Saturday, August 16, 2008

Not just Another Day at the Races!

We headed up to Seattle this week, planning to see our horse McLaren run in his very first race. As is the norm for this family, nothing went according to plan - you would think we should be used to this, but you always have hope that this time everything will go well!

On the way to Portland we got slowed down by a fire near Albany, but we did make it up to our motel and had a good nights sleep. We met Mark, Jo and Asher (what a cutie!) for breakfast, but I wasn't impressed with the food and think we need to find another breakfast spot! We picked up Tracy, and actually made it up to Auburn, home of Emerald Downs, with no problems, then headed over to see how McLaren was. After that we headed over to the motel, and had to make a hard decision. We ended up scratching McLaren from the race as we were concerned about him being fit to run that night. It was a tough thing, and it was hard to go and see the other horses run, and see our boys name in the program and hear it announced, but not get to see him compete.

We made it through the evening, and of course none of the horses we wagered on won (until the last race, when Tracy had a winner!). What a big disappointment! But in the long run, you really have to look out for the welfare of your horse, and that is what is most important of all. We hope to be able to enter him in a race next weekend, but I won't be able to go because I am joining my fellow OCEAN team members in manning our first booth at the Blackberry Festival! I'm looking forward to a good time doing that, and will hopefully take my mind off the race and not be nervous about it!

On to the last straw for the trip. On the way home we were caught in a massive traffic jam on I-5 due to an RV fire which sparked a 20 acre brush fire! We were stuck on the highway in 95 degree heat for over two hours, which slammed us right into rush hour going home through Portland. A 7-8 hour drive took us over 11 hours! An exhausting trip, with no gains for us, but we are home and that is great. Now I'm looking forward to a productive week of sewing, and hopefully a little more blogging! More quilting news to follow!