Sunday, July 28, 2013 – Move Back to Friendlier Camp, Highland Ridge, WI

After much discussion about resolving the unpleasantness of our experience here, we decided to leave early. Though we had planned on staying here until Thursday, we decided to pack up this morning, drive over Mystery Cave for their first tour at 10:00 (which was quite interesting and enjoyed by all), then headed out to a farm where I had made arrangements to pick up hay around 11:00 (where my niece’s help was greatly appreciated), then headed east and north, back the Highland Ridge Horse Camp in Wisconsin. Going backward is not something we typically do, but we didn’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, and were a bit worried that any other new place might be just as bad, but we knew the camp and trails at Highland Ridge, and thought it would be a good choice, plus it was closer to the airport than most other places in Minnesota for when we had to send our niece back home. Another advantage is that my niece got to add another state to her list of visited states, AND she got to cross the Mississippi River on the ground. When we were about a half hour from the campground, Hubby pulled over because a passing vehicle signaled to him that something was wrong, so he pulled over, then I pulled over. The guy who waved at him stopped by me to tell me that one of the tires on the horse trailer was flat. Hubby pulled up behind me, and we got to work. We didn’t want to bother with the spare, as it was buried in the tack room of the horse trailer, but we had a Fix-a-flat repair kit that he injected into the tire. We soon saw the hole, right along the sidewall and the first tread. This has happened so many times with these Goodyear Marathon trailer tires! It has such a weak sidewall, we used to blow them all the time when they were on our old RV trailer, we finally switched them over for a variety of different brands, all of which lasted longer than the Marathons! This tire was less than a year old and still has great treat on it, but it’s useless! He managed to put enough air in it to keep moving, and we stopped at a truck stop in the town closest to where we were heading to get generator gas and to fill the tire up again. Anyway, we managed to get to the camp okay, though the tire was obviously still leaking and would have to be replaced before we left, got our long highline up quickly, my niece put up her own tent again in a lovely copse of trees between the RV and the horses, and we soon settled down. We managed to gather enough wood for a fire again, and it was quite dry so we managed to get it going almost immediately, then I grilled steaks and, of course, had another helping of s’mores for dessert. Despite the loss of a day of riding, I think it’s turned out to be best for all concerned, I feel more relaxed already, and I get the feeling the horses and the dogs are more relaxed as well. Another quiet, relaxing evening with a movie.