Good for another 3000 miles

Ansel had his monthly check up and visit with Dr. Dan McCleery of McCleery Chiropractic, Bend Oregon. Ansel has been going to Dr. Dan for over 20 years. Ansel signs in with Lagene

He tells that years ago Dr. Dan did a miracle cure on his back that hospitalization, traction, and typical medical practices weren't helping.

Dr. Dan, Ansel, and Anita

Now Ansel goes once a month, more for sort of a "well check" visit. It's been great to have someone tracking and watching his health from the inside out. The staff is like family to us. Lagene, Samantha, (Dr's wife) and Anita are terrific. So our recommendation to you is if you have anything health wise going on that is amiss... from the normal things you'd seek chiropractic care for, to nutritional needs and holistic care - make an appointment with Dr. Dan. ( for those of you coming from Burns, the office is super easy in and out. It's right on Greenwood on the right, just before the Arco station at the jct of 97)

Small world... Anita overheard us talking of San Ysidro, CA... and that Ansel's mother and father had a house there that is now a parking lot for the border crossing, anyway she said her family lived there too and that her father was the grounds keeper for "a" race track named Aqua Caliente... This was probably the track that Ansel raced the most at in his career. Her Dad and Ansel, unbeknownst to each other, were probably there at the same time in the 30's and 40's.

Hmmm, isn't it a small world. Next time I'll take our Caliente book in for her to see pictures of the track.

Lunch with Paul

Paul tries to come most Wednesdays for a visit and to have lunch with Ansel. Paul has been very helpful around the place here. He and friend Pate have hauled many a bale of hay for Ansel since he stopped driving. This week Ansel was telling Paul about Emery Fiske...

Emery Fisk: was a cowboy who was know to always use a bull whip to herd cattle and wrangle horses. He said one time Emery was up in the badlands of North Dakota and when this fellow came to pick him up, he found that the fellow had loaded his saddle and gear into his truck, and had removed Emery's bull whip from his saddle and had thrown it up on the porch... When Emery came out and saw that, he started to get his saddle out of the truck, the fellow said what are you doing??? Emery said, if my whip doesn't go, I don't go... So the fellow hustled around and got Emery's bull whip and put it back on his saddle.

Emery told of moving 300 head of steers and 76 saddle horses by himself in the badlands country. It took him 5 days and 5 nights, to move them the 100 miles and he never saw another soul and did it all by himself with his bull rope and the 76 head of saddle horses. (the horses traveled loose in amongst the herd of cattle) When Emery got to where he was going with those 300 head, he still had three hundred head with just himself, his horse and his bull whip and no dogs. He said he might ride five head of horses each day. He said as he rode along, if he wanted the lead to go to right, he'd just ride up on the left and pop his whip and they'd move right where he wanted them to. He made sure every night when he bedded down, that one horse was hobbled and saddled, so he'd be sure to not be left a foot.

Emery ended up working for Jackie Westrope's father grooming horses at Aqua Caliente. He eventually became a race horse trainer and that was where Ansel met him at the Aqua Caliente race track in Tijuana, Mexico in about 41.

Ansel taught Emery's son Bill to be a race rider (jockey) back in the early 40's. He was a real good rider and got good mounts to ride. The other boy he taught to ride was Doug Dodson from Burns. Doug did pretty good, he won the Preak Stakes, and he was second to Citation in the Derby [Kentucky] and he made the Jockey Hall of Fame. When he'd come home to Burns, he used come down to our Lawen place and hunt geese.

Emery ended up being a very well know deputy sheriff in San Bruno, CA. He solved a very prominent murder case, and was asked to become an agent with the FBI. He eventually retired from the FBI. His son, Bill was a very good jockey and did real well.

Then he told of prominent jockey, Jackie Westrope who is in the Jockey's Hall of Fame. Jackie Westrope was married to Hollywood actress Nan Grey. Nan eventually left him and married Frankie Lane.

