She's Road Trippin' Somewhere

Day 1
Friday came early, was up way before the alarm went off. Piddled around the house cleaning things up and packing last minute things. Was on the road by 6:15 am, Moj was settled in the front seat, sound asleep.

Jenny and Clark called me when I had just left Lincoln. They said that the highway from Alma to Colby was Ice/Snowpack covered. $hit!!!!!! I sooo did not want to hear that since I was driving the Camaro and had been warned by friends and hubby that I should take the truck because the weather ‘could be bad’. Of course my stubborn a$$ said “Oh, I’ll be just FINE!” and proceeded to take the Camaro anyway.

I did a quick glance at the map and decided to drop down at York on Hwy 81 that would take me into Kansas. Chatted with some friends to see what the best way would be and decided to take Hwy 36 out of Belleview KS west to Petersberg and then south to Hwy 24 which would take me into Colby. I did a road check at 9:30 and the interstate into Colorado was still closed….what the heck!! I certainly didn’t want to get stuck in Colby for an extended period of time….I had a hair appointment at 3:30 mountain time.

Um!! We aren't IN NEBRASKA ANYMORE!!!!

Never did hit any snow until Hoxie Kansas and even then the roads were still dry. I checked the roads again and heard that I-70 was finally open…whoo hoo…clear sailing for me!!!!!

Coming into Colby was another matter though. Got stuck behind a snow plow that was going 40 mph. Couldn’t really pass him so I was stuck going that slow. The roads in Colby were slushy and messy. The gas station lot was snowpacked/slush and ice. YUK! The Camaro got initiated into the world of snow, ice, salt and sand. But the sun was out and life was good.

Once on I-70 things were a piece of cake. Made up some lost time and rolled into Limon at a decent hour. Only 90 some miles left to go…..I’m going to make my hair appointment yet. Ha ha. I love this hill coming down out of Limon. There is a gorgeous horse ranch at the bottom with Pike’s Peak in the distance. I know here that my trip is nearly done.

Got to Jen’s house and the sun was out again and the temps were fairly warm. Moji and Gidget played outside for a long time and Jen and I went to the salon. Moj went along too and slept in the car….yet again.

The rest of the evening was spent catching up, plus we had a big day planned for Saturday.

Day 2
Spent the morning lazing around the house, watching the dogs play. We did have to be up in Denver by 12 for our ‘Indoor Skydiving’ appointment. On the way up, we stopped at Castle Rock and did some shopping at the outlet stores. Ok, really didn’t plan on buying anything, but I did.

Finally made it up to Skyventure and didn’t get too lost trying to find it. That was a blast! When it was my turn to ‘fly’, I couldn’t quit laughing and got bounced and rolled all over. The poor instructor kept telling me to relax and I kept laughing. Air was being forced up my nose, my feet were getting bounced all over, I kept trying to get sucked out the doors to the antechamber. It was a fiasco for 60 seconds. Jenny did awesome though, she floated all over in there. The second time around though I did much better and was more relaxed. There is a DVD of us flying, not sure if I will share the funny one or not yet. Ha ha.

Headed back to the Springs to get ready to go Trick or Treating with the boys. Jen and I took the dogs for a walk by the dog park. Moj loved that…a nice hilly mile walk…I about DIED!! So not used to the altitude or the hills that we climbed. Moji got to go on the walk about for Trick or Treating. He did real good, didn’t bark at any of the kids running up on him or running from house to house.

Went back home and checked out the boyz’ loot. They gave me stuff that they didn’t like….cool with me…more road trip food.

Day 3
Spent the day being lazy yet again. Attempted to watch the Nascar race…ouch, my 2 car didn’t do so hot and got wrecked at the end with 3 laps to go. Jenny did talk me into going to her obedience class at 1 pm. I’m glad that I did. Moj was a good distraction for the group and he did fairly good for not being taken to a class at all!! I really enjoyed working with her trainer. He spent a lot of extra time working with Jen and making sure she knew what he was talking about.

Made it back home to see the end of the race…..cringed a lot.

Went and washed the salt and grime of the car before heading to New Mexico on Monday morning.

Spent the rest of the day hanging out with the boyz.

