The Flying X Ranch, WY

Howdy Podners!

This weekend has been great! On Friday we got ready lazily, enjoying a cooked breakfast and a bounce on the trampoline outside, then set off around 1.30pm for The Flying X Ranch, Wyoming. See now, I was under the impression that we were off to a small ranch owned by Susan's sisters' father, Eldon, and was expecting a wee farmhouse with a cattle ring outside and a stable with a few horses. It was actually a huge, 26,000 acre retreat with loads of horses and cabin accommodation, of which Eldon was a long-standing partner. So I was a tad shocked, to say the least!

After many a tedious and heated car game, usually involving guessing the pattern in people saying seemingly random words, or guessing who a person was, we stopped in Wheatland, the nearby 'buzzing metropolis' (thirty miles from the ranch at a population of around 500) for tea before we arrived at the ranch, and that was a special place. Where you could marry three times and still have the same in-laws, and there are cafés with signs outside declaring "Welcome Bikers". Unfortunately, this little establishment was closed so we settled for Pizza Hut instead. After we'd finished they all ran out and got the car started while I was in the loo, leaving me at the mercy of the bikers!

At the ranch (after we'd traversed the 8 mile long driveway and passed a huge dead snake in the middle of the highway), we met Eldon, who sweetly resembles Father Christmas, and got settled into our cabins. They were luxury compared to camp - curtains, electricity, carpets, a mirror... ooh, lovely! Each one was named after an outlaw too. Mine and Kat's was Cole Younger, but I got bored reading his story. Apparently he was part of the Jesse James gang. We spent the evening sat out on the porch like cowboys, drinking beer, until I realised I was drinking underage and snuck away into the room to finish it off!

We got up early in the morning for breakfast - bacon, eggs, and real hash browns (fried grated potato - yum!). Then we headed straight down to the corral to get saddled up and on our horses. Mine wasn't a huge heffer like I usually get - a lovely-sized and well-behaved gelding named Phoenix. He was gorgeous! Jen got a huge white horse called Sugar, which was a right little rascal - cutting people up and galloping off at one point!

The ride was great, a real mixture off easy trails and rough, rocky terrain, up and down hills. Phoenix was so great I felt really confident and comfortable on him, and not at all intimidated if he started to trot or canter. Eldon commented on my confidence and said it was obvious I'd ridden before. To be honest, I think it was the easy-going comfort of western-style riding that did it! Matthew really got into it as well - we were singing the Back to the Future III theme tune - and he said he'd really want to do it at home if he could ride good terrain and not have to wear a goofy hat! Anyway, plenty a farting horse later we'd been out for around two and a half hours before heading back for lunch.

After our left-over Pizza Hut we didn't really feel like the healthy-looking sandwiches Susan had so expertly prepared. I settled for a cookie and a few crisps instead! Matthew, Jenni and Kat went off to the 'field' (our code-word for 'pool' around Joe, since he had no PFD and couldn't go swimming) while I hung back to read some of my book. A little while later, Susan, Mark, Joe, Eldon and Chris (Susan's nephew) were going to go on a drive around the land, so I tagged along. We saw a lake occupied by pelicans, a little shepherd's hut, plenty of cattle, four stray horses, and some antelope. On our way back down to the ranch-house a deer ran out in front of the car, which scared the bejeezes out of me since I was sat in the front!

After a cookout tea of burgers and pasta salad, we played on the rope swing on the playground, and went in the pool for a while. I played a silly game with Joe (who had found an inflatable and was henceforth allowed in the pool) that I was a beavershark out to get him! Which was fun.

On returning to the cabins, we got some coals from Eldon and attempted to light a barbeque on which to toast marshmallows for s'mores. This involved a lot of lighter fluid and intense flames, which I'm pretty sure are to blame for the burn marks on my new Roxy hoody! We started on the wine and I was rambling on about being the Graham cracker committee and how the BIG marshmallow committee was now a covert, freelance organisation (ie. get one yourself). Then we had more guessing games... and eventually everyone filtered off to bed, except for me and Susan.

We stayed up chatting until around half one - about all sorts of junk - but while we were talking three deer came to graze on the grass outside of our cabins! It was great, but when I slunk off to get my camera they ran off. When one came back I was ready and poised with my camera, but then some guy came out to go to the loo and scared it off. So Susan and I followed it behind the bushes (still in a state of clear inhebriation) and as we closed in on it and it's friend, we realised they were in fact a barbeque and a picnic table. The real deer must've run off in another direction!

This morning I felt quite rough, but after brekkie and a lot of water I was fine! We just chilled out - playing on the rope swing, sitting on the porches having girlie chats... until lunch in Eldon's trailer of vermicelli bolognese! Yum! After that we were back on the road home. We stopped at Eldon's house for tea and picked up Phoebe La La Rouche (Jen's Pooch) and Riley (Kat's kitten), as they had been staying there while we were away.

Back at home and we got straight into the hot tub after we'd unpacked the car.... ooh it was lovely, bubbly and hot!

It's a shame cos Matthew's going home tomorrow, so today was his last day in the States. However, he does have a spare bag, so I've thrown a load of my stuff in there and he's going to take it home for me! In a way I wish I was flying home from here too, and all my travelling time I was spending here! It's just so cool and laid back after the hectic life at camp. But I'm also really looking forward to seeing everyone on my travels too.