By: Julie L. Cleveland
My day started out planned, and by mid-afternoon, it went south. It started with a really tight deadline that I was doing remarkably well dealing with and adhering to, but a side trip to the post office took a good schedule that was clipping along as planned and twisted it into a wadded candy wrapper.
Normally, my packages are all posted at home using my account with Paypal, but this was an odd-man out package that I had to take in for postage. This particular package had been sent out before and it had been returned back, and now, it was going back out again for the third time the exact same way. It was going Priority and although two of those trips it went for around $17 Priority, suddenly the new girl at the post office wanted $42 to send it for me. I had already stood in line for over 30 minutes. I took my package back out to the car and drove off. Something is very wrong, and the new girl didn’t know what it was and was unable to get help.
Mule Days
So, in honor of a day that went south and my stubbornness, I am doing a post about Mule Days in Bishop, California. This will make me feel better because it is about a very cool little event that is held in Bishop to honor mules. We were out there a few years ago as we were traveling to Lone Pine and a few other very cool places. We happened to stumble upon Mule Days and one look at these amazing faces, I had to stay.
Mule Days is held every Memorial Day weekend, and it has been going strong for 44 years. Over 700 mules compete in a variety of competitions, and I took a lot of photos while I was there. According to their website http://muledays.org/, they have over 30,000 that go through their gates during the event. I was there; the fairgrounds are not that big.
(Photo courtesy Julie L. Cleveland – Mule Days, Bishop, California 2009)
It’s part parade, part rodeo, part 4-H fair and part country fair. It is filled with cowboys and cowgirls dressed in their finest, and the kids ride their mules and enjoy themselves. They even have the longest running non-motorized parade ever.
Mmm Kettle Corn
I had my first sample of kettle corn at Mule Days. Oh, yeah, I am a fan now! I took a lot of photos of flowers and roses that I have used in a variety of print projects, and of course, I took a lot of mule photos like this guy hanging over the fence waiting his turn at whatever event he was signed up to participate in.
(Photo courtesy Julie L. Cleveland – Mule Days, Bishop, California 2009)
Another costume ready for a parade. I don’t know what he was dressed as, but his mule had a cute hat!
Mule Days is a fun weekend event that had crafts, food and all the other makings of a great county fair, so if you are in the Bishop area around Memorial Day, get to the Mule Days! Bishop is located on 395 right outside of Lone Pine in the Sierras.
There, now, I feel much better, and the post office is a minor irritation. :)
Enjoy
Julie and Blu