Day 3
Drove to New Mexico and made it down there in real good time..shocked my Dad that I showed up in only 6 ½ hours. Hmmmm, didn’t really speed that fast and only made 2 stops for fuel.

Once we were settled, Dad and I took Moj for a 2 mile walk. Oh, that was sooo much easier than in Colorado Springs…the ground is FLAT there.

Caught up on things and crashed fairly early. I still wasn’t used to all the time changes that I did and was jet lagging.

Day 4
Ran Moj for a bit and then hung out at the house. Dad and I headed to the shooting range and practiced with the pistols. Had a lot of fun doing that, 3 hours flew by fast. Later in the afternoon, we took a drive over to Bitter Lake which is a wildlife refuge. Snow Geese and Sandhill cranes were already there for the winter. Took JoAnn for a ride in the Camaro later in the afternoon when we ran over to Wal-mart to get some fruit and things.

Day 5
Drove up to Capitan, Riudoso and Hondo to see the sights. Had a good time and saw some beautiful scenery. Couldn’t believe how time flew, we were gone almost 6 hours. Went out for Tex Mex and had marguaritas….yum!! Hung out with JoAnn while Dad cleaned guns and fiddled out in his shop.

Day 6
Plans were to drive back to Colorado Springs in the morning. Dad and I took the dogs for a mile walk to get ‘Moj tired for the trip’….I don’t think I can ever tire that boy out!!!! He does ride well and sleeps most of the time.

Finished packing the car up and headed out by 9:15 am. Not much to see along the way, ranches, longhorn cattle, antelope, shredded tires in the road, cacti plants, hawk nests wedged in the power lines on the poles (didn’t figure that out until I saw the 3rd mass). I did see a Roadrunner dart across the road and a huge snake…ICK!! Avoided that one! Got to Colorado Springs around 3:30, just as I had pulled in the driveway, Andrew called and asked me when I was going to be there..I told him, look out in the driveway

Clark, Andrew and I piled back in the car and went to pick Christian and his friends up from school. 4 boys were packed in the backseat, Clark and Christian were in the passenger seat and I drove with backpacks squished all over. Wow!! That little car was packed with 7 people……..had the sunroof open and the windows down, the boys LOVED it!

Went out for pizza and then back home to get some things done for Jenny, had to download some music to her Blackberry and pictures from our phones. The boys played with the dogs. Everyone kinda headed to bed fairly early, it has been a long week.

Day 7
Up early, wanted to eat breakfast with the boys before they headed off to school. Planning on heading out of here around 8 am which should put me home around 6 pm. I am starting to miss Mike and the critters…and my BED.

I am so glad that I took this impromptu trip to see family. Some great memories were made and plans for a family vacation to Florida next year are now in the works. It will be fun to take the boys to the beach!!!

Making Lemonade out of Lemons

Making Lemonade out of the lemons we got.

Woke up this morning when the alarm went off at oh, 4:15 am. Looked outside and saw a blanket of white. Not sure what happened to ‘just a dusting’ that we were supposed to have. Had about 2 to 3 inches on our deck rails by then. When I finally got out of bed to go feed the horses, we had a good 4 to 5 inches on the rails.

The horses were sooo pretty running up to the paddock with the trees and grass all white. Made a note to myself that I’d need to get back out and get some photos. Mike fixed breakfast for me…should ask him to do this more often! French toast was sooo yummy.

Listening to the Geese that are migrating through.

I just love his eye, basically, I just LOVE his whole personality. He's a keeper the big doof. Speaking of being a doof....the farrier came Thursday, a tad bit earlier than I had thought. Didn't matter, the horses ran to the paddock when they saw Greg. He was able to halter and trim them without too much problem. Cora stands perfectly for him, but AJ would try to grab her leadrope and 'steal' her away from Greg. Greg had to keep waving him off and when it came to be AJ's turn, AJ thought let's play games and didn't want to be caught. Once caught though he stood like a champ.

Headed back out and decided that I’d ride Cora for a bit too. Wasn’t too windy when I meandered back out there, but, within 15 minutes the wind started picking up and had a cold bite to it. Had miniature blizzards with all the snow coming off the trees.

