Well, of course there is a pre-trip story to this trip. The pre-trip story being that there was not supposed to be any trip for Marie and I. Bonnie, Linda, and Halla had made plans to make two trips to Arcadia earlier in the year. One trip in June and a 3 night trip in October. I was invited to both trips but had to pass. I was so busy with the Triathlon until June. After that I was buckling down and spending any extra money I had on the kitchen. I had cancelled all my CTR and Endurance rides for the year also. Well, just a few weeks before the October trip to Arcadia, Bonnie called me to tell me that Linda would not be able to go for the first two nights of the trip. Linda wanted me to take her stalls for those two nights and Bonnie had already reserved me a stall for the third night. How could I say no! Yippeeeeeeeee. I was going to Arcadia.
Several days before the trip I started coming down with a cold and got a UTI! Great. Oh, and don’t forget the cramps. Darn it! I didn’t care, I was going if it killed me. Bonnie and I headed out Friday morning. At the last minute we decided to bring along Isabelle’s cart in case we got brave enough to drive her. We stopped at Wal-Mart in Waterville and I bought medicine for everything! We stopped at Dysart’s in Bangor for lunch. Dysart’s is soooooooo good. Great food at a very reasonable price. I had beef stew in a bread bowl that was absolutely delicious. We were good girls and split a piece of pumpkin pie. We arrived at Wildwood stables around 1:00 PM. and quickly checked in. Halla was already there. The horses were all in barn C for the first night then on Saturday we would have to move them all to barn B for the rest of the stay. We unloaded the trailer and got the horses all settled in. We had the two campsites on the end which was nice. We got the trailers parked and our camp set up. Halla has a nice canopy now that is all one piece and sets up very quickly and easily. We rested for a bit in camp and then headed out for a quick ride. We did the Day Mountain Loop. It was a beautiful clear day so we had a great view from the top. We passed quite a few of the big carriages along the way. The horses were all good. After we returned, we cleaned up a bit and went to the Jorden Pond House for supper. Very pricey but quite good. It’s definitely a tourist trap but we just can’t resist the place. $15 for a grilled chicken breast, I didn’t even look at the price of the scallops I ordered! Hahahaha. They are famous for their popovers which we all had several of. After supper, we went back to camp, fed the horses and settled them in for the night. We hung out at the campsite for a while. I had taken a dose of Nyquil so I was soon off to bed.
I was up several times during the night so didn’t get the best nights rest. I didn’t get too cold during the night for which I was thankful. I got up around 6:00AM and headed over to feed the horses. Bonnie said she would be right over. She fell back to sleep and Halla was up before her! We had to tease her a bit about that since Halla is always the last one to get up. After feeding the horses we heated some water for coffee. I had my usual oatmeal and we had breads and bagels. We hung around until it was time to move the horses at 9:30 AM or so. After we got the horses settled into their new stalls, we saddled up and headed out for a ride. We did the loop up by Eagle Lake. We took it pretty slow and easy. There was lots of time for talking. After the ride, we sat around camp and had a bit of lunch. Around 4 PM. I decided I was brave enough to try driving Isabelle. Bonnie would ride Marie. We needed to keep the horses together so Isabelle would stay quiet and happy. We got Isabelle hitched up without problems and headed put to the Jorden Pond House gate. Isabelle was a bit hesitant about pulling the cart up the big hill out of the camp. She’s never pulled the cart with anyone in it up a steep hill and the weight on the breast strap confused her a bit but she did it and even made the fairly sharp turn at the top. She did very well. She has only been hitched a few times. At one point she broke into a canter trying to catch up to the other horses. I pulled her in and she settled down after a bit. It took a bit of patience to get her tuned around at the Pond House gate. I didn’t have much more then the width of the road to work with. With a little patience and quiet handling, Isabelle figured it out and we headed back. Halla was having trouble keeping her horse in a set place while we were out. Isabelle gets a bit nervous when a horse passes her from behind I really needed Halla to either stay behind me or stay in front of me. After passing me, and then dropping behind me several time, I lost my nerve and got out of the cart and led Isabelle the rest of the way back to camp. Isabelle, was doing ok but I am such a big chicken when it comes to driving. Better to end the drive on a good note then take any chances. We stayed in camp that night for super. We had a soup that Bonnie had prepared at home. There was a community campfire that we sat at for a while. Everyone seemed to be telling stories of all the horrible equine accidents they’d either witnessed or experienced! Naturally, I had a few of my own to tell. But, once again the Nyquil got the best of me and I went to bed fairly early. I slept well the second night.
I wish I could finish this journal properly, but, it is now 6 month later and I just don’t remember the rest of the trip in much detail. I’ll just put down what I do recall.
I do remember that I spent most of the weekend in a Nyquil haze! Hahahaha.
The 3rd day, we had breakfast in camp again. We went out riding twice and put on quite a few miles. The riding was nice. We did a bit more trotting and some cantering. Isabelle got a bit excited about keeping up with us at one point and nearly lost Bonnie coming around a corner. Bonnie managed to save it and no harm was done. Linda came up sometime that day. She went out with us on our second ride. I believe we did Day Mountain loop. We were going to go to the Jorden Pond house again for supper. We were meeting some friends of Halla’s that had come up that day. When we put the horses back after the second ride, Isabelle was acting a bit off. She would not eat hay and was acting a bit listless and then laid down. We put off going to supper. We all brought our chairs down to the barn. We decided to stay there until we were sure Isabelle was ok. After a while, she did get up and start eating and drinking and acting normal. We had ridden a bit hard for her that day and she just got a bit over tired. We had another nice meal at the Jorden Pond House. Halla’s friends were very interesting and fun to talk to. That evening, we hung around the community campfire again for a while, until the Nyquil kicked in of course! Hahaha.
The last morning we woke to the smell of fresh brewed coffee! Linda is wonderful, she knows how to make good perked coffee! After breakfast, we went out for one final short ride. Isabelle kicked Slick. I think she was still a bit tired and feeling a bit crabby. No damage was done. We quickly broke camp when we got back and headed home. Bonnie and I stopped at Dysart’s again on the way home for another great meal there.
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