Thursday, October 18, 2012 - Hay Day and Disturbing News

Managed to find a hay provider from craigslist (I LOVE CRAIGSLIST!!!), who was only about 20 minutes away, so I headed down with the horse trailer to pick up a load. The owner wasn’t there, but he arranged with a neighbor and a helper to meet me, and we loaded 26 bales, three more than the pickup would normally carry, but I figured we would use those before we left next week, so we’d still have a full load when we left. Nice heavy bales for $6 each, though not as green as the last bunch, for a first cutting they were in nice shape. On the way back, I stopped at the ranger station to pay for our stay, and soon learned that there was a big fall festival scheduled at the park and that every campsite had been reserved! In other words, we would have to leave tomorrow! No matter what suggestion I made, it was no, no, no. There is actually a lot of room next to the officials sites in the primitive horse camping area, but they were insistent that only the official sites could be used. They were unmoved, their hands tied by the main office in Richmond (or so they said), so we had no choice. I had to scramble all day trying to solve the problem, debating whether we should just move on to Richmond early, which meant, essentially, being in someone’s back yard for a week, a less than satisfying prospect, or to find someplace locally to move to for Friday and Saturday nights, then come back to James River for the rest of the week. Adding two days of moves to our already short week was not a happy thought, it really cut into our relaxation and preparation time before our next job in Richmond, but it seemed the better option. Eventually I found a place called Robbins’ Nest Farm, which was only 3 miles as the crow flies, but 50 minutes drive as the road goes (I later found a back route over gravel roads that cit that down to about 30), but it was pretty expensive relatively speaking, but I figured saving on fuel would help offset the cost, plus they had water and electric so at least I’d be able to get my laundry done faster. What a pain, though, having to spend the day solving problems rather than riding or relaxing. The description of the place on their website made it seem really nice, with words like "resort" and "spa" and "guest cabin." We spent the rest of the day transferring the hay to the pickup, which we had to cover carefully as they’re calling for rain tonight, and putting away everything we could in preparation for leaving tomorrow. Had a nice chat with some folks who moved into the overflow tenting area, who came here to work the festival (musicians), and who rescued my Apollo when he managed somehow to get loose from his anchor and was heading down to the river. Nice folks, we had several chats before we left James River, and were sorry they’d be gone by the time we got back. Off to bed, to get ready for the unexpectedly busy day tomorrow was going to be!