cowboy day . . .horses . . .and sunshine!

Mark and Laura are both out of town . . .and I had the day to myself . . .so I decided to do something new and different. I had seen an ad in the paper for Cowboy day in Columbiana, a town about 40 minutes or so from my house. Now remember . ..I'm a city girl through and through so the thought of seeing cowboys and horses up close sounded like a great idea. As soon as I parked, two horses "greeted" me. So of course, I took their picture. The problem is that when I have my camera, I tend to look up and around all those horses I had to remember to look down. Luckily, I have a keen sense of smell so I usually "smelled" and knew to look down.

This was my first stop and I had to laugh out loud. Back in the "day" (back when I was a young single woman!) there was a bar in downtown Birmingham and I cannot remember the name of that bar . . .but the bar had a mechanical bull. I believe that I tried to ride it once. So imagine my surprise when I walked up to the mechanical bull and it was located in an inflatable pool sort of thing and there were little boys lined up to ride the bull! Actually, smart idea to have all that padding around in case someone took a tumble from the bull. Needless to say, I didn't ride the bull today.

oh my goodness, I have always loved these Indians. Doesn't he look distinguished against that gorgeous blue sky?

They even had a replica of a stage coach. I always thought it would be so cool to ride in one of those. I wonder if I would get "car sick" in a stage coach???

This was something new for me to see. This man (farrier?) was making a horseshoe. He heated it and then beat it into shape and then he would dip it into a water bucket and it would hiss and steam. Pretty interesting process.

Lots of horseshoes. . . .for horses . . ..not for playing a game. Remember . . . city girl . . .

This demonstration was also new to me. I think this lady is a cowgirl (???) . . .she was making rope from scratch. I love her face. It has such character, don't you think? I'll bet that she has lived an interesting life on a farm.

here she is with the finished product. It looked very strong!!

I thought that the next two exhibits were interesting - all different kinds of barbed wire and

all sorts of tools . . .do I know what they are? Are you kidding? I've never seen most of these before.

Of course, there couldn't be a cowboy day without a Hillbilly Cafe . . .I didn't eat any food but

look what they were serving - huge funnel cakes and fried catfish and fried chicken fingers and fried shrimp and homemade potato chips. I'm glad that I don't know the lady . . .she would kill me for this picture - I think that I caught her saying something to a customer.

This was one of the most interesting food items . . .roasted corn served with the "greenery" (I know that they are husks). Ronnie looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him to stop eating so that I could take a picture of his corn!!

It was great seeing a couple of friends today. Emily is in the middle and she is a cancer survivor and we are so glad!!!! Shawn is on the right and we are standing in her trailer. She was one of the vendors at Cowboy Day.

Shawn is the proprietor of Barn Brat - she sells all kinds of stuff (tack!) - like saddles and pants and she even sells cute jewelry!!

This is Shawn's little girl and her two friends and they are all wearing some of the Barn Brat merchandise. They would make a cute "commercial"!!

Look at this cowboy. He was a roping machine! It was amazing to watch him. He could twirl that rope all around him. Look at his boots.

Look at that blue sky. I was amazed that my camera caught the rope in the air in the middle of a loop!

There were animals other than horses.

I saw all sorts of carts pulled by horses and ponies. This cowboy even waved! (he then said, "did you get it?" and grinned! I guess I looked like a city slicker holding my camera standing there on the side of the road!

Look at this cute little green cart pulled by a pony.

There were whole families including little babies on horseback.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot, this little pony drawn cart came flying through the parking lot - it was going unbelievably fast!! The only thing I didn't see today was a surrey with the fringe on the top!!

As you can see from the pictures, it was a gorgeous day outside. I just happened to glance at the dashboard on the way home and saw that the temp was already 72 degrees - I think it was at least five degrees hotter later in the day. We've had snow four times or so since Christmas and today it was in the high 70's. Mark always says that is the good thing about living in Alabama. If you don't like the weather one day . . .just wait, it will change. And yes, I now have over 100,000 miles on my trusty explorer. I told Mark that it has now become a challenge - I want to see how long trusty Sylvia the silver explorer will last!

What a wonderful day . . .I ended it with a trip to 2nd and Charles, which is an amazing used bookstore. Wow! I also made a trip to Joann's Fabrics/Craft store. Now I'm ending my day alone by watching chick flicks and enjoying every minute of them!!


I forgot one thing . . .this picture doesn't really show how large he was . . .but there was a giant hawk sitting on this wire and I was on my way home and just grabbed the camera off the front seat and snapped. He was watching and waiting!