Bucket List!

Today has been fun, but first I want to back up to yesterday morning. Rita, the woman from Las Cruces, New Mexico, visiting friends in Kerrville, who had called me on Sunday, about getting a private tour with her friends Monday morning, around 10:30 didn't happen.

Around 11:30, Rita's friend Carolyn called me, "Nancy, I am so sorry, but we have to cancel today's visit, because we had to rush Rita to the Emergency Room in Kerrville and everything is up in the air."

"Oh my goodness," I said. "Is she going to be alright?"

"We don't know. They put her on Morphine. Can we reschedule our visit for tomorrow morning?"

"Sure....." After we adios-ed each other I was very concerned about Rita's condition. When Tony and Brandon returned to The Cabin to eat lunch, I told them about Rita being in the hospital and maybe coming out on New Year's Day. "Tony, you know Rita mentioned that visiting our rescue ranch was on her Bucket List. What if she has already died and never got to see our rescue ranch?"

"She might have, Nance," Tony replied.

Early in the evening Kinky called me, "Nance, I'll be back at the ranch late tonight. How are The Friedmans doing?"

After we had discussed them, I told him about Rita. "Kinky, she may already be dead, but if not she might show up out here tomorrow."

"I doubt if she is dead, Nance." Then a few seconds later Kink and I chuckled about the funny/morbid situation, because weird things seem to happen out here. "If Rita and her friends come out tomorrow—I definitely want to meet Rita and her friends.

This morning, as I re-cleaned The Cabin, in case Rita and her friends showed up, I couldn't quit thinking about poor Rita, while Tony and Brandon did the morning chores outside.

Around 11:10, our dogs inside The Cabin, started barking, so I looked out the window and saw a silver car, that I didn't recognize, driving up to our trailer. "Tony, I think Rita is here!" I half-hollered, before going outside to greet whoever had driven up.

"Welcome to the rescue ranch," I said, to three women climbing out of a car that had New Mexico license plates.

"Are you Cousin Nancy?"

"Yes. Are you Rita?"

"Yes, I am, but my name is Ria, not Rita and I am still wearing my hospital bracelet, because I am still on Morphine."

"I'm sorry, Ria. I am hard of hearing and I thought you said, "Rita." Then I recognized her friend Bonny and greeted her. Then Bonny introduced me to her sister Carolyn. After we had all hugged each other Tony and I gave them a grand tour of the rescue ranch, as we talked about our dogs and about Ria's visit to the Emergency Room.

Apparently, Ria has been seeing all kinds of doctors and taking MIR's etc. trying to find out what is causing her pain in her neck with no results. And the reason Ria went to Peterson Regional Memorial Hospital was because she started having really bad chest pains and thought she was having a heart attack. Then she told us, "Fortunately, it wasn't a heart attack."

"I bet it is your gallbladder," Tony diagnosed. "Nancy and I have known a lot of people who thought they were having heart attacks and it was their gallbladder."

"They've tested my gallbladder and it is fine..."

When we ended the tour we invited the women into the The Cabin, so we could visit some more and drink some coffee. Twenty minutes later, I asked them if they would like to meet Kinky and they all said, "Yes!"

Then I called Kinky. "Kinky, I have three women here and I wanted to know if I could bring them over?"

"Is it Rita?" He asked. Does she look like she's on her death bed?"

"Yes, but her name is Ria not Rita and she looks real healthy to me. We'll be there in just a minute."

Our visit at The Lodge was a lot of fun. They got their pictures taken with Kinky and before we left, Kinky invited us to toast the New Year, with his Man In Black Tequila.

Carolyn and Bonny accepted his invitation, but I declined, because I swore off tequila, when I lived in Crested Butte, Colorado. "I'll have some, too," Ria declared.

"You can't, Ria, because you are still on Morphine," one of the sisters said. Then Bonny ran out to their car and retrieved Ria's medical records folder. "Ria, it says no alcohol." And Ria seemed disappointed.

After Kinky poured the sisters and his shot glasses, I said, "Let's toast to Ria not being dead and scratching us off her bucket list." Then they clinked their glasses together and Ria and I touched their shot glasses.

As they sipped the tequila I said, "Ria, I'm glad that you're not dead and please don't drop dead here."

When it was time for us to leave, one of the sisters suggested that Kinky autograph Ria's medical records and he signed it, "To Ria, I'm glad you're not dead, yet."

Later this afternoon, Kinky treated Brandon, Tony and me to lunch, in Kerrville and we had a good time and that is about it for tonight, because I am going to start writing on Part II of The Cowgirl Sisterhood: The Membership Drive.

Y'all have a great New Year!