me, Mary and Kelly. The girls have to wait 'til Christmas for theirs. I'm so mean. Friday was the rainy day. The rainy, drug testing day. Mary had another good run but was just out of the money. Friday night Rachel got there. It was so much fun hanging out with her too!

Tomorrow..... more about our trip. Here are a few photos. Enjoy!

Baby Girl... Mary's 3 month old Corgi! Our little travel buddy...

Mary riding in the coliseum in the middle of the night...

The Midway...between the Coliseum and Celeste Arena. All the action was in these two buildings. Anything and everything to eat. Outrageous prices. Amazing aromas. Nothing that qualified as healthy eating....

Mary, making a run....