Rocky’s Web

Archive for July, 2008

Colorado!!

Well, after over 450 miles, we have compleeted New Mexico.  I left Chama on the morning of the 22nd  with Kathy riding Soldier and I’m riding Blackie.  I left Daisy with the trailer to give her a rest after putting 2 new shoes on her back feet.  We rode up Hwy 17, following the train line.  At one point we met the train as it was crossing the road and after the “whistle”, Blackie sure did put on a rodeo!!  I thought he was going to knock down 2 RVs, a station wagon, and 5 spectators!!  Luckily, no damage and no one was hurt (not even me)!!  We crossed into Colorado at about 10:00 in the morning and alrady the scenery started looking good.  We rode 28 miles that day and just as we got to Horca, it started raining.  I set up my tent, tied off the horses, we Paul, Kathy and I went into the local restraunt.  After eating, they left to go back to camp and I turned in for the night.  The next morning, I continued on, alone.  I met a lot of nice people and enjoyed conversing with each and every one of them.  I wasn’t on the road for 100 yards (near an RV camp), when a couple came out and offered me some coffee (I wondered what I was going to have for breakfast) and a couple of blueberry muffins.  I was grateful and continued on.  Later, I met an ex-VietNam vet, wife, and grandson.  They were letting their grandson “pan for gold”.  They took a picture of me and sent it by email.  The ladies name was Kathy Clow.  I’ll try to get it on the blog.  I rode for another 28 miles that day and camped at the Alamosa River, just past the Platoro Reservoir on Hwy 250.  Today (July 24th) I was making a slower time, climbing to over 11,600 ft while “dragging” Soldier, all the way.  Blackie just goes and goes and goes.  He doesn’t even slow down, all day long.  I rode over 12 hours and covered over 34 miles.  The mountains were the prettiest I’ve seen, yet.  Snow on top, beautiful meadows, deer, trees, grass, and water for the horses.  I had Jazz with me since yesterday and all she could do was chase chipmonks.  After about 100 tries, she finally caught one.  It must have been the littlest and slowest of the bunch.  At about 12:30, Paul, Larry, and Kathy came driving up.  They had been looking for me according to what I had mapped for the route.  Luckily they caught me then, because I had taken a shortcut.  I put my pack and Jazz in the pickup, and Kathy decided to ride Soldier the rest of the way.  We hadn’t gone 3 miles when it started to rain/sleet/almost snow.  It got real cool with the rain and altitude.  We tried to take cover under the trees and ride it out.  After about 30 minutes, it slowed down and we hit the road, anyway.  It rained on us the next 4 hours.  Anyway, we made it into South Fork at about 8:00.  Soldier had lost one of his front shoes, so we contacted a farrier and he will be here in the morning to put the two front shoes on.  In the meantime, Larry has purchased another horse (mare) and now has two.  I haven’t heard from Lou because he was suppose to be bringing another horse to Larry, here in South Fork.  Anyway, Larry and I will ride out, tomorrow, after I get Soldier’s shoes back on.

This is quick, since it is now almost midnight and I am really “beat from the last 3 days”.  I wanted to at least get something posted.  It looks like I won’t be able to post anything for the next few days, since I’ll be on the trail and we won’t meet up with the crew untill then.  I hope to meet them on Hwy 114, just west of Saguache.  Don’t know if we’ll even have phone access, there.  I’ll keep you posted.  Remember the Troops…….

Chama Layover

Well, what we expected has happened.  Larry is now out 2 horses and is unable to continue unless he can pickup another 2.  He has tried most avenues, here in Chama, but no one has any for sale.  I called Larry (preacher at the Wild West Church in Pueblo) and he and Ron are working on seeing what they have for any possibilities we should know by this afternoon.  Also, I was looking for a farrier to put the back shoes on Daisy and yesterday, Luke came by.  Bill (at the Wild Bill’s farmstore) got ahold of him and sent him to us.  Luke had just won the bronc riding at a local rodeo event.  Luke was unable to get a second shoe on Daisy because of her tender/stone bruised foot.  He is coming back this morning to finish.  Luke had met his wife while they were in college at Weatherford, Okla.  Nikki was from Hydro.  I asked her if she ever heard of “Lookeba-Sickles” and she said they use to play they in high school all the time.  She said the school is still there.  That’s where I went to Jr Hi and Dad was the Principal of the school.  They are only in their early 20’s with 2 children.  Luke did an excellent job shoeing Daisy (although her feet were a little tender).

