Truck Stop Beauties! Jane and I took off EARLY for Blowing Rock and on a rest stop I had to get my camera out for these beautiful flowers with the morning sunlight on them!
We arrived and got the trailer set up and equines settled in their stalls! Others from the group arrived including Blue, Barry, Teddy & LuAnn, Holly & Bruce. Andre was ready to ride first. We had a good ride down in the Maze and to the Apple Orchard and Barn. It was warm with a cool breeze once in awhile. Much nicer that is was supposed to be at home!
We arrived back at the barn to find some others had moved in. After dinner we piled into and on the back of Danny Tart's truck and off to the Ice Cream and Fudge Store we went! After getting our goodies we sat on the flat bed of his truck and acted like a bunch of of goofy kids! I have not laughed that hard in a while. A quick trip to the hat store and we headed back up to the stables.
Saturday morning the place was a buzz with activity. We decided that sitting back and watching us try to get ready that morning would make an interesting reality TV show! A group of 19 people including Marty and Stacey Sims in a nice trail wagon took off at 9am! New members (At least by the end of the day) the Annas Family on four good looking mules joined us for the ride. The sky went from blue to cloudy with some wonderful breezes to keep us cool. We headed for Rich Mountain for lunch! It was so nice that we stayed for quite a while and even had time for a meeting for the Ladies Leatherwood Weekend Menu!
Some time during lunch Jane noticed the new brand on Holly's mule. She asked if it was a pickle? (Jane works in a lab with pickled foods) It is a holly leaf but that made us laugh and stuck in every one's mind. By the end of the ride Holly's mule had been re-named from Blackeye Pearl Louis to Blackeye Pickled Pearl. Luann also thought that would make a good name for a restaurant.
Some how this club always relates everything back to food!
That afternoon as the group rode into the barn the showers started. Bev and I took the mules straight to the stalls to wait it out. It would dump and them blue sky would appear and then before it would stop raining again it would get black and start dumping. Blue and Jane got greedy and had wanted more riding, so they got wet! We had another nice dinner at the Daniel Boone Inn and an informal meeting.
Sunday started with big black clouds moving across the sky and the threat of a line of storms coming our way. We moved a little slower in getting ready, Holly was down right depressed. Donna Spoon and John Lea joined us for this ride after attending a cousin's wedding on Saturday. The report we got just as we were ready to ride out was that the line of storms was moving the other way and should miss us!
We headed for the Lookout Tower for our short Sunday ride. This ride found my stuffed animal Possum along for the ride on Seven. When we got to the Tower I took him up for a photo at the top! I then dropped him from the top of the tower to the waiting mule riders below to catch. Teddy was the lucky Possum catcher! Jane started trying to throw him back up to us, when of all things, he got stuck hanging from his tail in a big tree near the tower. Oh My! I told everyone that although Possum was really funny hanging from the tree I really wanted to take him home! So the sticks and rocks started being thrown. Barry got hit with a stick in the head! That is when John Lea came to the rescue with his water bottle. He climbed out on to the edge of the tower and on the second throw was able to knock Possum out of the tree! What a rough day for the poor guy!
As we packed up to head home and said our good byes we remembered how lucky we are to have such great mules to ride and great friends to ride them with! 
1 comment:
looks like ya had a great time see ya july for night ride
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