54 (D-77) Moab / Cowboy time /Old Paint

Yesterday's post: plants and animals in Arches. Here's a good guide for all the photographers who are going to want to identify the flowers in their photos when they return. http://www.nps.gov/arch/naturescience/flowerguide.htm
You can take a look now if you like.

54 (D-77) We'll spend the night in Moab. Another interesting name for a town. There are two possible explanations for the name. One, could be biblical in origin. Why? And the second, it could come from a Native American language. ("a far away place"? OR "mosquito"?)

A western-style dinner is planned for us that evening in Moab.
Cowboy time. How about a cowboy song?
You can listen to Linda Ronstadt sing "I ride an Old Paint". (A song I really love.) It's an old traditional American song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF5OUhybL9w
Enjoy the music; don't worry about the English. There's a lot of typical western cowboy jargon. "Dogies" are the cattle the cowboys are moving across the country. (More specifically, a dogie is a young, motherless calf.) Old Paint is the cowboy's horse. See pictures of American Paint Horses at http://www.pbase.com/lesliegra/paint

I RIDE AN OLD PAINT

I ride an old Paint,
I'm leadin' old Dan
I'm goin' to Montana
Just to throw the houlihan,
They feed in the coulees,
They water in the draw
Their tails are all matted,
Their backs are all raw.

(Chorus): Ride around, little dogies, ride around them slow,
For they're fiery and snuffy and rarin' to go.

Old Bill Jones had two daughters and a song,
One went to Denver,
The other went wrong.
His wife, she died in a poolroom fight
But still he keeps singing from morning to night:

(Chorus)

When I die,
Take my saddle from the wall
And put it on my pony,
And lead him from his stall;
Tie my bones to his back,
Turn our faces to the west
And we'll ride the prairies that we love the best.

(Chorus)

More on cowboys later.

Jane
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VOCABULARY:
--calf = "un veau"
--houlihan = cowboy jargon, probably the rope
--fiery and snuffy = the cattle are probably excited
--saddle = the leather seat that the cowboy puts on the horse's back; the cowboys sits in the saddle
--stall = a compartment for one horse in a barn or shed
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