We
woke this morning to the alarm…purposefully.
We had plans and wanted to be showered and ready to leave camp by
10…actually made it out by 9:40 a.m.
----------
Painted Rock update: It’s been over 24 hours since I put my
note and rocks up by the clubhouse and the rocks are still there. Everyone in camp should have had the
opportunity to see it by now, so that makes me think that the rock painter has
left the park already. I’ll wait another
day or so before I remove my note, just to be sure. Anyway, I’m glad the rock painter’s time at
the Picacho KOA coincided with our stay here…I had fun with it. 👍
----------
On
Wednesday when we came through Superior, AZ, I saw a banner advertising The
Apache Leap Mining Festival, being held in Superior March 16-18. A particular item on the banner caught my
eye…I told Kim about it and we agreed it would be fun to go see if the timing
worked out. Checked it out online and
found out that the parade started at 10 a.m. but chihuahua race didn't start until noon. Couldn't make it for the parade but we were going to be there for the dog race! Superior is 60 miles away…if we were taking
the bikes we needed to give ourselves plenty of time to get there and scope out
the scene. That’s right…we planned to ride 60 miles to a small town festival specifically to watch some chihuahuas
race! We assumed it was all about little
dogs racing each other but weren’t sure about the how and the where. So it was important to be a bit early to find
parking and then find where this race was being held.
 |
| The race track on Main Street |
The
track was maybe 20 feet in length with two lanes side by side and two judges
sitting at the far end of the track…in case, there was any doubt as to which
dog won, the judges’ decision would be final.
Owners could be positioned on either end of track…keep arms, legs and
all treats behind the duct tape, please.
This year it was a double elimination slate…7 dogs, 12 races with a
run-off race if necessary. A run-off wasn’t
necessary because ‘Penny’ blew the competition away! She knew her ‘momma’ and wasted no time in
racing to her every single time! All ‘contestants’ got a consolation prize and
the winner received a monetary prize. Penny didn’t look like a purebred chihuahua
but who
am I to question that.😉
 |
| Selfie time with Penny the champ! |
----------
After
the race, there was a group photo…only 4 dogs/owners stuck around for it. Not only did I get that picture but I got a
selfie with Penny and her 'team'. Cha-ching!!
----------
After
the dog race, we found a food vendor selling fry bread tacos, one of my
favorite southwestern meals. So we found
a couple of open chairs and ate lunch with a former mayor and his Uncle Milo,
who worked in the mines his whole life.
We compared small town experiences and Arizona vs. Michigan
weather. The former mayor was in office
for about 14 years and owns/runs a local grocery store started by his family
back in the early 1900s . With a smile, Uncle
Milo said his nephew got kicked out of office but it was explained that he
actually lost the election due to some concern about high water/electrical
bills. He claims there’s no bitterness,
that’s how elections go.
----------
Next
up was the mining competition, starting at 1 p.m.--held behind the Bob Jones
Museum. This event also draws a crowd. There were four areas of
skill competition…1) using a bow saw to cut through a 4x6 timber, 2) pounding 3 sixty penny spikes into a timber, 3) mucking, and 4) drilling in a rock. There were 21
competitors…19 men of various ages and 2 young women. It was an individual
competition except for the mucking…it required a team of 2. Not only were there ‘locals’, some of whom
appeared to have actual mining experience, but there were also 6 or 7 students,
women included, from the University of Arizona mining program.
----------
Both
Kim and I watched the timber cutting skill and I have to say that one of the
women, Sarah, kicked ass in that category.
Then came the spike pounding skill…all contestants were to use a miner’s
axe with the men required to pound 3 sixty penny spikes and the women 2 forty penny
spikes. Kim wandered off about 5
competitors in because his legs needed to stretch. Plus he wasn’t all that
interested in watching 21 people pound nails into boards. I stayed because I wanted to watch Sarah
compete but also because it got interesting…one of those nails had to be driven
into an overhead beam. Not an easy task
as it turns out, especially when you’re in a competition and your arms are
already tired from cutting wood. But it’s
especially difficult if you only have one hand.
A local competitor named AJ had two arms but only one hand…woman behind
me said that he was born that way and that he hasn’t let that stop him from
pursuing whatever he wants to do. I didn’t
notice his handicap when he was using the saw but it became more evident when
pounding nails. Anyway, I left about
halfway through the nail pounding, before Sarah competed because my legs needed
stretching at that point. The
competition went on without me.
----------
As I was watching the mining competition, I was
also listening to the crowd. And I realized
that today was all about small town fun at its best. There was good food and good music…friendly
competition…family and friends calling out to one another…strangers engaging
each other in conversation…encouraging words shouted to all who competed in the
mining competition. This was about
Superior celebrating itself and mining, which is a way of life in this region.
----------
Rode
back into Florence and decided to take the Tom Mix Highway out to Park Link
Road, then hit the frontage road back to camp.
The weather was sunny and in the 60s, maybe low 70s. No bicycle ride today…just too wore out by the
time we got back to camp.
----------
Bike miles today: 158
No comments:
Post a Comment