Denver, CO

Since Ace and I have been back in South Texas (aka home), I haven't written any rodeo related posts, as the winter was pretty calm.  Throughout this past summer, we enjoyed traveling throughout the West Coast and loved exploring every state we entered.  I dropped a pin at every city that we visited (for a rodeo or just as tourists).  The following map depicts the approximate 24,000 miles and 13 states that we visited from June 2014 - September 2014.

After the summer run, Ace had a little downtime from rodeos.  He started working at the family business, Slone Saddles, and I started working at a local dental office.  After a little time off, Ace started roping again in November and decided to try out a new pair of boots at practice.  Unfortunately, the boots weren't quite broken in enough and caused a bad get-off, which resulted in a strained hamstring.  On top of the injury, Ace forgot to enter the Denver rodeo before the books closed.  He blames it on working under a tin roof and not getting his rodeo reminder text messages.... I'll let that excuse slide this time (but only because it led us on a wild Christmas adventure)!

We had been back and forth with Christmas plans trying to include visiting with both of our families and being able to travel to Denver - if his hamstring allowed for it. 

On Christmas Eve, we traveled to Boerne and Tyler Driskill (Owner/Executive Director of Driskill Films)  took the most beautiful family pictures.  If you're in need of a brilliant photographer, check out his site:  www.DriskillFilms.com

On Christmas Day, I spent time with my family in Shiner and Ace was with his family in Boerne.  In the afternoon, Ace got in a quick practice session and made the call for us to head to Denver.  I left Shiner at about 7 pm and headed to Boerne.  At about 10 pm, we hit the road for Denver, CO. We drove through the night and made it to "Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone..."  In our delirious state of no sleep, we thought this line was the perfect motto for our all-night drive.  We stopped at What-a-Burger to get breakfast, since we knew we wouldn't find any in Colorado!

Once we got to Dalhart, TX we stopped for some wood shavings and got some hay for Mexico.  The lack of sleep caught up to us and we started running into a snowstorm, but we kept on hauling.  

We stopped to eat lunch in Aguilar, CO at a neat little cafe and warmed up with some hot cocoa.  

We were both exhausted, so we pulled into a nearby truck stop to sleep for a bit.  Ace awoke quickly and was frightened at the sight of his steering wheel in front of him.  He thought he had fallen asleep at the wheel!  This had given us both enough of an adrenaline rush to keep moving towards Denver.  We hit the road and ran into more snow but finally made it to Denver about 6 pm on the 26th.  After getting Mexico situated in a stall at the arena, we went into downtown Denver to our hotel.  We were both so thankful for a warm place to stay!  

On Saturday morning, we woke up at 5:30 am to a very chilling 4 degree Denver.  We had breakfast at the Butcher Block Cafe, one of Ace's usual dining spots when he is in Denver.  After breakfast we headed to the arena and got ready for the qualifier.

Click HERE to watch Ace's first run
(I let out a huge sigh of relief that Ace's hamstring didn't hinder his run)

After Ace roped we went back to our hotel and rested for a bit.  We watched a movie and searched for some Groupon deals for dinner.  We walked around downtown Denver and had an early dinner at Rialto Cafe.  I was so excited to experience my first White Christmas!  The snow was absolutely magical... and freezing cold!  Definitely a new experience for this South Texas gal!

After dinner, we went to the arena to feed Mexico and get him situated for the night. 

On Sunday morning, we woke up a little later since Ace was a little further down.  

 Click HERE to watch Ace's second run

After his run, we got checked out of our hotel, loaded the trailer and started driving toward home.  We had talked about possibly making a ski trip on our route home, but hadn't made definite plans yet.  I had some college friends staying in Ruidoso, NM and we considered making that our plan - as long as we could make arrangements for Mexico.  

We got to Ruidoso around 1:30 am and got Mexico situated at a small local ranch. Since it was really late, we decided to sleep in the truck rather than pay for a hotel room.  The next morning, we went to the Sitzmark Chalet Inn and met up with our friends, Rasha and Max.  I hadn't seen Rasha for months in Texas, but got to meet up with her in New Mexico - Funny how that works!

Thankfully, Rasha and Max borrowed me some ski pants and gloves and Ace and I headed for the slopes.

It was my first time skiing and it was definitely a fun but somewhat frustrating experience.  My first time getting off the lift resulted in a face plant.  Before we got to the bottom of the bunny slope, I had crashed three times.  We caught the lift two more times and I hadn't fallen again, so Ace decided we should take the lift to the top of the mountain.  Such confidence he has in me!

We got fairly close to the top when our lift had a mechanical malfunction and left us stranded 10 ft away from the get-off area.  We weren't too cold, until we got stuck up on top of the mountain.  The way down the slope was a little brutal for me.  There were so many skiers and I still hadn't mastered getting stopped or turning perfectly.  We finally made it to the bottom and I was exhausted and beat up.  Ace went back up the lift and skied down two more times, that way he could actually get a few good runs in.  He was such a good sport when I was physically exhausted and completely frustrated with my first day of skiing.

When we got down from the mountain, we went to feed Mexico and had dinner with Rasha and Max at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. 

On Tuesday morning, we hit the road for home. As we were leaving, it started snowing on us again.  On the way home, we listened to the first Hunger Games book on Audible.  After we finished the first book, we decided to watch one of the Hunger Games movies on Netflix (on our iPad).  The road home seemed to take forever (mostly due to our exhaustion and the dreary Winter weather) but we made it home safe and sound!

We had such an amazing, spontaneous trip full of fun memories!  And - Ace qualified for the Denver Stock Show and Rodeo, so all-in-all our mission was accomplished!  Don't let Ace know this, but I'm glad he missed the books this time.....but this time ONLY!

Ace and Mexico will be headed back up to Denver shortly and I'll be cheering them along from home....Here's to safe travels and good runs!