Archives for 2011

The day started out colder, with a brisk northeast wind bringing a chill, but after a while, the sun started to warm things up quite nicely. We got the horses in the trailer and headed out to the North Beach Access of the Padre Island National Seashore. We parked by the side of the road, unloaded and saddled the horses in a matter of minutes, and headed south into the No Vehicle area, which was quite warm going with the wind. The beach had widened up again, with the wind blowing against the tide, which was coming in again. Much of the older seaweed had been buried by a new layer of sand, while a fresh swath of seaweed had accumulated at the new tide line. We walked on the beach first, then eventually moved the horses to the water line so that once again, they had their feet in a body of water that makes up a border of America. Now we just have to finish it off in the Great Lakes, which is the plan for this summer! Rode about 4 miles down to the Malaquite Campground, where we borrowed a pan from a woman coming out of the shower to water the horses before heading back north again. By now, the wind had decreased somewhat, so the northbound journey was a bit cooler, but not as bad as we thought it might be. Overall, it was a lovely ride, but honestly, beaches do get a bit boring rather quickly, with little scenery except the variety of junk on the beach. The only thing that keeps it interesting is working with Apollo, getting him to be less reactive to the waves (he always starts out convinced they’re going to swallow him up, so he stops or side steps whenever they come near), but eventually he relaxed enough to walk in a straight line, and we even got a bunch of trots and a few brief canters in the water’s edge, with water up to his fetlocks at least. In a little less than four hours, we were back at the trailer. On the way home we stopped at a Lowes to pick up two new door handles (the one on the bathroom and closet doors have worn out), and arrived back just in time to get the horses settled in and fed before the sun set. Relaxed the rest of the evening, satisfied with a very nice ride and reaching another landmark in our journey!

After a few phone calls in the morning, we settled on moving to the Sunny Side Stables in Corpus Christi, which is also the PeeWee Pet Adoption orphanage, a no kill animal shelter with hundreds of pets, mostly dogs, looking for a new home. Proprietor Ernie generously didn’t ask for a fee, she simply asked for an appropriate donation. She found us an open paddock and a place to park the RV way in the back, which was a lot quieter than near the front, so we were grateful. I ran out to the local feed store for an extra bale of hay to get us through the weekend. It was a warm day in the 80’s, and the forecast is for colder, windier days for the rest of the weekend, so our original plan was to go right back out and ride today, but Hubby decided we needed to finish some repairs and cleaning chores before the new year, so that’s what we did for the rest of the day, though we stopped by 4:00 to start our New Year’s celebrations. Spent the evening watching movies, munching and drinking, finishing the evening with a bottle of sparkling wine which we opened when the East Coast rang in the new year and was finished by the time the fireworks started here in Corpus Christi. For some reason, our big dog Marina was very bothered throughout the evening, behaving uncharacteristically needy, jumping in my lap a few times, which was very unusual for her (and rather crushing on me, she weighs 75 pounds!). I can only think it was all the explosions and shooting that was going on around us, but it’s never bothered her like that before. I hope it’s not anything more than that, we’ll know soon enough tomorrow when all the bangs will be over. Late night, and really looking forward to another year of freedom on the road!