Sweet South

Almost two years ago I visited Austin. And I was totally hooked. I said to myself, "This is where I want to be." I took this photo while going horseback riding, I'd been before many years ago but not like this. The horses trekked their way up the side of a what seemed like a small mountain with sharp thorny brush, steep hillsides, loose rocks, and slippery gravel. I thought I was nearly going to die a couple times.

I guess I should probably explain how I ended up there. You see, the friend I was visiting worked at Travaasa Austin, a luxurious spa resort that was nestled atop a mountain surrounded by forests overlooking a lake. For only a lot of money you get to stay in a modern and rustic room overlooking a canyon, dine in their exquisite restaurant, have access to a full spa which offers hot-stone massages, and are welcome to join in the many daily activities offered to the guests. Some of these activities included archery lessons, hikes, yoga, and you guessed it, horseback riding! I was very fortunate in the fact that I knew someone, and sometimes that's the best "in" you can get. I think for the entire two days I was there, once overnight, I spent a whopping $100.

Back to the horseback riding. Because I wasn't really a "paying guest" we sort of had to wedge our way into getting access to these awesome extras. Normally you had to sign up for whatever activity you were interested in, but we just sort of showed up and went with the flow. Horseback riding was actually booked the day we wanted to go, we simply arrived and batted our eyelashes at the real cowboys who were in charge and managed to add ourselves to the group that was leaving shortly. Unfortunately, the horses we were paired with were technically "out of order." My horse especially seemed a little aggressive and impatient, he would stop abruptly to go to the bathroom regardless of the terrain (or incline at that matter), and would cut ahead of the other horses and run to the front of the line. You can imagine the look on my face at this point. A couple times he tripped on large rocks and sank in soft sand, almost taking me down with him. When we reached a part of the mountain that had large thorny trees, he ran alongside them forcing me to duck and pull my leg back so as not to lose a limb.

Once we returned to the ranch I learned that the poor guy hadn't been feeling well and that was why he was "out of order." Needless to say, I felt pretty terrible about him having to haul my weight up a mountain in 90 degree weather all the while he was sick. As we headed back to the resort I saw him off in the distance being hosed down with icy water, considering the other horses didn't get the same special treatment and he tried to smear me on a tree, I'd say we were even.