Twenty-One Hours in a Trailer

June 29th is the day I left for my fast track in Parelliland. I did not sleep on the night before June 29th. I packed my things, quadruple checked, took a shower, got dressed for June 29th, including my brand new boots, and snuggled on the couch with my cat at 1:30. At 3 am, I left for the farm to get Blu ready. I did not actually get him until 3:30 am.

It was all very surreal. Saying good bye to Misty was rough, but if I let myself cry, then, I knew the flood gates would open and I would be in for a wet couple of hours to Kalamazoo. Blu ate his breakfast while I wrapped his legs. Then he hopped right on to trailer (which Mom hooked up by herself in the dark). Little did he or I know that it was the start of 21 hours in and out of horse trailers.

We stopped at home to get Dad and for me to say good bye to Maggie and Ellie and Mocha Rose. This was a big decision I had made, one that did not come without sacrifice. The biggest sacrifice of all was saying good bye to my family for 6 months. 

The plan was to stop in Kalamazoo to switch to a friend's nicer trailer, drive to a horse park near Des Moines, IA at 2 or 3 pm, hang out there for a while, then head to our night's rest in Nebraska, arriving in time for dinner at 7 or 8 pm.

But in Kalamazoo, we had a 3 hour lay over because our trailer light hook up needed to be relocated to reach the new trailer. Dad is a genius and got the job done. I took some photos in the Wal-Mart parking lot of Blu in the trailer. Back on the road, we were only moving for a few minutes before an accident up ahead in the construction zone caused a two hour stand still. I napped a little and studied.

We stopped in Indiana at a rest stop in the truck/semi area. Blu handled that remarkably well. He has never been surrounded by such an environment. I took him for a good walk and some tourists stopped to pet him. He was not excited about getting back in the trailer, but I gave him time and he got back on.

Traveling with Mom and Dad was fun. We stopped at subway for lunch. Blu was not drinking at all really until we got to Subway where he had a sip. When we got to Colfax, he drank and drank at last. Mom and Dad held the horses while we packed. It was AWESOME to meet Anna and Louie in person. Anna is my travel buddy and Louie is a good friend. Mom got very teary and it made me so sad. Dad was full of helpful information and helped us squeeze all our stuff into Anna's truck while Mom held the two horses who were drinking water like crazy.

Loading Blu onto Anna's tiny trailer went really well considering that it was the third trailer for the day. Blu took a few minutes, but there was no big struggle and no "shut the gate!"

It was 8 by the time we left. Mom and Dad were right behind us on the highway for a while. We kept saying that we WOULD get to our destination tonight. Kristie kept in touch and helped us maneuver the closed roads. She led us to her house when we got into town. It was 11:54 when we pulled into her place.

She has a beautiful set up and was SO HELPFUL. She wanted to know if she could do something for us all evening. She made us dinner, had the bathroom ready for us to shower, our beds ready for sleeping, and stalls and a pen all with water ready for us to use for our horses.

It was 1:30 by the time I laid my head down. It had been 24 hours since I was laying on the couch with my cat, now I was in Nebraska. Things were in motion; my dream was inching closer to reality; Kristie was pushing it to reality; Mom and Dad were pushing it to reality; my sister's were pushing it to reality; John was pushing it to reality; my brother and sister in law were pushing it to reality; Blu was pushing it to reality. Blu, who spent 21 hours in and out of trailers was carrying my dreams on his shoulders, bearing them to the realms of the real world.

Natural Horsewoman Out.