While we were reviewing the local shops, we saw an add on a dinner show at one of the local Lodges and decided to go.  It was only $19 a piece and the cafe’s were costing $15-20 for a meal.  The BBQ brisket was great and we had all we could eat.  Afterwards, a cowboy (of many years) presented the entertainment.  He had a banjo and guitar and “boy could he play and sing”.  I bought one of his CDs after his show.  Since Chama is noted for it’s railroad, we will be riding the train this afternoon.  It should be quite beautiful since it takes the same route we drove, yesterday.

Remember the Troops…….

That’s a catchup on the horses.  We may wait here for a day or two and see if Larry can get his horses, if not, I’ll go on and he will catch up, later.  We drove the next 15 miles from here to Cumpres Pass to see the route.  It looked like Colorado had spilled over the edge of New Mexico.  It was beautiful!!  We were told by a local rider that this section of the CDT route was almost impassable by horseback because of fallen trees and snow.  I have 2 alternate routes, so we’ll see how we get by.  When we (I) do leave Chama, I won’t have any internet for at least 3-4 more days. 

Chama!!

           Well, we finally made it into Chama.  I haven’t had any phone connection for over 5+ days.  I barley got my notes posted from Cuba.  I was all day trying to make a connection and when I finally did, I wasn’t sure it even got posted.  First, a crew update: Paul is his same ‘ole self, but seems to be getting more involved in the support role.  He likes to find the places to stay and is doing a pretty good job  at it; Kathy is the consistent one, she helps with the horses when we ride in, takes care of our laundry, keeps my camper organized, does the bookwork, maintains the expenses, listens to Paul (hardest thing to do), cares for the dogs, and lends common sense to chaos; Larry is an early riser.  I don’t know when I’ve seen him sleep past 5:00 a.m. He is now having problems with his horse.  Cochise has been out of action for over a week.  He is old and Larry says he can’t go over 12 miles a day, which makes him useless on our over night rides and most day rides, where we average over 20 miles a day.  Kemo is his pack horse and seems to be the only one is half-way decent shape.  Dakota (which he rides most of the time) has now gone down because of two great big sores on his back.  I think they are much worse than the one Zena (my mare) got from the Circle Y saddle.  Larry is in the process of trying to locate some more horses so he can finish the ride.  I’m doing O.K.  My hand is healing from the pressure of Soldier’s hoof!!  I wish, at times, that there could be someone available to give me a good back rub when I come in from some rides.  Each of the horses have their own traits.  Daisy has been out for about 3 days and she has lost both of her rear shoes.  I’m trying to get in touch with a farrier to get them re-shod.  She has a nice walking trot, but her normal walk is like doing the “moon walk” backwards.  She doesn’t have any gate in-between her slow walk and a trot.  I must admit that she does have an easy trot.  Blackie is just a little spookey (at times).  He can walk out at a good pace and can carry a load, but you really don’t want to trot with him unless you need all of your teeth jarred to pieces.  Soldier is used mainly as my pack horse.  He can carry a load and walk about anywhere you want him to.  All three are car proof on the highways.  Nothing seems to spook Soldier, but all he wants to do is “eat”!!  I guess that is the survival instinct in a mustang.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do if larry can’t find some horses.

We made it to Chama on Friday (July 18) at about 4:00.  I decided we needed to stay here to “recoup” from out 3 day outing and give the horses a break, also.  Larry needs to find a horse, and I just need a break.  Chama is beautiful and it is only about 15 miles from Colorado.  You can say we’ve just about completed the New Mexico ride.  Kathy says she is still looking for that “enchantment” that New Mexico calls the “Land of Enchantment”. 

