It's so quiet

Softly click the pics.

The recent events are over, and everyone's gone. The place seems quiet, almost dead.

Except the County workers are busy replacing the arena floor, which will take some time before it develops that blood, sweat, and tears that gives a rodeo arena floor its ambience.

I was kind of busy today, so I didn't write anything, pictures will have to do until tomorrow.

The rodeo stands are empty, the kids have finished the rodeo and all the parents are gone. Where once there was cheers, steers and fears, now there is only silence.

The outdoor barrel racing arena which was packed with happy, cheering people, horses, and campers all weekend is now empty, but the excitement still hangs in the air.

Some of the stalls where the rodeo horses are housed, are still waiting to be cleaned.

The huge horse barns that each hold about 30 large stalls, and each stall capable of housing several horses have been packed with horses for the last four days and are now so quiet that my footsteps echoed as I walked through the halls.

The Cantina once a busy place in the afternoon with a lot of the horse folks sitting outside talking about what went wrong and what went right that day, now looks lonely and bleak. I myself sometimes look lonely and bleak..... But more bleak than lonely.

The two roach coaches now sit idle without a customer in sight. I assume they will stay here until the next event arrives.

The only sound coming from the once busy horse arenas is a crew of Pima County workers mucking out the arena in preparation to adding a new dirt floor.

These arenas are pretty large, in this one they have two skid steers, a large front end loader, a backhoe, and a road-grader. All needed to remove the arena floor, and replace it with whatever is needed for the next event.

Yes, once the events are over, there's nothing left but a few faded pictures of the fun and excitement that made the Fairgrounds such a happy place.

And like everything else in life, the tracks of where you've been will quickly wash away and be forgotten, the places you've been will change, and in a few brief years be almost unrecognizable. And much like life there won't be anything left but faded memories of how you could have enjoyed it more, and treated every day like it was your last.