Rio, my crew and I are on our way home to Kansas now after a phenomenal trip to Auburn for the 2018 Tevis Cup. I haven’t posted for a few days and will get caught up on the story of the trip before I tell you about our ride.
Part of the excitement of the trip is the travel itself! This year Steve of Prairie Sylvania Arabians drove for me and friend and fellow endurance rider Monicka Remboldt came along in the cab with us! If you know me personally, I’m a bit of a road warrior—driving does not bother me and I’ve made quite a few long trips by myself. I have joked around that my back up career plan would be pursue over the road trucking. I enjoy the thinking time and the problems I solve while on the road, but I do have to admit I feel a bit spoiled with having a super chauffeur!
We chose to go the northern route of I-80 from Kansas this year instead of down to I-40 last year. Travis and I traveled back on I-80 and it worked out a lot better travelling to and from Kansas. I-80 is purportedly better for hauling a trailer than I-70 is; the northerly highway has fewer switchbacks and more gradual grades to tackle with the loaded engine in a truck.
We cut up to 80 north of Denver late Saturday night–we stayed just north of Denver the first night after pushing 8 hours on the road Saturday. Our location was not ideal and I won’t go into detail, but for an on the fly kind of deal we made do!
We left again on the road early Sunday morning and pushed forward to Wells, NV. Along the way we found a nice big parking area for trucks and got Rio out to stretch a bit; she pooped and had peed in the trailer–I witnessed a poop and it was nice and wet–for you non-distance people out there, yes, endurance riders have an obsession with poop. I’m almost at the same level of obsession with as my 7 and 4 year old daughters, but in a slightly different manner!
In the morning while we drove, we found a nice little place on horsemotels.com with a 12×24 turnout. Rio got to stretch her legs really well, eat some nice green bermuda grass and dove right into her feed, water and hay at the facility. Her humans found a wonderful little restaurant called Bella’s—we ate real food (besides snacky stuff in the truck all day!) and wound up going back for breakfast! If you’re in the area, I would highly recommend it!
Monday rolled around and we finished the journey with the last leg of the trip to Auburn. We got up to the north fairground camping lot and settled in. This involved getting the trailer leveled, dropping feed and supplies down at the stall where Rio would stay and decluttering the living quarter (I’m not saying it was messy, but I think maybe three bombs went off in there while we were traveling. Maybe four.).
After we finished up there, we got Steve and Monicka checked into their motel rooms and then joined up with friends Marsha and David Hayes and Ron Osborn. We enjoyed their companionship, catching up and a nice bite to eat that night.
Tuesday morning we got up and had breakfast with our same group from the night before and then I took Steve and Monicka up to Robinson Flat and Forest Hill. The road trip out had been fantastic. We had already discovered that the three of us in the cab were quite compatible and had a very similar (and goofy) sense of humor. We were a very punny group, let’s just say! Our excitement for the week built as we reveled in our camaraderie—we saw the makings of a fantastic crew.
We did not know where Rio and I would end up for sure in terms of finishing, but we had all agreed that no matter where things went, the trip was worth it for all of the fun we had had together in the truck.