Well, we left Cuba at 7:45 on the 16^th and Paul got the local police to help escort us out of town.  We rode 4 miles on that Hwy 550 (still dangerous) to Hwy 96 and on north.  I’m riding Daisy and leading Soldier.  We met the crew at a town called Regina and had lunch.  They went on ahead and will meet us at the Hwy 112/96 intersection.  There we put the packs on the horses, changed horses, and headed on North.  I have Daisy and Blackie.  Blackie is carrying only my “H” pack.  I’m trying to cut down on what I pack on these overnight rides.  The crew is to meet us where Hwy 112 intersects Hwy 84 that goes into Chama, in2 days.  It has been raining in the area almost every day and thank goodness for that because we are able to find water for the horses from the mud puddles in the road.  We quit riding at 6:30 and was able to put 26 miles in for the day.  We camped in the national forest area and were able to find water and grass for the horses.  By the time we put up the tents and finished eating (MRE’s of vegetable manicotti and applesauce), the rain hit.  I stayed warm and dry in my tent by the next morning, Larry said he had gotten wet from anything touching the side of his tent.  I sure do like my tent.  It is a Sierra Designs, Tagu 3 model.  It even has a vestibule on the front where I sometimes put my tack to keep out of the rain.  I can put my tent up in half the time it takes larry to do his because of the single pole design.  The next morning (17^th), we got up at 6:00 but got off at 8:00.  It takes Larry about 2 hours to get up, eat, pack, and ride out.  It takes me only about 45 minutes.  I’m compensating for the time difference, but we get off together, usually before 8:00.  We got to El Vado Lake around 3:00 where I had planned to spend the night, but it was too early to quit, so we continued on.  The dam across the lake is a one lane bridge with the lake about 40 feet from the road on one side and the other side was about a 500 ft drop to the river, below.  Pretty “scarry”, but the horses  didn’t spook and took it quite well.  Not far down the road, we were passing a group of cabins, when a lady came running out to greet us.  Her name was Linde.  She invited us to get some water (I need all my water bottles refilled) and let the horses rest in the shade and their grass.  Naturally, we did.  We then met David and Steve.  David is in his 40’s and is a retired screen writer.  He has done many moves (at one time he said he did 24 in one year) such as “Jungle Book”, “Selena”, etc.  He is currently raising “sprouts”, which he sells to stores in Pagosa Springs.  Linde then made us some soup and we had a good conversation with and about each other.  Steve is a contractor and is currently hunting individuals to support the US Embassy in Baghdad.  We had a good discussion about contractor support in Iraq (since I was involved in some of it when I was there).  David said there was a good place to camp just down the road and they thought it had a horse corral.  They said they would go and verify it and let us know (which they did).  We found the trail to the Corrals and that’s where we spent the night.  We had traveled 27 miles that day.  Day 3 found us on the road, again, towards Chama.  My GPS indicated it would be about 9 miles to the Hwy 112/84 junction.  We hadn’t gone 5 miles, when we met Kathy and Paul in my truck, looking for us.  We took another break and said we would meet them at the junction.  We had lunch at the junction and then rode on into Chama.  Paul and Kathy had made arrangements for us to stay at their rodeo grounds.  There we have water, electricity, and horse stalls (if needed).  We found the rodeo grounds completely surrounded by a fence, so we just closed the gate and let the horses graze around the arena.  After taking a shower and changing, we went to one of the “recommended” café’s to have supper.  I didn’t care what everyone else wanted, I had to have a big steak.  It was really good!!  It was about 8:00 and there was a little rain passing through the area.  Didn’t last long.  Since we were going to stay a few days, I also wanted to take advantage of the local entertainment.  Chama is noted for it’s railroad history and one of America’s Longest and Highest Narrow Gauge Steam Railroads in existence.  I checked the schedule and bought tickets for their Sunday special that will go from Chama to Cumbres pass.  That is the route we are going to take by horseback and will also give us a view of our ride.  Will let you know how it goes. 

Today is Saturday (July 19^th) and it has been almost 4 weeks.  I am right on track with my schedule.  I figured it would take about one month per state to pass through.  If we start again on Monday, it will be July 21^st and we started on June 21^st.  We’ll be in Colorado by Monday afternoon.  It then looks like another 3 days before we meet up with the crew again.  Larry is waiting on a couple of guys that might be interested in selling him a horse, otherwise, thank goodness for a needed rest.

