YIPPEE-KI-YAY YAY: California may be known for many things but. But wait. Hold on. California is known for just about everything, from various gold rushes to being the largest grower of various fruits to having the tallest mountain in the continental U.S. (hello there, Mt. Whitney) to turning full-on weekend celebrations over to one particular animal. Right? We. Do. It. All. And while we don't have a party celebrating absolutely every animal in the encyclopedia -- somebody remedy that fact, please -- we do have some really solid long-standing ones that happen to come around when the weather gets fine. The jumping frogs of Calaveras County, which will be doing their leaping thing over the May 17-20 weekend, is one major example. And the other that springs -- or whinnies? -- to mind is Bishop Mule Days, which is just a week later than the frog-off and a long hop east over the Sierra range (we're not suggesting the Calaveras frogs can hop that far, but, who knows, maybe, if legend has it). The old-time Wild West mule-on is set to trot over Memorial Day Weekend 2012.
IN THE CORRAL: Mules. Lots of 'em. More than 700, says the site. That's a lot of mules, boy howdy. They'll be up to all sorts of rodeo-time, Wild-West-show-ish type events, like the big parade, which is non-motorized. So, in other words, there will be no floats, no wheels, just feet and hooves and that sort of thing. Interesting. There's plenty of downhome to-dos going down around pretty Bishop, which is one of the prettiest towns along the Eastern Sierra. Aw, heck. They're all pretty. That's something else California kind of owns: prettiest towns. Other states, we're totally into you, you rock, but let us have our local love.
Now, our final question: Do the mules and frogs know they share the festival headlines in the month of May? Is that cool with them? Do mules and frogs even communicate? We hope they do.
