Two scrappy gals on the prairie...

...that would be one small scrappy red-head, and one small scrappy terrier alone for some girl bonding for a couple of days. For the first time since we moved to Minnesota, it was just Sydney and I, home alone for the weekend. Mike had a business-work-weekend with USBank and I dropped him off at his tour bus early on Saturday morning. He was slightly-grumpy about either the early wake-up call, or the fact that he had to work, or a little bit of both. He headed to lovely Brainard (the Madden resort) and I headed to work as well, after taking Syd to an early morning field trip. After work I headed out for a long day in the saddle. NO WIND! Lots of hunters. There were "orange guys" everywhere along the county roads around Marshall.

Usually the fields are free of anything but tractors, but not today. There were trucks parked at every "State Hunting" sign. Dogs, Orange guys...but these dogs were busy looking for pheasant and so this slow-moving two wheeled gal was free from barking hounds (except for that real annoying black dog at the corner of county road 4 & 5.) Sigh.

It was one of those amazing fall days where the wind is non-existent. It never lasts that way for too many days, but when you get one, you're like, "Oh...this *is* nice!" There are enough of them, such that all my trips before I moved here were usually those nice crisp (cold sometimes), but wind-free all the same days. I thought it was always THAT way. I also thought it was cold then, and what I am learning is that it is not possible yet for me to understand winter.

I remember when I was working in the Netherlands and Sweden one winter and it was 0 degrees. Maybe even it was below 0. But that was Celsius. So my head hears 0 degrees and shivers. But my recollection of 0 = 32 degrees Farenheit. I've never really lived with 32 degree temps. I've been outside for a moment or two when it's in the high 20's/low 30's and remembered how quickly I needed to come inside. But the guys at the shop are educating me some. I can never tell if they're kidding me or not; surely they must be...otherwise this scrappy Taylor gal and her scrappy small hound are really in for some extremely cold days on the prairie soon.

Surely they must be joking?