Mike came up to get some photos of me loping her around and then he played a little bit with AJ. After he left, I took AJ out to the arena to play with him myself. Gosh he is so pretty when he trots, just floats.

such personality.....actually, he had just gotten a drink of water and was holding it in his mouth. I had the camera on multi-shot and kept clicking it as he was swallowing the water and licking his lips.....still quite funny to see him sticking his tongue out at me and making eye contact doing it!!

We played in the arena for about 15 minutes or until I couldn't feel my finger tips anymore. I just love watching this boy move.

can't see his eye too well in here, but he was making eye contact with Moji who was playing with him on the other side of the fence. I keep saying how athletic this boy is.

Love that trot!

'mini blizzards' coming off the trees.

After playing with the horses, it was time to get some new pictures of Moji. He’s such a ham, but so dang fast!

Here's another keeper---Kansakaws Crown Royal Ahamo

Moji and believe me, he works his Mojo on everyone he sees!

You can't catch me ole man!!!!!

Riding the Oak Creek Trail

Earlier in the week, Tammy invited me to try to get Friday afternoon off to go riding the Oak Creek Trail with her and Sheila. I told her that I was game and to keep me posted on the weather.

Friday morning came and 60% chance of t-storms were predicted. I told her that I’m game and we are going no matter what. Doesn’t matter on this trail as it’s for horses only so if it gets torn up, no one will complain. We just need to keep off the limestone trail as much as possible.

I call Tammy as I went by Morse Bluff….she said I’m driving in a downpour can you hear it?! I said yes! But I have just grey clouds here. She said it’s coming and sure enough it did!!

Drove through that and made it to Valparaiso in one piece and had clearing skies. We still opted to wear rain gear as the trees would be wet where we would be riding at. Saddled up and got on our way within 10 minutes.

Tammy had to model her husband's sandblaster pants....at least she stayed dry :)

1st challenge was to get Blue and AJ across the bridge over Oak Creek. It’s kind of a scary looking bridge so I opted to get off and just walk him across. Got across and back on and on to our first muddy downhill slide. Blue took it first and AJ was on his butt skiing downhill. At least this time he kept his feet together and handled it fine. Wasn’t too thrilled to have to walk through mud puddles at first though…big baby!

Pretty uneventful and I’m feeling some need for some speed. Tammy is the same way. We get to an open stretch and let them loose….14.2 mph this time, not bad for a nice warm up. Another bridge, some water crossings and rain came our way, but we were having FUN and LAUGHING!

We ride another 2 miles and decide it’s time to turn around. We had been noticing a very dark cloud coming our way and sure enough, it started pouring on us. AJ wanted to just turn around and put his butt to the wind and rain, I let him. Blue wanted to head to the trees and Tammy took him down the trail. We waited the rain out and followed it back, trying to stay behind it.

The sun came back out and things started to get a bit on the humid side. Our wet horses were starting to steam and there was a mist starting to form in the trees. Very pretty.

I started to strip off all my outer layers to stay cool. On the way back, I worked on AJ leading and crossing the bridges alone. I did have to get off and lead him across and back on the last one but he learned that it was ok to be by himself and walked back across it with no problems. He did have airplane ears listening to the rushing water underneath though.

We had to make one final water crossing before we were done. Things got a little deep on this one from the deluge of rain we just had. There was a pretty waterfall that we let the horses check out, AJ wasn’t too thrilled, Blue is a water horse and wanted to play.

We played on AJ’s ‘loping’ trail and ended up getting a video of him sliding in the mud. Too funny! Blue just slogged through it, he wasn’t afraid of getting a little mud on his belly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6ptomtP3M

Went through the mud slides again and had him walking/sliding slowly instead of plowing his way down out of control.Hit one more open stretch of trail before the trees. This is a bit of a challenging spot as there are 2 water holding ponds, ducks, geese and scary horse eating signs on the fence. Tammy asks if I’m ready and I say let’s rock and roll. Blue leads the way and I’m holding AJ back in a slower lope. I feel pretty confident in him and start opening him up to pass Blue. Blue on the other hand is telling The Kid to back off and to keep his place behind him. We are riding on Blue’s flank to the end of the stretch. We ran through mud, running water and had a BLAST. Tammy clocked us at 19.3 mph.

