Ridestories Home

Tevis 2000

Tori Thompson

OK, it's race day. My alarm went off at 5 AM, so in 15 minutes the race will actually begin. I guess it's time to roll out of my comfy air bed (besides, the cat is clawing my shoulder). Sarah had coffee made (thank God). While we downed some English muffins we sorted out all the things we needed to take with us. Computers, check. Cameras, check. Floppy discs, check. Food, check. Water, check. Chairs, check. Jackets, hats, sunscreen, bug repellent, all checked. We loaded everything into the Suburban and headed up the road to Auburn and Robinsons Flat before 7 AM. So, do you want to know what we forgot? Of course, you know, it had to be me that left it behind! Nothing crucial, but it would have been nice to have a clip board with 3 extra pens and a bunch of paper we used to record rider numbers. Oh well. Are you people beginning to notice a trend here ... like it's always me that screws up! I'm going to be known as a jinx here pretty quick.

During the drive from Auburn to Robinsons Flat we were pretty much the only people on the road. Everybody kept asking, "Where is everybody? Are we that early?" I just kept saying, "They're already there." But nobody believed me. We finally came to the end of a long line of vehicles waiting to be allowed up to Robinsons Flat. Traffic control was pretty good here. You had an option. You could park your car in a big landing there and ride up in a bus (a pick up truck would haul your gear up for you), or you could drive your own vehicle behind the bus, unload at the top and then drive your truck about 1 1/2 miles back down the road, park it yourself and hike back to Robinsons. We opted to take the bus.

I have to back track here a minute. When we left LA Thursday morning I was insistent that my chair come with us. Donna already had 4 chairs packed, but I wanted my chair too. The reason why I wanted my chair is because it has wheels on it. All I have to do is pile everything into the seat and pull it along behind me. I can pull alot more stuff than I can carry. I'm not so stupid after all.

So, there was the little cooler with the water and our lunch. Sarah had her daypack filled with fruit and her stuff. I also had a couple plastic bags filled with food and pharmaceuticals (aspirin, allergy pills, bug spray, sun screen, cell phone, etc). Donna had a camera. Mary had a bag or two. Alice had a camera and carried something - off hand I can't remember what - chairs I think. And then there was the suitcase. Since Donna was going to go to a friends house to download the pictures I honestly don't remember if there were any computers carried into Robinsons Flat or not. There was this huge suitcase that had all sorts of computer stuff in it, though. Mostly floppy discs and paper. It was an incredibly awkward piece to carry. I wanted to put it on my chair, but someone would have had to prevent it from falling off. Sarah decided to carry it. At one point I asked why we had to take it. After all, we could put extra discs and paper in pockets, bags, the cooler. Donna was quite adamant that it go, so Sarah lugged it around. We piled onto the shuttle bus with a whole bunch of other people and lounged our way up to Robinsons Flat passing others that chose to park their own cars. The string of parked cars was about 1 to 1 1/2 miles long, and we stopped a couple of times to pick up people that were walking. I remember that first time I crewed for Suzanne Hayes, and what a horrendous hike that is when carrying all your crewing gear. I almost felt sorry for them ... almost.

Before I forget, while we were waiting for the shuttle bus to come and pick us up we overheard some race volunteers talking about the lack of hay at Robinsons Flat. The hay truck had yet to appear and there were 35 horses already in camp. They started asking anybody with hay to donate some so they could get some hay up to the horses, but I don't think anybody had any. At about that time the bus showed up and I heard them say the hay truck was just down the road, but still ... They should have had hay there the day before and plenty to go around too.

Anyway, we got off the bus about 9:30. We didn't really know when the first rider would be leaving, so Donna and Alice raced off to the out gate just in case a rider was to leave fairly soon. Mary, Sarah and I lugged everything into the out gate and we settled down for a long stay.

The first thing we did was find a spot for the clock. Donna had this marvelous idea of putting a clock up so that people would be able to see what time the rider left the vet checks. All we were going to concern ourselves with was getting the pictures up. We would call to each rider as they passed what their number was in order to try and put those up with the picture (at least with the first 15 - 25 riders). We weren't going to bother with names. We figured if we had the number there people could look up the names at the official rider list. But this clock idea was great. In the past, people were always asking what time did so-and-so get to here, or leave there. This way you could see for yourself and kind of keep track as to where the rider would be along the course.

