Archives for June 2010

Friday, June 11, 2010 – Travel Day Back to Colorado Springs

No problems today. Hotel shuttle got us to Reagan National in plenty of time (after pigging out on the free hotel breakfast this morning :-), no delays, no problems with our transfer, the whole day went well. The guys from Meineke took great care of us, picked us up at the airport right on time, back to the shop to pay the bill, then on to Walmart to shop, then the liquor store, then back to the ranch! Our hostess had flown in earlier in the day and had picked up our furry kids already, so we had wagging tails and kisses waiting for us when we got back! Ran into a little rain, but nothing of any significance, was happy to see it. Chatted for a few minutes, then heated up some leftover Chinese food we’d bought in DFW, ate and promptly crashed, exhausted from our hectic few days. Looking forward to a long and good night sleep!

Thursday, June 10, 2010 – Work, Play, Anniversary

Slept till after 10:30, missing the hotel breakfast, so instead we just had coffee in the room and leisurely prepared to meet our client. Left the hotel and walked to the nearby Metro station, grabbing some breakfast on the way. Didn’t realize Dunkin Donuts had a full breakfast menu these days! Arrived in plenty of time, worked with our client until nearly 6:00, then met an old friend at the nearby Thai restaurant we love so much. It was a special occasion, as Hubby and I were celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary. Coincidentally, our friend’s parent’s (now deceased) anniversary was the same day, so we had a lovely evening all around After dinner we came back to Crystal City for a nightcap, then kindly dropped us off at the hotel. We were exhausted, but truly enjoyed ourselves. Now a good night sleep, hoping tomorrow’s airport day goes a little more smoothly than yesterday’s!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 – Bad Day at the Airport

Got up bright and early for a travel day to DC. Made sure the animals were all set, dropped off all three dogs (our 2 and our client’s, whom we’ve been looking after) at the vet’s for boarding (stunned at the prospect they wanted to charge extra just to open a can of dog food, considering it I already had to pay through the nose to get them vaccinated for some rare but contagious influenza that is apparently out here in Colorado, but few other places), then ran up to Colorado Springs. Stopped for breakfast at IHOP, then headed to the Meineke. We had made arrangements to have them drive us to the airport, keep the truck to perform a brake job, transmission service and other overdue maintenance, then pick us up again on Friday when we returned. Made it to the airport with about an hour to spare, only to discover the plane was delayed for 30 minutes… Then an hour… Then two hours… It finally arrived, but moments later we learned the air conditioning had gone out on the plane in flight, and we needed to wait another 15 minutes to see if repairs could be made. After 15 minutes of analysis, the plane was taken out of service, leaving us stranded. I quickly got on the phone to American and rebooked for the next flight out, and the next connection to DC from DFW. The best we could get was a 1:10 am arrival, we had no choice, grateful that the appointment with our client wasn’t until 3:00 pm! After several more hours of waiting, we flew out to DFW. Upon arrival, we learned that our connecting flight was going to be 45 minutes late, making our landing in DC about 1:30 am. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we arrived, even though our body clocks were at 11:30 pm, that’s still way past our bedtime. It was apparently too late for an airport shuttle to the hotel, so we had to grab a cab for the 5 minute trip. Crashed into bed, but couldn’t sleep for more than an hour, had to wind down from all the activity!

