Lunch Time

After setting up camp, we walked over and checked in. No waiting, we were early for the Saturday ride and todays riders were still out on the trail.

Walking back we mosied around at the two Vendors that were there and I hungrily eyed some black stirrups with cages. The other stirrups on my black plantation saddle creak with every move and the pads are quite worn out.

The plantation saddle had been basically a last minute decision when I found that my tree was broken on my Tucker Cheyenne and a pad was missing from my Tucker Endurance saddle and my stirrups were not interchangeable.

But, by then Betsy and "her" Ed had arrived at camp with lunch...Yummy turkey wraps with chipolte mayonaise, Cilantro potato salad and cranberry bars along with a selection of sodas, beer or water.

Betsy used to run Jordon Hollow Farm Inn and now just Inn sits, so she has a multitude of yummy recipes up her sleeve.

After lunch we wandered around camp. Betsy is also a past endurance rider and so she knew lots of people at the camp. I took this time to head back to the Vendor to splurge on the stirrups.

Taking that back to the saddle, it seemed that the bars were too wide for the leathers, so Betsy, Ed and I went back to see if they had a narrower bar, but alas, I already had the smallest one. The vendor said "They will work, I sold some to a friend with REALLY NARROW leathers and she didnt have ANY problems. I garantee that they will be fine"

Betsy mumbled...mmmmmmm, I don't know, I don't know about THAT!. Well, I decided to go with the vendors words and trudged back to the trailer to put them on.

Karen also bought a pair of endurance stirrups with out cages for her Aussie. She had been riding in english irons....not good for 30 miles in the mountains and expected rain.

Then it was time to vet the horses in. They had had plenty of time to eat and drink and Falcon vetted through with an overall of A- due to relaxed skin, but I believe he is just like that, he just isnt really tight skinned.

Then we relaxed around camp. Betsy had talked to the first place finisher on the 30 mile ride and got the scoop on the trail conditions...not that it would totally help us since he rode on dry trails and we were expecting wet ones. But at least he told us where we could really move out and make up some time if necessary.

By then it was almost 5 and I decided that I better head 10 miles back down the road to check in at Fort Valley Stables where I had reserved a cabin for two nights.

Just then "my" Ed drove up, so I hopped in his car and we took our stuff to the cabin which turned out to be cozy with a tiny t.v. and a GIANT microwave oven. I think it must have been the first one ever made!

We threw our sleeping bags out on the bunk beds and then headed back to camp for a supper of baked ziti, rolls and salad and then pumpkin bread pudding for dessert. I had the vegetarian baked ziti. Man it was good, but I harrassed the man for serving me with the same spoon that he had dished the meat version with...hheeee heee.

I told him that I didnt mind since I wasn't even a vegetarian, but liked the plain version better.

The young girl that took our meal tickets was quite creepy, very straight faced and quiet until the guy in front of us tried to get his meal with out his ticket, she frowned and said "no ticket, no meal"! yikes....so he dropped out and ran to his truck for his meal ticket. Turns out that they had like 5 big pans left over and could have fed like 50 more people!

A fine misting rain started to settle in as the ride meeting started. A great indicator of the day to come!

The ride meeting over, we went and blanket the horses even though it was around 60 degrees. Most horses were blanket and we figured the temperature would drop with the rain.

From there Karen opted to sleep in her truck to be close to the horses and Ed and I drove back to the cabin where we both crawled in to our bunks.

I didnt sleep well...pondering the next days ride, the weather, and the fact that I just didnt even want to do this ride at all. Pre-ride jitters for sure.