My parents came out to see us. We had been planning the trip most of the summer. They were off on their yearly pilgrimage to the west coast. A group of Morgan people were meeting at Fort Robinson for a weekend of trail riding. We all decided to drive over and, kind of, meet them. We are only so sociable so we decided to camp up at the wood reserve instead of staying with them in the fort proper. Unfortunately as the weekend drew near we realized it was the same weekend as Friendly Festival but if there’s one thing we’re willing to miss Festival for it’s a weekend of camping and horses.
Mom and dad got here on Thursday. We had, another, birthday party for The Goblin Child. I think that makes four parties now? She may be slightly spoiled 😉 Then Friday morning we got up bright and early and were off to the fort. Only, not. As much as I thought I had everything ready to go already it took hours to get everything packed and animals fed. Then just as we were finally ready and about to load the horses there was a phone call that some neighbors were working cattle and had found a bull in with them that wasn’t theirs. We had to go get him and bring him home before we could take off with the trailer. We pulled into the neighbors corrals and nothing was there. We called to see where this bull was supposed to be. North of the house they said. We went to the house and there was a barn to the north, but not even a road to it much less cattle being worked. We called again trying to figure out what in the world was going on. Finally they added a rather important piece of information. They weren’t working cows at their house but over at their pasture. That little bit of info would have helped from the beginning.
Once we got him home and put out with the horses that would be staying there we were able to load our horses and get going. Down to a friends to pick up a horse we got to borrow for the weekend. She had been standing patiently most of the morning tied to a trailer. She walked right onto the trailer and we were off. Again.
We made Chadron for a late lunch then off towards the fort. Again. It was hot. We pulled into the campground at the wood reserve to find it packed. Loads of big living quarters trailers were squeezed in so tight we could barely make the turn around them. I was muttering grouchily about them when I realized, I knew them!! It was my good friend Kay and her riding group. That didn’t make me so grouchy after all.
I have millions of pictures so I will try to tell the rest of the story through them.
- It was hot! So we let the horses settle in and
- Cooled down in the creek
- That evening us girls went for a ride
- The borrowed Gypsy was the perfect horse
- And Coyote couldn’t have been any better
- Then we switched children and rode more
- Despite the crowds we got our preferred campsite
- And the horses stayed in a pen close by
- Only water was far away.
- We ate ourselves sick on marshmallows
- And each child fell asleep on their preferred ggrandparent
- The next day I got to ride with the Morgan people.
- I rode Gypse who was perfect
- We palyed in the park in Crawford
- Then rode some more
- But it was too hot for boots
- Still it was beautiful
- Rusty began to clm down
- And was becoming almost well behaved.
- We had to pose for prettypictures
- Just for the sake of prettyness
- We slept in the suburban
- And we still all fit!
- My poor hardworking husband got up at 4:30 every morning and drove home to put up hay
- And my dad watched children and cooked
- While mom and I disapeared on horses
- We did go once with both children
- The large well behaved Gypsy was wonderful for this
- T.G.C. Told us how she was
- An experienced trail rider now,
- We didn’t want it to end
- But we were out of hay
- We did go play at the fort a little bit
- Then it was home
- and off to check cows
- A token picture of me
- One of the vultures was out
- Not sure if it was parent our baby
- Mom took pretty pictures
- And we explored the buildings
- Then squeezed one last ride in
- When we came back I discovered my cinch like this. Oops
- Rusty wanted more hay
- Dad discovered that
- They love sun flowers
- After they left we hauled more hay!
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