The lousy weather forecast from last week held true by Thursday. We started off dry Monday afternoon and Tuesday, but it wasn’t warm. The high on Tuesday was only 55 degrees. But we didn’t let that stop us from hopping on the Spyder and heading over to Lucky Lou’s. Tuesday was Jodi Hall’s and her sister Jackie’s birthday and a bunch of us celebrated on the patio at Lou’s. Good thing they have propane heaters out on the patio.
The overnight lows hit the low 30s – there was frost on our neighbor’s car. We braved the cold and played pickleball Wednesday morning. In the afternoon I gave lessons – it was a bit windy and cold though.
Donna made chicken tikka masala for dinner Wednesday night. It was scrumptious and I paired it with a IPA from Coronado Brewing (San Diego). This IPA is very traditional West Coast style with centennial, chinook, and columbus hops.
By Thursday morning, the rain was coming down in force. It was cold and wet out – the high was only 50 degrees and we had the heat pumps running all day. We hunkered down and stayed indoors. Donna made a batch of chili in the slow cooker – just the thing for a cold , rainy day. Lucky for me, I had another IPA in the refrigerator – something called Scorpion Bowl from Stone Brewing that Donna picked up for me.
The rain continued through Friday and it was an even colder day as the high was only 47 degrees. Over the 48-hour period, well over two inches of rain fell in Mesa, Arizona.
Saturday the sun was back and it was dry out. The official high temperature on Saturday was only 55 degrees, but it felt warmer in the direct sun. Our friends Kim and Mike Childs picked us up around 12:30pm and we headed out Brown Road toward Apache Trail to the rodeo grounds. It was time for the 55th Annual Lost Dutchman Rodeo.
The traffic getting to the rodeo was unusually heavy. Part of the reason was the rodeo and carnival, but it was also created by a large number of people heading out toward Apache Trail to take photos of the snow on the Superstition Mountains.
With all the rainfall, the ground was quite wet and the arena surface was mostly mud. It couldn’t have been much fun for the cowboys as they had to jump, fall or wrestle in the cold, wet mud.
The bulldoggers wrestling steers to the ground came up dripping mud. One of the saddle bronc riders lost his boot as he flew out of the saddle and had to stomp around in the mud in his sock to find the boot. None of the dozen or so bull riders were able to get a qualified eight-second ride – all were thrown into the mud. I wrote about my rodeo experience a while back in this post.
I wanted to post over the weekend, but server issues at Bluehost made it impossible. I think this site was actually down for part of the weekend. It all looks to be resolved now. Today we’re expecting a more seasonable high of 71 degrees and should be in the mid-70s for the rest of the week. I’m up for that!