Remember the Troops……

Scariest Place

I will have to say that Friday, July 11, was the scariest day of this whole trip. I was following Paul down the gravel road, when he went off. I heard the conversation he had with the highway crew, and I think he missed the spot that they told him about with corrals, and water. There was a turnoff off the paved road. They had told us earlier that the gravel road was only one lane, and it would be almost impossible to pass if you met a car coming the opposite way. I asked that question, because still remember driving those s curved roads in the Gila Mountains, and wanted to know if I had more of that to look forwarded too. The roads in the Gila Mountains were  2 lanes and paved, but had a lot of tight turns.  I am glad we are driving in daylight. The drivers coming in the opposite direction were also slowing down approaching the curves. It may have been possible that they saw the look of concentration on my face or thought woman driver coming at me.

Shortly after the road turned to gravel  saw a sign that said the road narrows, and the gravel was not really holding the tires well, because there was limited traction. There is no communication between the trucks, we had tried radios before and they just don’t work. Think there was a total of 3 sets, even if we were well within the mile radius indicated on them. We had planned on using them to keep in touch with the riders, so we could be in the correct spot, when cell service wasn’t working.  That is one thing I would recommend to anyone, come up with a backup plan of how to stay in touch with other drivers and riders, don’t depend on cell phones, or radios that don’t cover the distance they are suppose to. We even had spotty reception on the trip down to New Mexico from OK.

Back to my story, on one of the upper curves, I had seen the trailer go over too far towards the bank, and kept saying to myself, you better slow down. I had made that comment more than once to him in the past, but kept getting a deaf ear turned.  I just kept driving slow because of the conditions and having to tow a camper on those roads, would rather be safe than sorry. Well, we get down the bottom of the hill and a curve was there, and he cut it too sharp, because there was plenty of room to make a wide turn. Paul had pulled almost across, but was hung up on a small pine tree, and instead of stopping and seeing what kind of bind he was in, he jams it in reverse and tries to back up and pull ahead, making it go off farther and by then the horses are scrambling. I don’t think I even waited for him to stop. All I could think of   get the horses out, in case he lost it totally. I was already out of my truck on the road. I opened the backdoor and had Cochise out and Paul was standing there dumbfounded, I said hold this horse and went in and got Daisy. She had lost a little hair on her hip, but was fine.  I don’t think I started shaking until my four legged friends and I were safely on solid ground.  That is when I saw that if the horses hadn’t kept their wits about them and stayed calm and trusted me, we all would have been in a mess.  It could have been a real nightmare, so said a prayer of thanks that the horses and I were fine. I told the young couple that went back for to call for help, to be sure to tell the men on horseback that the other horses are fine. I took them up the road to graze and calm down myself.  You read so many articles on trailer accidents and never expect it to happen to you. I will say this was a first for me in my 50 plus years with horses. Glad that this story has a happy ending.

 I will say that Toby, the tow truck driver, does know his job and had brought the big wrecker. He had been in this business over 18 years, and said he use to tow tractor trailers, so was very familiar with towing a larger than average car. While he was waiting for Paul to turn around, he told Larry and I about the area. There are mustangs running in those hills, they are related to the horses the Spanish brought over. One of the highway workers had mentioned that earlier in the day. Blood work has been done on some of the captured ones to prove this fact. They are about the size of a Welch pony, but even though I had a chance to spend the night there, didn’t see them.  Larry also asked him about the wildlife in the area. Rocky in the meantime was riding with Lance, from the sheriff’s office trying to see why it was taking Paul so long to turn around. The meter was running on the tow truck, and Paul had to follow Toby into town, since there was no cell service to run the credit card. Rocky and Lance were chatting about the computer that was in the sheriff’s car, it was just issued that morning, and other assorted topics. A deputy sheriff had also come up as part of a routine check in the area.

