Correspondence and Photos

Travelling to St. Joseph and getting ready to start

  • June 2: Karen Chaton (KC)- Almost to St. Joe
  • June 3: KC, made it to St. Joseph
  • June 3: KC, St. Joseph
  • June 4: KC, St. Joseph. Rain
  • June 4: KC, The night before the start


    Karen Chaton - On the Road

    Almost to St. Joe!

    By the time anybody reads this, we will probably already be there. Right now we area cruising along on I-80 in Nebraska. We're near Kearney. Kearney, NE is the geographical center of the United States. The scary part is in realizing that we've been traveling for days and still have 300 miles left to go -- and then will turn around and ride our horses back 2000 miles and take two months to do it! We have lots to do to keep entertained though -- I have a book on gravesites so we can look those up as we ride by, along with all the Pony Express stations. There are a lot of historical landmarks along the way and other things to look at and see too. We're going to be so busy just taking care of things, it's going to be a blast! We are all so lucky to be on this great adventure!!

    Getting to the ride itself has been quite an experience. For us, just getting out of the driveway was the real challenge. Since then we've had a whole variety of experiences, but have been having a great time. We've all been testing out our cell phones and everybody is staying connected to each other that way. There is a group of several of us and we are all going at our own pace, splitting up but then meeting up again at night or else at our final destination in St. Joe. We're all going to make a great team and get thru this together. :+))

    The weather has been gorgeous. We've had a few sprinkles last night where we stayed at the rodeo grounds in Sidney, Nebraska. We've been stopping every 3 to 3 1/2 hours to let the horses out. They are hauling extremely well, better than I thought. There is an abundance of fresh green grass for them to graze on during our rest stop breaks. We stayed over in Kamas, Utah for three days to also give them a break. The horses really benefited from getting turned out into a lush green pasture for a few hours each day. They thought they had died and gone to heaven. There I got to meet and ride my other XP horse, Cheyanne.

    Cheyanne was supposed to go to the start actually, but as it turned out he ran around in his corral and slipped and fell on his side and came up with a sore hind leg. That was on Monday. By Wednesday he was sound again, so I rode him around the pasture and he felt great but I didn't want to haul him two more long days and risk hurting him. So he gets to stay in this beautiful pasture until I need him. It was a tough decision, but as I say (what is becoming our XP motto)...."nothing you can do about it now". So we just go with the flow and let things happen. Guess there are worse things then trying to choose which two out of three sound horses to take.

    We've got enough hay with us to last two weeks, and enough other feed to go two or three weeks. We have only one 5 gallon container of water with us. We'll fill up when we get to St. Joe. No use hauling all that weight since we are pushing the upper limits already. 140 gallons is a lot of weight.

    I've been electrolyting the horses regularly, this morning I did it while they were laying down on the grass. It certainly isn't hurting since they are both peeing rivers every time we stop. They are trying to show each other up with who can eat/drink/pee the most. We have to force them out of the trailer because that requires that they stop eating! lol My biggest surprise is that they are actually eating beet pulp!

    Trying to type on the laptop while bouncing down I-80 isn't much fun. And I thought it was bumpy going over I-80 to California! The dog can't understand while she is shunned to the back seat when I have the computer out. She'll get two months to ride in the front seat, by the time we're done with this ride I'll be the one in the back seat .

    I've got lots to do today even though we're just driving 495 miles.....Louise gave me a book on the 1979 Pony Express Race, with news clippings to read. I've also gotta re-read my instructions on my Suunto to make sure I remember how to work it right. The first days start is going to be plenty interesting without trying to figure out which buttons to push! I'm already figuring out which buttons *not* to push in regards to my crew .

    I've gotten a few photos ready to put up, and will get more in St. Joe and hope to upload them before the ride starts next Tuesday. After that, I should be able to get photos up from the ride each weekend. The first five weeks of the ride we will have Sundays and Mondays off. The cell phone works great for email but it's not fast enough for photos. I'll upload the photos here: www.endurohorse.com

    Everybody we've met along the way has been really nice. Almost too nice, you can't get away from them!!! Dave says they are all from the conversation generation. Not like us techno nerds, eh? ha ha

    Hooking the GPS up to the laptop thru the map software is really nice. It's been really helpful for us in figuring out where we want to stop and get diesel, and let the horses out. Plus, we know exactly where we are going and how long it's going to take -- which lets us figure out when to stop for the horses. It's been really helpful, and it's all new so may lose it's appeal after awhile.

    Okay, enough for now. See you in St. Joe!

    Happy XP Trails,

    Karen & crew.....

    Dave, Whinny, Dax, Weav, Rocky & Cheyanne :*)

  • June 3: KC, made it to St. Joseph

    Finally! Yippeeeeee, we made it, complete with sound horses and all! Woohoooo. Today is Saturday, June 2, 2001. In three more days we finally get to start the 2001 XP.

