Saturday, March 01, 2008
I met my dear friend Mel yesterday afternoon at The Flower Corner to talk with them about the flowers for her upcoming wedding. After the flower chat, I was driving north on the West Loop, trying to get back to my side of town. It's about 2pm and the loop is PACKED all the way back before the 59 bridge. We're inching along - one of those where you make it to 2nd gear thinking maybe you'll get to move but no, not really.
I'm thinking well it must be an accident. Since the loop was rebuilt a few years ago it's unusual for it to just be stopped at this time on a normal Friday. Inch by inch, I make it toward I-10. When I crest Post Oak and can see the feeder leading up to Memorial, it's truly an "Ah HA!" moment. It's a trail ride. I know that if you're in Boston you can't even begin to understand this, but on a Friday late in February every year, the trail riders finally make it to Houston in anticipation of the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo. They've been on the trail - truly - for days or weeks, traveling with chuck wagons and sleeping under the stars. It's a huge thing down here, a religion for some of the folks who ride.
There is one ride, the Salt Grass, that rides down a road close enough to my house for me to just walk down and sit on the curb to watch it go by. It's a little bit surreal to sit down in your urban neighborhoood while 1,300 people go by on horses. I delight in the sound of the horse's shoes clomping on the road and the wind-chime sound of the tack. I've been stopped at a red light while the same ride crossed the road I was on. It's such a gas - people get out of their cars to watch, the riders smiling and waving, people yelling greetings back and forth. The folks who have kids with them - those are the best. They put their kids up on their shoulders, or stand them up on the hoods of their cars, and you can see that it's magic for the kids. It's the only traffic jam you don't mind being in.
Which is why, when I crested Post Oak and saw that the feeder was down to one lane - the trail ride had one all to itself, and that the jam on the loop was because everyone was slowing down to look at the trail riders, it was one of those traffic jams that turns out to be OK.
And I'm pretty sure that folks in Boston have no way to get that. Ya'll should come down here in late February and just pull over to watch the world pass by on a horse.
I'm thinking well it must be an accident. Since the loop was rebuilt a few years ago it's unusual for it to just be stopped at this time on a normal Friday. Inch by inch, I make it toward I-10. When I crest Post Oak and can see the feeder leading up to Memorial, it's truly an "Ah HA!" moment. It's a trail ride. I know that if you're in Boston you can't even begin to understand this, but on a Friday late in February every year, the trail riders finally make it to Houston in anticipation of the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo. They've been on the trail - truly - for days or weeks, traveling with chuck wagons and sleeping under the stars. It's a huge thing down here, a religion for some of the folks who ride.
There is one ride, the Salt Grass, that rides down a road close enough to my house for me to just walk down and sit on the curb to watch it go by. It's a little bit surreal to sit down in your urban neighborhoood while 1,300 people go by on horses. I delight in the sound of the horse's shoes clomping on the road and the wind-chime sound of the tack. I've been stopped at a red light while the same ride crossed the road I was on. It's such a gas - people get out of their cars to watch, the riders smiling and waving, people yelling greetings back and forth. The folks who have kids with them - those are the best. They put their kids up on their shoulders, or stand them up on the hoods of their cars, and you can see that it's magic for the kids. It's the only traffic jam you don't mind being in.
Which is why, when I crested Post Oak and saw that the feeder was down to one lane - the trail ride had one all to itself, and that the jam on the loop was because everyone was slowing down to look at the trail riders, it was one of those traffic jams that turns out to be OK.
And I'm pretty sure that folks in Boston have no way to get that. Ya'll should come down here in late February and just pull over to watch the world pass by on a horse.
Labels: cult, personal urban drama, texas
# posted by Carol : 1:07 PM
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