Parade Day

Turning 60 went pretty well. To say that I was a bit stressed planning the BIG birthday was an understatement.  It always starts so simple, but then things get complicated quickly.  When Toby asked me what I wanted to do, I answered, "I'd like to go to Bowie and see the Baileys at the La Belle Vintage Mall. Then I'd like to go on up to St.Jo to see one of my favorite artists, Donna Howell-Sickles. She is suppose to have a gallery and a studio in the downtown of St. Jo. Sounds fairly simple doesn't it?  It got complicated when Jesse wanted to go and said she would meet us in Bowie. Then my sister wanted to go. She said she would drive in from Amarillo on Friday in order to go with us on Saturday.  Toby took Friday off so that we could go to Burk and check on his mom. We decided to spend the night and leave from Wichita. We also decided to eat out in WF on Friday night with Jesse and Kathy and maybe my brother and his family. But everyone had different thoughts on how to get around. Isn't that the way it goes when you try to drive a herd? Like a herd of cats. Eventually, it all turned out fine.

Friday, my actual birthday, started out kind of rough. Kind of like parade day, when you go to get the horses for the parade and they are off running wild rather than being tame and coming to the feed bucket. Then since you are dressed in your white shirt for the parade, a horse will sneeze on you. So you end up sweaty and dirty for the parade. Bad horses! This time the horses had gotten out of the fence on Thursday, so we had to work on the fence Friday morning before we went anywhere.  We hit the fence about 7:30 and finished by 9.  Nothing like stringing a little barbed wire to get your blood flowing. After we cleaned up and packed up, we checked on Toby's mom, who was doing very well. Then it was on to WF.  My sister bought us matching blouses to wear - pretty silly, but lots of fun. We ate at the Highlander in downtown WF. It was okay. Toby and I had done some shopping for my birthday gift, which I am now using to write this post. Yep, I got a new laptop.  I also got a cheap little keyboard to use when I have my Kindle or even my phone. I love the new laptop, but I feel like an old dog trying to learn new tricks.

Saturday was even more beautiful than Friday. We saw our old Red River friends, the Baileys, and shopped in their antique mall. If you are ever in Bowie, be sure and stop to shop there.  Then it turned out to be Trade Days in Bowie. So of course, we went down and shopped the junk. I picked up some big Mexican flower pots, Mexican vanilla, and some sorghum.  Eventually, Toby and I split up from Kathy and Jes. We went on to St. Jo to see the art gallery. Hmm, It was okay as art galleries go, but I did not get to see many original by Donna. Surely we did something wrong. We only went to a little store/gallery that sold very nice jewelry and stuff. There seemed to be a gallery next door, but no one was there. And where was her studio? I was disappointed. But the drive to St. Jo and from there home was beautiful. It was actually nice to get home for a quiet evening and dinner with Shay and Lindz.

So now I am 60. Officially old.