    We are camped in a really beautiful spot right on the Missouri River right in St. Joseph. Contrary Lake is on the other side, and we are right in the middle. There are big trees and we are in a lush green field.

    This morning we started out with walking the horses, then eating breakfast and getting situated a bit more then tacked up and went for a ride on the levy. We can ride for miles from here, and the weather is absolutely gorgeous! The horses only problem is that there is so much green grass it's hard to keep them both going (we were ponying extra horses)......I think we are all happy to be thru with the long days of travel to get here.

    We arrived Friday night and unloaded in the middle of a thunderstorm. There were tornado warnings in two counties and 70 mph winds. So right off the bat the horses got to try out their new rain gear--once it stopped raining they got switched into bug suits. Got them fly masked, fly sprayed, fly sheeted, fly collared and they still were stomping and swishing around. It's much better today, the sun has been out all day and things are drying up.

    Later in the day I tried connecting the computer to the internet and was going to send some photos. What fun that turned out to be! I'm so totally naive that I just figured I'd go and plug the phone line in and tell it to connect to the 800 #, right? Well.......it doesn't work that way if the phone line has two lines on it! I finally figured that out, and then got wise and used the phone plug from the guys computer and then that worked. The only problem is that my 800# was set up for the cell phone connection at 9600 baud so since my brain had fried I sent some emails that had been saved up and decided to change all my settings and come back later. Tomorrow.......

    Then we went into town and did some shopping, went to the Pony Express (Patee House) Museum, ate in a real restaurant , and then went and bought more stuff that we don't have room for! Tomorrow we are supposed to be at Old McDonald's Farm at 8:00 a.m. for a GPS lesson. This probably won't get sent until well after that. We'll get to see everybody else tomorrow.

    Till later,
    Happy XP Trails,
    Karen http://www.endurohorse.com


  • June 3: KC, St. Joseph

    We (Louise and myself & our 4 horses) just got back from the most amazing bareback moonlight ride on the levy. It felt like we were at Disneyland, only better! The moon is shining bright, lighting up the river on one side and Contrary Lake on the other.....fireflies illuminated the way. The sound of the horses hooves landing softly in the thick grass, the river flowing and the city lights in the background made it seem completely magical.

    It's 63 degrees right now in Saint Joseph, MO. The weather is gorgeous. Tomorrow we're going to our first ride meeting and will get some more shopping done. On Monday we vet in, and Dr. Barney will have his scale so we can all weigh our horses too.

    I think I have all the settings adjusted properly on the computer now, so when we get back from Savannah tomorrow I can get these emails sent off, and get the first set of photos up. Everybody here has been really nice. When we told the clerk at the Patee House (Pony Express Museum) that there weren't any postcards with horses on them she pulled out some really nice cards with a pony express rider on them. :+)))

    Guess we'll do some more sight seeing tomorrow too. We drove by the psychiatric museum, and all thought that is really where we should be checking in! :+P Lots of interesting things here in Saint Joseph.

    Everybody here seems to be having a great time. All the horses are doing well, eating plenty and enjoying all the green grass. We are all learning from one another, fixing meals together and planning our crewing strategies.

    Then we all have to start getting our tack and saddles ready for the ultimate ride start on Tuesday morning!

    Happy XP Trails,

    Karen


  • June 4: KC, St. Joseph. Rain

    Just now crawling into bed. What a long day! We went up to the ride meeting at 7 a.m. this morning at Old Macdonald's Farm. That worked out pretty well, you've never seen so many laptops and Garmin GPS's in one place before. It works pretty easily if the Duck downloads the waypoints directly from his computer to each individual GPS. Nobody seems to have been able to make the conversion thru a PC quite yet. I did it, but it was labor intensive and not worth the effort since the alternative is so easy.

    Then we spent a couple of hours at the vet with a friends sick dog. Stopped by a hardware store, got something to eat. The best onion rings ever at Sonic Burger, a drive-in. Of course, we had to be totally weird and go inside to order, they thought we were loons. You're supposed to stay in your vehicle to order. Ohhhhh. Okay.

    Then we came back and I got Bud to let me into his office to use his phone line and got some photos uploaded and emails sent. We also put the waypoints from my GPS onto the Delorme map software so we could see the actual trail and where the crews will go all of next week on the ride. Figured out who is hauling whose horses where, and who gets to crew.

    The clouds parted briefly, oh did I forget to mention that the weather has turned? It poured rain (and I mean poured) all morning up at Old Macdonald's. Rigs were sinking, and word has it that they still are....anyways, when the clouds parted and it cleared up briefly I longed both horses, and fed them some more beet pulp. Have I mentioned that they are actually eating it, even with fat pak in it? I think Weaver has gained weight, I had a hard time buckling the straps on his rain gear .

