Archives for 2013

Woke up to the alarm, cold and dark outside, pretty overcast, but we finally managed to crawl out of bed and get our butts in gear. Out of the campground by 8:15, stops at Tractor Supply, where Hubby found a much needed new saddle blanket, Walmart for a few essentials, McD’s for breakfast (only because there wasn’t anything else around), then finally arriving at the Belle Star Ranch where the horses will be boarded. A large, very busy facility, probably the busiest horse ranch we’ve ever been to. Unfortunately, it started raining, and actually then we got frozen rain, so I immediately covered up the hay in the pickup, and we had to do everything socked in with this cold, frozen rain, not what the forecast had called for!! Got the horses settled in the barn, a large stall, though they later got moved to another stall, with a turn out paddock where they can come and go as they please, so they should be happy. Got the RV settled in, satellite dish up, hooked up to electric, filled with water, promptly started a load of laundry so we would could pack asap, then spent the afternoon packing and feeding Hubby every anti-cold remedy I could find, as he started coming down with something, no doubt from working outside in the cold rain. Finally got everything done, instructions to the young man who will be looking after our guys while we’re gone, and settled in by about 6:00. Plans are to go to bed REALLY early, as we have to get up REALLY early to catch a 6 am flight. Not my favorite, but it was the only non-stop to DC from KC, and that was more important than hopping up and down. At least we’ll have two days to recover before we begin working on Monday!

Slept really late this morning, trying to put a few deposits in our sleep bank before a busy week next week. Did some chores and repairs in the afternoon, packing stuff away for our early departure tomorrow morning. Just another day on the trail!

Slept good and late again (as we have for the last few days), so after brunch we saddled up and headed out, this time back tracking the first part of our last ride, leaving by the outhouses. We bundled up, though, as the temps were only in the fifties, and it was pretty cloudy and damp. I thought I heard a little rain this morning, so we were a little worried about the trail conditions, but this may be our last chance to ride, so we headed out anyway. We quickly took a shortcut, though, we’ve discovered the “side” trails are actually just as good, and in some cases better than the main trails, as the lighter traffic sometimes made the trails less slippery. We didn’t want to take too long a ride today, as we have a long week ahead of us next week, so after the first shortcut, we just followed the A/Red trail all around the north side of the park, often getting so close to the freeway we could not only hear it, but see it as well. There are several stretches of trail that they’ve put stone down, obviously to ameliorate the slippage problem, but the stones are HUGE, not like gravel at all, just stone from a riverbed or something, mostly about 8-12 inches in diameter, so the horses didn’t like them much. It’s only marginally better than mud, but that could be a close call! Passed by a really huge old oak tree, 300 years old at least, judging by the diameter of the trunk. Anyway, it was a short ride, under four miles, but we did manage to canter once or twice on some ridges through open fields where it was dry enough. Got back to camp, put everyone out to graze again, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

We had considered riding today, but after the rain yesterday, we decided to let it dry out today, so we spent the day working on the computer and reading again, proving that even when you’re living your dream, there are still days that are just simply mundane!

Woke up to more rain moving in overnight, and, being a sort of holiday, we spent the day reading, on the computer and watching movies.

Woke up to another sunny day, though a cool wind tends to whip by us, as we’re right at the highest, most open part of the campground. Nevertheless, we were ready for a ride today! So were the horses, they were quite raring to go! Saddled up and headed south near the entrance to the park, which was the start of what is marked as the Red trail, or A trail, depending on how you read it. Despite the two days of sun, there were still some spots that were pretty slippery. The trails were in pretty good shape, mostly wide enough for a group of horses to pass at one time, with just a few areas narrowing down to single file. It made for several nice opportunities to canter. A lot of it had the feel of riding around someone’s farm, as there were quite a few corn and soybean fields around. They had obviously just been harvested, and in fact, the first night we were here there were all kinds of heavy trucks and a harvester coming in and out late into the evening, so now we know why! A nice ride, though. Some of the trees are well into changing colors, while others are still quite green, some have gone brown, so not as pretty as last year’s east coast journey, but nice nevertheless. Weather was perfect! Had a nice watering hole not too far into the ride, and once we stopped along the trail to adjust Hubby’s sliding saddle blanket, only to discover a nice little stopping area just a hundred yards further along, with hitching rails and mounting stumps! Wished we had known about that before we stopped! A very nice trip, just under 6.5 miles long, a perfect length for us not to get too tired out. Quickly got everyone settled in for the evening, and relaxed until bedtime!

