Supporting the Riders

Tia went down to the Air Force Academy last night for a competitive trail ride today. She wasn't competing, just being a safety rider since it filled up, but she was down there with a friend and asked if the kids and me would want to come see it.

When we woke up I had a message that it was raining, so I set about doing horse chores. As I was filling water buckets, Tia called and said it stopped raining. I asked the kids, and they wanted to go down there, so we packed up and headed down. We were hurrying a bit, so we just grabbed fast food at a drive through, but then saw the sign.

It was an electronic sign that said "accident 9 miles ahead" and 1/4 mile down the road, traffic stopped. Stop and go, moving slow for about 10 miles, we had no choice. I told Tia we wouldn't make lunch, but Kendall still wanted to go, so we thought we'd kill some time and see Tia at the end.

Eventually things broke loose and we got down to the Air Force Academy. I thought Delaney might be interested in seeing the campus, so we drove through the North entrance and stopped by the visitors center. The kids were interested and we watched a short promo film on cadet life. Afterwards I asked them if they'd like to go there. As expected Delaney said maybe, but he wanted to go to Annapolis and be a Marine. Kendall said "maybe" and that surprised me.

We toured around the base a bit more, stopping to see some planes. and then met Tia at the horse race. We were there when they rode up, and it started to rain as they arrived. It was good to see her, and I think the kids are always impressed a bit seeing their parents participating in things, even if they don't say anything. They climbed in the front of the trailer and goofed off, laughing a lot with each other while Tia cleaned up and loaded up.

Then a much shorter drive home.