More tales from the road..........

My blogs still have not arrived in Regina, although I am now back home, after a 2,000 km round-trip drive to Regina.  But I have to tell you about lunch on the way in Brooks.  After driving around the town looking for a place to stop, we settled on "Ricky's Grill".  It was immaculate.  Usually, when you go to a franchise grill you encounter grimy and grungy, but even the ketchup and salt and pepper were gleaming.  So were the carpet and the tables.

Watched a huge rig drive into the parking lot and out stepped the trucker.  She turned out to be a hefty young woman, which surprised me, but not really in Alberta.  She was appropriately decked out in trucker duds and I was very impressed. 

 Stepping into the ladies' room, I overhead a "cowgirl" yakking from one stall to her friend in another about how her horse had had the nerve to bite her in the waist the other day when she went to ride him.  "Well, I just hauled off and punched him in the snout," she said.  "Oh, that's how it is, he (presumably the horse) said, and after that he was good as gold."  I see, so that's how you settle down an uppity horse.  Just whack it in the jaw.  As someone very wary of huge horses, I would never, ever have the guts to punch a horse in the face, but apparently it works like a charm. 

Last time I rode a horse I was a teenager.  It was at the Seigneury Club in Montebello, Quebec, when the club was private (now it is a Fairmont, I believe).  We hung aroung with John and Bill Booth (the lumber Booth's) and spent many a fabulous weekend there, squandering Marjorie Booth's money and wreaking "civilized" havoc.  One morning we all went riding.  I was terrified and naturally my horse knew it.  Off we trotted and 10 minutes later he decided he wanted to return to the barn.  Well, he turned around and bounded back with me hanging on for dear life -- screaming!  John had to ride to my rescue, grab the horse and take control.  I am not a woman who ever wants to be a "damsel in distress", but what a disaster. 

Ever since, I have been terrified of horses.  Punching one in the face would not have been an option.

More from Regina later.............