Operant Conditioning

 This slight nagging headache persists as I drink my coffee, fortifying myself for another busy workday…

We (Catie & I) had an uneventful pilgrimage to Ft Stanton - as it turned out, 3 of my other riding buddies hauled out but Catie & I were the first to arrive last Tuesday night. It was eerie to arrive to an almost-deserted campground; I didn’t sleep as well as I normally do in New Mexico, but that was probably from the stress of that long drive (uneventful, but nevertheless 11 hrs behind the wheel is 11 hrs behind the wheel!). Got up Wednesday morning to see Kathy parked across from us - she had arrived about 1 AM. Our first ride was a meander, going out the old familiar trail to the Ft Stanton cemetery, then doing a little bushwhacking around that back pasture… we found wreckage from an old junkyard but no gate, so we circled back to the highway to trace our way back to the campground. (approx 8 mi)

Drove the 5 miles into town for late lunch/early dinner, then took Catie to the Smokey Bear Historical Park/Museum. Picked up supplies at the feed store (beautiful hay! considering I paid $15/bale for crap-quality stemmy Bermuda at home) & took a turn through the grocery store for a few odds n’ ends… Returned to camp in time to help Kirsten get parked with her rig - Manda & her 13-yr old daughter Elizabeth pulled in as the sun was setting; such went Day 1.

Thursday dawned under brilliant blue New Mexico skies; we dawdled around & headed out on trail shortly after 9 AM; after all, there were no time constraints & no timer! Manda was riding a rehab project - a twitchy lil’ bay mare, who bolted & unloaded her when we were about 2.5 mi out of camp, also triggering her daughter’s gelding to jump out from under her. Fortunately no injuries as we gathered up the horses & Manda waved us along; she & Elizabeth would do their own thing… Soon Kirsten & Kathy were trotting off at a brisker pace than I wanted to maintain for Twoie’s first serious mileage in NM, so I waved them on. Catie & I wound up meandering off on a new section of trail designated “Zamora” which was extremely rugged - we climbed up into the rocky hills, finally tracing our way back down to the old stagecoach line. We drained our water bottles; I was pleased to see when we got back to camp that we had done 15 mi - a good solid day’s work for Twoie! (Baraq could have done it all over again, & Catie went out on an evening ramble w/K & K)

We made an earlier start Friday morning, heading out by 8:15. I peeled off from our main group a few miles in, since Twoie was acting a little footsore & fatigued - but Catie, Kirsten & Kathy continued on to knock out 25 mi, we were very proud of her & Baraq’s first unofficial LD ride! Both boys had some girth galls from the hill work, so when Catie wanted to go out with Kathy for another evening jaunt, we borrowed a bareback pad.

I decided to “quit while we were ahead”, so we headed back on Saturday - that made the transition back to real life a little less arduous, with having to drive back to Greenville to return Catie to the bosom of her family on Sunday (she was sad). The “operant conditioning” phrase came into play as I raced off Saturday night as soon as we got home to meet Zach with the expressed purpose of delivering a frozen bunny for Mila the python - I will miss no opportunity to see my son, even if ever-so-briefly! (We met up at a brewhouse by IKEA - we had about half an hour before Z left to go deliver dinner to Victoria) Zach had spent his 2nd week traveling to Midland & Odessa which were not fabulous places to visit…