[RC] Nick Warhol- AERC Chmpnshp 50 ride story 5 of 5 - Nick WarholWe finished before 4 pm, so we got to chill for a while. A shower and some beer, then its into the chair in the sun. Judy put Warpaint's regal robe on for some pictures, he looks like he should be in a Rocky movie with this thing on. The ride dinner was excellent, we especially liked the bar. Bloddy Mary's area good thing after a ride. But the awards banquet was a riot! Robert Ribley was the host, and was pretty funny with his one liners. And this was no normal awards ceremony- Every finisher got a really nice polar fleece finisher jacket and a picture of their horse taken at the sign up, with the flowers and championship banner. It was really nice, especially since my photo was of Warpaint and Judy, since I was AWOL on Saturday with my stupid truck. But those weight division winners? Every one of them won a saddle. Yeah, a saddle! A REAL saddle, very expensive saddles. Sally won a saddle! How cool is that? I'm very proud of them. They also raffled off three more saddles, but Robert noticed that the raffle was taking a long time, so what did he do? Improvise! He started just throwing awards out in to the crowd, like at a baseball game. It was very funny! It would have been REALLY funny if he had thrown one of those saddles to the crowd! The ride was excellent in every aspect, I don't think I heard one complaint all day. The weather could not have been much nicer- sunny, cool, with a nice breeze in the afternoon. It was put on with professionalism, the trail was fun, it was marked great, plenty of water, great awards, and lots of good friends all over the place. But for me, it was a perfect day-Warpaint got his 3,990th mile, one more ride to go. We will get him over the 4000 mile mark at Las Vegas, then it's time for the old guy to hang out and enjoy the rest of his life, which we all hope will be a very long time. I'll sure miss riding him in endurance rides, but I'll always have the memories. This weekend will be one of my best. (Except for the stupid truck, which is not long for this world.) Nick Warhol Hayward, Ca =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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