At that point we traded horses as I had promised her a ride on the tall legged boy. She had to STRETCH to get up in the saddle. Blue is a little shorter J I asked her if she still wanted to lope him and we loped through the trees. I heard her say he’s like riding a Cadillac. Yep, he sure is and has 4-wheel drive to boot. One more lope down the grass to the trailers and we called it a day. Almost 2.5 hours of saddle time in the rain with a good friend and awesome horses.

Getting My Horse Fix

I so needed just to get home after work and ride. The urge was so bad that I stopped the truck at the barn when I got home and pulled Cora out to the round pen and just got on, laid back and let the sun beat on my face. She was wondering what the heck I was doing but gave in and stood there quietly while I decompressed.

After 15 minutes of just sitting there, I got up and headed to the house. Did a few things inside and then headed back to the barn. I had a hot date with a gorgeous boy planned.


Saddled him up, longed him a bit and climbed aboard, chose not to use the fence tonight so that meant I had to STRETCH that leg up to the stirrup. Hey, I was pretty dang proud that I can still stretch that high :) Whoo hoo, he felt great. Started at a nice walk in the roundpen and built that up to a trot. He was getting reacquainted with his bit..I’ve been riding him with a halter lately. Once we came to terms on that, we trotted and trotted and trotted. I’m starting to get in sync with him, he’s a different ride and feel than Cora is, as I’ve stated so many times. Trotted in circles, trotted in figure 8’s, reversed directions and all of that was with him moving off my leg like he should be doing. He was extremely light and responded fast at every cue that I gave. Princess Cora stood by the barn sunning herself, but I could tell she was still watching. Newt was also out with us watching what was going on. After working in the roundpen, I decided that my boy was going to take me to town, which is only about 1 mile.

Feeling 10 feet tall

Cora wasn’t too pleased and voiced her displeasure as we headed down the driveway. I saw her a few times racing around in the pen, tail flagged and not a happy camper.

I started out by just hand walking him down the drive. I didn’t know what kind of reaction I’d get from him with Cora screaming in the background. Plus, he hadn’t been rode down the drive in quite some time…playing it safe especially when I am the only one home! Got to the end of the drive, dropped him in the ditch and climbed on. Things were going good until a car was speeding towards us. I stopped him and got off and continued to walk. Thankfully the car slowed as they got closer and AJ was his good steady self as it went by. He got a little more high as we walked towards town but I didn’t mind, I needed the walking exercise too. Once to town, we circled around and headed back. He was still high so I did some big circles and had him going all over the place to get him to come back down. He did and I finally got back on. Rode the next quarter mile to the driveway and decided to hand walk him back to the barn. I was extremely pleased with his attitude tonight.

The Six O’Clock whistle blew, wow, that hour went fast and my dogs were voicing their displeasure of not being fed yet. Headed in for a bit, fed the dogs and then saw that there was a chance of rain tonight. Dang it, I really didn’t want to go back out and scoop the pen but decided that it should be done before the weather comes in.

Spent another 45 minutes out there scooping the stall and spreading poop. Looks like we will be having a Canada goose pair living on the pond next to the pasture. They flew in real low over the horses and landed on the pond. Moji was entranced by them as they honked and flew by.

Hubby finally got home around 7:30 so I went back in for a bit. Made something to eat, wasn’t really hungry but needed something.

At 8:00, I was still having the urge to ride so grabbed Cora’s bridle out of the trailer and pulled her out. Didn't take time to saddle and I wanted her body heat to help keep me warm. She wasn’t too pleased with my idea so we headed to the arena to ‘warm’ up. After that, we headed down the road and over to the alfalfa field. Saw a large herd of deer grazing by the pond, couldn’t see if there were any bucks with the group.

The clouds were really starting to come in and I could feel/smell rain in there. It was time to head back home. Even when I got back I wasn’t ready to call it quits riding, I just wanted to keep savoring my ride time. Took Cora out to the pasture instead. Figured if I did fall off, she was contained and hopefully someone – HUBBY- would come looking for me. Of course I didn’t have my reflective vest on, that would have been smart, but I did have my helmet! **Note to self, bring reflective vest to barn and have it handy! A spotlight could see it a mile a way.

