El Sueno - Part 1

El Sueno had a funny start. I’ve never done back-to-back shows before, and now I know why. It’s hard! I unloaded everything last Sunday only to start loading everything back up the very next weekend.

As I was checking things off my list, I peeked into my trailer closet to look for a sweatshirt. No sweatshirt, but also not enough show shirts; there should have been two, not just one. Of course, I checked to see if it had fallen off the hanger. Nope. I knew it wasn’t in my closet at home as I had checked several times to make sure I had everything.

I stood staring at the extra hanger wondering where in the world my second shirt was. Then it occurred to me that if a shirt was missing, so probably was my second pair of breeches. And why did I only have a single glove?

Doh! All of a sudden it hit me; I hadn’t washed my white laundry since last weekend which meant that my other glove, shirt, and breeches were in the dirty clothes basket at home. I thought about it. Could I ride both days in the same shirt and breeches? Yes, but did I want to? And what would I do if I got bucked off and/or dirty?

I finished loading the rest of my stuff and head back home. It would only take a half an hour which was nothing compared to riding in dirty, stinky clothes. Once at home, I quickly located the shirt and breeches right where I knew they would be. I also found my two “show only” sports bras, one white and the other gray, buried with the shirt, breeches, and glove. None of it was that dirty as I am famous for changing out of my show clothes as soon as my tests are completed. They weren’t exactly clean though.

There wasn’t much I could do about the breeches, but I quickly dropped the shirt, sports bras, and lone glove in the kitchen sink and gave them a quick hand wash. I wrung out as much water as possible and wrapped everything in a towel. Back at the barn, I still needed to give Speedy a bath. While doing that, I laid everything out on my car’s trunk to dry as much as possible. It was a good thing that it was a very warm day!

A second funny thing happened during the course of loading all of my stuff. The last over-night trip in the trailer revealed a stove-top burner malfunction; the front burner worked fine, but the second one had shot the flame six inches high. It didn’t strike me as too terribly safe, especially in a space smaller than some bathrooms. A co-worker who has a travel trailer and is, well, excuse my girlishness, a MAN who knows how to fix stuff, suggested I get a can of air and blow out the burner to remove any blockages.

This seemed like a cheap and girl-friendly project that I could handle. He of course made the suggestion several weeks ago when I first brought it up. Leave it to me to wait until I am leaving for another trip before I try to fix things. So as I am loading up, I decide to blow out any debris from the burner with the air can. I have seen those cans of air before, but I have never actually used one. I read the directions carefully, but was a bit surprised to read something about spraying out the liquid before aiming at your intended target. I aimed away from the burner, sprayed, but no liquid came out. So I proceed to spray BOTH burners with what I hoped was air.

I grabbed a fire-clicker, turned the gas switch to ignite, and nearly blew myself up!

Apparently, there really is some sort of liquid that dispenses from the can. I am guessing that I covered the burners with said liquid, which from what I could tell, ignited into a roaring ball of fire. And when I say roaring, I mean it! It roared and then whooshed. Whether by instinct or pure luck, I let go of the clicker’s on button and the ball of fire disappeared. I leaned down to get a closer view and nearly passed out from the completely noxious fumes that rose from the stove stop. I leaped out of the trailer, grabbed a towel, and began fanning wildly.

Once the air cleared, I could see that everything looked normal. My eyebrows were still there and nothing in the “kitchen” looked singed. I reignited the fire-clicker, stood back, and slooowly turned on the burner. A small blue flame spread around the ring in a perfect circle. Problem solved. Who says a girl can’t fix stuff?

More tomorrow, but for now here are some photos of the grounds. By the way, I had the best campsite I have ever had at a show. Take a look.