Sunday, October 17, 2010 - Work/Rest Day

As promised, I spent most of the day finishing off our agenda for our Wednesday program, though I couldn't print it because the hotel's wireless printer system was down. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in preparation for what will undoubtedly be three intense days of performance.

Saturday, October 16, 2010 - Travel Day to Dallas

Though our client had originally thought she would be home to look after the animals, things came up at the last minute, so we spent Wednesday through Friday getting caught up on paperwork, getting enough hay out in the pasture for the horses to survive for the week, and finding a place to put the dogs up near the airport in Colorado Springs where we would be flying out to Dallas. We left the ranch early, stopped for breakfast at IHOP in Pueblo, dropped the dogs off at the kennel and had an uneventful flight to Dallas. Our Dallas client had arranged for a town car to pick us up at the airport, so we were whisked to the hotel with no worries. After we arrived, I had the hotel shuttle take me out to a grocery store and a liquor store so we were stocked up for the week. Since the room had a refrigerator and a microwave, (and since previous experiences with the restaurant at this hotel have been less than stellar) we decided to stock up on fresh meals and eat in our room, so the nearby Tom Thumb grocery (affiliated with Safeway) was just the ticket. I bought several fresh packaged dinners, bread and coldcuts for lunches, and bacon and grapefruit for breakfast. One of these days I'll carry a microwave egg poacher with me, if I can find one! So now we're set for the week food-wise. Settled down for the evening, looking forward to a day off tomorrow, though I thought I read they had a pool, only to discover they don't, so sitting in the sun isn't an option. Probably just as well, I need to get organized for our Wednesday seminar.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - Drive Day to Walsenburg, CO

Today was the ultimate test for the new truck, the day we had to cross over the Rocky Mountains. Route 160 isn't quite as steep as I-70 through Denver, but rather is a longer climb with more switchback-type roads. The new truck was fabulous! Never even cracked 200 degrees on either the engine or transmission temperature gauges, despite the long, long uphill grade. I even had to pass a couple of semis, just for fun. Downhill, which is often even more harrowing than going uphill (with the van I was always having to downshift the transmission and be very careful about managing the brakes on both the RV with the hand brake controller and the van, to make sure they didn't overheat to the point of losing them or burning them out), the truck was a dream! The engine did it's own down-shifting! All I had to do was touch the brakes, and it would figure out what speed I wanted to go and would shift down until we stayed at the speed, despite whatever the grade was like. I hardly ever had to even touch the brakes at all! Hubby thought there was something wrong with my brake lights, because he had never seen me go down a hill without them coming on every few seconds. No matter how steep it was, the truck just figured it out and did all the work for me. Genius! That was when I decided on the name of this new truck: Einstein. It was such fun! I hadn't realized how much stress I had been under with the van, I had just done what needed doing, though there were times where it was a bit white-knuckle, but I just coped. Now, I'm suddenly spoiled, and it feels so wonderful! Obviously, buying this truck was one of the best decisions we've made in a long time, especially as we plan on horse camping across America for a long time to come! Hubby's enjoying the van, and it pulls the horse trailer with no trouble at all, though he did think it got a little hot coming up the mountains, but he had had a mechanic tell him last year that the radiator fan was getting weak and was likely to cause problems later, so he's going to check it out at the ranch and likely replace it, and that should solve the problem. Meanwhile, even though we had run into some rain coming through LaVeta pass, we arrived comfortably and relaxed at our client's ranch just around 4:00, (we had breakfast at a Denny's, so we didn't need to stop for lunch) giving us plenty of time to get settled in before dark. The horses had to go into a different pasture than last time, as the neighbor's who looked after the place had put theirs in the one we had used previously, so they had more exploring to do. The dogs ran all over, re-establishing their dominance and wondering where the dog who usually lives here was (at the kennel while the owner was on the campaign trail), and we got the RV and the satellite dish up and running in no time. To bed early after our two days of driving!

