“Eclipse Fever” is gearing up around here and, while it will be neat to see, Monday will be an ordinary workday for us. Schools are closed, hotels are booked up, various entrepreneurs are renting out their homes as AirBnB’s and their pastures for RV parking! More power to ’em, I guess.
But I was wrong about my mother’s wrist: she has a hairline fracture, ugh! I have not seen the actual films but the plan is to treat it with a splint and pain medication. As you can imagine, she’s been absolutely miserable but I did manage to get out yesterday for a few blessed hours of riding with my friends. While the original plan was to go up to Lake Ray Roberts (north of the Metroplex), several people were concerned about potential traffic, so we decided to go over to Wyatt Ranch in Glen Rose. I was running a little behind schedule, so I told my friends to go ahead and ride out and I would catch up to them. I never dreamed that Alex, after her extensive travels & trail experience, would balk at the shallow Paluxy River!
But balk she did, and after a little “discussion” culminating in an awkward dismount (she reared, I stepped off, fell on my ass but held onto the reins), I wound up riding a shorter loop on the other side of the river three times** until they returned and Alex reluctantly followed Susie’s gelding across the waters. All‘s well that ends well - at least I can say she’s had her shakedown cruise for next weekend’s ride where she’ll be toting my cousin’s young adult son. I’m putting his daughter on Mr. Silas and I will put blinkers on Baraq to calm him down as I escort them through the Intro ride. I’ve got to go rearrange the horse trailer (since I rarely haul three) and not forget to send off the blood samples tomorrow for their updated blood tests which expired April 4.
** I almost rode all the way into town to have an ice cream at the Dairy Queen but came upon a fence. Bring back open range!!! (Ha ha, you know I’m kidding)
A fine adventure with Alex. Who knows what gets into their stubborn equine (or canine) heads? But that was kind of Braden to try to help out, and awesome of Susie's gelding to be Alex's guide to the ford!
ReplyDeleteSorry about your mom's wrist. Hope it heals fully and quickly, although us folk with "old bones" don't always knit up as quickly as we would like!
We had our two minutes without the sun here in 2017, and it was indeed an awe-inspiring experience. I took that day off work and went up on a nearby earthen dam to watch! This time, we will only attain 80%, not totality, but I still have my safe glasses from 2017, so have a chance at viewing what there is to see.
Keep on keepin' on, my friend, and so shall I.
We live in an area that has Carbondale in it which was the top site for the eclipse in 2017 and again in 2024 so it is always a nightmare here. We were both born in that region and our families were all from there so we went down there in 2017. Even though we know all of the back roads the traffic was backed up even on them for miles and it took us several hours to drive 50 miles. We were even better situated this time than last time to stay home so we did and avoided the nightmare. It was even better than 2017. Very surreal. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI hope your mom has a speedy recovery.
Sounds like your next ride could be challenging with three horses to deal with. Alex is very cute. So is Braden. Loved the pictures!