2007 NCHA World Champion

CONGRATULATIONS Ron Davis and RD Bud Light

Ansel's long time friend Ron Davis, of Ron Davis Quarter Horses here in Tumalo, Oregon reached a milestone that many of us hope for and few ever achieve. Ron showed his home grown cutting horse, RD Bud Light last year to become the NCHA World Champion 3000 Novice Horse. Ron traveled all over the NW, CA, NV, AZ, NM, TX, OK, and LA (I'm sure there are more that I can't remember) to earn the most winnings in his class to beat out the Reserve Champion, Bobin Hood shown by Dan Hansen by just a few dollars relatively speaking.

Ansel followed Ron's progress all year and was very excited for Ron's win. When they went into the finals only a few hundred dollars separated 1st and 2nd place. Thanks to 2008 technology we were able to watch Ron's go rounds in the finals in Amarillo, TX, LIVE from the comfort of our living room here in Bend on my lap top. There was a production glitch and they didn't announce Ron's score after his work or during the broadcast, so we were in the dark as to whether he won the whole enchilada or not until he called.

Ansel had given Ron valuable advice earlier in the year when he stopped by to visit Ansel and give him an update... Ansel told him that "the most important secret to getting to the winners circle, was to keep the horse sound until the last show". Every time Liz would call with an update, Ansel would just beam. He was very proud of Ron.

Bud Light was out of Ron's great mare Misholena, the palomino in the picture that they are looking at in the picture below. Sadly she had to be put down last spring, and there will only be one more colt out of this great mare. They were able to harvest her eggs, and breed her posthumously via a donor mare.
Sunday afternoon Ron and Liz's daughters put together a congratulations party for Ron to celebrate his Championship. Ansel was determined that we be sure and get home from our road trip so that we could attend the party. He wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Ansel visits with Lisa Urbach at the party. He had lots of opportunities to tell his stories.
This is Bud Light. Daughter Laura brought him over to check out the festivities in his honor.

Not only did the cake tell the story, it was incredibly delicious... I need to find out where they got it !!!
Ron and Ansel above, Liz and Ansel below

The HC Museum didn't keep Ansel !!

The final stretch: Funny when we got to Burns I thought we were home... then came the realization that we still had 130 miles to go... but I needed some iced coffee and a break, so we made a quick stop. (quick ???)
The last time we were in Burns, we had tried to go the Harney County Museum but it was closed for the winter. So we thought we'd try again. This time it was open, and it was a neat surprise to see George and Hilda there. (Hilda is Martina's younger sister) When we stopped and visited Hilda at her home in Burns a few weeks ago, we had told her we had tried to go to the museum but is was closed and she said that they'd be opening it in April for the summer. For me, I had been through it 20 years ago, but at that time I didn't know very many people around the County. Now that I know more of the history and the Harney County folks, I knew I'd appreciate it more. I also wanted to see if there was anything we had of Ilda Mae Hayes stuff that might should go to the museum.



Ansel reminisces while looking at the Harney County Centennial saddle. Ansel was the Harney County Grand Marshall during the Centennial in 1989 and he rode in the saddle during the parade and festivities. The saddle was made especially for the Harney County Centennial Celebration by John and Jeanne Bennett of Bennett's Saddlery, Burns, Oregon with the donations of many sponsors. It was a reproduction of an 1889 Visalia Saddle.

We did manage to get out of the museum with Ansel... he loves to tell everyone how Bob Meck teases him that he should never go inside one, as they may keep him for an antique and hang him on the wall.

