WHEN IS A CONTEST NOT A CONTEST?

Today was a travel day! Got up early, had banana bread for breakfast, and headed southeast about 45 miles to a ranch near McNeal, Arizona, where Al and Kelly Bossence are “ranch sitting.” For bloggers, Al and Kelly are better known, along with their dogs Cora, Max and Checkers, as “The Bayfield Bunch.”

We have been following each other’s blogs for some months, and this was our first chance to meet face to face. A big factor is this meeting was Cowboy Cookies. Al and Kelly prefer to be uncrowded when they are on the road, will boondock way out in the boondocks to achieve that goal, and will move when there are neighbors that they can actually see. So to grease the skids for a visit, we offered to bring Cowboy Cookies.

Being a no nonsense guy, Al immediately agreed, and even send these instructions: I just called the U-Haul trailer place in Benson to make sure they had a trailer available for Tuesday to load all those cowboy cookies in when you come down.  They said they had a covered 20 footer in there so I gave them your name & told them you were transporting a shipment of baby diapers.  Didn't want them to know a load of cowboy cookies was on the road between Benson & McNeal.  We hear there are desperate cowboy cookie thieves in the area who will stop at nothing to get their tummies full of Suzy's cowboy cookies!!  Rumor has it there is even one of them in Cowichan Bay up there in that British Columbia place in Canada!!

The next message we got from Al cautioned:

Jerry & I are going to have a rootin tootin Cowboy Cookie shoot-out here at the ranch. Gary Cooper's High Noon has nothing on the suspense filled caper. Put yer money on me folks because I'm bigger & hungrier than Jerry.........but, he's older & more experienced in the ways of Cowboy Cookies  than I am. Hmmmmm, could be quite a shoot-out here in the Arizona desert sometime after High Noon.

Turns out that I am not only older and wiser than Al, I’m also bigger! We had that shoot-out, and I’m not gonna tell you who won, except that I have an advantage. We made BUNCHES of Cowboy Cookies, and there are a lot more here than there are at the ranch!

Here’s Al, balancing a stack of cookies on his knee, trying to look cool and nonchalant. He was really quaking in his boots, as the shoot-out was about to start. That’s Kelly sitting beside him, being a “second” for the duel.

Suzy got these pictures as the shoot-out was in progress:

  Of course, it was all in fun, as I’m sure Al will attest to in his next blog. Suzy and Kelly enjoyed the few cookie crumbs Al and I left, those that little Cora didn’t snarfle up first. Kelly cooked some good burgers on the grill, we had a lovely visit, and vowed to meet again … whenever there are more cookies to gobble!

Oh, we did get some wildlife pictures! Suzy got these Sandhill Cranes flying over (the sky was full of cranes the entire morning):

And I got a shot at this four-legged creature visiting with Suzy:

and of course, Checkers, playing fetch:

A good day, one that we’ll cherish in our memories of … Our Life on Wheels! 

Technorati Tags: Bayfield Bunch,Cowboy Cookies