Mt Isa (Thursday)

Apparently I was a little more tired than I had realised... I slept 11 hours last night! It was about 10 by the time I got up, so it has been a rather short day.
Angela and I brought out the phone book this morning, so I could go get a massage. I usually get treatment on my shoulders every week and its now been almost five weeks since my last session, so was getting rather sore. It was a bit of a mission, trying to avoid the relaxation types, and find someone available at such short notice. I eventually got myself and appointment, and heading into town to do some jobs before my session. I went into Kmart looking for a washing up bucket after Tuesdays over the garden bed effort. And of course ass soon as I go in the door, they have all three of the Fifty Shades books, for $10 each! Well! So I got books 2 and 3. I haven't opened them yet, because I know what will happen when I do. No one will see me for two days!
I also found 'my' boots, the ones I almost bought in Longreach. The lady offered them to me for $15 less than ms Longreach, but she didn't have my size! So I guess I'll just have to see if I can get them at the rodeo.
I had had enough of exploring the shops, so I rang up the massage appointment to find out where to go. Only to discover they have stairs. Of course they would! Anyway, as a result of this how-to-get-me-up-the-stairs discussion, my appointment was moved forward to then. So I went straight around, got carried up the stairs (of course) and spent the next hour and a half (not bad considering I thought I only had 30 minutes) in the very capable hands of Andrew, a rather bronzed kiwi with tatts Cobi and Ella would love. I had somehow managed to get an appointment with Mt Isa's only therapeutic massage therapist (the others are all chiropractors or relaxation) by complete accident! So it was mostly very painful (serves me right for leaving it so long), but I came away feeling great. I even remembered to drink water afterwards! I did however discover a new worst pressure point...
I got back to find everyone else had disappeared, but George turned up while I was trying to get motivated enough to get out of the car. We sat around outside until sunset, eating biscuits with cottage cheese and mango chutney dip, not bad at all!
After a quick tea, I headed to Buchanan Park, for the Mailman Express, a 200m sprint for quarter horses. They run heats to get the fastest ten horses, then auction off 'ownership' to the highest bidder. The horse that won was Mojo, and imported stallion, who ran 11.74 seconds in the heats, and smashed everyone in the finals with a 11.54, winning the owners $4928 for their $2250 they paid for him. Not a bad night for them!

That blur is Mojo

I was sitting right beside him during his last run, so I nearly burst an eardrum, but it was kind of exciting. The whole idea of the Mailman Express is great, but it wasn't run very well. I was there for two and a half hours and only saw about 120 seconds of racing. The action would have been good, but they stopped between every horse to go collect the money. If they had another couple of people to do that while the auction continued, it would have been a lot more entertaining and I think they would have made alot more money. By stopping and starting people just lost interest. I think it would have been a lot more fun if I'd been there with someone I knew too. I went by myself and was too tired to put in much effort trying to meet new people.

Mojo with his 'owners'

 Well dispite my late start it has been a long day. My camping buddies for this next week are only a couple of hours from Isa, so another early start tomorrow. How they made it so far with all their stops today.... I can only reach one conclusion.
So that me for another day, night!