Pinedale Turkey Trot 2017
Trotting Around Town
by Terry Allen
November 25, 2017
"How many miles could a one-legged turkey trot if a one legged turkey entered in The Pinedale Turkey Trot?" Thank you, Haven Whitley for that creative question. I’m thinking the answer would be more of a Turkey Hop and a Fly combination, but let’s ask The Turkey Answer Man. "Turkeys can run up to 25 MPH which is probably faster than anyone entered in this year’s Trot, and they can fly up to 55 MPH, but they can’t hop. Crow’s hop," he said. "Also, I’m sorry to disappoint the 50 or so dogs who showed up to this year’s Turkey Trot, but the fastest dogs can run is 45 MPH and that’s if they are Greyhounds, and I didn’t see any of those entered in the race, so technically, dogs have never had a natural, dog caught turkey dinner since the beginning of time."
I asked Craig and Ellen Sheppard if they had ever seen a dog catch a turkey and they hadn’t seen it happen in all the 27 years they’ve been holding the race. Right about then I saw three little turkeys in tutu’s practicing their "gobble gobble" and the dogs just ignored them so maybe dogs don’t even like turkey.
Little Allison, is no bigger than a turkey but a whole lot cuter, and she told me she was going to trot the whole race with her Aunt Julie and her brother Chad.
The five member Loveday family had three bikes to ride between them.
Jack Kane said he came here 34 years ago, got married, stayed and Grand-daughter Baby Kassie was trotting the race with him and his family.
The McCullochs and their two little dogs were here visiting Grandma.
Quan Sena from Indonesia was visiting his friend Joey McClain. I looked around the race fire but I couldn’t tell who was Quan Sena, maybe you can.
I found Erin and Ken Murphy and their dog Bo celebrating Bo’s win of the silver medal in the Canine Category.
David Rule won the race again this year, but he wasn’t as fast as last year when he had some fast guys pushing him.
I thought I’d waited to talk to all the finishers but going out of the driveway I ran into the O’Connor’s. "We got lost for a bit because of my sister," said Paisley "But I can’t talk anymore because Aunt Ingar is coming and we have to go eat the turkey."
The turkey I planned to eat was over at the Catholic Church, but on the way thru the door and over to it, Jocelyn grabbed me and slipped me into a conversation with Coralee. "We first came up with this idea about 12 or 15 years ago with the gas field people in mind," she said. "We knew they didn’t have anyone to make the day special. Since then it has turned into a community thing. Older people started showing up and others liked our down home original style of Thanksgiving dinner. Originally, we tried to time the end of the Turkey Trot with the start of the service and the start of dinner, but now we just keep it flexible and people show up from 11 AM onward."
Just then Kanyon Whitley gave me a nudge and said he had heard his sister offer me a poem for this story and he said he had one. "There once was a turkey named Rodger, boy was he ever a dodger. But I finally got lucky when he slipped on some bull pucky and ran head first into my hatchet." Thanks man, now I’ve got to go talk to those two Angels.
Christina and Hailey were in the chapel and looked like Angels with the sun coming thru the stained glass representations of the saints behind them. I knew I wanted to get that photograph for the story. They brought their sheet music to the spot I had selected and I thought they were just going to hold it up and pretend for the photo, but then they started singing the most beautiful Amazing Grace. I regret to say that the efficient side of my photo taking personality intervened and once I got my shot, I interrupted their singing saying, "Thanks, I got the shot." As I sit here remembering and typing, I find myself wanting to apologize and to ask them to sing the rest of the song.
Once I got home I took a walk in the woods along Pine Creek and encountered a deer family. On the final turn home a fat cat was sunning on the edge of the forest…or maybe he was looking for a Mouse Thanksgiving Dinner.
Thank you all for letting me be part of your day. Thank you to Dawn Ballou of Pinedale Online for sponsoring this photo story.
You may all use the photos in this story for personal use, with my compliments. I sell full-rez photos of people...only to family members for $35. Nature photos I sell to anyone who askes. I use Paypal at the email below.
Terry Allen: txpartisan@gmail.com
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