After we left the museum, I was getting my iced coffee fix before setting out across the desert, and I saw Kyle Osborn drive by in his dodge flatbed... (good thing he's still driving the same pickup :0) so we ran him down, so Ansel could say Hi. Kyle is a 2nd or 3rd or 4th ??? cousin to Martina... and had lived and apprenticed with Ansel in the early 80's at their ranch north of Burns Paiute Reservation for a time.
Ansel remembered a time when they, (he and Kyle) were shoeing a horse in the barn there at the home place on Foley Dr (now West Loop Rd)... Kyle's younger brother Byron had been splashing around in the Silvies, which was right behind the barn, and he came running in with fish in a bucket. Carp, big carp were prevalent and they didn't pay any attention to him, and just assumed that he had caught a big carp. He kept saying "I caught Walter ! I caught Walter ! The movie On Golden Pond, had just come out, and Walter was the elusive grand daddy trout that was mentioned through out the movie. When they finally got done with the horse and looked at the fish in the five gallon bucket they had assumed was a carp... they were bowled over to see a huge 18-20 inch or so beautiful rainbow trout.

On the road again... we finally did set out for Deschutes County... I had to keep slapping myself to slow down... Pretty much every where we had been, the speeds are 75 mph on the two lane highways like the one between Burns and Bend. It wasn't a problem when we were going along the Malheur River, but once we got outside of Burns on the straight stretch... I had to keep extracting my foot out of the floor board. I did manage to make it home to Bend without getting a speeding ticket... whew... don't need to chance messing with the insurance premiums.

After 3100 miles... from St. Louis, to Iowa, Mo, KS, OK, KS, CO, WY, ID, OR... we finally we made to our driveway...




Ansel was excited to be home to his electric blanket, and I was looking forward to a long soak in my hot tub under the stars.

Vale to Burns...

Tutu (Jill) with Shanny and Courtney
Ansel and Seb discuss rabbits and turtles.. (that's what Seb has in his hands and what's in the aquarium)

Should be in Bend this afternoon... funny the last 250 miles are the longest...

We left Ontario much later than I had planned... Imagine that ????? We stopped on the way out of town to visit with Courtney, Sebastian and Shan. (Jason was working) They had moved from Bend to Ontario last summer, so we hadn't seen the baby in several months. They are doing very well, Jason has a good job with a HVAC company over there. We finally got on the road again... Saw this new sign on some silos just outside of Vale. I lived in Vale for several years in the early 80's.

I'd forgotten they (Vale) have their very own "Bates Motel", so since I had made reference to it so many times during the trip, I couldn't resist snapping a picture for the blog.

Finally on down the river, we went as we made our way across the high desert... it had been a long time since I had driven between Vale and Burns. There was a time when I had all the corners named. It's a pretty drive. I was surprised to see that they still had snow on Cottonwood. And then as we made our way to Harney County, I was even more surprised to see snow still on Drinkwater and Stinkingwater.

Yup, back in Harney County... (Hwy 20 going up the grade just before Pine Creek)

Almost there.. 134 miles to Bend, but of course we have to stop in Burns... April 11 and there is still snow on Burns Butte.

from 20 degrees to 60 ahhhhhh

April 10 ??? 2008 Spring any one ???

Started out in Cokeville, Wyoming... another vintage 1950's Motor Court. Woke up to 20 degrees and snow all around... (not on the pavement, just around) Odd that it's almost April 15, and it's still winter here.

Love the retro-mint green tile... Nope, that's not right, this is ORIGINAL mint green tile !!! Just like my childhood bathroom... I can remember standing over the "in-floor" heat register that was outside the bathroom door waiting our turn to use the one bathroom (for 6 of us) that wasn't much bigger than this one. The floor register was probably 2'x3', and I can remember straddling it, to enjoy the heat in the morning. My short (5yr old) legs would barely reach the sides and it was too hot to stand on top of.

The room was comfortable, and very inexpensive. No internet... but it did have a coffee pot and a note that we were welcome to use the BBQ near the office if we wanted to cook :0)

Then it was on to Idaho.
Got into another snow storm while heading over the pass between Wy and ID... It didn't make the pavement icy or slippery, but it was alot of snow coming down for a time. Once we got to Pocatello, it was truly spring ! warm and sunny and windy... the drive was actually harder since it was so sunshiney... I was pretty sleepy... I found Iwas driving into every micky D's for two medium iced coffees. That was usually enough to get me to the next one.