Well, we set up the clock and played with the camera a little to make sure you could make out the time and then we busied ourselves with something else. At this point Donna still had the camera. I believe I had just gotten back from filling up water bottles and was putting those in the cooler. Don't remember what everybody was doing. All I remember was hearing a loud clapping and some hoots. We looked down the trail and here comes the first rider out of the vet check. Donna went running over to our picture spot turning on the camera hoping it would initialize before the rider passed us by. Just as he was going by the camera was ready. Donna presses the button and ... "Bad Disc" flashes across the screen! Ooooo ... you should have heard the naughties coming out of Donna's mouth. All that time and preparation and we missed the first rider out. Talk about depressing.

Donna handed the camera over to me and I went to my chair and plopped myself down into it. We were not going to let another rider pass us by. And that is where I stayed until the vet check closed at 1:30 PM. Numb butt, numb mind ... I got it in both directions. Donna pulled the other camera out and took a seat. Alice and Mary manned the paperwork. Sarah, having never had anything to do with horses before was fascinated by the goings on and was told to wander around for awhile.

Horse and rider number 2 were spotted at the out timer so it was my turn to try and get the picture. Not knowing anything about this camera, what I decided to do was hold the camera steadily on the clock so that when the rider went by the clock I could just push the shutter button all the way down. As it turned out I had zoomed in too much and as the rider passed I realized that his head was cut off. Well, at least the disc was good. I zoomed out a little and went from there. We had agreed that I would take all the pictures until more than one rider came by. If I was unable to get both riders into one shot the person manning the other camera would take the picture of the other rider. We decided that after the first 25 riders position wasn't all that relevant and that when alot of riders started coming through we would simply alternate who took the next picture. It actually worked out pretty well. I honestly believe we only missed 4 or 5 riders because the camera's couldn't recycle fast enough when 5 or 6 people came through at one time. We did our best, though, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

After we had been there about 1 1/2 hours it was time for Donna to take the discs we had and go back to Forresthill and put them up on the web site. Alice now began what I consider to be the toughest job of the entire weekend. For the rest of the day I doubt she was out of the Suburban for more than 30 minutes. She was the chauffeur. Alice missed pretty much the entire race. I don't know how she managed it. I have to admit I was more than a bit grateful when Alice said she'd take that suitcase full of discs back to the truck since we didn't need it. I grabbed a bunch of discs out of it before they left and never thought about it again.

Sarah now took over the duties of second camera. She sat next to me and we clucked away like a couple of old hens. I told her some pretty hair raising horse stories (I think she's amazed I'm still alive - or at least still the owner of a real stupid horse). A couple of pictures of the clock all by itself snuck in there. And until we got the rhythm down we had some duplicate horse pictures, but after awhile we got the hang of it and enjoyed the day. Mary was faithfully taking numbers and when it got too heavy she would just tell people to smile for the camera. Mary once again played gofer for us. I was too chicken to leave my chair for fear of missing a rider (naturally that would be the rider YOU would be looking for). So she brought me water and took my full discs (Sarah's too) and generally made pleasant conversation. She got to sit in the shade. I got stuck in the sun. There was no place I could go to get out of it and still be near the trail. Fortunately it wasn't all that hot and I had plenty of sunscreen. But brain fry is totally different from skin fry, but that comes later.

About 1:30 the drag riders gathered at the out gate. All the other horses left in camp were either pulled or were over time. We packed up our gear and headed for the road. I was really surprised by the number of horses I saw lined up in the vet area on IV's. I don't believe I have ever seen that many hooked up before. One rider was bemoaning that she had done everything right. She didn't understand why this had happened to her horse. It wasn't hot enough to give electrolytes. Well, I guess she didn't do everything right. Horses were being carted down to Forresthill all morning and there were still about 9 horses that were still hooked up to IV's. I hope everything turned out for the better for those guys. Alice hadn't made it back from her third trip yet, so we had to wait for a little while.

After about 15 minutes we piled into the Suburban and headed for Forresthill.

Oh, did that wedding occur at Robinsons like we had heard? You tell me.

Enough for now. Stay tuned for Part 4 or Blue Shaved Ice Saves the Day.

Tori

Copyright 2000, Tori Thompson


Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5



The Saddle Shop carries a full line of Circle Y Saddles, Big Horn Saddles, Tex Tan Saddles, English Saddles, Australian Saddles, Western Saddles, Show Saddles, Roping Saddles, Barrel Racing Saddles, Custom Saddles and used saddles and equestrian tack. Many are 30 to 40% discounted from list price, and shipping is always free.
For an additional 2% discount, use coupon code ridestories


BuyACar     Accept credit cards on your website    Website hosts    HTML for beginners    Advertising on your website     Privacy statement