South Branch Camp

As I mentioned in the first part of this shore-to-shore series, this was THE MAN RIDE.  Here are some of the many men.

Bobe a Chico, my darlin'

Lowell a Chico, the singer.

Goldie, the girlfriend

Shadow

 Of course, Lady, showing off her best assett, the jiggly butt.

 The Tramp, taking his nappy.

This is what we do in horse camp...sit around playing guitars, eating and of course, getting our hair cut.

 Mikey and Lowell a Chico

 Lowell's sidekick Ben.  This dog should really be called the Tramp because he hangs around at night pretending to shiver so pretty women will put him in their shirt.  It works.

 On the Picket line

 Did you ever try to include yourself in a group shot while taking the picture?  It's not easy.

Tom a Chico, our DW (designated whiner)

And this is Morgan, the Star of the trail ride.  Her nickname is also DW, but stands for Dog Walker.  She could be seen every day and night walking numerous different dogs.  25Cents per dog walk of course, she had quite a racket going until that fateful night when she swallowed the profits but we won't go there yet.  Morgan is 8 years old and came with her wonderful, generous, brave Granny. Kim. Also known as Pocahontas because she has that dang gorgeous silky black hair that won't even grow a gray hair even though she is a granny. Hmmmffhh.

Here they are seen riding around camp in the evening.  My granny never did that with me.

Day 3- Michigan Shore-to-Shore ride

Good Day,
Day 3, hmmmmm...We had a great night at southbranch camp, grilled pork chops over the fire, beans and spaghetti salad.  It doesn't get any better than that.  After dinner I got a haircut lesson from Connie watching her cut Toms and Bobes hair.  She is hilarious, singing raucus songs while she cuts hair.  I have pics of this but I am not at home at the moment so will post the pics next time.  During haircutting 101, Lowell and Mike played and sang for us.  I am sitting there chatting and suddenly hear Lowell singing the words "Gracie and Maryjean" in a song.  He was singing a song he wrote for us based on our out west trip and blog.  I have it on video and will post it here next time.  It was so good I almost cried!!  The poor man, I told him he would have to play that song a lot, possibly every day and maybe twice and he was okay with that.  Even Gracie and Maryjean listen with rapt attention since their names are in it a few times.  We rode out the next morning heading for McKinley camp.  The ride winds along the AuSable river most of the day.  About half way we get to stop at Curtisville store for a nice lunch break including hot sandwiches and cold drinks and ice cream!
I know I said I would introduce you to Morgan todoy but since I don't have pics with me to share I will do it next time.  Hold on Morgan, your page is coming next, I promise!  Next stop, McKinley camp!!

p.s. In case you are wondering why I am not at home, I am watching my neighbors kids, Leah,3 and Thomas 5 so Mom and Dad can enjoy some adult entertainment at MIS for the weekend.  We traded 12 days of feeding horses for 24 hours of babysitting!  We have been having fun with them and now as I sip coffe while blogging they are watching Dora. Yippee

Day 2, Michigan Shore to Shore

Lake Huron, Zach & Lowell at the start of the ride.

 Bobe ( riding The Tramp) & Tom (riding Shadow)

Riding from Lake Huron to River Road Camp, Lowell & Tom

 I nicknamed this big palomino Mare the "Big Woman" since she is just a big hunk of gorgeous palomino mare.  Tom came from Arizona and borrowed "Shadow", Lowell's other horse.

Yours truly with Lady.  We had a good first night at River Road Camp.  All the newbies got to go for a bus ride after the meeting to go downtown Oscoda to pick up all the horse poop. I guess it is their initiation into the trail ride because only newbies get to go.  Oh yeah, they get free ice cream when they are done.  While they were down there, there was a car wreck right next to where they were standing.  Our friend Kim helped get people out of leaking cars and to safety.  Our Hero!  Tomorrow I will introduce you to Morgan, our youngest rider on this ride, she is 8.

Michigan Shore-to-Shore Ride, June 2011

Howdy all,

Been away again for a while, sorry about that.  We are on the Michigan Shore-to-Shore ride right now.  I have meant to blog each day but no signal and honestly no energy in the beginning. 

We arrived at Lake Huron on Thursday June 2nd.  Had a good drive to Oscoda, stopped at Hale, MI for the best jerky and bacon and loaded up on both.  Friday morning we drove our horses to the shore and started the trip.  The first day we ride from an industrial park in downtown Oscoda to Lake Huron, go in the water then ride back through town to the first camp called River Road Camp about 14 miles west of town.  It is the shortest ride of the whole ride but always feels like the longest for some reason.   I always love riding my horse into Lake Huron and my little horse Lady loves it too.   Since her confidence has come up in the last year or so she lead the pack of 9 horses down the stretch of grass before you get to the beach and walked straight into the big lake.  She loves water and has a terrible habit of always pooping when she gets in water.  If she is having a good day sometimes she takes a pee too.  How embarrassing.  The Tramp went right in also but the waves were small and they were both really thirsty.

As we left the beach, I noticed that I was the only woman in the company of 4 men. Unusual ...since it is almost always a bunch of women and Terry.  Thus I am calling this THE MAN RIDE.  I have learned a lot about Men on this ride hanging out with MEN all the time.  Camping with Men, eating with Men and riding with Men.  I think Terry is loving this.  I know he gets sick of hearing about PMS, shaving our legs, menopause, hot flashes, shopping, who has the best deal on shoes, the best lip balm, Diva cups, tampons, duct-taped bras, underwear that ride up.  Now that I have a signal and am over the hump of being tired from riding 25 miles a day, I will be back blogging the rest of the trip.