Is this a Bed & Breakfast wedding with a Murder Mystery Game?
or a
B&B Murder Mystery Weekend with a wedding?
Most people elope to a dude ranch to get away from their family and friends. They want a relaxed, very simple ceremony and a fun weekend getaway horseback riding.
Well, Joel and Sheri decided to have a simple, relaxed ceremony, but brought their family, including all the kids and the dogs.
Why? They had an opportunity to tie the knot while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and were married while visiting the Sea of Galilee. Wow!
But what of mom and dad? And what of the gang of brothers and sisters and the small herd of nephews and nieces?
What to do?
Sheri is a brilliant woman – she brought the family together for a re-do and just for fun a murder mystery game for the weekend! Joel’s a pretty smart guy – he married a brilliant woman! Twice!
Everyone had a great weekend except Cocoa. Poor Cocoa!
She takes one taste of her new candy, and dies! Dead as a doornail, despite the dog’s best efforts at muzzle to mouth resuscitation.
Who did it???
The list of suspects includes almost everyone who attended the wedding!
So here’s a small collection of some of the pictures from the murder mystery game and the wedding.
When at Sundance Trail Guest Ranch, either for a summer dude ranch vacation or Fall/Winter/Spring B&B stay,
you will spend lots of time with our horses (and donkeys!).
Horses communicate with body language. (Is this why women so often understand their horses immediately, and why guys are so often clueless?) Their faces, and especially their ears speak volumes, once you learn how to read them.
Here’s a quick primer on some easy to recognize “expressions.” Have fun!
Answers to each of these facial expressions are listed at he bottom of the page!
1. Stevie is ANGRY!!! She is having a bad hair week. Spring snow has melted and she want’s to party, and the geldings around her are all nerds or something!! Dude ranch horses are supposed to be romantic!!! None of these guys want to dance!!! Best to just leave her alone for a few more days…
She is clearly saying: “keep your distance or I will bite you!!!”
2. Mocha is taking a nap, or maybe she is meditating. Nope, she’s sleeping, in fact, she is snoring! One of her back hooves is up on the toe, her ears are flopped off to the sides, and her eyes are soft, gently starting off into the distance.
3. Rose Blossom is definitely sleeping! She’s still a baby, so she sleeps a lot. She even has her eyes closed, which only babies do – adults sleep with their eyes open.
4. Apache is awake, alert, and wants the cookie in my pocket. He is demonstrating interest and is interacting.
5. Khalli also wants the cookie in my pocket, but at the same time she is listening to some interesting gossip BEHIND her! Yes, kinda like radar dishes, horses’ ears can pivot front to side to back; even in different directions. Yes, if she wanted, Khalli could listen to two different conversations at once!
6. Rusty is actually sleeping. one of his hind feet is up on the toe, his ears are flopped off to the side, and his eyes are softly staring off into space…
7. Calamity is not happy that she is the last picture. She is small, but she is VERY bossy!
Hmmmm…… The weather people call for an October total of 2.9 inches of snow for our area. We got that three weeks ago, and it disappeared the next morning, as October snow should. The aspens still claim October as theirs; time to show off their golden leaves.
Oops! Wait a minute – we got a good eight more inches last night, and another six inches falling today!
The dogs are delighted! The older horses are playing like foals! The goats are making snow angels and laughing!
And the guests riding in the snow? Just look at their faces…
Tracy (from Houston!) says that riding in the snow is spectacular. I think that Laura (from Cleveland) agrees. Not too sure what Texan Kevin (also from Houston) thinks, but his horse, Jack is a happy fella! At lunch Kevin said it was a great ride…
Cowboy Victor was born and raised up here – he’s just cold!
Guest Ranch Horseback Riding is seldom as intense as Dorothy May Winfield expresses here, but this poem beautifully catches those blissful moments of being “in the zone” with your horse. Thanks, Dorothy (and Stewart!) – please say hello to Scotland for us. We hope to see you again next year!
Mounting my quarter horse, I steel myself for the journey,
A ripple runs through him as my legs gently squeeze his sides,
He moves forward, slowly at first.
I feel his power beneath me,
Flicking the reins he gathers momentum
Faster and faster and faster,
He breathes deeply,
Fire bursts from his flared nostrils.
The plain stretches before us like endless time.
hands pull at my hair, my clothes,
Stripping my mortality.
My heart beats to the rhythm of his hooves.
The ball of fire above, now burns my naked body.
The saddle has gone,
There is nothing between us,
We have become one.
Only my senses are alive,
I am lost, deep within myself.
Our Western Horseback Riding philosophy is on our Riding Horses page.
What do Pepi Roni (the pizza magnate), Judge Waylin Payne (of Roadkill, Colorado) and the science fiction author H. G. Wells have in common? Why, they’ve all been murdered right here at our Colorado B&B – dude ranch!
One of our favorite winter time activities is Murder Mystery weekends. Once a month or so, when we have 8 to 12 willing suspects, we find a poor murder victim sprawled out nearby – “deader than a doornail.” Murdered, and often with the first clue nearby.
Who did it? Helena Handcart? Charley Chaplin? Tiny Bubbles? Father Alfredo?
Our guests then spend the weekend, between meals and horse back riding, untangling each others’ half-truths. evasions and high jinks. The games are designed for participants who are willing to take a whimsical view of blackmail, larceny, deceit, and murder.
Those of you who are offended by such high-jinks as shady dealings, sordid affairs, and deceptive conduct should not book reservations for these weekends! If you do book, plan on some laughter!
We love hosting these games. Imagine, people come to spend a B&B week-end with us: They exercise our dude ranch horses, they make us laugh like crazy for the weekend, and then they pay us money! What a life!
We have games scheduled the weekends of:
November 11th Sorry! Fully booked!
December 9th
December 31st New years!
January 13th
February 24th
We can also schedule a game for any time that you might have 8 – 12 people who want to spend the week-end together and play (before dude ranch season begins in mid-May) – birthday party or maybe just get away with some friends!
Give us a call (970-224-1222) and we can tell you all about Bed and Breakfast murder in Red Feather Lakes.