I headed to the horse barn and was in 7th heaven!!!!! BIG horses!!!! Percherons and Clydesdales - everywhere - and they had come to the State Fair from everywhere. Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, Arizona, Maine and Canada! I found a team from Prescott, Arizona and immediately had fond memories of the trip Mike and I had when we traded our timeshare to Flagstaff and spent a few hours in Prescott on our way back to Phoenix to catch our flight to fly home. Prescott was a neat town - it made us think of a western, cowboy town and the day we passed through there was a car show going on at the town square.
I walked up and down and up and down the rows of stalls talking and petting lots of horses. Check out the pictures below. At 9:00 a.m. was the start of the Clydesdale competition so I sat through some groups and visited with a really nice mother and two daughters that were horse people - they answered some of my questions.
A lady with this group told me this guy was ten years old, over 18 hands tall and weighed 2400 pounds!
Getting a bath before show time.
When I walked up to the horse barn this is what I saw!
Taking it easy.
The guy with this group was a doofus. This horse had small spots like an Appaloosa so I asked him if that was normal for Percherons to be spotted LIKE an Appaloosa. He looked at me and said, "This is a Percheron, not an Appaloosa." I'm thinking in my head, "duh" but I ask something like I realize it's a Percheron but is it normal for them to be spotted like this. He basically says yes and I realize I'm not going to gleen any horse information from him and move on.
The brick I bought for Dad and me outside the horse barn - many years ago. I'm still thinking where I want Mike's and my brick to go on the Fairgrounds and what it will say.
This is the 1st and 2nd place horses for basically babies (born Jan-March) through 2 or 3 year olds for the big pooba horse ribbon. I asked the mother and two daughters behind me how a baby could be judged against a 2 year old. They didn't understand how that was "right" either. And one of the two oldest horses won.
I talked to this guy and asked how tall the horse was - over 18 hands and this horse was their smallest horse!
Back at the group from the first picture. I was with Chrissy by now and we realized this stable was a prison ministry group out of Colorado - how cool is that?
Not the best pic from my camera phone but a nice looking horse ready to take someone for a ride.
Before meeting up with Chrissy I went to the Verizon booth in the Varied Industries Building to talk about the replacement phone I got when my Droid got wet in June. I haven't been completely happy with the replacement phone. The Verizon dude told me I could upgrade, showed me two phones and so I went with one of them. I stood there for almost 30 minutes for him to try to bring in my Q.com email account and he didn't get it set up - I told him I had to leave to meet someone (Chrissy). More about the phone later.
Chrissy and I got something to eat - she got some meal and I got a corn dog. We went through the free food rooms in the south part of the Varied Industries Building. Then off to the horse barn - I could live there almost. The Agricultural Building so Chrissy could buy her sticks of honey. Down the midway to get my airbrush tattoo and then through the booths under the Grandstand.
As I left the Fairground I told God to lead me to the right family to give the tickets to. I approached a couple with a small child and asked if they had their tickets - they did and they looked at me weird. The next couple had a small child in a stroller - they didn't have their tickets so I handed them the two discount tickets and told them to have a good day at the Fair. The wife thanked me two or three times.
I needed to go to Home Depot to buy a bag of white rocks for the side of the house so thought I'd stop at the Verizon store to see if my email couldn't get setup. The guy that helped me got my email to come through but I realized my contacts were duplicated on the phone. My SD card and my Gmail account both loaded contacts - so the guy hid one set.
After I get done with things last night and could sit down to play with my phone I realized I'm missing two contacts on the new phone - one is Chrissy. I add her and it doesn't save her - I do this twice. I have some other weird things, so I start a list and think I'll stop by the Verizon store on my way home after church today. And....the guy that helped me at the store by Home Depot didn't set my email up exactly right - I finished getting it set up properly...............me............the most uninformed person when it comes to cell phones. That in itself is scary.
So after a great church service I hit the Verizon store - again. The more I talk to the guy helping me I realize this "upgrade" phone is a piece of work but I can't return it at the Verizon store I'm at - I have to return it to a Verizon Shock City store because that is what the booth was at the Fair. I'm like where are Verizon Shock City stores and how in the world would I know whether I'm at a "regular" Verizon store vs a Shock City store. Evidently Shock City is in the name of the store - and there is one at Valley West Mall. Guess where I'm heading after work tomorrow night - Valley West Mall to return this stupid phone. I have 14 days to do this luckily.
Jon/handy guy stopped by at 1:00 p.m. today to settle up his bill - and he's done at my house. It's going to be weird not getting daily calls from him about what he's working on. The front porch has the furniture back on it and I sent a couple of pix to Dad via email for him to see first. Next time I blog I'll put those pictures in for everyone to check it out.