    Boy, that rain gear (and the bug sheets) are sure handy things to have. The horses are not real happy right now, as it's been pouring on them for quite some time. They are covered all but their heads, so are hanging those down and pouting. I guess it's better than being bitten by the bugs. When we come in the trailer each night we get to use the fly swatter and try to kill as many mosquitos as we can. They are as big as horse flies so it's easy. Others are busy plucking ticks out of themselves and their dogs.

    Since the sun hasn't come out I've had the luxury of using a cold sunshower. Boy isn't that a treat. Yessireeeeeee, am I lucky or what?

    Then while a couple of others went to the dinner and ball tonight we decided we had to go to Wal Mart. So off we went, navigating about St. Joe as if we knew where we were going. Which we didn't but we went right to it nevertheless, and even found our way back. Even tho it's flat, it's dark and cloudy and rainy and we have no real idea where the hell we are. Dave needed to get some mud boots, he tried to get some at home but they never had his size.....and I got more carrots, OHMYGAWD, carrots are like $.50 a pound here. Jeeezus, we'll go broke just feeding Weaver his daily allotment of carrots. He'll complain if he gets his carrot rations cut back, what am I gonna do? Guess we'll keep eating bagels and peanut butter.

    It is supposed to clear up by Tuesday, and get up to 80 degrees. It'll be humid too, since everything is so wet from the rain. We're trying to figure out what to do with the horses feet. They've been standing in wet grass or mud for days now, and their heels are soft. So I gotta figure this one out. We absolutely have to have easyboots on for the start, since we are unloading on pavement.

    It's raining harder now. Rocky keeps trying to scratch his butt on the bucket holders on the side of the trailer. He rocks the whole trailer. Okay, I lied earlier. It's raining even HARDER now. Gawd, it hasn't rained this much in Nevada in 7 years!! It is comforting to know that the Missouri river is on one side and a lake on the other. :+D

    Dave just reminded me that our trailer is powered by solar. Oh goody. Well, maybe the sun will come out tomorrow. That damn horse is shaking the trailer again. Good grief, am I going to get any sleep?

    Is that hail I hear?

    And that bright light? Lightening, oh yeah........

    Should I even mention the smell of two wet dogs and a weeks worth of laundry? Boy, it's hard to swat mosquitos in the dark!

    I know you are all just really jealous that you aren't here right now!!!!!! rofl

    k

    P.S. it's raining even harder now, and more lightening, and thunder! Dogs are scared. If it clears long enough I'll get more photos of everybody tomorrow! Still haven't seen Trilby?


  • June 4: The night before the start">

    Well, it looks like most of us have all ended up at the riverfront park in St. Joseph. It's paved, and we are sitting underneath a busy interstate highway overchange, and right next to train tracks. Several trains go by every hour, and the freeway above us is a double decker so it's pretty noisy. But being on the pavement is still better than being stuck in the mud. We didn't have any trouble getting out, but after another night of rain we might not have been able to get out. The tractor has been busy pulling rigs out all day up at Old Macdonald's Farm where basecamp was/is (??). We are right on the Missouri river here, and have green grass on one side. We opted, like most, to put our horses directly on the pavement rather than having them stand in mud for another night. It is supposed to rain again.

    We have to go to a ride meeting up at Old Macdonald's at 8 p.m. tonight. Then in the morning we have to tack up and haul the horses across the river into Kansas, unload on the side of the highway with however many other riders there are, and go, at 6 a.m. We still haven't vetted yet either, Barney should be back here soon so we can do that.

    It's really gloomy out, the sky has been grey all day and it's been cold. Locals have said that it never rains this much here this time of year (yeah, right!). It's just for our benefit I guess. Lucky us.

    I have Rocky's hind easyboots foamed on already. In the morning we are going to put his front boots on regularly, and hope it all works out. I wanted his front feet to dry out a bit more.

    Our refrigerator in the trailer quit working early this morning. So Dave dropped me and the horses off (literally) underneath the freeway here and left to go find an RV repair shop, to get it fixed. When he got back (they fixed it), he noticed that one of the trailer brakes wasn't working, so he had to disconnect and go get some more wiring and take the wheel off the trailer and fix it. meanwhile I'm situated here with one really calm laid back horse and one idiot arab who thinks that everything is going to get him. He finally got over it, now he isn't phased about anything. Just kinda wound up. He needs rode. :+P

    Dorothy Sue drove by to turn around earlier with a flat on her trailer. Louise made it back after taking their dog back to another vet because he got sicker, and if he hadn't gotten treated he would have probably died. He had a really bad bacterial infection from eating horse manure. Scary!

    I better get this sent, too much to do and too little time. spent most of the day moving, getting re-situated and fixing things. Just finally got the maps all marked for the crews tomorrow so they know where to go to finish camp and for lunch. Let's hope the weather clears up.

    We're camped next to Barney and Linda on one side, the Mahoney's on the other, and across the way is Karen Nelson, Jim Baldwin and the Delbecke's from Canada.

    Happy XP Trails,

    Karen
    www.endurohorse.com