Tevis Part 4 or Blue Shaved Ice Saves the Day.

[Victoria A Thompson <toriandsteve@juno.com>]

So, who wants to read about the continuing saga of my Tevis weekend? 
Show of hands, please .... the ayes have it.  OK.  Here we go.

In the last chapter we had just left Robinsons Flat and were heading to
Forresthill.  I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to where we were
on the road.  I remember a sign saying Forresthill 15 miles.  Alice was
flying down the road so I said in about 13 miles she should slow down so
we wouldn't miss the VC.  Next thing I knew we were passing houses and I
said we went too far.  Alice turned around and started back up the road. 
Sarah noticed a sign that said we were at the Michigan Bluff turn off not
in Forresthill, so Alice turned around again and got us going the right
way.  Driving mistake number 5, or is it 6 by now.  Don't you think by
now these people would stop listening to my directions?  And with poor
Alice having to spend the entire day behind the wheel the last thing she
needed was bad directions.  I'm really surprised Alice didn't haul off
and whack me one.

Since Alice wouldn't be staying with us at Forresthill and since we
needed to be located by the out gate there was no need to search for a
parking place.  Alice dumped us off right by the out gate and we
immediately started looking for a good place to take pictures.  Well, for
those of you that don't know, the VC at Forresthill is on an old logging
landing.  Big, flat area almost totally devoid of vegetation of any kind
except around the perimeter.  There's a little bit of greenery near the
vet check area and by the out gate, but when it comes right down to it
it's a great big parking lot.  When the horses leave the out gate they
have to come down the middle of the lane where the cars drive when they
come in to Forresthill.  Cars are parked all around this lane and there
isn't a decent place to take pictures.  Immediately upon leaving the VC
area the riders cross a street and go down a path parallel to the main
road.  The closest spot that could even be considered remotely
aesthetically pleasing was just after the riders came onto the path. 
That is the spot I chose for the pictures.  We set our chairs up under
some trees in the yard of a very nice family (we weren't chased away and
they let us park the Suburban on their lawn when Alice came back).  I had
some trouble with the sun at this point.  It kept wanting to shine in my
face.  I kept having to maneuver my chair around, but I finally got into
a position that worked.  Now we had to wait.  Mary and Sarah went
wandering around, but I stayed in case a rider came out.  It was
definitely warmer in Forresthill than it was at Robinsons Flat.  Not
boiling hot like it can get, but definitely uncomfortable when you wear
jeans.  The bugs came out too.  At one point Mary came back and we were
commenting about how pretty it was when Mary said, "Tori, what's this?" 
Well, looks like we set our chairs up in a bunch of poison oak.  Now, I'm
not affected by poison oak, so it really didn't matter to me, but poor
Mary is deathly allergic.  Needless to say she hot footed it out of there
PDQ.  She set herself up in a 'clean' spot a little ways away, but still
within talking distance ... if you really raised your voice!

Sarah came back.  Riders were pouring into the VC and the first ones out
should be coming in about 20 minutes.  We double checked our cameras and
sat down to wait.  The first rider out was actually a pair of riders. 
The second rider was hiding behind the other, but I got the picture.  The
riders were coming by much slower this time. So we had lots of time
between pictures.  Lots of time to fry in the sun.  Brain fry was
beginning to take hold.  Even though we had taken food for lunch nobody
really ate anything.  We had some salami on the drive to Forresthill, and
a little fruit, but nothing substantial.  What I really wanted was ice
cold water.  Anything cold at that point would have been gladly accepted.
 

Alice made another run.  Donna was only 7 miles away now.  The dirt road
made it a long 7 miles, but it beats what she had earlier in the day. 
Alice actually got out and sat with us for a few minutes.  I think this
was her only time out of the car the whole day.  She made a tour of the
VC and came back saying there was a big long line of horses on IV's.  I
can only assume that the vets and riders were being extra cautious and
putting the horses on IV's to prevent any problems from happening because
I've never seen that many horses hooked up before.  It was really scary
to think that many horses had crashed, so without knowing the reason why
I just preferred to think of it as precautionary measures.

Once again Alice left us.  We continued taking pictures.  It's amazing to
see the looks on these riders faces when told they're about to have their
picture taken.  Big smiles come breaking out of hot, tired faces.  Most
of the horses were trotting out just fine.  A few walked.  But they all
looked pretty darn good.  My beautiful Ruby came by looking as fresh as a
daisy.  Bless her heart.  I just want to hold her in my lap every time I
see her.

Alice came back and brought Donna with her.  As they were getting out of
the car They said, "we brought goodies."  There was Donna with a tray
full of blue shaved ice.  Nothing could have been more welcome than that.
 That first mouthful numbed you clear down to your tummy.  It was
glorious.  I was more than a little resentful at having to put it down to
take pictures.  I wanted to eat it before it all melted it was so good. 
Brought down the temperature a good 10 degrees.  It was the highlight of
my day.  

I really didn't want to mention leaving Forresthill before all the riders
had passed, but the VC would still be open when the first riders hit the
finish line.  We talked about my staying behind to take pictures while
the others went to Auburn for the finish, but nobody was too keen on the
idea.  I would have stayed.  After all, we did promise to get a picture
of everybody that left the VC's.  I was a little concerned that my flash
would scare the horses when it got dark.  The long and short of it was as
soon as the winner went through the victory lap everybody wanted to head
back down to Sacramento.  If I wasn't back in Auburn by that time they
would either have to wait for me or come back and get me.  We decided to
stop taking pictures at 8:15 so we could get back to Auburn around 9:30. 
Donna made one more computer run before we left and then it was back to
Auburn.

Stay tuned for Part 5 or Afterthoughts

Tori