5 more days, 5 more "events"

Greeting from North Platt NE.  Another 250 miles (or in my case, 225) down.  We have been so lucky with the weather, unless you think daily tornado warnings, thunderstorms and gale force winds are not optimum.  But we haven't had the 95 degrees with 80% humidity which is so hard on horses.  Yesterday was the hottest but we are up to 3100 feet so it just gets cooler and drier from here.

As some of you know, we ended our 2 days off in Oak NE huddling in the school basement as the tornado went just a few miles to the south of us.  We were rousted by the local fire team who insisted we all take cover with the rest of the town.  After loading the horses in the trailer to be safe from flying debris (we had 90 MPH winds) we took the dogs and met everyone else in the basement.  There were more dogs than people there - and all were perfectly well behaved (the dogs I mean).  Then not being able to resist some of us headed back out to watch the skies:  remember Shock and Awe in Bagdad?  That's what we saw.  And the rain was in front of us, then over us, then behind us.  Event:  trailer door was caught by wind and slammed shut against my ankle.  No breaks.

The basement

The first day (Oak to southwest of Hastings) was a nice ride as the roads were softer (okay muddier) and we had lots of puddles to drink from.  We camped in a nice place called Prairie Lakes, and only one rig got stuck the next morning.  Actually it was a behemoth motor home and it went off the road.  Pema did a great job again that day.  No events.

Rode Scarlet the next day (Prairie Lakes to Fort Kearny) and had a great ride helping Lynn get her horse Mio through with some degree of sanity.  It was a shorter day, and again somewhat softer roads due to rain.  Cooler and getting prettier.  Scarlet did have a very sore back at the end of the ride, due to the saddle adjustment the saddle maker had made at the start of the ride.  He and his wife flew out to adjust saddles as part of publicity for his company, and he added some padding that really screwed her up.

Campground was in a wonderful park, but the winds picked up.  And up.  It thrashed all night and was still about 40 MPH when I got up to saddle.  But it was warm so I just put on a windbreaker and climbed on Sage, riding with Brenda and her solid mustang Bart.

Event 2:  Sage danced and shied until we got out of the park and to the road where the wind gusts hit us sideways.  Brenda started to say "I think your flapping jacket is bothering her" when Sage bolted.  She was  a dead runaway for at least a quarter mile until we caught the first group of riders, then I finally had her stopped by the third group.  I didn't stop shaking for about two hours, but she got much better when I took the jacket off.  I checked max speed on my GPS and it read 31.6 MPH - Steve did the calcs and that is Kentucky Derby speed.

We ended that day at the Rankin Ranch, close to Lexington.  The horses waded and the dogs swam and chased sticks in the Platt river.

4th day  (Rankin Ranch to Hiles Canyon, south of Gothenburg) I took Pema again as Scarlet was still back-sore .  She was the perfect babysitter with Lynn's Mio again, and we had a most beautiful cool morning with lots of water (more rain the night before).  The terrain is changing and we had hills and different kinds of grass now.  But Pema was not her usual self, which might be why she was such a good babysitter.  I decided to stop at lunch at 25 miles - the occasional off step and head bob were enough to put me off.  Cindy took Pema back to camp (Steve had already dropped our rig and horses in camp and was there for lunch crewing in the truck) and we went to do some shopping in Cozad.  I might also add here that I will marry Cindy and Lynn as soon as we get to Utah - I need some wives and they would be first rate.

First some groceries at the Cozad Super, then to the feed store for beet pulp.  The owner was loading the bag in the truck when it split open, so he wouldn't take any money for it.  We chatted a bit, telling him what we were about, and he asked what we did for breakfast - didn't I get up and cook a big meal?  No, sez I.  Follow me, sez he.  Turns out he had just purchased Cooper Flour from Elwood MO and was moving it to Cozad.  He wanted to give us pancake mix for the entire camp.  So we set off to follow him to the flour wearhouse.

Event 3:  We were driving down the road from the feed store when I saw a really cute dog running and sniffing along the side.  My stomach dropped as we got closer and I glanced in the back seat - NO LINCOLN THERE.   But we drove up to him and he looked up, wagged, and jumped in the truck as if nothing happened.  "I can jump out and explore and they will find me, I'm sure".  Again a couple hours before I calmed down.  No more than an inch cracked window for him from now on.

Camp the 4th night was along the TriCounty canal - a beautiful spot.  Lots of people and dogs went swimming/floating from one end of camp to the other. 

More rain, but no winds.  Finally day five and Sage had to go again as Scarlet was still sore and Pema had a slight filling in her leg from the day before.  I had committed to riding with Tom Horn who had a mustang that everyone hated, mostly because he was kicking horses and people.  I'd gotten nominated to talk to him about the problem some days earlier.  The horse was an orphan (born and the herd ran off hours later due to some commotion; Tom's wife adopted him at 12 hours, and the horse never got any socialization).  We talked about a plan where he rode with only one horse for a while, then maybe two, then later in the summer more.  We set out at the end, but trotted by others with no problem, and then were passed with no problems.  We got him nuzzling Sage on camera - very cute.  However, event 4:  just before lunch we found crew Cindy for water and while he was tied to the trailer a lot of horses passed behind him. He started drinking and more horses came and he freaked, probably defending his water.  When he kicked out he got Sage and tore a flap of hide off behind her belly.  And everyone saw, so now Tom's and Whiskey's rep was worse than ever, and people were "I told you soing me".  Tom and Whiskey stopped at lunch and I went on with Brenda for a while, but Sage was unhappy.  The ground was hard, it was hot and the wind quieter.  We did find a ranch owner to invited us into his yard where he filled water buckets, but the afternoon was very very long - 30 miles of hard packed hot road.

Event 5:  I was turned in the sadlle talking when Sage saw a cemetery which was somehow scary.  She shied and threw her head as I turned in time to get a fat lip just before I came off.  Sprained ankle - the one I always sprain.  By this time we were both pissed off and just left the people we were riding with (who were vocally angry at the day) and just kept catching the horse in front of us, Sage calling for her herd the entire last 11 miles.  We finished finally around 3:45, and I took some Aleve, a vicodin, drank a vodka tonic and fell asleep until 9pm.

And here we are camped at Lakehouse Campground just south of North Platt.  Laundry and shopping, and we are now lounging by the lake, taking the dogs swimming every once in a while to cool off.  Lincoln is actually swimming now; he swam out close to some geese but they convinced him to return to shore.

 

If we get all the chores done tomorrow Steve will blog about what it is like to be him on this trip.  He is awesome, if he won't say so himself.

Miss you all.