Colorado Horse Rescue Event

What a fantastic turnout at the August 20th Open House at the Colorado Horse Rescue in Longmont, just north of Denver.

The guests had tours of the facility including meeting the equine residents, enjoyed carriage rides by Rocky, and a lovely cookout. At my booth, kids had fun decorating horseshoes.

I met a young author/illustrator who wrote a story about a horse party, and a pony named Boomer even stopped by for a peppermint!

A rescued gelding named Jessie, featured with Jessica, will be included in my next Beloved Horses book.

Visit Colorado Horse Rescue to learn more about this wonderful organization - http://www.chr.org/

Glenwood Springs, CO

On our way east toward the Colorado Rockies where there is snow on the highest elevations in mid-August, we stopped at Glenwood Springs, about two hours west of Denver. My grandfather, George Gibbons Hayes, was known as the Rockhound of the Rockies. He was a self-taught expert on mines, gems and minerals, and was a consultant for many, including the CO School of Mining.

In 1897, he was a seven-year-old orphan sent on a train from New York to a family in Glenwood Springs. However, no one met him at the station, and the family story is that the town drunk took him in.

I'm writing an adventure novel based on his life (think Indiana Jones and Oliver Twist) called "The Wildcat Orphan" and so I was researching the area where he grew up.

The original train station, in existence for 12 years where he arrived, was replaced by this one above, but the setting is the same small, friendly town. You can see the reflection of the mountains in the window - known as the Glenwood Canyon. A gorgeous area!

The Frontier Historical Museum and historian, Patsy, were very helpful looking for history on my grandfather. He delivered mail in that area - with a team of mules and also a Harley motorcycle with a side car! He wrote a poem, Timberline, and published four books about mining and included anecdotes.

The museum has a fabulous collection, including one on Doc Holliday - he died in that town!
If you are ever in that area, I suggest you visit:

Frontier Historical Museum

glenwoodhistory.com

(970) 945-4448
1001 Colorado Ave, Glenwood Springs, CO

Douglas Ranch Supply Event in California

Northern California was awesome! After driving west from Las Vegas across the desert to Bakersfield and then north to Sacramento, it was wonderful to meet our friend from Salisbury, Maryland back when we owned Unicorn Stables. Lori, pictured with her boys above, was our neighbor and barn helper back then, and invited us to visit while on tour. She suggested Douglas Ranch/Pet Supply and the owner, Craig, was so kind to let me hold a Young Artist Event on Sat. Aug. 13th.

Lori's son, Josh, colored a dog and with his brother, Nathan, they decorated horseshoes. Other youngsters stopped by for both activities and Natalie (petting Woogie) won the drawing - Congrats!

Then we had a fantastic home cooked meal with Lori and family and her sister, Sharon, and her husband. BBQ - Yum!

Sunday morning, we headed for the Redwoods near Eureka, Cal. - This is a "must - see" vacation spot!!

View more photos on Woogie's blog (see http://woogiestravels.blogspot.com/) and I'll post a Book Tour file on Facebook soon.

San Antonio & Southwest

Great turnout at the Saxet Show in San Antonio, Texas! These young ladies were just a few that had fun decorating horseshoes. Very creative! Thanks to all who stopped by!

Woogie posed with me at a rest stop in western Texas that had interesting picnic tables! The flat, dry landscape turned to hilly, dry scenery - most of the southwest is having a very bad drought. Then we passed through New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada where brown grass and shrubs (some called mesquite) turned to desert terrain with very little growth. We also saw areas with Joshua Trees and lots of Cactus like the one above.

Tucson, AZ was lovely, however. They had palm trees there and the mountains in the distance! Great Mom & Pop Donut Shop there on Wrightstown Road there! The La Quinta was the BEST of all the motels we stayed so far and the Golden Corral gets an A+ from us!

On the east side of Las Vegas, we took a quick drive around the Hoover Dam, and Woogie was able to walk with me for photos. The dam will be included in Woogie's next book. See his blog for more photos (click on it on my profile of this blog). The west side of Las Vegas also dry and barren, with miles and miles of no services. (Hint - buy your fuel while in Vegas!)

Headed west on Mojave Freeway to California - desert region then turned to pretty tree-covered low mountains. From Bakersfield, CA we head north to Sacramento for our next event. Stay tuned with updates by clicking the "follow" button!

Warm Welcome in Round Top, Texas!

The weather outside may have been 105 degrees, but the welcome from the Round Top community was even warmer! There were about 35 people present at my Children's Program at the Family Library - a great turn out since there are 90 residents in this rural town north of Houston!

The historic church building is complete with stained glass windows and an altar where I set up my display booth. After explaining how my passion of horses led to my passion of sharing stories, the 20 children enjoyed the craft project I offered - decorating real horseshoes with sequins and bling!

Pat McCanlies(far right), a local volunteer at the library, and the librarian, Barbara Smith, organized the event. Barbara said it was event with the most attendance they ever had!

Afterwards, Pat gave us a grand tour of her ranch including showing us her gallery of photographs of her and her champion cutting horses. I enjoyed meeting and feeding her three horses - Ruth posed with us. She and Pat have their story in my Beloved Sport Horses. Then Pat treated us to dinner at a local restaurant. Yum!

I want to thank these ladies, and also the community, who gave my husband, Bob, and I such a warm welcome!

Greetings From Houston!

Our Promoting Literacy Book Tour is off to an exciting start in Houston, Texas. Woogie liked the Welcome Center, and we met the great staff at Charlotte's Saddlery including the mascot, Romeo. (See Woogie's blog) They carry a wonderful selection of Western and English tack and riding attire, and now they have my Beloved Horses series!

We did some site seeing, visiting the San Jacinto Monument located at the battleground for Texas independence.