Ah, isn’t it wonderful when you tell the Airline check-in “Ticket-Jockey” that you hope it snows while you’re away playing in the sunny, warm climes of Arizona… And if there was any silver lining in Champ Car canceling its planned inaugural Phoenix Grand Prix slated for the weekend of Nov. 30-Dec. 2. It had to be missing out on the massive deluge of rainfall which would have surely cancelled qualifying at the very least.
While Washington and Oregon State were declaring emergencies due to 120mph Hurricane blast winds, snowfall, flooding and a massive pelting of precipitation, with 3 to 6+ inches blanketing the coastlines and outlying towns, Bremerton was flooded with a humongous 10.8 inches! Which would certainly help Georgia along with other parts of the south and southwest that are currently experiencing droughts.
Yet Arizona, known as the Valley of the Sun did not escape the storm as it too was hammered by record amounts of rainfall, as fortunately we sat inside listening and watching the sheets of rainfall flooding the entire backyard as gallons of water spilled off the roof, while nearly overflowing the swimming pool! Scottsdale was deluged by a record 3 inches of the wet stuff in a scant half day, breaking the mark that had stood for 25 years…
Alas, as its almost time to return back home to the “Artic” climes of Seattle, things are pleasantly back to normal in the Arizona desert, having just returned from another enjoyable hike out in the North Mountain Preserve, where we ran across the most amazing sight.
Off in the distance against the ridgeline were a vast pack of horses with about 50 saddled stallions being ridden by a group of women. As we continued our hike the posse of horses suddenly reversed course upon us, appearing to be headed back our way. So we attempted to hightail it back to the trail’s heading before we were overtaken by the stampede of prattling women… As we could hear their banter and the sounds of hoof beats as they closed the distance to us. Finally we attempted to take a side trail, yet we were unable to outrun our pursuing posse ‘O saddled mares… And thus we finally had to stop, sitting down upon some discarded concrete blocks while waiting for the entire posse of 50+ female riders to pass us; which is a sight I’ve never seen before… As some of the lady folk even said “Howdy” too us while we were waiting for the heard to pass.
Reaching our vehicle to return home, we were once again cut off by the massive gathering of horses, before we were allowed to pass. Further down the street we encountered “Trailer-City” where both sides of the street as well as every open spot were filled with horse trailers awaiting the return of their precious cargo.
Blending back into traffic we noticed a sign saying “Arizona Cowgirls.” (This way) Ah-Ha! We’d just been overtaken by the Arizona Cowgirls Pardner… But make NO mistake these Arizona Cowgirls had nothing in common with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, as suddenly the Beach Boys tune "I wish they all could be California girls" pops into my head…