 Mother Nature let us see her playing her tricks, by waiting until it was time for Toby to hitch the chain and then she let it pour, along with some thunder and lightning. It came down hard and soaked right through the raincoats, the wind came up and temperature started dropping. Think it dropped about 20 degrees in the matter of an hour. Once we got Paul on his way, went on to the camping spot. The first thing that I did was put on warm and dry clothes. Rocky made his famous hamburger stew for supper, while I held Blackie, so he could graze in the meadow, and Soldier was fine loose.  Three  cows , a calf and a bull made their appearance in the meadow. The horses had been looking off in that direction earlier, I didn’t notice them until Larry made a remark about me being afraid of a bull, and with his teasing wasn’t sure what he was talking about, because my back was toward the trees. It was a red angus bull, but he was content being Mr. Mellow, the rowdy one in the group was a black baldie heifer who had plenty of fight in her and would go after the dogs whenever they got near her. It was funny watching the dogs run back and forth and playing with the cow. They needed to run too, after being stuck in the camper and truck with no place to play, because we are usually along a highway. Jazz did get to try her backpack and go with Larry and Rocky about 10 miles, because they were on the road with very little traffic. Think everyone was in bed at 8:15, Larry’s horses were staked and hobbled. Blackie and Soldier were high lined. Rocky and Larry headed out of the meadow about 8:30, for their trip into Cuba. I headed back to Grants to find Paul. I got off the mountain and back into town. We stopped at the feed store for a couple of items, fueled the trucks, got some breakfast, made a couple of phone calls and headed to Cuba. We had to drive through some Indian land to arrive in Cuba, and be warned. Watch for animals! There are horses and sheep roaming along side of the road, even though there are fences. The horses that I saw were all pretty nice looking, and all kinds of colors, mostly stock type horses, a couple of foals. Checking the local papers down here, I am surprised that prices are still up there, even for grade horses. I have heard from friends that the market has pretty much gone south up in New York, and there are more horses being turned loose and given to shelters, because of the high cost of feed. Prices down here are about $17-20 for a 4-6 wire bale, the price of a sweet feed, depending on the brand will run close to  $10 up to $18. Prices I have seen on tack and vet supplies, seem to run higher than what I find in tack stores back home, and much higher than the catalogs. There are the people in some feed stores that know their business, and others that just have young people working there, that aren’t familiar with the merchandise, prices or I have my doubts if they have ever been around livestock. I wish to thank the Martin family, Ebony, Caleb, Tim, Sylvia, Rebekah, and Samuel, along with Jenny Vanwert, for helping us out when the trailer went off, and for being so patient about having to wait to get around us. Hope you had a nice camping trip.Guess I will stop here, and now I have a few days of wait time, may be able to catch up on some of the postings. Just keep your fingers crossed we have power. The camper seems to lose the charge in the battery and have to plug into the generator. Caught up on bookwork earlier this morning, and now it is a little past noon, better round up something for lunch. Thank you everyone that has written a comment or sent an email. We read them all. Enjoy hearing from our old friends and making new ones.

Cuba!!

 Well, after spending almost 3 days in Grants, we headed north on Hwy 547 towards Mt Taylor.  I let Kathy ride for about 5 miles while I took care of some personal business in Grants and picked up a copy of their newspaper.  It had a picture of us and an article about our ride.  After catching up with the horses, Kathy and I traded and Larry and I headed on towards Mt. Taylor.  We met up at noon with the trailers and Paul had talked to the local DOT personnel and they said he might be able to go ahead on the dirt road, pulling his trailer until the road narrows.  Paul thought he would try, so they took off.  About an hour later, we met a couple on the road coming towards us that said that Paul’s trailer had slid off the road and could go over a clift.  They said the lady had gotten the horses out of the trailer and they were all right.  They were hunting an area where their cell phone could get reception so they could call a wrecker to get Paul back on the road.  All we could do was travel on till we reached them. 