Monday, October 11, 2010 - Travel Day to Cortez, CO

Four Corners Monument

 Got out about 8:30 or so, starting the day with coffee and plans to stop for breakfast along the way. We drove east on 64, then picked up Route 160, stopping at a travel center in Tuba City to pick up fuel and have a quick sit-down breakfast at the cafe there. I tried a local variation of pancakes with my eggs, they were made of blue corn flour. Who says there's no such thing as blue food? They were lovely, had just enough of a difference in flavor to make it quite interesting. We headed off again into the desert, into one of the most remote areas in the country. Towns were few and far between, and the only radio station was a 100K watt station broadcasting Native American public radio, where we heard a combination of English and Indian languages, and a very eclectic selection of music, from country to jazz to Indian drums and melodies, all very fascinating, which made the boredom of the terrain tolerable.  Made a quick stop at Four Corners Monument, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada all come together. We had made arrangements to stop for the night at a Morgan horse breeding facility in Cortez that I had found on the internet, and we arrived there at about 4:00, just as we had planned. We met the folks there, got the horses put away in a good-sized corral, settled in the RV and spent a pleasant evening watching the sun set over the mountains and the stars come out. Cortez is a cute little town in a valley with stunning mountains emerging all around them, so the views were quite remarkable. Didn't bother with the satellite dish for a one night stop, so we watched some recordings and went to be early, knowing that tomorrow will be a longer drive, though at least it's one where we know what's in store for us when we get there.

Sunday, October 10, 2010 - Easy Ride Day

After yesterday's day of rest, Hubby convinced himself he was ready to take a ride today, so with my help, we got the horses saddled up, though we thought we might not need boots, so we just took them along. Headed up the road about a quarter mile to the trailhead. Originally we were going to take the trail to the west toward the Tuscayan ranger district, but then we saw something called the Coconino Rim Trail, so we decided to take that one east, in case it actually went to a "rim" of the Grand Canyon with some more views. The trail turned out to be a bit rockier than we had hoped, so we stopped to put on the horses' boots. It was a pleasant trail, with a wide variety of flora and fauna, and with a number of placards with information about the growth and maintenance of the forest. Apparently in this area, they cordoned off four different areas in order to try four different types of foresting techniques, from prescription burns to clear-cutting to minor maintenance, or something like that. It was a pleasant ride, but after about an hour, Hubby started feeling too much pain in his ribs, so we headed back, glad we were able to get another ride in, knowing it would probably be out last for quite a while. Rested the rest of the day, other than making preparations for our departure tomorrow.

Saturday, October 9, 2010 - Recovery Day

Not surprisingly, Hubby was in pain all day today, so we alternated between ice and Icy Hot Patches and spent the day relaxing, hoping he'll be recovered enough for a ride in the forest tomorrow. We did take a drive over the the Grand Canyon Overlook nearby to get another perspective of this incredible geological feature, and took a bunch of great pix to show for it!

 

Friday, October 8, 2010 - FABULOUS RIDE in the Grand Canyon! except...

