Hey Babe,
Woke up easily to alarm after having gone to bed early, although it took a while to get to sleep, managed to get everything packed, Flash saddled and tied to the stock trailer and ready to roll by 7:04, which should have been early because a woman at registration told me they left at 7:15, but in fact, the first wave rolled out at 7:00 on the dot, which once again left me wondering just how poorly they communicate here. Nowhere in the ride booklet do they give a departure time, so I guess it’s anybody’s guess! Fortunately, the second wave left about the time I was ready, and we managed to catch up to the first wave a couple of miles before they reached the next camp, so I was able to find a spot next to Lynda and Wendy again. Got the portable fence up and the slide open, so no worries. We were on the bus shortly afterward, and it took off at about five minutes to 8:00, ahead of schedule. Got back, finished tacking up and was in the saddle by about 8:35 thinking out departure was imminent, particularly since it was going to be pretty hot by this afternoon, but ended up standing around until 9:00 before we finally left. A lot of hurry up and wait on this ride so far. Not surprisingly it was all road riding today, which I’ve known since the start would be the case. Flash started out very calm despite his bit of craziness yesterday, but it didn’t last long. Once he got warmed up he wanted to go, go, go, and I ended up fighting with him most of the way. Did an extra mile just running him to the front, then waiting for the line to pass by, and running him to the front again. I really hope he’s not like this the entire way, I can’t say it was entirely fun today. He got kicked at a number of times for being too close to the tail of one horse or another, and he kicked out at a couple of horses as well, so I’ll have to put a ribbon in his tail tomorrow since he’s decided to act like a knothead. We stopped about 11:30, which we thought was just a water stop, but turned out to be the lunch stop, it just hadn’t arrived yet. Then Wendy didn’t even get her sandwich, they ran out before she got there! All she was told was that “sorry, sometimes people take them when they’re not supposed to,” which kind of defeats the whole bracelet wearing thing. I guess they finally got her one at the end of the ride, better late than never. I trust they’ll upgrade their system or supply tomorrow. Unfortunately when we were driving in the morning, I noticed that my truck had less fuel in it than I thought, and since this was the shortest day (14.9 miles, plus my extra going back and forth), I found a gas station five miles away and quick disconnected. I acquired a passenger, a guy named Mike who needed to get propane, so he came along. At least I won’t have to unhook again this trip, fingers crossed! I was so hungry, I only had a protein bar all day, completely forgot I had packed a pack of Tuna Creations, again because for most of the time I thought it was just a water stop and the lunch stop would be later. By the time I figured out it was lunch, it was too late. Anyway, we all arrived safe and sound (albeit fighting with Flash the whole afternoon), I took by quick ride, made some dinner, then settled down a bit, actually napping a little in my recliner. I sure hope Flash is better tomorrow. I thought I could solve the problem at one point by running him down a side road and running him back again before the group passed, which helped a lot the first two times I did it, then was told by the outriders that I couldn’t do it anymore, I had to stay with the group, which is why he got so much worse later in the day. Not sure what I can do about it, I just hope he tires out in a day or two. Well, it’s not even 6:30 and I’m thinking of taking my shower and getting in bed to read for awhile, since I have to get up even earlier tomorrow (still late by OTL standards!), and to recover from the unusually high level of energy expenditure I had to make today. So good night, sweetie! Love you!
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