A girls just got to have some new shoes

Getting to make 2 posts so close to each other is a dream come true, and yes my dreams have become a little different since I started this trip.

When I last left you all, I was at the Austin House where I had a very restful nights sleep before getting up to the best French Toast breakfast I have had on this trip. Before I could leave, Delightful managed to bend one of the gates on Christy and Jeff's property, not very Princess Pei Pei like of her. And Christy got to witness the ungraceful early morning mount up. Sigh.

Our ride that day was 21 miles up to the second pass through the blue mountains and into Baker county. We had little traffic to deal with, except for the trucks, both Log and ODOT. I am always surprised at how well both the girls are doing on the road since Mystic has been trail ridden limitedly and Delightful has never been out of the arena. On our trip out of the Mountains, I let Mystic choose her path and suprisingly she picked the scenic route a few times, turning off the road onto a forest loop a few times. Personally I think she was just trying to find a road that led back home, or at least to some nice grassy meadow. As we came down to the valley we were overcome with wildlife. Everywhere I looked there were tiny darting prairie dogs. Jumping out of their burrows darting across the road, waiting til we were near them before diving back into another burrow. I figured it must have been some odd Prairie dog game of chicken. Of course, all the darting furry critters didn't once bother either of the girls, but when a pair of ducks took flight Mystic nearly unloaded me on the road. I can't be too mad at her for that since it was really the first time she has actually spooked hard on this trip. Of course I would have seen it coming if I hadn't been looking at this amazing meadow, covered in purple flowers, and to make matters worse, I forgot to take a picture of it. Now that part does make me a little mad, but at me, not them.

I arrived in Unity around 5pm, my knees aching since I had to shorten my stirrups to prevent my leg from cramping, and road up to the Unity Country Store to meet Cindy, the owner of both it and the Motel next door. We put the horses up in a grass filled paddock and me in a bed and shower filled motel room ( YAY!!!) and Cindy jumped on the phone and started trying to find me a shoer as both the girls hare fast wearing out their shoes. Cindy is a wonderful woman with a kind and generous heart and after calling everyone she could think of found me not one, but two people willing to reshoe both the mares. Of course one of the potential shoers was a pair of cowboys that asked if I was pretty, lol, I should have asked if they were handsome . . .

I am waiting for the post office to open so I can send some items I don't need anymore back home and then I am off to Ironside, where new shoes are in order for my companions in this crazy journey. I know I say this most every entry, but, I am so humbled by how willing people are to help me on my trip. I am going to have to start calling it our trip, since now, I have hundreds of people following along with me.