Woke up in great anticipation of our ride today, loaded the horses up and headed back to the mule barn. We were a bit later than we had anticipated, but that actually ended up working out very well. Mules have the right-of-way on the trail, so they always try to time it so that folks with their own stock don't cross paths on the trail whenever possible, because there isn't much room on many parts of the trail. As it turned out, the last mule train was just coming back up "momentarily," so just as we finished saddling the horses, a mule train passed us coming back to the barn. We headed across the railroad tracks and the road to the trailhead of Bright Angel Trail, the busiest and only trail open to us today. As we reached the trailhead, another mule train had just arrived in the corral at the top, so this seemed to be the last group out. Perfect! After weaving our way through many people coming and going, we headed down the trail. It was a good 10 foot wide, had a low stone wall on the canyon side, and was like a superhighway compared to some of the trails we have been on this year! We had heard stories of how white-knuckle the ride was, and granted, the drop-off was quite imposing, but if you don't obsess on the empty space and concentrate on the trail, this was nothing. Our biggest concern was how the horses would react to so much foot traffic, hikers coming and going all along the way, with hardly a stretch by ourselves. Happily, they took it all in stride, soon becoming used to the rows of people standing off to the side. Fortunately, most people were very cooperative, graciously moving to the bluff side of the trail (as I mentioned to several, if something goes wrong, you don't want to be on the canyon side!), and the horses were brilliant the whole way! Well, except for one brief moment when Apollo decided to make a pile of manure while standing in front of an Oriental family. A little girl, about 4 or 5, started screaming her head off when he lifted his tail, which startled Apollo for just a moment, but he just stepped forward, then finished, then moved on. He just doesn't like to walk and excrete at the same time! He calmed down again right away, fortunately, so it didn't turn into a mishap. (Not a good place for a mishap!) The trail wasn't really all that steep, as the switchbacks had been cut into the rock very deliberately to keep it as low-grade as possible, and the footing was supported by steps and railroad ties all along the way. After about a mile, a man on the trail told us there was a mule train coming up the hill, which surprised us after what we had been told, so we kept our eyes open for them, and when we spotted them below us, we found a spot where we could move off the trail and make room for them. I got down and had Hubby follow suit, just to be on the safe side, and the mule wrangler soon caught up to us, walking a string of empty, saddled mules. We told him we had been told all the mules were in, but he said he'd been sent down to meet a group down the hill somewhere, and they never showed up, so he was just leading them back to the barn. It was an easy passage, and we were soon back up and on our way. We went down to the first Rest House, which was a mile and a half, and stopped there for lunch. We contemplated going to the next Rest House, which was at the 3-mile mark, but decided that the farther you go down into the canyon, the less you actually see, plus we didn't want to tire our the horses too much, since they hadn't been ridden regularly for the last couple of weeks, so we decided to head back up after lunch. Again, the horses were brilliant. They seemed even more eager to go up than they did coming down (the fresh, cool air might have had something to do with it, or all the attention they were getting from the hikers), and even trotted up a few steps till we pulled them back. They got their picture taken so many times they were like movie stars. Several people recognized that they weren't mules, and asked us where we got the horses from, and were, of course, entranced to learn we had brought our own. Many people (including one staffer we met later) didn't even realize you could ride your own horses into the canyon. By the time we got back to the top, we were thrilled that the ride had been everything we had hoped it would be. Stunning views, a cacophony of voices in languages from dozens of different countries, truly a wonderful time. When we reached the top, we crossed back over to the mule barn, and since we had only been out a few hours, asked about the top trails we had heard about. We were directed toward the trailhead, and headed out. We rode along the edge of the road, which thus far we hadn't seen any traffic on at all, but naturally, as we went along a car came by, which was fine, then another, which was also fine, then a great big bus, which was fine until the driver gunned the engine just as the back end was going past Clio. She was so startled at the belch blasting unexpectedly from the bus she went sideways, then took off, into the ditch next to the road, and out the other side. Her abrupt moves were just too much for Hubby, who come off in a crash. I didn't see it, and wasn't even aware of it until I heard someone standing on the other side of the road yelling "He's fallen off!" I turned around and looked behind me, and didn't see anything (I had expected to see Hubby), then I looked around and saw him lying in the grass up the embankment (thank goodness it WAS grass, considering how much rock and stone was around). I wheeled Apollo around, who already knew something was wrong, and headed quickly back over to where Hubby lay. I knew he couldn't be hurt too badly, as he wasn't screaming in pain, it seemed he had just had the wind knocked out of him. I jumped down and grabbed Clio's reins (she had stopped just a yard away), then questioned Hubby about his condition. His breath was slowing coming back, and it seemed my initial judgment was correct. A young man, a GCV employee (and the one I mentioned earlier who didn't know you could bring your own horses into the Grand Canyon), came over to ask how Hubby was, and to see if we wanted him to call the EMS folks. We said no thank you, he just needs to get his wind back. He stayed with us a few minutes, until Hubby got up and climbed back onto Clio, then went on his way, rather stunned, I think, that he would get back into the saddle so quickly. Well, that's Hubby, he just has to prove nothing can stop him. He even got up without a step, which he usually looks for, just to be completely ornery. Anyway, I grilled him again, and he insisted he was fine, so we headed on down the trail a bit. A rather ordinary trail, really, especially after what we had just experienced. It wasn't long before the shock wore off and the real pain started, so after about half a mile, I asked if he wanted to turn back, and he agreed. We got back to the mule barn, loaded up the horses, thanked our hosts again, and headed back to camp. Once the horses were put up, I had Hubby put an ice pack on the painful area for the rest of the evening.