Johnny Depp, Tonto ,the Lone Ranger, Tony and Tevis

"The power of imagination makes us infinite."

– John Muir

Last Saturday, while Tony was resting. I went on the elliptical machine to do interval work. Tony made a better decision since Sunday’s run was long. Even though we(Chris, Tony and I) started at  7:30 AM, the temperature rose and it became hot.

On Tuesday’s run, Tony was dressed as Tonto like Johnny Depp. He placed feathers in his running cap Instead of the  dead crow.  He called me Kemosabe -the wrong brother. I laughed and told him I wanted to take a picture of him. He declined. I now have to see the new Lone Ranger picture.” Hi Yo Silver and Away.” Does  anyone know what kind(breed) of horse Tonto rode in the old Lone Ranger stories?

This coming Saturday is the  historic  Tevis Cup ride . More about Wendell Robie taken from Chapter 6 in “It Has Nothing To Do With Age.” “Robie realized that he had started an event that would likely continue as long as men bonded with her horses. He believed that this event was too much of a real challenge for super horsemen not to participate. This was a ride of a lifetime, following the historic Western States Trail over the Sierra.  This trail  varied in  elevation from 8,774 feet at Emigrant pass to 1,200 feet at the finish line in Auburn.

Robie wrote letters to newspapers, magazines, and Congressman, and gave public talks everywhere. He made arrangements with the school of veterinary medicine at UC Davis and had veterinarians  at the ride to protect the horses. To combat criticism from many riding groups and the Humane Society, he had his head veterinarian, Dr. Richard Barsaleau ,  counter their arguments.

The ride, even though its official name is Western States 100-day 100 - mile ride is commonly known as the Tevis, and the award for the first-place winner is the  Tevis Cup and was first awarded in 1959 ,( the first ride was  in 1955). The cup was named in honor of Lloyd Tevis,  an adventuresome pioneer who came to California in a covered wagon in 1849 in search of gold. In  true entrepreneurial spirit, Lloyd became president of Wells Fargo and Company from 1872 to 1892. The Tevis Cup was established as a perpetual trophy by his grandsons Will , Gordon, and Lloyd  Tevis.”

This week’s( Thursday) television show features  Merv  Pyorre and his thousand mile buckle.

On a sadder note we lost one of our friends this week, Sue Walz, who passed away after a long struggle with ALS this past week. Sue was an incredible woman, full of life. Unfortunately in Jan 2011, she started noticing symptoms of the devastating disease ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease. Sue passed away in her sleep on the afternoon of July, 11th, 2013.