We got to the trailer about the same time the wrecker did.  It had just started to rain, so we put on our rain coats, tied the horses to the trees, and tried to assist the wrecker in figuring out how to get Paul back on the road.  What made it difficult was the horse trailer was “aluminum” and he couldn’t tie onto anything on the trailer.  He had to pull the back end and wheels about 2 feet back on the road so it could move on forward.  He tried tying to one of the under braces, but it broke before the trailer could move.  Finally, he tied to the axel and gradually pulled it back on the road.  By that time, a deputy sheriff had arrived to see if he could help.  He went further on down the road to try to find a place where Paul could go on and possibly turn his 40 trailer around.  He came back and said the only place was the “spud patch”, just about a half-mile down.  I went with Paul and he finally got it to the area, turned around, and headed back down.  That alone cost him $250.  He has decided to only stay on a paved road from now on.  He took the horses back to Grants to spend the night and Kathy pulled the camper on with us to the Spud Patch, where we spent the night.  It was a nice little meadow in the mountains.  We had only traveld about 16 miles that day (Friday, July 11).

The next morning (Saturday, July 12), Larry and I continued out travels.  There was seldom a car, but thank goodness for my GPS.  It saved us a couple of times from taking the wrong side road.  It was a beautiful ride, but we never did see any sign on an wildlife or even tracks along the road.  If it hadn’t been for the recent rain, we didn’t even see any sign of water.  We ended up getting water for our horses from the mud puddles along the road.  We were following the actual designated CDT yesterday, today, and on into Cuba.  The only time we found good trail makings along the dirt road was at the end of the day and we found a place to camp at the same time.  We found a sign that said there was a well just ½ mile down another direction.  We decided to check it out, but after going over ½ mile, we still couldn’t see anything.  We headed back to camp.  The night went well and the next morning, we headed on.

Sunday, July 13^th and we went for about another 2 miles and ran into a site called “Ned Tank”.  We thought it was supposed to be a good size pond, but it was nothing but a puddle.  We did see about 8 turkeys that were just leaving the puddle.  They scurried on!  We rested and let the horses graze a bit, then continued.  The road we were on was closed at both ends, so no traffic.  Actully, only a 4-wheel drive vehicle could even have made the road.  It was rough and a lot of rocks in places.  Only about a ¼ mile past we came out to one of the greatest views we’ve seen on the ride.  It seems we were on a high mesa and as we came out we could see the valley, below, river, mounds, etc.  We started down, but it became a 5 mile, almost 3 hour trip to the bottom.  With the snake curves, we had decended over 2,000 feet.  Thank goodness for the bridge that was at the bottom, because with the rain, the creek had turned into a river and there was no way we could have crossed it.  It was a long journey across that valley, up on the otherside, and into the plains.  We exited the dirt road and finally came to a paved one.  The decision was to go on the paved to the right that led to Hwy 550 and then on into Cuba.  One of the local Indians suggested up through their reservation to Hwy 9 and on into Cuba.  My now recommendation is to take that route.  Hwy 550 became too dangerous for horse traffic. 

It was getting late and we were trying to find a place to spend the night.  Another local Indian said that it was only about a ½ mile to their local bar and the owner could help.  As we had stopped at an old wooden corral on the side, resting, again, an older gentleman pulled in, started talking, and then invited us to spend the night with him.  His name was Alex Lovato.  He was 75 years old and showed us the home which he and 13 other brother and sisters were born and raised.  He had a nice little home across the road from it, where he spends time just visiting.  He and his 11 other children live in Albuquerque.  I was able to get some phone reception, so called and contacted Paul and Kathy.  It seemed they were looking for us to come out at a different location, had talked to some of the locals that said they had seen us earlier and they were now coming down the road, trying to find us.  I told them where we were and as they go closer, I guided them into Alex’s place.  The entrance to his property was too small for Paul to get his trailer in, so he camped it along the road on the outside and Kathy brought the camper on to his small house.  His property was all fenced, so we turned the horses loose to graze for the night.  We are really grateful for Alex’s hospitality.  We had traveled 26 miles that day.

