TuzigootJournal: Westcliffe - 2, Jeff and Malia visit

The week started when Jeff and Malia drove down Monday to spend a night with us, bringing their own tent so Malia could find out what it's like to go camping (and Jeff could find out what it's like to go camping with a 5 yr. old).

It started out like this - watching a video in Tuzigoot.

But, Malia soon tired of that and we got into other genuine camping activities like walking around the campground and playing in the dirt. She and I wreaked havoc on the ant population on our site. Susie had given her a plastic bowl and a kitchen spoon so she’d fill the bowl with dirt, then dump it on an unwary ant. If that didn’t do them in, hitting them with the spoon generally would. When we'd walk, which was pretty often, she'd "sneak" up on Tuzigoot, hoping to scare Jeff and Susie who were calmly sipping coffee and visiting.

(When sneaking, she’d act as though she could hide behind this site marker.)

Malia had hoped for a campfire, but those are outlawed right now - serious fire north of Westcliffe, now contained but with controlled burning continuing, and very dry - so we did microwave Smores.

This week is County Fair and Rodeo week in Westcliffe and I'd read that exhibits would be open on Tuesday. Thought Malia and even the adults would like to experience a county fair, so we went. We got to the fairgrounds and the only activity going on was in the horse arena. We watched one rider enter the arena, then ride her horse in a prescribed course around some cones. There was no second rider. The PA announcer, after a short pause, announced the first prize winner in the senior division of controlled riding (or some such category) and that was it. Only one rider in that class! I should have realized that the number of entries was pretty small when I heard only two places announced for winners in the junior division in some other category as we entered the arena. When the riders were called for the junior division and we only saw two horses, we decided it was time to leave. This is not the sort of county fair I remember from my youth in Kay County, Oklahoma. I looked it up. My road atlas says the population of Custer County is 3503, 2000 Census. That's about what the population of Tonkawa, OK was. Guess county youth, though, aren't much into livestock.

Postscript. Fair schedule said Friday was the day for showing beef cattle. Susie and I went out for that. I mean, we see lots of cattle from our RV park. Surely, there are a few kids around to show them. We found out that there were only three (!) beef cattle entered in the fair. We couldn’t stand the suspense so left and went to lunch. Had fish and chicken.

Continuing our search for something exciting for Malia to do in Westcliffe we went to the city park

As Jeff said, this must be one of the last merry-go-rounds in the country that the lawyers haven't had removed yet.

Then we went to lunch at the bowling alley, after which Jeff and Malia headed back to Highlands Ranch, their big camping adventure was over. We had a good time. Glad they came.