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.

Anniversary

Howdy all,
In honor of our 12th wedding anniversary today, I though I would share some pics from two years ago on Mackinac Island.  We dressed up in our wedding clothes and rode around town for the Festival of the Horse with our good friends Bob & MaryEllen.

 On our way down the hill

 How handsome is this picture?????

In front of the Grand Hotel.

Bob & Mary Ellen looking handsome.

Thinking, whew, glad I can still fit into it after 10 years!!  Lady took her job very seriously that day looking as pretty as she could every moment.

 AWWWWWWWWWWWWw.

People actually thought it was our wedding day all over again. 

 How charming in front of the little stone church.

 Oh my gosh, look at me waving like a princess, I don't know what came over me.

Back to tomboy normal the next day.  Then there's Lady, still looking like a beautiful princess in all her gorgeous dapples.

Here is the photographer of all these pics, our good friend Kim Ross

Texas

Since it is a blue rainy day, I am back here to finish the story of our trip.  When we left Kim's in Utah, we headed for Amarillo, TX to visit Palo Duro Canyon, "the little grand canyon of Texas".  This we had to see for ourselves.

Yup, they weren't kidding, it is flat around Amarillo until you get to the canyon, then you drive down this narrow and steep (10% grade) for 2 miles to get to the bottom and there you stay in this beautiful canyon.

Bobe loving this place.

 Not very many horse trails here but what is here is spectacular!

 We had to tie the horses and hike to the top here.

 Can you imagine a prettier lunch spot?

 He say's don't sit on the edge of that thing,  you might cause it to break off....come on now...I haven't eaten that many donuts this winter!

Stay tuned for our april adventures!

Off to the Rolex

We are in the truck traveling again, surprise surprise...  we are off to The Kentucky Horse Park for the Rolex 3-Day event.  First year going as spectators and really looking forward to it.  Here's some more pics from Kanab:

Went hiking up the mountain.

 Kim

MaryJean and Gracie kept walking on the edge!

Can you find the dog in this pic?

 MJ

And then it snowed the next day!  EEEKKK

Kim's workplace

 Kim made me go into this place...knowing I would bawl my eyes out, I went anyway. Sniffle sniffle

Some awesome memorials to loved ones.

I especially liked this one, sob sob...

They have tons of wind chimes hanging in here and it is quite a magical place.

Makes me love my furry kids even more knowing they are here only temporarily.  Sob Sob Sob

Kanab, UT

Me and my big sis Kim at her dream workplace, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.   This place is amazing, check out their website to see people really making a difference one animal at a time.

This is one of their surrenders, his name was Schwartz or Schlitz or something like that, what a cutie, he was born with this little foot on the front and is doing great now that he is at the sanctuary, he is like the holy ambassador of the lobby at the welcome center.  If you go there you might be honored to meet him in person, I was.
There were so many fantastic things about our visit to Kanab I hardly know where to begin so I will begin at the beginning.

This  is the first take your breath away piece of scenery I saw when nearing the place.  As I was to find out, "This ain't nothin'".  The scenery around Kanab is just breathtaking, canyon after canyon full of amazing red rock, underground lakes, huge fields of sagey sagebrush, a charming town where they shot hundreds of the old westerns Terry watches over and over again and of course my sister lives there, absolutely the icing on the cake.  Except for the unusual cold snap when we were there this place is perfect paradise.  Of course the very first thing we did when we arrived was to go directly to Kim's house and give her a big hug.  It was so good to see her that I felt like crying.

This is her house.  She rents some acreage, home to her and her 10 dogs.  She has 8 little ones and 2 big ones.  The one that stole my heart is Pixie, the ancient chiuawha (sp?), a hospice dog she has had over a year now.  Then there is Benny the long haired weiner dog who is the official greeter and in charge of everyone's social life.  He is the hostess with the mostess.  Then there is Cody who I nicknamed "the humper", guess why?  Of course his favorite target is little tiny frail old lady Pixie who doesn't mind his actions.  Then there is Tank, the Shitzu who is built like, guess what a tank and has absolutely no expression on his face ever, he never cracks a smile but likes Kim to lift his big self onto the couch at night.  I think I saw a glimmer of a grin that he has trained her to lift his big butt up every night.   The black and white speckled heeeler (her name escapes me right now) who just likes to cuddle, and all the others she has given a great home to.  I am bummed that I didn't take pictures of  them but when you are in their presence all you can think is wow, look at all these dogs!!  Every night when we would sit on the couch and watch movies each person gets a dog on their lap, a dog next to them, a dog on the other side and a couple of dogs on the back of the couch like head warmers.   The whole time Benny is running across all the laps making sure everyone has a person to sit on. It is dog heaven there.

Some cool petroglyphs at the animal sanctuary.  I loved the colors of the rocks.

We met Margaret Schreiber at the horse division of Best Friends and she took us on this amazing tour of the place.  This is the underground lake.  Best Friends owns 3000 acres of the canyon and leases like 30,000 more from BLM land.  This is not some small time place.

Underground lake right behind us.

 We went hiking but that will be another posting cause the pics are really cool.

This is at the sanctuary, a natural ampitheater with yes an underground lake under it.

Okay, so I have to get to bed, I am at the Midwest Horse Fair and we are tired since we work from 8am to 7pm here.  It is our dream weather though, 40 and raining with 80 mph wind, okay, not really but it seems like it.  MaryJean won't even go out in this weather, she says she can just hold it until it warms up a little.

Leather dinette and Jethro bowl

As I am writing this I am sitting at a trade show in Columbus, OH.  My brain is almost back to normal since Tucson but not really.  I am learning how to talk the talk again.  Since visiting my massage lady and chiropractor I am walking kind of straight again.  So...Where did I leave off?  Oh yea...Apache Junction. 
So our friends Tim and Karolyn made us a nice dinner that first night and we were in their gorgeous trailer eating dessert and Tim sits down on the leather dinette and sheepishly looks at me and says,"Now that I've sat down with my Jethro Bowl of dessert if you hear farting noises coming from my direction it's caused by the LEATHER SEAT.   How many times do you hear an announcement like that, I laughed so hard I almost spit my dessert out!  I laughed so hard I had tears pouring out of my eyes and I couldn't stop.  You know that kind of manic laughing you do in church when you are trying not to.  I woke up the next day and started laughing again.  For some reason all my life the subject of farting has made me giggle uncontrolably.  Not sure what is wrong with me.

Next stop is Kanab, Utah! Stay tuned

We are HOME

Pulled in the driveway on Tuesday night about 10pm.  Yesterday I just sat in the house and soaked it all in.  The dogs were just bursting with joy to get home and ran and ran in the house barking and playing together. Lady and The Tramp did good that last long day in the trailer 12 hours and even drank water for me in the trailer. (A first for me to get  a horse to drink while traveling)  I guess they are seasoned travellers now, even the little baby tramp.  Terry and I went for a swim in the tub Tues.night and think maybe we were swimming in heaven it felt so good to soak up to our ears after that long 9,862 mile drive we took over the last 3 months.  We used 933 gallons of diesel fuel, and bought 50 tanks full.  I think when we go back to Tucson, we will just go back to Tucson and skip, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Lousiana, Texas and New Mexico.  Sorry all the loved ones along the way but we will have to catch up with you later!!!  We plan to be back in Tucson by Dec. 1, 2011!!  Planning on a pack trip to Mt. Lemmon with Al and Bill,  yes you Bill Stephens, bring your sleeping bag and don't be late.  Remember, Christmas is coming early this year, at Thanksgiving!  Don't leave me dedicated readers and I still have more fun stories of the rest of the trip to tell!