The next morning, Larry and I headed on out.  I thought it would be a good time to test my new horse, “Daisy”.  She was a little excited in starting, but she adjusted well to me ponying “Blackie”.  We told the crew to go ahead and meet us at Hwy 550 intersection.  We got there7 miles and a little over 2 hours later.  We took a break and then onto Hwy 550.  I can’t say enough bad things about traveling that Hwy.  It is now a 4-lane highway and seems like an interstate.  It is one of the busiest roads we’ve been on, so far.  Now only that, but there was no shoulder (at times) and we had to ride between the guard railing and the road many times.  With traffic doing over 70 miles per hour coming at you and only about a 6 ft distance, it was “spooky”!!  DO NOT GO THAT WAY WITH HORSES!!  After traveling another 18 miles on the Hwy, we saw a rain storm coming and it hit at about the same time we met with the crew, along the road.  We covered up our tack and went inside the camper to wait it out.  It didn’t last long, so we got back on and rode the other 2 miles into Cuba.  Paul had found a place for us to park our rigs, so we did and spent the night.

To play “catch up”, again, we decided to go ahead and spend a day there.  Kathy has completed the laundry, again.  Larry and I went to the local tack/feed store, and Paul is charging the battery in my camper with his generator.  Larry had to buy some different feed for one of his horses that is seemingly loosing weight much more than the rest of his horses.  Yesterday, we had to haul 2 of Larry’s horses and all 3 of mine were on the road.  He has to shoe at least one of his horses (one threw a shoe), and possibly 2.  He has gone looking for a recommended farrier the area.  He could do it himself, but would pay someone, at this time to go ahead and shoe them.

Well……so much for now and a catch up.  Remember the Troops….

Good Pie!!

My apologies if anyone is getting confused at who is writing what, think that you will be able to tell the difference by our writing styles.  I am farther behind than Rocky, because he uses the computer when he comes in, and the internet and electricity is not always available. I try not to have to use the generator, so that we don’t have to use the extra gas. Like I mentioned before, fuel and food are the major expenses on this trip. We had to pay $5.09 for diesel in one place, but here in Grants, were able to fill up, for $4.65. Those small towns really have you at their mercy, but it would be worse to run out of fuel, so you bite the bullet and pay the price.

We have been sitting at the Grants Rodeo Grounds since July 8, today is the 10. Rocky and Paul took Zena and Pepe back to Rocky’s daughter’s place in Clayton and are trading out for Blackie and a mare. They left yesterday morning around 7, and should be back early afternoon. They probably decided to stay over, that way Rocky could help Robyn celebrate her birthday and see his grandchildren. I told him I would of made  cake for you Robyn, but I figured  it would have been all eaten by the time your dad arrived. He said I was right too.  I owe you a cake, when we ever meet, or something healthier if that is your choice. There is a  charge, here, of $10/night for each horse, electric hook up is $5/night and if you want to dump sewer it is $15. Tessa, who lives out here at the rodeo grounds has been very helpful in giving us directions around the area. The other horses that are here with Larry and I are enjoying eating and resting up. They will be going back out tomorrow and getting the ride back on track.

Larry and I spent our down day, heading into Grants, me getting the laundry done.  He went back to the saddle shop that we had visited the day before and had a leather holster repaired. Don’t worry girls, this isn’t a chauvinistic group at all. Rocky will cook, Larry will do dishes, and I do horse chores. We all trade off depending on what has to be done. Teamwork is the name of the game . We also visited a gun shop while looking for a different holster, a little lighter that Larry wanted, but there wasn’t one there. Yes,  this is an education for me. I did a little target practicing many moons ago, but that is about all I have done with weapons.  We ate lunch at McDonalds and visited the Cibola Feed Store and priced feed there and also found a farrier. There are a ton of places that could be visited if this was just a travel vacation, but maybe another time. I did ride Larry’s appy, Cochise, for about an hour around the grounds, he has been lightly used and needed the exercise. Maybe later today, will ride Soldier around a little.

Here is my pie review from Pie Town. I had a piece of Peach and it was excellent, not overly sweet or tart, with lots of filling and a  sugar crust. I had the last slice, so couldn’t have seconds if I wanted. Both Kathy and Stan at the Pie-O-Neer, were very kind to let us stay in their yard overnight and provided us with electricity, a small corral for the horses, and water.  I feel sorry for the bicycle rider that was looking forward to a slice of pie in Pie Town, neither place would be open on the day he passed through town.  He was going to miss a good desert or snack. The Pie-O-Neer is only open Friday-Sunday, and the other place in town was going to be closed until Tuesday, and that poor guy was hitting town on Monday.

