Marlboro Ranch Party 2003
Day 2 - May 30, 2003

At 7:30 we were headed to the dining hall when we heard the breakfast bell ringing.  We were so caught up in the beauty of Arizona and the ranch.  We took tons of pictures of everything.  The catcus were so awesome.  The mountains, they were beautiful, just the whole ranch was awesome.  The pictures on their website don't do justice at ALL!!!

For breakfast they have little yellow cards laid out at every spot.  Here you marked off the things you wanted to eat.  I marked off scrambled eggs, sausage, and wheat toast.  5 minutes after they came and picked up our cards they brought us plates of food.  Oh it was SO good!!!

After breakfast we headed over to the stables, as our first activity was the scenic horseback riding.  I have only been on a horse once, and I was 6 years old, so I don't even remember the experience.  And since Shelly has had nothing but terrible experiences on horses, we decided to just take the riding lessons, rather than the scenic ride.  Shelly then tells me after she gets up on Cougar that she can't do it.  She was getting off.  I was like, okay -- I'll just learn to ride by myself...no biggie.  But our Wrangler, Sue, grabbed Cougar and told Shelly she was going with us! haha!  We ended up learning tons, and got very comfortable with Cougar and Houston (mine).  I felt much better about horses after all the talk and instruction.  She taught us to turn them, stop, start, trot, lopp (sp?), just every basic thing we would need to know.  The trotting was quite an experience, and it felt ALL wrong!  I didn't even try to lopp after one of the other gals in our group had a rough ride.  But I did feel comfortable enough with Houston to trot again.  It was GREAT, and I thank Sue the wrangler SO much for helping me feel so comfortable and sure of myself...  Thanks Sue!  2 hours into our riding lesson it was time to get off, and thank goodness.  I had saddle soars on the inside of my legs, my butt, and the inside of my knees! hehe! 

We had just enough time to head to our room, refresh ourselves, and then get on the tour bus for our next activity, which was the Tombstone tour.  Kevin -- who was our live musical entertainment the night before -- was our tour guide, and knew SO much!  I just about cried from laughing so hard, as he is such a riot.  He actually was from very CLOSE to our home town (less than 10 miles away!)...and he was so nice and sweet.  The information that he knew was so amazing to me, and I listened to every word that came out of his mouth!  He didn't only talk about Tombstone, but about Tucson's history and about the state of Arizona.  Thanks Kevin for being so great!!!

They served us box lunches on the bus.  We had our choice of fried chicken, or a turkey wrap.  Shelly and I had turkey wraps.  They were so good.  They also had potato salad that was the best I have ever had!  I was beginning to see a trend with the food...it was only going to get better!

Tombstone was AWESOME!!!  They had cowboys out in the streets, and on the corners to make it feel even more authentic.  We went to the Tombstone Court House, to the Birdcage (AWESOME), and to the Crystal Palace.  Shelly and I didn't make it to the OK Corrall, because time was limited, and we were busy going in all the shops getting souvenirs to take home to our families. 

On the ride home they had a surprise for us. They had brought beer for us to start drinking a little earlier (the bar doesn't open until 4pm daily).  By the time we got back to the ranch, Shelly and I were a little toasted.  I think we each had about a 6-pack each!  And this was only an hour or so drive! hehee!  We were having a blast.  Then they hit us with the news that we were having a group picture, so we had to go to our room when we got back to the ranch and get our cowboy hats, and red windbreaker.  Of course in that group picture, Shelly and I look a little Tipsy :)  hahaha!

For dinner we had swordfish (that was EXCELLENT, and I HATE seafood!), and big fat steaks that were cooked to perfection!  They also had baked potatoes, and salad.  For dessert we had homemade strawberry icecream with fresh strawberries toppled over top.  Shelly continued to drink through dinner :) 

That night we spent totally at the bar.  We got a Euchere game going, and met some really great friends, Chris, Michelle, Marv, Gilly, Loren, Jer, and many more...but remember guys, we were pretty lit by then, and I can't remember every one's name.  I think that night I met TracyU -- yeppers, that's the night.  We had been in correspondence through a message board - Ranch Talk , and finally got to meet!  She and her guest Stacey were AWESOME!  They tried talking me into singing Kareoke with them, but it didn't matter how drunk I got, there was NO way I was singing!!!  Lynn, the BEST bartender ever, made the BEST Captain Morgan Rum and cokes for me ever!!!  She knew without even knowing how I liked them.  Michelle was drinking White Russians that were actually really good.  Shelly was drinking good ole beer, the guys were drinking Fosters, Tracy was drinking Gin and Tonic, which I actually kind of liked.  Open bar was GREAT!!! 

We closed the bar down that night, and even got some late night snacks of bbq chicken pizza!  I don't remember walking back to our room, or how I got to bed! hahaha!  But I know we had a GREAT time!!!