Sunday, June 6, 2010 – Ride Day at the Great Sand Dune National Park

Last night we sat and watched thunderstorms all around us, but none every made it to us. Although they were predicting thunderstorms again at about 3:00 this afternoon, it started out as a lovely day, and we were anxious to get a ride in, so we got up early, had the horses loaded in by 9:00 (fortunately it was still pretty cool), and headed out to a fascinating anomaly they call the Great Sand Dune National Park. Ninety minutes later (and ten degrees cooler, fortunately), we were approaching this incredible oddity. Having climber over the mountain range at LaVeta Pass, then driven on several flat straight roads reminiscent of the Great Plains, we came to end of a valley where countless tons of sand had piled up. I mean COUNTLESS! I thought it would be like a great sand pit, but oh, no, it truly was HUGE DUNES! You could imagine what the Sahara looks like, only built up into a mini-mountain range. It’s 30 square miles, and to ride around it would something like 50 miles. It was incredible to see. There’s also a stream that runs along the edge, so one great attraction is to wade in the shallow creek in what is essentially a giant wading pool next to giant dunes. The dunes were so big, we actually saw some young people sand-boarding down them. We didn’t even know there was such a thing, but just like snow-boarding, they plummeted down the hill trying to make things happens on their boards. No where near as fast, of course, but entertaining nonetheless. We watched a lot of people truly struggle to get up those dunes, it looked way too much like hard work to us!
Anyway, we had a choice to follow a sandy road, which had a lot of 4X4 traffic on it, go along another semi-marked trail, or simply go cross-country, a nice feature here, you can go almost anywhere you like, “except where there are a lot of people”, as the man at the park gate explained. They must have been having a free weekend, because they didn’t charge us the usual entrance fee, so we got lucky on that one. It did increase the traffic, however.
We followed a trail out of the trailer parking area, along with two other women who were just heading out. One had forgotten her cinch so she was riding bareback with only stirrups (not sure what that rig looked like, but that’s how it looked.) We turned off at the first trail to the left, leaving them heading out the road. Our trail led us to the stream which we then followed for a few miles. We were on pure sand at some points, dirt, some stony areas, and the quicksand like footing of the river, which was good as long as you didn’t stop for long. The long you stopped, the more you’d sink in. At one point, my gelding started splashing his foot, getting his belly wet. We moved out of the river, and after a minute, my horse decided it was time for a roll, so before I knew what was happening, we were on the ground together. I quickly checked to make sure my foot was out of the stirrup, then stepped off. I had just said to Hubby that the day was for the horses to enjoy themselves as well, and, well, rolling just seemed the perfect response to that! He got back up, shook himself off, I stepped back on and off we went! Stopped for lunch under a large shady pine tree a bit later. It was a brilliantly sunny day when we arrived, the stark contrast between the dark blue sky and the light beige sand was truly awesome. During the day, though, some puffy clouds had started to appear. After lunch, we crossed over the road and started to head to higher ground, when we came over a peak and saw an incredible storm heading our way. The sky was black and you could see rain already falling in the distance, so we decided it was time to head back. Traffic on the road had diminished (it had peaked about 1:00, which I suspect was the usual checkout time), so we had a couple of nice trots and canters (in between a few bucking spells, which my gelding decided he was in the mood for), and arrived back at the trailer in no time. As we were preparing for departure, another group arrived (the only other livestock trailer in the parking lot besides us and the two women we saw earlier), and we had a brief chat with them, taking a picture for them, exchanging email address, etc. They were interested in what horse campgrounds I knew about, so I told them about my Google Earth list and this blog, so hopefully we’ll stay in touch.
We were out by just after 3:00, stopped at a store for a few supplies on the way home, ran into a little bit of the rain but managed to get back, put the horses away and get the truck under cover (we still have a pickup full of hay) moments before the real storm arrived. A beautiful day that we thoroughly enjoyed!

Friday, June 4, 2010 – The Great Escape

Well, it didn’t surprise me too much when Wednesday afternoon I looked up and saw my horse grazing outside the pasture fence. He managed to wriggle his way through, one step at a time. I brought him back in, knowing full well that wasn’t going to be the last time. Sure enough, he escaped again during the night, and the stomping and whinnying of his mother woke me at dawn yesterday. I got him back in, and managed to get back to bed, and later, Hubby and I drove into town to get some supplies, including a new electrical outlet to replace the broken one that the fence would usually be plugged into. Unfortunately, we got back too late to do anything with it, so once again, before the crack of dawn, I heard the same ruckus and had to get up and get him back in. He wasn’t going far (he never does), but Mamma couldn’t see him because he’d wandered to the other side of the barn, so she was making too much of a fuss to sleep. It was a chilly morning, and by the time I got him in, I was too wide awake to sleep, so I just got on the computer and started working. Thanks to our hostess, who had ordered up a satellite internet service, otherwise keeping up with work would have been impossible, as there is no cell phone signal out here either, which is where I usually get my broadband. Anyway, later in the day, Hubby got busy working on the fence, and after an hour or so, managed to get it fixed. I gently led my gelding to the fence and let him stick his nose on it, and it did give him a little bite (it’s a rope-style fence, not metal, so it seems to be a bit gentler.) He’s a smart horse, I didn’t see him try it again :-).
Met the neighbors for the first time today, they came over to check on their horses. They have a deal with our hostess, they run their 3 horses with her one in a series of pastures on her property, and keep the watered and looked after. Of course, I’ve been doing most of the watering, but they do come over and check occasionally. Nice folks (as most horse people we’ve met are), had a nice chat. Told them we’d be traveling next week, asked them to keep an eye on our kids while we’re gone, which they readily agreed to do.
It’s been incredibly hot here, I never expected 90 degrees at 7000 feet in Colorado in June. The only days it’s not incredibly hot are when the winds get up (which is most of the time), but some days are both hot and windy. We’ve only had one day of precipitation since we’ve been here, and that was nearly 3 weeks ago when it was so cold we had sleet down here and snow up on the mountain peaks surrounding us. Everything just above us was coated with fresh white, and there’s still a bit of that around. The wind does seem to howl constantly here, the kind of wind that would drive a soul mad after awhile. Good thing we’re a couple of very sane people!