BISHOP MULE DAYS 2016 -TUESDAY, MAY 24

I was off early this morning for the 47th Annual Bishop Mule Days. I left the house at 0445 in order to be on the cusp of the morning commute through the Riverside/San Bernardino area at US 60 and I-10 junctions with I-15. I was successful in that I only experienced some slowdown. In other words, it went smoothly. Once North of the I-10 Freeway the road emptied noticeably and the drive up US 395 was quite smooth. Along the way I enjoyed seeing snow in the Sierras from Lone Pine North, something that has been scarce the last couple of years. I reached Big Pine by 1130, and after checking into the Big Pine Motel where we have stayed most of the past 23 trips, proceeded to Bishop and the fairgrounds.

Eastern Sierras in Lone Pine area

White Mountains from Bishop

After a quick lunch at the tack room I was off to capture Tina compete in Cowboy Dressage and was able to do a video of her ride. It came out quite well.




(This is a new experience: adding video. Let me know what you think of it as the resolution is quite low due to the limitations of the blog format. - Thanks)


Then I was off to the Main Arena to watch and photograph our friends, DawnMarie and VedaRose, compete in donkey driving classes. 

Donkey Driving with DawnMarie

Donkey Driving

The Gambler’s Choice Class sets up challenges to be driven through or around where you accrue points for successfully navigating the specific setup. You are also judged for time so it can be a challenge.

Gambler's Choice (200 Pts.)

After the competitions we enjoyed a little down time in the shade of our wonderful cottonwood tree. Typical of the area, I watched as a thunderhead developed.

Thunderhead Building

As per tradition this evening’s dinner was at Amigos in downtown Bishop. They have a very diverse Mexican menu and Tuesday night’s special is a lobster enchilada which is delicious. Afterwards I headed back to Big Pine for the night. The clouds over the Sierras made for some interesting light and I stopped to get this image of the radio telescope array just North of Big Pine.

Radio Telescopes North of Big Pine