Bound and determined to plan a route that doesn't take us into the brush today, I mapped out a route that appeared on Google Earth to be sand roads almost the entire way. I always try to map as much of an area as possible, which gives us ample opportunity to see many different parts of the forest, and today was no exception. We headed south out of the camp, then east, and within a mile we were on a new road heading due east for a ways. Then we turned north for about 50 feet, then east again, along the back of some rather trashy homesteads with lots of junk, dogs in kennels and cows and horses in pastures along the way. That eventually turned north, and we were doing great so far, every trail more like a road, which made us both happy. Then despite a forecast with NO rain in it, it began to drizzle, though very lightly at first, then it stopped, then it started again, until it was hard enough for me to put on my poncho (Hubby decided he was already too wet to worry, though I'd asked him several times earlier if he wanted one.) Finally, we had to turn west again, and the road I chose, which looked perfect from the satellite, had evidently overgrown some since that picture was taken, because we quickly started running into overgrowth again, which by now was quite wet overgrowth. Much less than our previous encounters, at least, but still enough to cause us some concern for half a mile or so. Apollo once again turned into a bulldozer, picking up his pace and literally plowing through, and my only recourse was to grab my hat and lean over his neck, letting the branches skim my back as we went by, getting me drenched in the process. Hubby only caught a bad branch once, when the stampede strap on his hat broke, but otherwise we made it through, once again bursting onto a two-track trail, covered with pine needles. Whew! Happily, the rest of the trip was clear sailing, and we even got a bunch of canters in on the way back. I've been holding back since my fall two weeks ago, but we can't ignore the need, so we worked on cantering, trying to get him to slow down, as his habit is to start to canter, then get faster and faster, then catch something out of the corner of his eye and sidestep, which doesn't always end well for me. We managed half a dozen canters, with me doing my best to slow him down, and eventually he relaxed and was more cooperative. I hope when we get to my brother's house we can trailer them over to a nearby public arena and run them to death for a while, until they learn there is such a thing as a slow lope! Anyway, completed another 7.5 miles in good time, got the horses settled in, filled the RV with water for showers and hopefully a couple more loads of laundry tomorrow (drying weather permitting), then settled down with a nice bottle of wine and a barbecue chicken dinner.
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