A really cool day!

I started off early this morning toward Durango. I knew it was going to be a good day when I saw two elk and then a cool hawk on the way.

I met five other members of the Senior's Outdoors group at Haviland Lake. We all put on our snowshoes and we were off! It was a beautiful day up in the mountains . . . that high altitude deep blue sky, and the green pine forest. It was a silent walk except for the crunching of our snowshoes in the snow. I was having a blast, enjoying every minute, and then we had to go down this steep slope. It was different from the one I went down a few weeks ago, last time I went snowshoeing. This one has loose powdery snow on it, so that when we stepped down, our snowshoe went about four inches down and sometimes even slipped a little. It was a little scary, but felt like an accomplishment once I got all the way down . . . without falling!

After that, we had some little gentle hills and gradual inclines. I'm not good at hills or inclines . . . and sometimes I could hardly catch my breath. It probably didn't help any that I was at a higher altitude than I was used to . . . I live at seven thousand feet, and this was eight or eighty-five hundred feet. Several times I had to ask to rest for a few minutes . . . but, I had to do what I had to do, and nobody complained.

The last of it was a steep, ungroomed slope with more loose snow (most of the trail we had been on, had been snowshoed before) . . . Warren, the leader, grabbed my hand at the end and helped pull me up. I was tired, but we were on a flat, well-tended road now, and not much farther to go. I made it! We got back to the cars, and Joan handed out these wonderful cookies to everyone. They were like Gatoraid, only better!

Next stop, the Durango jail to visit my friend, Ken, again. Yesterday when I called, I had to ask why the strict restrictions on what you can bring in with you . . . since the prisoners aren't anywhere close to where you are. And the woman . . . she was very nice . . . said it's because they don't want that room all messed up . . . or something like that. I had to stop myself from saying something like . . . that makes sense given the clientele . . . because, really, I WAS one of the clientele!

So, I got there the requisite ten minutes early, but I have to confess that I brought some "contraband" with me. I thought that if I got caught with it, it would make for an interesting read on my blog!! I had stopped at the grocery store on my way to the jail, and picked up some of those valentine heart candies. I stashed them . . . a clear violation of the rules since you are only supposed to bring in your car keys and a government id . . . anyway, I stashed them in the front pocket of my sweatshirt. AND, I got away with it! That is just the most satisfying feeling, I can't tell you!! And I noticed this time on the walls where it said that the whole interview between you and the prisoner is recorded and videotaped! So, somewhere in their archives, they have a video of me sneaking valentine candies, "contraband," into my mouth . . . plus, I have this thing with those valentine candies . . . I'm not allowed to eat them unless I read them, first. You know, they have things written on them, like, "first kiss" or "soul mate" or a new one is "email me" . . . crazy, huh.

So, anyway, back to my visit. I sat in my little cubicle, number three this time, and picked up the phone, and in a minute, I see a concrete wall in front of me, and my time . . . my thirty minutes . . . is ticking away! And Ken isn't even there yet! Bummer. I think two full minutes went by before Ken finally came on the screen. He didn't look as good as last time. I asked him what was wrong, and he said something about them trying to freeze them out that morning or something. But, he had gotten his books in the mail, so that was a good thing. I told him a funny story about something that had happened to me with someone he knew, and then we mostly talked about therapeutic riding business or horses. I told him about my upcoming adventure with horses, and he's anxious to hear about how that goes. And I told him that I was "interviewing" at a place in town to be "working student." Ken thought he had heard about the woman, and he knew all about her horses.

My final adventure for the day was meeting, Jennifer, a horse breeder and trainer. The local college had an option for continuing education with horses. When I inquired about it, they had already stopped the program. But, Jennifer gave me the option of possibly being a "working student." A working student would work around her horse ranch in exchange for lessons and knowledge.

Jennifer was very happy when I told her that I wasn't interested in a career with horses, and just wanted to learn more for when I get my own horse. She teaches primarily English riding and jumping, but wasn't opposed to Western . . . which is the way I ride. Also, she was extremely happy when I told her that my favorite way to ride was bareback! So, it all went very well, and I'll probably start next week.

She did give me one warning, though, that scared me. She said she can't take any responsibility if I fall in love with one of her horses. Knowing what happened with me and Chaco, I know this is a very real possibility! The real bummer, though, is that her high end horses cost thousands of dollars! Yikes!