Day 1, Let's Go Camping!!!.....or "Good day followed by not so good...."

I'm still mentally and emotionally recovering from what was, overall, a semi-disastrous camping trip.  It's been proclaimed that we need a "do over" trip, and that if we NEVER have another trip like this one, it will be FAR too soon.

So, rewind to Thursday morning.

The plan?

Get up early, load up the truck with the last few things, hook up the truck and trailer, catch the horses, get Kaylee up and dressed, load Tilly then leave and drop Kaylee off at daycare and hit the road around 7ish.

HAH!!  What a joke.  NOTHING went even REMOTELY close to plan.

The reality.

Wake up, start getting dressed, when a small, sleepy faced toddler comes walking into the bedroom. 

"I awake Mommy."

"I see that honey."

And I pitch all of my plans and do the best I can.  Get her dressed and ready for school.  Realize I cannot expect her to be calm and patient while I hook up and catch horses, so just go ahead and drive her to school, come home and finish loading up the truck with everything I MIGHT possibly need (spoiler: I didn't need ANY of the extra blankets I brought...or the portable heater...or the extension cord).

Go ahead and get Rango in the truck (he doesn't QUITE understand what I'm asking for initially so I had to pick him up and put him in).  The look of indignation Pancho gave me when he was put back in the house was funny, and a little heart breaking.  SORRY SMALL DOG!!  Maybe some other time!

Hooked up the truck quickly and then had the unpleasant task of trying to catch the horses.  This is becoming my LEAST favorite part of dealing with Tilly.  It IS on the "To Do" list, but...the time change has my life boogered up.

I get Socks caught after running a merry chase from the back pasture to the front.  He gets put in the barn as I have a mild anxiety attack about him getting hurt again, but realize I don't have another option.  Realize that the other 3 have run BACK into the back pasture, so grab the keys to the ATV and away we go, because I can NOT catch them on foot, and they're all being hellacious turds.

Drive back, walk over to see if I can catch Strider, but he's got a bee up his bonnet, and refuses.  With a huff of annoyance, I go back to the ATV and push them out of the back pasture, and shut the gate.  And away we go as they charge up to the barn.  We end up whirling around and around in the front as Socks casually nibbles the handful of grain I gave him, the other 3 flying and running.  I wince every time Strider does a pivot on that left rear, but, they all realize this isn't fun, so they go to the barn and stop.  I go and open the gate to the other feeding pen and all 3 march in.

My mind flips out thinking of all the possible disasters.  I walk in and tell Strider to NOT kick me.  And give him the "mare glare". Slip the halter on Tilly and march her over to the trailer where she just walks right on in.  She's almost on the brink of self-loading, but, that isn't a requirement of mine.  An easy load is really all I want.  And currently, all of mine are.

Anyway, I leave everyone in the pens as I drive out the front gate, and then let them all loose.  Where they all go charging off.  Realize I forgot to open the back gate, but send Joe a text to tell him it's closed.

Look over at my traveling companion and tell him "Let's go buddy!!"

I skeered Momma.  Where we go?

So, locked, loaded and away we roll.

He figured it out quickly.  And this is how he stayed for the bulk of the trip.  GREAT traveling companion.

Of course, as soon a I get in, I realize I hadn't stopped for gas, and Joe left me a 1/4 tank.  That's not going to be enough to make a 5 hour haul!!!

So, whip in to my favorite local gas station.

And take some photos of my other traveling companion.

Look at this big ass mare!!!

Hello Tilly Pilly!!  You have your happy ears on!!!

What, don't like selfies with me?  I think my feelings are hurt.

I call this one "Resting Bitch Mareface". 

For whatever reason, the gas station was having serious issues with the gas pump.  An error message when I pulled up.  So I went in, and they told me they'd reset the pump and go outside and pump.

Okay.  So, I tried that.  Didn't work.  Go BACK in and leave my card.

And then SLOWLLLLLLLLY pumped diesel into the truck.  The guy next to me said "It's a good thing no one's in a rush.  This is going to take a while."  All in all, took me probably 15 minutes to fill the truck up.  I wasn't impressed.  I've noticed these tanks usually are a little slower, but this was ridiculous!

But, in about 2 hours, I caught up with H at a TSC in some small town.  We picked up a few things, and then hit the road again.  3 more hours to go.  She falls in behind me and we make our way to Lake Sam Rayburn.

We stop at the gas station I always stop at on my way to Armadillo Run.  We let the dogs out for a second potty break, then I ran in to go potty after filling Hannibal up again. 

Rango also makes a great "truck guard dog".  My friend H came out of the store and said "You know, he LOOKS really intimidating.  NO ONE is going to mess with your rig when he's in the truck."

Good thing no one knows that even if he's barking at you, he's probably shivering in fear.  Goof.

But, we get pulled in after one missed turn (took us down some road that did NOT lead to the campground....and cell reception was bad), but I managed to get enough signal to get us to where we needed to go.

Pull in and get settled in quickly.  I let Rango out of the truck and away he runs. 

"Dammit, I think I've just lost my dog."

No, he quickly figured out where "home" was for the weekend.  Our camp. 

Get Tilly set up with water and hay, some electrolytes.  Took a look at her feet and figured since I still had sun, I'd better trim and rasp her feet.  So, I got to work on that.  Butchered them SOME, in my opinion, but they looked better than before.

Once I was done with that, we all just sat around and relaxed for a while.

As the sun sets, B, LM, H and I head in to town for groceries and dinner.  We put Rango in the back of B's LQ and head out.  Lots of laughs and fun and plans for a wonderful fire when we get back to camp.  Junk food load up and late night talking. 

I did rig Tilly up with lights though.  Glowstick on the halter and the flashy bands around her rear pasterns.  I know those pens are solid, but....just in case...(spoiler alert; never necessary, but...I don't regret it!).

I was reminded MULTIPLE times we were sleeping in, NOT rushing to get tacked up in the morning, and that we were going to take a slow, easy pace.

"Plebs...GET UP EARLY AND LETS GO RIDING!!!!"

No.  The answer was a resounding no. 

So, I spent the rest of the evening removing the fenders from my saddle and removing the latigos to put the English converter set on my saddle.  And then begged B to borrow her "Total Saddle Fit" girth for Tilly.  Which worked like a CHARM all weekend long!!!  I love this girth.  I WILL need to get the fleece cover for it as well, because Tilly is prone to galls, but we had used a wool one for the scavenger hunt, and I liked how far back it sat that day, and this one was the same length and worked WONDERFULLY.

But more about that for Day 2.