We're in the home stretch... I can see Oregon in my sights. Ahhhhhhhhhh

This is the overpass at Ontario, Oregon. They have this beautiful artwork as their welcome sign. It didn't come out very clear, but it is really nice.
We stopped in Ontario and stayed the night with our friend Jill, where we were treated to a nice Chinese dinner with Jill's oldest daughter Wendy and her grandchildren Cade and Megan. Woke up to warm sunshine... I remember living in the Treasure Valley in the early 80's and summer always came early. I see all the irrigation is turned on every where, and they'll be putting up their first cutting of hay soon.

While we were at Jill's, Ansel said "in his 93 and 3/4 years... he's never ever seen a Mule Cat... but he finally has... and his name is Bruce. They are rare and this is the only one known to be held in captivity... he has adapted to his surroundings quite nicely.

Today is the last day of our adventure. But there are many more stories than I have been able to post here. So my plan is to continue posting Ansel's stories on this blog after we get home. I have many of them, but didn't have the energy or a good enough internet connection to post them. So stay tuned...

The mystery solved

Managed to get an answer to my question about the sign that left me sleepless last night trying to figure out what it meant...

NO HAZARDOUS CARGO...

(according to the Federal Dept of Transportation)

Colorado and Wyoming

Well Lamar Co was a bust... the weather was so horrible, the wind blew 50-60 mph and they were supposed to received 6-8 inches of snow. So we didn't do any poking around other than to drive by the fairgrounds and see that they no longer had a race track. Then it was whip and spur to get on up the highway to the other side of Denver before the real storm hit. It was an exhausting drive... both hands on the steering wheel at all times. I could only imagine how bad the wind was to the "high profile" vehicles.



We poked around in Limon, Co and saw this sign in the picture... any guesses what it means??

Then it was get on up the highway. We took Hwy 287 from Fort Collins to Laramie... I was questioning my decision as we ended up in a blizzard going over the pass. The real excitement came when I decided it was time to get rid of some of that coffee that I'd been tanking up on. It was getting to the point where I was wondering if I would make it... Ahhhh I saw a sign for a rest area 2 miles ahead... got there and ohhhh no, the gates were locked... rats !!! I looked across the road and decided I'd could go behind some rocks... I pulled over there jumped out, it was snowing like a son of a gun, the ground was really soft and muddy... darn now I had red clay sneakers... anyway there's been lots of times that I've peed outside behind a bush... but don't know that I've ever had snow whipping around me and piling up on my derriere. Got done, brrrrr, then I look over and Ansel has piled out of the car... and he didn't know how bad the mud was... I can see he's walking to the worst of the soft wet area, but he can't understand my telling him to stop... he too was on a mission... he walked into right into a really soft spot, mud over his ankles, his boots stuck, he's losing his balance, wavering, I'm trying to run back to where he is and I'm not in time and he fell forward on his hands in the mud, pants around his ankles... I tried not to laugh...

Then when I moved the car closer to him, so he didn't have to walk as far in the ankle deep mud... that tested my mud bogging skills. The car is officially christened.
When we got to Laramie, I had to drive through the town and look for Wyoming Technical Institute... that's where Tim and Eric both went to school and I'd never seen it before so was curious.

Then I saw this cute very well done Mustang...

Here's a pic of Ansel counting sheep. Actually speaking of sheep, I realized today we haven't hardly seen any wildlife. Two pheasants in KS, and nothing until we got to western Wyoming and saw some antelope.

I looked for Elk when we went over the pass between Ft. Collins and Laramie, as Eric said that they were always there near the state line, but the snow was so bad and there wasn't hardly any visibility. So if they were there, we missed them.


Well need to get back on the road, no wi-fi last night... another 1950's Motor Court. We are at a Flying J Truck Stop that has wi-fi right now.