Day 9, Michigan Shore to shore

Oh my gosh, we made it to the shore!!!  Only had to ride about 9 miles and it is a beatiful ride straight into downtown Empire.  You can stop in town, tie your horse up to the fire hydrant and get ice cream, how fun is that???

 Lowell & Tom

Nugene and Bobe

The Tramp

Cool lady with a nice appy mule

Here comes Morgan and her Granny! She made it!!

 That is one proud Granny in the background.  Check out the pink cowboy boots!

 Lady and the Tramp

Morgan getting her first trophy from our trail boss Theresa.

Day 7, Michigan shore-to-shore

Day 7, Kalkaska to Schecks.   As I write this it is a month past the ride and it is 98 degrees out so writing in red hot red today.  The big excitement happened in the wee hours of this day when Morgan accidently swallowed a quarter.  Oops.  No body is laughing now.  She had been running and laughing and popped it in her mouth to hide it and swallowed by accident.  Her granny took her into Kalkaska hospital and got an xray to see where it was and they didn't want to induce vomiting since it might choke her on the way up.  Granny started the long drive to Traverse City to get it removed (quarters are toxic to the human) and about 10 minutes into the trip Morgan says, "Grandma, I don't feel so well".  The Always-Prepared Granny produced a bucket and she threw it up.  She said it was the best sound she ever heard, that quarter hitting the bottom of the bucket.  In the morning, Morgan was fine, acted like nothing had happened but poor Granny was a bit frazzled around the edges from the night of worrying.

 Had a great ride today, it is shorter, like only 18 miles or so.  It is funny how when we are on this ride we think 18 miles is short. Hah!  Now that I am home if I rode 18 miles at once I might not make it. Not really but my brain would be telling me that.  Not much to report on Day 7 of the ride, it is all woodsy and curvy and sandy and very beautiful.  The Tramp did good on his rope burned leg and all the movement got rid of all the swelling and we were in camp before we knew it.  Had a fun leisurely afternoon lazing around camp.  Shopped at B & D embroidery for new T-shirts, cooked around the fire tonight, made jalepeno poppers and steaks, yum!

Day 6, Michigan Shore-to-Shore

Surprise!  Day 6 is a move the horses in the rig to jump camp &, (Goose Creek camp) move to  Kalkaska.  There was a forest fire burning all around our next camp and all the roads were closed and all the people evacuated from homes and our horse camp.  So we loaded up in the morning, drove straight to a restaurant had a big group breakfast then onto Kalkaska camp to layover until the next day.  In all my years of riding this ride (since 1979) I have never personally experienced a sudden layover day in the middle of the ride. FUN!!!! Especially since it was so hot, it was nice to have a day off.  Even more so that no ones house was burned in the fire, our camp was unharmed and no one was hurt and they got the fire contained.  We lazed around and took naps, went out to dinner with Dad & Joan who visited then played music in a circle (no fire since it was too hot).  The Tramp got his danged back foot over his tie rope while we were napping and got a rope burn.  Garry and Al saw him struggling and came right over and cut him loose.  I even had a protective sleeve of pipe insulation over his rope and the rope still got him.  We doctored him up and he was good to go the next morning.  That green Amish Gall Salve is amazing stuff!

Day 5, Michigan Shore to Shore

Luzerne to 4-Mile.  Today started out great, beautiful curvy woodsy trail for the first few miles, drop down into the clear rushing creek crossing for a quick drink.  The Tramp went right in, Lady of course went right in pooped, peed, embarassed me, drank some then we were on the way.  By the time we got to Smith Bridge about half way it was stinking HOT, like I mean like low 90's with 100% humidity.  We drank good at Smith Bridge, yes she went into the river and pooped again, Terry gets so mad at me that she does that...I mean really what am I supposed to do, put a cork in it just before we enter all water holes?????

We went up over the highway and had a cold drink of diet coke from Fat Jack and visited with Al for a bit.  He was sitting on the ground under a tree and we shared his shady spot for about 10 minutes, ate a snack and were on our way.

We were looking forward to visiting a certain house who likes us and always has a water trough in their back yard.  It is about 4 miles from camp and since it was so hot we were looking forward to another drink for the horses.  We got to that spot and looked and NOTHING.  No water today folks, sorry.  An empty backyard.  I was starting to get worried about the Tramp since he was sweating buckets and still had a long deep sandy 4 miles to go yet.  We went slow and stopped every 15 minutes for him to catch his breath and even walked a little once we got to 4-Mile road.  We made it into camp fine and Lady wasn't affected by the distance or heat one bit.

Had a nice night and up early to do it again tomorrow!

Day 4, Michigan shore-to-shore

 Lowell and Tom crossing the creek just outside of South Branch Camp

 Bobe on the Luzerne bridge.

 Lady drinking in between the Luzerne bridges.

 Lowell,  MaryEllen and Tom.

 Here, once again is me trying to take MaryEllen and my picture while I am holding it, not easy I say.

 Bobe and The Tramp

 Kim and Morgan riding around Luzerne camp

 MaryEllen, Lowell, and Bob

 Lori and Gale

McKinley Camp.  Land of many gnats.  Not sure why this camp and the trail leaving there is so knatty but holy smokes, it is bad.  Not sure how many I ate that day by accident but you don't want to ride along with your mouth hanging open.  One even went up my nose, eekkk.  We rode with Mary Ellen today and she was all grins with her BlackJack back on the trail.  She left Bob in the next camp in the good hands of all the other trail riders.  Today was maybe the first day she was apart from him for very long since he came home from the hospital.  We had a nice ride into Luzerne.  We lunched with THE MEN at John's old lunch spot at Evans Road/Zimowski Road intersection.  Then off down the 5 miles of pavement we went towards the famous Luzerne bridges.  When we are in camp our horses drink about 15 gallons of water each day, not including the gallons they drink on the trail.  They probably easily double it on the trail drinking out of lakes, streams and muddy hoof prints, they aren't fussy.  Can you imagine drinking 30 gallons of water every day.   After we got in camp today, we had a small workbee at the first water crossing towards the next camp.  25 adults and one Morgan went to shovel about 10 yards of gravel into the openings.  It felt about 90 degrees out but we were done in 45 minutes and got a free bus ride back to camp.  Had dinner that night all of us huddled under the awning in a small rain storm, Lowell's wife Joan made goulash and we enjoyed that together.  Thank you Joan for a yummy supper!  After supper and the meeting we dog walked around camp and landed at Lori and Gale's for some Lowell a Chico music and got to hear my song again.

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