horses & campfires
the greatly planned & highly anticipated equine trip was finally here. eleven horses had been loaded into three trailers. 5 ranchers, 1 set of house parents & myself sat inside of the chariot & as i looked out the back window i laughed a little. behind our big van we pulled a horse trailer. behind us sat ms. katie in the expedition with the RV behind. ms sharla came next with another trailer loaded with precious steeds & mr todds brought up the tail of the caravan with the last 3 horses. what a sight we must be. two and a half hours we must travel to Robber Cave State Park Oklahoma. we ate some delicious wraps in the vehicle as we drove & i began reading Summer of the Monkeys to the girls. we must be honest here, when we finally arrived i was ready to take a hike far away from all the humans i had just been in the vehicle with. i needed s p a c e to reset my mind quick. after a tiny little run away i joined the group again. unloaded the horses into the pens. set up our tents & rejoiced over the fact that this time while we were to be sleeping outside rain was not on the forecast. all of us took a trip up to the nature center & camp office. a very old but cool little educational room that looked quite updated. ms sharla & i had some good laughs over some interesting facts. hamburgers around the fire. s'mores. & then the girls were off to bed. us authorities stayed out & about a bit longer & did some chatting. temperatures dropped quite abit as the evening progressed & i will say sleep was not the greatest. i was cold & uncomfortable.
n o v e m b e r 17 .
wake up 6:45. breakfast was cornbread & sausage gravy over the fire. DELICIOUS. as breakfast was being made horses were fed, groomed & saddled. lunch was packed into the pack saddle which was then loaded upon TIO the horse that had been picked as our pack animal as he was young & this ride would be good experience for him. off we went. this first day was filled with some interesting happenings. one being the fact that we went down the wrong trail. however it was B E A U T I F U L . lots of details to notice. the sky was a tiny overcast. some bare leaf trees that had cones on them. weird shaped trees. winding trails. red mushrooms. we had lunch by a lake & arrived back at camp by a decent time in the afternoon. the girls had some quiet time after we cared for our horses & then Mr. Doyle & Ms. Judy arrived to make us supper. So yum. i begin to think any food ate around a fire has a high chance of being good.
n o v e m b e r 18 .
today we make certain we are on the right trail. we were in want of finding Robbers Cave. & behold we did. with only a little bit of a detour. our day ran a bit slower this day. breakfast had taken longer & we had not left as early as yesterday. we ate lunch on some rocks & then hiked down to the cave. there is many a legend about the caves & i know not one of them so i cannot share. The sun shone brightly this day. the air was a little more brisk feeling. supper back at camp. & then too our tents we journeyed. thank you for the sleeping bag Mr. Doug. i actually slept this night & was warm unlike the previous nights.
n o v e m b e r 19
sunday the day we go back to 11052 Bredehoeft Rd. a later brunch. as that was made the girls cleaned up their tents. after brunch all the things had to be cleaned & packed up. all the pens had to be scooped & to my confusion all of that horse poo was bagged & thrown into the garbage bin. seems like they could have a better system in place. free fertilizer for them if they were smart :) i may have had a few rants about this particular thing. sunday school was had in an amphitheatre & a few songs sang. horses were then loaded & we were off. just as the sky opened up & the rain began to fall. o what joy i felt that we had missed it. i rode with ms. katie until we stopped at braums for supper & then found myself with ms. sharla for the rest of the journey. i liked our talks. & laughter. unloaded the horses & headed to the house for showers. i disappeared to town to grab a few things on this evening.
o what a trip it was. . . . .
. i thank God for His protection over us. 11 horses on a trail has a possibility of great disaster. all the disasters happened to authorities & i am so grateful that even though each situation was unfortunate each of my fellow mentors came out with just being sore & not greatly injured. ms. katies horse slipped on the first day & on the second Tex, who ms. sam was riding, decided to take up bronco style bucking. God truly was with us.
. the trails were marked by yellow circle nailed to trees. one of the ranchers made the comment on the way back to camp, " we are following the sunshine home.
. mr. doug entertained us with hilarious cowboy stories that had me almost in tears at one point.
. each night it was required of me to pull out a roasting stick & eat a few marshmallows. if i didn't i don't know what would have happened. well nothing would've but just on the chance that something would i had to make sure not to find out .
thank you for your prayers
till next time
ms. tif.
Comments
Post a Comment