Back to our arrival in Silver City on June 26, I told Rocky that he owed me another bottle of hair dye, I think I gained another 1000 grey hairs following behind them and the police. On the whole most of the drivers were polite and didn’t seem to mind the holdup waiting for the horses make their way over the bridge and through the construction zone. The horses handled it like real troopers, they did get a little nervous on the bridge, but think it was more the hollow sound that was made by their hooves, even though it was concrete, it didn’t have the same sound as if they were on pavement or solid ground. We wish to thank, Silver City Police Chief Ed Reynolds for allowing both Patrolmen Martin Valenzuela and Jason Uffelman  to provide for the safety of the riders and horses, we couldn’t have done it without your assistance.

Prior to arriving in Silver City, Paul and I put water in out rigs at the Tyrone Community Center’s Fire Department. I spent my time talking to some of the folks that were out walking around the community, while waiting for the community center to open. They have had problems with people coming in and taking water without permission and we wanted to make sure that everything was on the up and up. One of the gentlemen that I talked to was a retired veterinarian, Don Dykhouse, who gave me the names of people who may be helpful to us, while we were passing through the Gila National Forest. He also told us about the rabid foxes, mountain lions and wolves. The mountain lions and wolves are protected species and can only be shot if they are attacking you or your stock. The rabid foxes are not protected, so can be killed if you find any in your area. After finishing up in Tyrone, we headed out rigs down to Silver City and set up in the Wal-mart parking lot. We unhitched the camper, I grabbed a few snacks for Larry and Rocky from the store, and headed up the highway to be water support and follow them into Silver City. The chocolate muffins did the trick, because there was no Ding Dongs, actually we didn’t find them again until here in Grants.  As Rocky calls it breakfast food along with orange juice or Dr. Pepper, depends on the day, Larry is our oatmeal man and breakfast eater. Me, I am turning into pop tart girl, have to save the ding dongs for the one doing all the hard riding, think calorie wise we are probably on the same level. Bad combination junk food junkies, we do eat real food at least once a day, and it is here for those that choose to eat it, so please be kind about the comments on healthy eating, know that we should try harder, but our bad habits of only feeding ourselves in the past have kind of taken over, and we still like the easy way out. They knew they weren’t getting a gourmet cook, I emailed Larry to see what his food preferences were, and told him I would be thrilled if Johnny Nix from RFD TV was coming along on this trip, it didn’t happen, so we are making due.

Once we arrived safely in the parking lot, spent the day catching up on things, like internet blogs, grabbing some groceries, and doing errands. We talked to many nice people and gave them information about what we were doing. Some people came over to pet the horses, see if they were for sale or check on our welfare that we weren’t broken down. Horse people do look out for each other, which makes you proud of being part of the horse community, no matter what state. I talked to Dean Wilson, from Palo Altos, who told us to contact him if we needed any help or advice, and spoke very highly of the New Mexico Back Country Horseman’s Association.  He also corrected my pronunciation of the Gila, I want to say it as it spelled with the g, but it is said with an h. No offense taken, any of you who come across me, feel  free to correct me, rather be saying things correctly and have my facts straight then have misinformation out there.

A story that really touched my heart, I do have a romantic soul down there somewhere. We met an older rancher, who wanted to escort Rocky and Larry into the wilderness area.  He had been a widower  and  recently married a widow. They are starting a life as newlyweds complete with a new home. They also had a trip up to Arizona to visit family and friends planned.  We all wish you both many years of wedded bliss. Sorry that I can’t remember your name, but you know who you are.

Guess I will stop here for now, but just want you all to know, we are glad that you are reading about out trip, and enjoying what you are reading, hopefully. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to  let us know, one of us will do our best to respond.  Will see what can be done to improve our writing, I know my family has given me some constructive comments, so will try to keep those in mind. Yeah, guys as crazy as you thought I was, I know you are enjoying this trip as much as I am, and may even show up at Ma’s to see my pictures.