Saturday, March 5...Walking In Rhythm (The Blackbyrds)

     I knew that Coolidge Cotton Days was happening this weekend.  So last night I went online to see what the schedule of events was going to be.  Since we’d been there before we knew there would be a car show, fair rides, and some food opportunities.  But I was looking to see what stage events they might be having.  I never got that far into my search because I got distracted by the possible adventure of a 5K run/walk.  I thought it was odd that it stated a 2 p.m. starting time since most races are in the morning but oh, well, who was I to quibble?    

   Kim was on board with it so I registered us at about 9:30 p.m. last night and then found another page that stated that registration opened at 7 a.m. with the race starting at 7:30 and oh, by the way, parking is limited.  Yikes!  There are two times listed here so how do we play this?  Paid our money so we better show up for the 7:30 time and if it’s different we’ll come back. Okay…so it’s less than a half hour drive there but we don’t know where we’re going so let’s figure on an extra 15 minutes to find the place, find parking and then get back in time to make sure we’re all set with registration. So that’s 40 - 45 minutes…means we should leave no later than 6:30. What time should I set the alarm for, Kim?  When he said 5:45 a.m., I seriously questioned the wisdom of my impulsiveness. We tend to be night owls not early risers but, as I’ve learned, ‘we can do hard things’ so I set the alarm and tried not to think about how soon it was going off.

   Turns out it’s still fairly dark out at 5:45 a.m. but a commitment is a commitment so we hauled our butts out of bed to get ready.  Coolidge is not a big town so we found the starting point easy enough and bonus! there was parking right there.  So we got our race numbers and still had plenty of time to talk to other participants in line for the bathroom.  We were called to line up, the route was explained, we had to wait for a truck and trailer to get out of our way and then we were off. 

   On our everyday walks we don’t time ourselves but we have a general idea of how far we’ve each walked.  This morning I asked if we could set a goal of doing it under an hour not knowing if it was something I could even do.  Game on!!

   Kim set our pace and I had to walk faster than I normally do but that wasn’t a bad thing.  We even jogged a couple of times but not for any great distance…mostly just to see if we could.  Anyway, I’m pleased to report that we finished the 5K walk in 56:45, accomplishing our goal.👍

   There were participant medals for the first 50 to cross the finish line and since there were only 40 signed up we all got a medal.  Ours are hanging up in the camper.

   As we stood around waiting for the awards, Kim struck up a conversation with a fellow participant who has dabbled with running throughout his life.  My mind wandered and  I realized that I had just completed a brisk 3+ mile walk on a Saturday morning at about the same time as I would normally be getting up, give or take.  Now what to do with the rest of my day?  Besides take a nap, that is.

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   Today’s 40 Days of Lent challenge: Cook  dinner for someone.  This one required some creativity.  It’s just Kim and I here; we cook for each other daily so there’s no challenge in that and inviting someone over is problematic due to the size of our camper.  It’s big enough for three and after that the table area gets a little cramped.   So we’d have to sit outside at the mercy of the weather.  Think, think, think….

   Kim came up with a workable solution quite inadvertently.  We were going for breakfast after the 5K

run/walk and he spontaneously invited the gentleman we’d been talking with after the race.  Irwin graciously accepted and for the next hour we sat in a very crowded restaurant (Tag’s Café) talking and sharing a meal with him.  Later Kim said, “Well, we didn’t cook him a meal but we bought it, does that count?”  I asked him if he did that simply to fulfill the challenge. His answer was an emphatic “No!  I just thought it’d be interesting to continue our conversation with him.” And so it was.

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   Kim wore his new Texas sized straw hat for the race.  It does a great job of keeping the sun off his eyes but is noticeably bigger than a typical hat.  As Irwin, Kim and I were walking toward the restaurant, not paying attention, we crossed against the light making a truck stop as we did so.  When Kim realized what we were doing he turned back to apologize to the man who said, “No problem!  Any man who looks like Charlie Daniels is all right by me!”  Don’t know that Kim looks like Charlie Daniels but the beard and the hat don’t hurt the illusion.

   As we were preparing to leave the restaurant a gentleman came over to comment on Kim’s hat…that cowboys and rangers used to wear big hats like his.  He also said that there was a time when it was possible to tell where a person was from simply by the way they wore their hat…low or high on the head, tipped forward or backward,  etc.  

   I wasn’t aware of that but figured Google might know something about it.  Sure enough, among the cowboy hat trivia I read was this statement: “distinct hat styles emerged by region”.  Also chuckled a bit at this: “All hat and no horse,” has become a common phrase in recent decades, referring to the fact that there are many people throughout traditional cowboy territory who like the idea of playing cowboy but have no cattle or horses to account for, in effect all talk, but lacking action.  Since Kim has no cattle or horses, he might fall under this category.  However, I don’t think he’s pretending to be a cowboy…the hat protects his eyes better and is lighter on his head than a ball cap.    

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   Kim saw a roadrunner wandering around while I was in Walgreen’s.  He pointed it out and I sprang

into action with my camera.  I’ve learned that taking pictures of roadrunners is tricky because they move fast; video is usually a better option.  Got a little of both today.  It seemed apprehensive about how to get where it wanted to be which was across the access road.  I was able to get pictures of it sneaking into the open…then got video as it proceeded to sneak up to the road and then crossed when the traffic cleared but then seemed stymied by the fence on the other side.  Finally flew up to the top of the fence then after a few seconds, jumped into the air to land on the other side where it happily ran out of view of my camera. 

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   Later in the afternoon we traded cards in the trail cameras and then headed back to Coolidge to check out Cotton Days.  I wanted to get a taco on fry bread and there are usually stage events that are fun to watch.   

   Just as we were finishing our tacos a band started doing a sound check. We wandered over to check it out.  It was a local group called The RJ Band. They were very good and played a variety of music genres…R & B, Classic Rock, Latino, and Country Music.  We watched them until Kim got chilled from the breeze and had to move about.  Bought a funnel cake and then headed back to camp.

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   No bike ride today and no imaging tonight.  The star alignment wasn’t going very well and Kim said it was too windy and cool out there to fuss with it.  It seems a good night to go to bed early…we are both yawning and there will be no alarms set.