I had such an amazing time on this little getaway! I brought two books with me to read, but found no time to read. I was busy having too much fun! It truly was a time to getaway considering the fact that we were cut off from the rest of the world. There was NO cell phone service, none. My phone only read "searching for service". Fortunately they did have wifi at the lodge, so I was able to use my ipod to tweet with Tonya to make sure everyone was ok at home.
We arrived sometime Wednesday afternoon. We unloaded and watered the horses, then began setting up camp. Mom and Dad's trailer has an air conditioned place for us to sleep in. We took my little refrigerator from school and had most of the luxuries of home. Air conditioning being the number one priority, of course, with heat indexes in the hundreds.
This is the view outside of the trailer. Thankfully there was plenty of shade, however, there was not much of a breeze. Nearly everyday around 3:30 or 4:00 clouds would roll in. The wind would blow like a storm was coming in for about five minutes, then it would pass over us, as we were way down in a valley.
Here was Stormy's home away from home. He's so big, there wasn't much room for him to turn around in the stall!
Mom and Dad and I had breakfast and dinner at the lodge. It was so relaxing to sit down in the cool, with no flies, for a gourmet dinner. The food was delicious!! That's saying a lot from picky, picky me.
This is where we ate. I can't tell you how friendly everyone was. It was so nice!
This is the rec room. We didn't spend much time here. I think there was one day we were early for dinner, so we hung out in here for about 15 minutes. Then, on Friday Dad was ready for bed, but I was not. (Imagine that!) Mom and I hung out, hoping to be able to watch some TV and catch the news. There was one girl who stayed in this room all. the. time. She was 12 or 13 and watched the Disney Channel. Although she never offered to part with the remote, but we were finally able to watch some TV that night, but it wasn't without some doing. And that's all I'm going to say about that. ;) The room was very nice. Everything was always so clean!
After dinner on Wednesday, we headed out for a ride. It was wonderful, but very, very sticky and humid. We just took a short ride and stayed out only about an hour. It was enough to make me look forward to tomorrow. The trails were nice. Not very wide, but also not very rocky. We were able to gait our horses a lot!
Here's where we showered that first night.
On the right is two showers and on the left is the toilet. It was very clean, but the problem was that it wasn't air conditioned! You can only imagine how hot and humid it got in there. I was thinking, I cannot do this! My hair wouldn't even dry because of the humidity! Thankfully, there was another bathroom at the lodge. It was bigger, more private, and had air conditioning. We drove the truck up there for our showers. SO worth it!!
The people we went with all have living quarters with kitchens in their horse trailers, so they ate breakfast and dinner at camp. They were ready to ride each morning at 9:00. Our breakfast wasn't served until 8:00, so that first morning we were a little rushed to eat and then get back to saddle up. So, every morning after that, we rode our horses the quarter of a mile up to the lodge. It was pretty neat!
Before Thursday's ride I gave Dad his Father's Day present from his girls. We got him insulated horn bags and some gourmet coffee. Tina and Tonya, he loved the bags!
Thursday was another great, hot ride. It was so much fun, that the heat really wasn't an issue. We had a few extras join us that day and ended up riding with 18 people!
After the morning ride we would unsaddle, hose down the horses, and eat lunch. We had ham, crackers, cheese, 7-layer dip, and bread-n-butter pickles. It always hit the spot!
We brought some sodas to have with lunch. Mom read on the package of the dry ice to put it on the bottom of your cooler with a bag of regular ice on top of that. Well, it definitely worked! It worked a little too well in fact. All of our sodas were frozen solid. So frozen they started bursting! It was quite a mess. It took us leaving the cooler open in the sun for everything to thaw out!
Thursday evening Mom and Dad went back out for another ride. Dad brought Rowdy. He's still a young guy, so I told him to take Stormy. Stormy is the most laid back horse you'll ever know. He doesn't spook or booger at anything, but Stormy can have an attitude problem around unfamiliar horses. It's not every horse. I don't know how he chooses who he does and does not like. When there is one he decides he doesn't like, he will strike at them if they get too close. This makes me nervous, so I asked Dad to ride him and give him a lesson or two. Here's a picture of them at the end of their ride. Isn't he a pretty horse?
Here's Mom on her horse, Breanna. She's Stormy's momma. She's a pretty one, too!
Some pictures from Friday's ride:
They named this place appropriately!
I don't normally ride in a hat, but I didn't want to worry about getting burned. Dad let me borrow one of his.
At the watering hole.
Saturday was our last day.
The ride we took that day was my favorite. We rode along the ridge and saw beautiful scenery. It was just too long. We rode over 15 miles!! Everyone was exhausted when we finally made it back to camp.
When we got back, we took a nap, showered, and packed up.
We visited with the rest of the group until dinner time, and then finally headed home around 7:30. It took us more than 30 minutes to regain cell phone service! We rolled into Mom and Dad's sometime after 10:00. Although it was extremely hot, I had the absolute best time! I'd go do it again this week if I could. We already have another trip planned in the fall!
I have to thank Tina and her boys for taking care of Chloe. Tina was so sweet to tell me that she was very good and that the boys fought over who got to take her out. She said she was no trouble and that she was welcome back anytime. I know little Chloe didn't miss me while I was gone, but I think she is glad that I'm home.
It had been so many days since Abby had seen or talked to us, that she asked Tonya if I had gone to heaven. Bless her heart! You never know what that little stinker is going to say next!
