Ruff Riders at Pine Valley Mountain

This was the week of our annual Rough Rider fall ride. We had never ridden up on Pine Valley Mountain near St. George so we got a map on decided to try it. Our golf club pro Robert McArthur came from there so we went over the map with him and decided on this Whipple Valley to Brown's Point Canyon trail. The thing that he forgot to mention to us was that he had never actually been there! By our rough estimate it looked like about 12 or 14 miles which would make a nice afternoon ride for our first day, but as it turned out, it was closer to 30 miles!



Usually we plan on travelling at about 6 to 8 miles an hour, but here the terrain was so steep and rocky, that we moved along at more like 2 to 3 miles an hour.

At the top we found this magnificent meadow where our horses had a fun time frolicking around for a while.


But then it was back to rocky, steep and slow.

After a while we realized that it was certainly going to be flashlight time before we got down, and we had only two good and one weak light for the 6 of us. My main worry was that we would get caught in the dark before we got to the Brown's Canyon turnoff and maybe miss it. That would have meant space blankets and bonfires overnight for sure. So we pushed on as fast as we could and managed to find the turn right at sunset.

From here it was 4 miles to the bottom of the mountain and another one and a half to our trailers. We knew it would be hard and slow but if we just kept moving we would sooner or later make it. This night picture doesn't really show how tough it was at times with dozens of steep switchbacks, boulders, ledges, reluctant horses and tired Larry.
So it took us over 3 hours to do that 4 miles, but we finally made it.

We were glad to have had another exciting adventure, but did not get to our beds at Richard's beautiful St. George home until after 3 a.m.

We had planned to ride the next day too, but our horses told us that they needed the day off, so we had a nice time playing golf instead.

Dave had no problem dealing with this hazard at Coral Canyon compared to what we had been through the day before.

Then we played at fabulous Sand Hollow and had a great time.
You can see the dreadful Pine Valley
Mountain peering menacingly down at us between these cliffs.

We all agreed that this golf course is definitely on our "return-to" list, but that might not apply to Pine Valley Mountain!

Texas

Last week we went to Dallas/Fort Worth to see the Cougars play against the number 3 in the nation-ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the inaugural game in the $1.3 Billion
new Cowboys stadium. (Yes that's a B!)
We went a few days early to play some of the famous Texas golf courses with some other couples- the Thomas's, Overtons and Zumbrennens.
Our first game was at the Cowboys Golf Club. What a marvelous experience. The course, as you can see, was very fun and spectacular.


Their "southern hospitality" was amazing. When they found out we were there to support the Cougars in trying to beat Oklahoma they gave us a reduced green fee rate plus a lone star button which was a food pass. We could eat all we wanted all day, and the food was fantastic!

After the dinner I was admiring the trophy case in the lobby with several super bowl cups and the manager came by. I complimented him on the course and the food and the hospitality so he asked if we would like to go to the Texas Rangers baseball game that night, and gave us his personal 4 tickets on the first base line. What a thrill!

Even the insects were friendly!

At the ball game, to honor us I guess, they brought in the Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays to play the Rangers. We loved it.

Here we are at the Colonial Country Club which we had been invited to play because Gifford Nielson had recommended it to me and our club pro, Robert had written a letter to get us on.

It is a very old, traditional course, and hosts a PGA tournament every year.

It was the home course of Ben Hogan and they have a display room with all of his memorabilia- clubs, trophys, photos etc.

This is the Tour 18 course, which is a course patterned after 18 of the best and most challenging holes on the PGA tour. This house behind Sharlene is one of the dozens of beautiful mansions at the course. We all agreed that we had never seen more spectacular homes.

Here are Glen Overton and Glee Zumbrennen Teeing off at the course at the Marriott hotel where we stayed. Golf was part of the package there.

On game day Heather and Mark drove up from San Antonio to go with us.

There were 75,000 fans in the stadium, making it the largest crowd that any of us had ever been in. Oklahoma fans outnumbered BYU by about 5 to 1 because it is close for them and they had the number three ranked team and their quarterback was last year's Heisman trophy winner.

I was really pleased with how gracious and friendly the Oklahoma fans were. They really seemed pleased to have us there.

This is the 50 yard long TV screen that hangs over the field. (yes, that's yards!)
Incidentally this particular passing play went for 45 yards to the Oklahoma 5 yard line; then on the next play the Cougar running back fumbled the ball into the end zone. What a bummer!
BYU was such an underdog (the odds makers had them projected to lose by 21 points), that we had come just hoping to not be embarrassed.

We were behind only 3 points at half time in spite of 3 turn-overs, so we were feeling better than we had expected.

We were still trailing in the 4th quarter when the Cougars defense held a goal line stand against one of the best ranked offenses in the country, for 6 plays inside the 5 yard line. This allowed the Sooners only a field goal making the score 13 to 7. Then the Cougars made a fabulous drive down the field with some big passing plays and scored again, much to everyone's surprise, to win the game 14 to 13!

After the game there was celebration for about half an hour. Our local press called this the biggest Cougar victory in at least 16 years.


For us this was definitely not just another weekend!