A beautiful day today, lots of sun, but I still felt a bit tired from the trip, and still had work to do on the computer, plus we were a little worried about the state of the trails, since we had read on an internet resourse that the trails here were terribly slippery after a rain, so we decided to wait another day to ride. The sun all day today should help to dry out the trails for tomorrow, and it would give me a chance to really get caught up on some work before our trip the DC next weekend. Lots of day riders came in today, parking near us and down by the vault toilets further down the road, so I guess the trails can’t be TOO bad, but there’s no sense taking chances with our babies! So a relaxing day was had by all, the horses munching happily on the abundant grass supply and us parked in our recliners for the day and evening!

Rain came in last night, and kept us socked in most of the day. I managed to catch some water in buckets, though, so that will help with our water supply for the week. Spent most of the day doing computer work and preparing for our workshops in DC the week after next.

Up at the crack of dawn, stops at the conveniently located dump on the way out of the campground (there’s one at the north equine camp as well), headed pretty much due east to catch the freeway as soon as possible, intermittent stops at BK, Tractor Supply and Walmart, and because they didn’t have a gas station there (the Sams Club did, but no diesel anyway), we stopped at a gas station just before getting back on the freeway. That turned out to be a mistake, as there was another truck stop at the exit where we got off the freeway, and their diesel was about 15 cents a gallon cheaper! Went straight to the camp, which also turned out to be a mistake, caused, once again, by misinformation provided by the main office of the Missouri DNR. I had called last week to confirm, again, whether there was water available at the campsites or not, and even though I was very specific, the girl I spoke to me assured me, three times, that there was a water spigot there. Of course, there wasn’t! So we had to go back to the gas station and fill up all our tanks, a process that took over an hour, making it after 5:00 by the time we got back to camp. We actually hooked the horses on the hitching rail before we went back for water, so at least they didn’t get thrown around in the trailer for that time. We finally got back and got set up. I put the horses on their anchors, because there is LOTS of grass for them to much on here, included some nice sections of clover, which they naturally devoured! Got the generator going, as well as the satellite dish and all other electronics, happy to see a good cell phone signal, though I’m not surprised being right off the freeway. That’s the other down side here, it’s a bit noisy from the traffic, and you have to park just so to get the RV level as most of the field area is kind of slope-y, but the upside, it’s free! Got everyone settled in, and had our usual travel day evening.

With just this one major trail in the southern half of to do, we headed out after brunch on the SE loop trail, exiting from the eastern trailhead for a change, the re-tracing part of the same trail we did Monday (because we had no choice), then finally split off on to the SE branch of the river. While it was a nice trail, a lot of it paralleled some open fields, so it felt a bit more like riding on someone’s farm rather than in the fields. Not quite as interesting as the SW river loop, but a very nice ride nevertheless. The horses have taken to the hackamores like real troopers, and Apollo only tried to rodeo me once, and only half-heartedly at that. The last bit of trail, Creek trail, was a little slippery, but nothing the horses couldn’t handle. There was a large tree that was being cut down, the ranger had talked to Hubby about that earlier, but the work was done, just the branches remained, piled up at the base of the trunk, which the lumberjacks decided to let remain. I’m sure it won’t take long for the forest to recover! Spent some time packing up and getting ready to leave tomorrow, an early morning and a long day ahead of us!