Western states

So Kansas was a nightmare. The cats howled all night in Wichita, then they howled all day through Kansas. We dosed them pretty heavily with Benadryl and they STILL wouldn't shut up and they're VERY lucky they didn't get ditched on the side of the road in Kansas. But eventually we made it into Colorado and into the Rockies.

Highlights of the Kansas pictures include: many roadside attractions, canola, sunflowers, fake palm trees, and a gate to close the interstate when blizzards come through.

Colorado was lovely. Denver is a gorgeous city (but way too overbuilt for me to live there). I got pictures of a 50s roadside diner with free wifi, gorgeous clouds, a stunning sunset, and a happy Cersei in a dog park.

Wyoming is a stunningly beautiful state. We stopped at the top of a range of mountains that had a monument to Lincoln and a monument to the fellow who pushed to build a transcontinental highway through there. I got some nice macro photos of lichen and tiny alpine flowers and hard-luck scraggly trees. Then we roared on through the Rockies, where I finally got pics of those enormous wind turbines and a tunnel through a mountain and more clouds.

Catch up, part one

If I posted everything that's happened between the last time I posted and right now, it'd be a novel. So I'll break it up into blog-sized posts...

Dixie is going to be picked up by Triple H this weekend, hopefully. Petrelocation.com did not work out. Email me if you want details on it. I am so nervous, for some reason - I want my horse in Reno like right now. I miss her already, so badly. :(

I'm in Denver right now. But we're playing catch up, so...

Wednesday morning, back in Columbus, we woke up bright and early. Some fellows showed up and made custom boxes for the TV and the largest framed painting we own. Then some guy showed up and painstakingly cataloged all the dents in my truck and loaded it on a flatbed and took it away. (I'm not the kind of person who would complain about a few extra dents on my truck, but he's got to fill out the paperwork.) Then at 1 pm the movers showed up and packed almost every single thing we own in a bazillion boxes and loaded it on a truck. They finished up at 5:30 pm, and then we packed the truck with a couple boxes of clothes, my gun, the laptops, a box with two angry cats, and a very excited dog. We didn't get out of Columbus until 6:15. I fell asleep right before Cinci and woke up and took the wheel in Bowling Green. I got us in to our hotel in Olive Branch at 4:15. Yes, it was as horrible as you'd imagine.

I did see 8 shooting stars and two coyotes, though. That was pretty cool.

Thursday we deliriously leapt right back out of bed at 8 am. We headed into Memphis for my husband to get his drivers' license renewed. Memphis is completely overrun with the remake "Colt 45 Works Every Time" ads. Such a ridiculous town. We also saw the crazy black muslim dude holding bags of fruit and End Times newspapers at the corner of Lamar and Airways, and we saw a crackhead advertising hand car washes a little ways down Lamar. Memphis is the land of the surreal.

We ate a fantastic lunch at Central BBQ with my MIL, saw my BFF Stephen, ate dinner with my parents, and hung out briefly with my old barn in Olive Branch. Oh, and we saw a momma deer and a fawn out near the barn - the fawn still had all its spots and was goofy and wobbly looking. At that point, I felt just like it looked.

In fact, at THIS point I feel as goofy and wobbly as a baby fawn. I'll pick up with our Five-State Friday tomorrow.

Oshit

Well I almost fucked up but fixed it in the nick of time.

Monday I called the vet to give them my CC# for the Coggins/health cert charges. The receptionist got my name, card number, CCV number, address, etc. Today I realized that the paperwork should not go to me but should go to the barn! I called back and yay, the Coggins hasn't come back from the lab yet. Crisis narrowly averted. Can you imagine how horrible it would be if the Coggins went to my Ohio address and got forwarded to Reno while we were still on the road?

I talked to the shipping broker today - he's waiting for his actual shipper to give him a date. Hopefully I'll get a date on Monday. If not, it'll suck but I trust my current BO to take good care of Dixie and get her loaded whenever.

The people-shippers are packing and loading our stuff on Tuesday, so we're heading out Tuesday. Wednesday and Thurs we'll spend in Memphis, then Fri in Witchita, Sat in Denver, Sun in Salt Lake, and Monday in Reno. I think. Plans subject to change!

Soft, soft, soft

Reno is go, but we don't know exactly when. The suspense is really wearing on me.

I've been quiet, but I'm definitely reading yall's blogs. People talking about softness, like Daun, Sara, and Kate, have really inspired me. I decided to work on being super-soft today.

I got some nice soft circles, kind of wobbly but no fighting about them. She gave me some really spectacular halts, and some really crappy halts. We got some speed from very gentle leg pressure. And I got a lot of really nice back ups!

I cue "back up" by jiggling the reins, left-right-left-right. I could just barely close my fingers and get her to react! She doesn't instantly leap backwards like a reining horse, but I'm not sure that's what I want. I like the little rock-back, pause, start stepping backward thing she does. I think I can turn the rock-back into a turn on the haunches soon.

I love that big spotted mare. I think we'll have a great time exploring Nevada!