Took her around the perimeter of the field about 5 times. The last time around, I asked for a lope going up the hill to the road, she gave it to me for about 3 strides and then dropped back down to a trot. She's a great babysitter and I normally don't ask her to lope when riding bareback! We trotted the entire length of the west fence and back down the hill. At the bottom, and I knew she’d lope here. Grabbed a handful of mane, held the reins with my other hand and gripped with my thighs. We were off!!! This wasn’t her pretty slow collected lope, it was almost a full gallop up the hill, in the dark and me having 150% trust that she will take care of me. Oh my, I can get addicted to that rush, it was like flying.

By the time I was ready to quit, my fingers were froze. I’ve got my fill in for the time being, just enough to get me through the next few days when the weather turns bad again.

I'm turning into an Adrenalin Junkie!!

Why "I Ride"

On Friday, I noticed that our large dog kennel did not have any air flow. Contacted the Maintenance staff and Larry thought that he had it fixed. Well, the breaker popped again and no air circulation was happening.

I made plans to go riding Saturday morning with a co-worker at Lake Cunningham. I also had left my camera card at work so dropped by to get it and to check on the HVAC in the large dog area. It had not been reset the night before so made some calls to see if it could be fixed. Seeing that time was getting short and I had my truck and trailer in the parking lot, I didn't stick around to see the outcome of the situation.

However, I did receive a few calls while out riding and one comment was something to the effect, I hope she doesn't get mad. My reply was I can't be mad while I'm on the back of my horse. Things are good when I ride, things are forgotten and I am just enjoying the friendship and being outside with the sun on my face and the wind in my hair.

This poem was forwarded to me a few years back and it pretty much sums up why I ride and why my friends ride.

I Ride.

That seems like such a simple statement. It has to do with power and empowerment. Being able to do things you might have once considered out of reach or ability. I have considered this as I shovel manure, fill water barrels in cold rain, change a tire on a horse trailer on the side of a freeway or cool my horse before drinking a cold one after a long ride.

The time, money and effort it takes to ride calls for dedication. I call it a dedication, some call it a sickness. It’s a sickness I’ve had ever since I was a small girl bouncing my model horses and dreaming of the day I’d ride a real horse. Most women I ride with understand the meaning of “the sickness”. It’s not a sport, not a hobby. It’s what we do and in some ways, who we are as women and human beings.

I Ride.

I hook up my trailer, load my horse and haul to a trail somewhere. I breathe in the air, watch the sunlight filter through the trees and savor the movement of my horse. The real world fades into the tracks my horse leaves in the dust. Time slows, my saddle creaks and the leather rein in my hand softens with warmth.

I Ride.

I think of all I do because I ride. Climb granite slabs, wade into a freezing lake, race a friend through the field all the while laughing and feeling my heart in my chest. I ride, no matter how tired. I feel better doing it.

The beauty I’ve seen because I ride amazes me. I’ve ridden out to find lakes unseen, caves dark and cold besides rivers full and rolling. The scenes most others have only seen in dreams. I think of the people, mostly women, I’ve met. I consider how competent they are. Not a weenie amongst the bunch. We haul 40 ft rigs and back into tight spaces without clipping a tree. We understand and love our companions, the horse. Our hands are a little rough and we travel without makeup and hair gel. You do without to afford “the sickness”.

I Ride.

Playing Carpenter

You may remember last fall, I got to play electrician and replace the yard light that AJ broke.

Well, tonight I got to play carpenter and fix the stall door that someone kicked and broke. No one is fessing up on who did it.

As I was feeding, I noticed a piece of wood in the end hay stall lying across a bale. It took a second to register that I did not have any wood on the ceiling that could drop down.

After I threw hay, I went over to investigate a bit further. Dang horses are hard on stuff. One of them kicked a board and snapped it in half. Did not see any hair or blood around and did a quick scan of hind legs to make sure no one had any injuries. No one did, lucky for them!

