Home Again, Jiggity-jig... and gone again

After dropping Tamara and Xeresh off at their place, I made it home late Wednesday night - a full 20 hours later than expected. Certainly, we've earned bragging rights for making that kind of trip in such severe weather, but it's not something I'd attempt again.

The new-to-me truck did a great job, it's strong and steady on the road, although it didn't get near the mileage I expected (and had told Tamara to expect) so the trip was more expensive than expected - not to mention that diesel fuel had gone up nearly forty cents a gallon between the time of planning and the time of driving. The only lingering problems are that the skylight cover blew off the top of the vent in the trailer's apartment and the interior door between the apartment and the stalls doesn't want to stay closed now. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but I noticed it for the first time on the way home Saturday.

In other news, Saturday was fantastic.

After the intense week, between the travel and lots of overtime at work, I was up early Saturday morning and off to a Brass Tacks Match. Beri did fantastic. It was her second shoot and she's really coming along to be a good little shooting horse. I don't know if she'll ever be as fast as the quarter horses around some of the tight patterns, but once I improve my shooting accuracy enough to push her a little bit, it will be interesting to see how well we can move up the levels over the next few years.

We took another 2nd place, in the Ladies Class 1 division, which I am very pleased with. We were second a couple of weeks ago as well, but this was a bigger class, so I actually feel that we did a little better to hold onto second. I didn't see a photographer, so I don't guess we have any new photos - this is one from the previous match.

I've been trying to think how to apply the shooting events in my writing and the only thing I can think of is that some of those guys are so good - I'll probably never blink at another movie stunt or a hero's improbable' long-shot again. They can holster and draw so fast you don't even see it unless your watching for it and in the few matches I've been too, the shooting speed and accuracy borders on "you have to see to believe".

still on the road....

It seems weird to think 400 miles is "almost home" but we're back on I30 and even if we're not back in Texas yet, it still feels a little familiar and more comfortable.

We drove into a drizzle and ever-increasing rain on Monday just after I posted and drove through that the rest of the day. It got heavier and slowed us down after dark and so we pulled into Fort Wayne about 4am, nearly three hours behind our planned schedule. We tucked in and got a good night's sleep before heading on up to Hamilton on Tuesday morning. It amazed me to see there were still snow banks packed around the corners in the parking lots and in the woods.

- off the interstate, through Hamilton and onto county and than local roads. Dirt roads, I'm used to, we live on a dirt road, but it was a treat for me to see the harnessed draft horses and the real working driving horses of the Amish community there. We found our destination without getting turned around or sliding off into the ditch. We meet Tamara (the seller) and Xershee who is delightful. We spent a little time there, chatting and seeing all the horses. I especially love being able to visit a farm and see generations and families of breeding.

From tank tops and sunshine, using the a/c in the truck, we drove up into to-us frigid cold, heater on and heavy coats. It was *great* to get back to Texas and the summer sun. :)

We loaded up without visiting for too long and hit the road, driving into the rain and storms - it seemed like it went on forever. The weather radar showed that it did indeed stretch from Indiana, through Missouri, Arkansas and far south into Texas. We slowed down and just kept driving and driving and driving as our 15 hour drive stretched on and on. The storms intensified until we had almost no visibility - the rain was sheeting sideways across the road and traffic was slowed down to a crawl.

The last truck stop where we tried to fuel up had lost power and said there had been two tornados in Little Rock (where we had talked about spending the night) so we just stopped at the next Motel 6 for the night. ...a good thing too, we saw several wrecks and turned over semi's on the way out of town the next morning.

Here are the sleepy stuffed dash-ponies headed out of West Memphis not-too-early on Wednesday morning.

Xershee isn't an experienced traveler, but she is a brave little mare and a real trooper and continues to give us a little trust in spite of her worry. She's eating and drinking - not as much as I would like, but ...some. We're not able to unload her as she doesn't load well, but she is comfortable in the trailer and we're giving her as much rest as we can when we stop. She's already learned to look for us to pop into the trailer and check on her when we stop for gas or meals.


*** I meant to post earlier and didn't get chance. We're closer to home now, back in Texas and loving the sunshine. Only thing I'm aggravated about now is my phone won't send me the last couple of photos. grrrr...

Yea! Finally got it~ Here is the pretty lady herself, comfy in the trailer in sunshiney Texas and getting close to her new home.