After a great day and nice early dinner with Mo and Jeannie Trail in Kansas, we were back on the road at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday evening. Kit and Ali had their dinner on-board (loaded up without complaint) and tucked into their hay as we headed out. They were like travel professionals. We, too. We had it down to a science: packing, loading, stopping every three to four hours for refueling (whether we needed it or not).
At the stops I start fueling, then carry the girls a snack (sloppy wet beet pulp) and refresh their hay and water. Every time I looked in on them they were cool customers, not a hair out of place, happy to eat, drinking well, interested but not loopy.
I’d gotten four brand new tires while in Paola to hopefully prevent more road-heat blowouts. The tire guy said my tires, while in good enough shape for winter hauling (mostly what I do), were not up to the relentless summer trip we embarked upon.
We took the back route from Paola to Topeka to cut off a big loop, then hit I-70 westbound.
East Kansas is pretty—rolling—almost like back home in Virginia (minus the mountain backdrop) and west Kansas is interesting in its own way: flat, open, fertile. I drove a few hours then Beth requested an early shift for her driving, so she took over at 9:15 p.m. It was still light out, so I figured I’d be awake for a while.
I figured wrong. I was out as soon as I let the seat back, and Beth said I did not move for two hours. I guess my brain finally mutinied and dragged me into sleep. She woke me up around 11:30 p.m.
I cut off of I-70 at Limon, to nip the big northern loop of I-70 (which goes to Denver) and headed due west towards Castle Rock. There was a minor incident with a multi-point buck around 2:30 a.m., but match point went to the Ford.
Colorado Springs
We arrived at friends Alison Brown and Bruce Johnson’s place at 3:15 a.m. Beth and John went up to the house for bed, and I organized the mares in the pasture. I napped in the truck until 6 a.m. and tried them with breakfast. They dove into it and gave the thumbs up to my plans to cut the trip short by a day by making a long haul tonight.
Alison gave me her kayak and went with me to Monument Lake for an early morning paddle. There were great blue herons, a variety of ducks, an egret (I think), and tons of fishermen (stocked with rainbow trout) out early. Later Beth and John will go over to the lake while I try to sleep. Alison’s place is north of Colorado Springs, tucked up against the eastern marches of the front range of the Rockies at 7,000 feet elevation near the cute (cute like Middleburg-cute) town of Monument. Mount Herman is their closest neighbor (10,000 feet, I think) and Pikes Peak is just south (14,000-plus feet.) They hunt with Fort Carson Hounds on the Fort Carson army base near Colorado Springs.
Bruce’s sister and more are here visiting from Modesto, California, consulting on a landscape project he’s doing to replace scrub oaks with conifers. Right now Bruce is pushing up scrub brush with his bobcat, something Nicole said he channeled even as a young boy. (“Totally into Tonka trucks.”) He’s also working on an indoor arena down the hill adjacent to the barn. An MIT PhD in engineering (Alison, too), he’s able to engineer and design the project himself. It’s going to be 100 x 60, and will extend their riding season to a year-round sport. (Right now they are shut down due to snow and frigid temperatures in winter, and sloppy footing during mud season at the spring thaw.)
We’re meeting Alison and Bruce for lunch later and might go for a hike up to the eponymous Monument, a stand-alone red rock outcropping about 300 feet high. We said hi to Daly and Pi, Bruce and Alison’s two horses they got in Virginia (that boarded with me last fall) who I shipped out here to them in December. They look great. Pi is growing up into a handsome boy (he’s half Cleveland Bay) and Daly is round and slick (he’s a quarter-draft.) They hunted all season with Fort Carson.
Off at suppertime, headed twenty-plus hours to Solvang, California. We should check in at Kit and Ali’s final destination after lunch tomorrow.
To be continued….
August 2, 2010
Previous Installments may be found under the Horse and Hound drop-down menu/Travel:
Day 1 in which the trailer sheds vital portions of one tire in West Virginia and parts of another in East Saint Louis.