August 27, 1996
We arrived at camp without mishap. That really worried me especially since I'm hauling the trailer with an older truck and Bonnie is driving Fred's old Ford Ranger PU with the camper on it. The wimpy 4 cylinder was not really meant to carry anything as heavy as the camper and it took a certain amount of skill to manage it. I was proud of Bonnie. Things just never go so smooth for me. Hummmmm......Well, we did miss our turn for the camp due to some confusing directions but got back on track quickly so it was no big deal. We got camp set up in pretty short order. It took a few minutes of head scratching to set up the portable electric fence unit we had purchased. I finally had to break down and read the instructions and then managed fine. Bonnie couldn't help me since she had to babysit Polly who was pawing and acting up while tied to the trailer. The portable fence unit is really nice and Bonnie found out the hard way that it was working very well. Actually, Jeff Chute tested it with his dog Cisco. Jeff had his hand on the wire and said he couldn't feel much. He then touched poor Cisco and she sure felt the zap. It sure is nice having the camper also. We had a relaxing day all in all. We cooked a wonderful meal of rice, corn and hot dogs. We are such fancy camp cooks. (snort) Sleeping in the trailer is neat as I can watch the horses from the window by my bed. It's a full moon and all was quiet. We sat around the campfire with everyone for quite a while. Turns out Jeff Chute knows my brother Kevin. They work together at Sears.
August 28, 1996
We were up early. It was cool but not too bad. We had breakfast and even had time to sit and relax for a while. We rode out of camp at 9:30 AM and had lunch at a nice stream that was in a large cornfield. Kathy Small and her daughter wouldn't follow the rules about keeping the horses tied and out of the fields. This caused a bit of a confrontation between them and Annie as Annie had gotten permission to ride on the agricultural roads as long as we stayed out of the corn. We rode a little further with the group that was doing the over-nighter, then we turned and headed back to camp. It was a slow ride back. Bonnie and I went out to eat tonight lazy things that we are. She had a buffalo burger and I had a loaded pizza. It is soooo nice having the portable electric fence. We can now leave the horses without too much worry. We had a nice campfire tonight.
August 29, 1996
We were up early again this morning. The horses must have been tired because they took turns laying down all night. Marie was taking quite a snooze at saddling up time. Just before we rode out, someone (Kathy again...) decided she didn't want to do the same ride again to meet the overnighters at the agreed place and time. There was quite an uproar over this and split the riders up. Half wanting to go with Kathy and half wanting to do the planned ride. Then there was a disagreement about whether or not Kathy's group would get credit for their ride hours if they did not do the planned ride and that didn't set very well with them. It was decide that Kathy's group would not get credit for their hours. Bonnie and I did the planned ride to meet the overnighters.
We have had showers available every day so far which has been great. Tonight we had Dinty Moore beef stew over rice. Once again the gourmet chef's at work. At the campfire tonight we were told that the people who drove out to the overnighter's camp to visit with them had gotten lost. They were creeping down this dirt road when low and behold, up ahead in the beam of the cars headlights, they see a naked man with a shovel. Stan yelled, "lock the doors". Well, I guess it was only Mark in a beige bathing suit out burying his "business". Yeah, sure! We played some volley ball tonight with Amy and Lance.
Sept. 1, 1996
The horses stayed in the fence yet another night. Horrrayyyyy. We headed out for a two hour ride this morning. When we got back, we snuck up to the lodge for a surprise birthday party for Annie and I think we really did surprise her. For once she was totally speechless. Nancy Weeks and Tammy put on a real nice lunch for her. Bonnie and I stayed after to help clean up, then headed back to camp to hang out in the shade with the other women. We brought Stan a plate of food from the party since he had been too tired to go up to the party. After all, he is over 80 years old. Tammy, Missy and I took a walk up a stream that flows by the camp. It was really nice. Then a group of us decided to go to Virginia Lake for a swim. I rode in Laurie's truck with Kathy. Marianne rode in the truck bed on a lawn chair and what a sight that was. We got kind of lost getting there but not too bad. The dirt road to the beach was quite a cow path. On the way back, we were trying to cut Julie off on the road and Laurie cut through a small parking lot in this effort. She cut a corner too short and ran over a rock with a back tire. Over went Marianne in the truck bed with her lawn chair. She was rolling all over the bed all tangled up in the chair....once again, what a sight. We were in hysterics in the front despite being somewhat worried about possibly killing the poor woman. Turned out she was ok though her chair would never be the same again. Thankfully she also has a very good sense of humor. Tonight was pot luck supper night. It was very good as expected. We then played a little volley ball. In the evening, we headed out for our "moonlight" ride. It turned out to be a "flashlight" ride as no one had thought about what time the full moon would be out. It was much later then our ride. We still had a great time. It was beautiful at the top of the mountain. You could see light for miles. It was VERY dark on the trail coming back down the mountain. We had a 'mountain witch' (Missy's mom) that rode up and down our line trying to collect 'treasures' for passage. Thanks to the spotlight on Sylvia L's truck, we were able to see to untack and put things away when we got back from the ride. We hung out at the campfire very late tonight. It was a very rowdy group!
