A day with Cora

Every other week, Cora spends Tuesday with us.  Normally we don't do anything special.  However, a while back we were telling her about Warm Springs Ranch, where all the Budweiser draft horses are born and raised, and where retired horses spend their latter days.  She seemed interested, so we decided to make the ninety mile drive to Boonville, Missouri, and let our horse-loving little friend experience it.  

When I say "horse-loving", it's a real thing with her.  Her parents both have horses; and she's had her own horse, starting with an old, gentle Shetland pony when she was maybe three.  Now at the age of nine, she's barrel racing almost every weekend in the summer.  

You have to get online to choose what time you want to schedule when you want to go; the first time I registered and paid, Cliff had an unexpected appointment come up.  The second time, I scheduled it on the wrong week (old age brain).  Even though the website says the money is non-refundable and there are no cancellations, my money was refunded both times.  Because of all that trouble, I  swore I wouldn't disappoint Cora any more.  I told Cliff we'd see if there were openings this Tuesday (yesterday); they did have three openings, but only for the 9 A.M. tour, which means we had to get up and go pretty early in the day.  Cora's dad goes to his construction job early, and always dropped her off at 5:30 A.M. for the six years we babysat her.  A good babysitter would have insisted she go back to bed, but Cora usually wanted to stay awake, and I get up early anyway.  So I just enjoyed her; she spent most of that part of the day on my lap.   Cliff likes to be awake by 7 for some unknown reason, even though he isn't a morning person and he's retired.  So Cora had the job of going and telling him to get up before she was a year old.  I did make sure she had an afternoon nap, and I always laid down with her.  Sometimes I read to her, and other times I just made up stories.

Our world circled around that little girl.

So we left around 6 A.M., with plenty of time to stop at McDonald's in Odessa for breakfast.  We got on I-70, which basically takes you all the way to Warm Springs Ranch.  

When they open the gate and make sure you are registered for the tour, this is what you see.

Cliff and Cora are standing down at the far end

A lady was standing at the gate waiting for us, no doubt because we barely got there on time, with eight minutes to spare.  She directed us to the barns and parking lot, and our tour was about to begin.

That's a 1903 beer wagon.

(to be continued)