Headed back down to the house and called Hubby. Got him on first try – amazing. Asked him what time he was planning on coming home, he replied I’m leaving in 5 minutes. Good, we need to fix the barn when you get home. His reply, can it wait until tomorrow??? Um, NO, It’s the stall door and it has to be fixed tonight….silence on the other side. I tell him that the piece is about 4 ft tall and is a 2 x 6. His reply, we don’t have that size at home, guess you’ll need to go get one. Ok, I’ll head to Menards and get a board, maybe even ask them to cut it for me….play the ‘dumb girl’ act.

Throw the dogs in the truck, Stone was extremely excited to go Bye Bye and headed to Menard’s in Fremont.

Walked in to Menard’s with my broken board and said I need a new one just like this. :) The manager took a look at me and said ok, go back and we’ll page someone to help. He took off at a dead run the opposite way…I just chuckled. I’m thinking some high schooler will be there to assist. Nope, it’s some ole crotchety lady. I told her that I needed a new 2 x 6 board that is “this tall” showing her my broken one. :) I can just see her thinking, what a ditz, she should have been a blonde!! She whips out her tape measure and said ok, it’s 46 inches tall and a 2 x 6, is this treated or untreated…um, it’s weathered?? ha ha! It is untreated, can’t have treated stuff around AJ, he’ll eat it. I was pretty amazed that I guestimated it to be 48 inches and was only off by 2 inches.

The lady came back in about 10 minutes and said your board is at the front, I did the best I could to cut it, we normally don’t do that. I see a freaking handsaw in her hands, thinking, did she really just cut my board with a handsaw????!!!!

I get up to the checkout and the board is cut crooked. Great. I’m going to have to still saw this thing when I get home.

Call hubby on the way home and tell him that it’s crooked, but it’s in the back of my truck and we are headed home.

Found a square thingy to fix the crooked board and got it sawed off. Headed out to the barn to fix the damage. Got a screwdriver with a hex head thing to get the screws out. That was a bit icky with the bottom ones, dang horses like to stand in front of that stall out of the wind and you know what happens when they sunbathe right???

Had a bit of a time getting that last board put back in. Something wasn’t square and it wasn’t the new board that I put in! I had to stand on the inside, balancing myself on a hay bale and kick the piece in. That was real cute looking—NOT. Cora and AJ were wondering what I was doing and how come I wasn’t giving them any of that yummy hay that is in that stall. AJ even tried to come over and help, actually I think he wanted to steal hay instead of help.
Got that last piece in, the holes all lined up and got the screws put back in.

Made it back inside as the alarm was going off for supper to be pulled out of the oven.

Ice and a Wintery Mix

I really hate when the BFLWM predicts a "Wintery Mix" especially during the drive in to work.

Things didn't look good at 12:30 when little Mo Mo had to go outside, the deck was already iced up and icicles were starting to form on the railings.

I decided to stick my head in the sand and just pretend it wasn't happening. 4:30 alarm goes off and I hear this awful humming sound, crud, the heat pump is froze up and hasn't thawed out yet. Can't deal with that right now.

Talk to hubby on the road conditions since he leaves about 15 minutes before I do. He can't understand why I need to leave so early, duh honey, I open and the daycare opens at 6:30 am. Can't leave clients sitting in the parking lot waiting on us.

He wants to know which way I'm going to take in. I think about it and was going to take the county road to Hwy 30 and then over to 31 to Elkhorn. He didn't think it was such a good idea as most likely that road hadn't been sanded yet. FINE, I'll take 91 to Blair and then in. I really don't care for that stretch of 91 going into Blair though, lots of windy curves and hills with steep drop offs. Once on the highway, things were fine. The sand trucks had been out and the roads were just wet. Made it to work with 10 minutes to spare!!

Wish I brought my camera to work today, the trees and stuff will be very pretty on the drive home with the ice covering. The front of my truck has about 1/4 inch of ice on it from the mist/drizzle that I drove through this morning. At least I made it safely though!

Poor Mike got his boat out about a week or two too early!!


Don't think that any Bluebirds will be coming around too soon do you??


People wonder why I call this area the "Northern Tundra"! Look at all the ice buildup on the trees. Omaha didn't have near that or even 15 miles to the south of us!

sure is pretty though with the sun shining through it. Still had some snow showers happening :(

Bet the geese that are flying over are wondering where their spring time weather is!