Monday, October 20, 2008

It's home, home, home!!!

October 15th, 2008

We went to bed last night with the sky so clear and the moon so bright that it was like daylight. We woke up to fog everywhere and a wet tent! The fog hadn't reached the moon which was high above the tallest mountain, but it wasn't long before it did. It didn't even burn off until we were just leaving.

We are crossing the bridge for the Kootenai river right now. It's going smoothly so far. Mom has her fourways on and the horses are behaving fairly well. Martha's Kid almost spooked when a loaded logtruck went around our group but Martha got him calmed down. Dad, Hannah & Martha are leading their horses; Jesse, Lydia and Ellie are riding.

For some reason, lots of big boats are traveling down the road by semi truck. We have just met one on the road and the truck stopped in the road to let us by. Now that is one nice truck driver. :-) Some people would just fly past but not this guy. Thanks, to whoever you are. :-)

Later: We stopped for dinner right at the Idaho border (in the parking lot of a casino) and it appears that Millie is sick. It looks like she has a puncture on her front left leg and we think it's infected. It's swollen up, she's not drinking at all and she's not eating well, either. We're sitting in Bonners Ferry now at the Farm & Garden Center.... Hannah and Mom went in and are getting some penicillin. Hannah intends to administer the dose herself. Everything should go well since we've done it before. We hope to get back to the bridge before the horses get there because it's so narrow. [I posted quick while we were in at the vet's office... Hannah has given the shot to Millie and it went fine. :-)]

We're almost there!

Still later: We just met up with Ellie and Martha. They were way ahead of the others and we knew right away that something wasn't right. They said that all the horses spooked over something and began running flat out. Kid and Red went ballistic in the middle of the highway... in front of a couple of semi trucks. The semis were both carrying heavy loads and couldn't have slowed down, even if they had had time to do so. Thankfully, both were thoughtful drivers and went into the other lane... Ellie managed to get her horse behind the guard rail but Martha and Jesse couldn't get their horses stopped. They did manage to get their horses off on the side of the road. Jesse got his horse halted at last, but Ellie and Martha's horses ran wildly for close to a mile.

Other than those particular truckers, we are again experiencing inconsiderate drivers. Their attitude is, “Get out of my way. You're slowing me down.” Thankfully, some are gracious, but most are not. One minivan driver would not slow down or move into another lane even though it was evident that the horses were out of control. This country ain't horse friendly!

The riders have all come up and are ready to go... We are going to proceed them to the bridge, then go on to where we are boarding the horses.

I am praying for safety! :-) And that we will be blessed by kind motorists...

10:00 pm

“Oh! It's home, home, home!!!”

That's what Ruth said when she recognized where we were driving. She was so excited! For a long while, she went around just beaming. She got her toys out... was reacquainted with her babies, “My baby! My horsey! Another baby!” Such a happy little... ahem, big... girl! (Until she got too tired to keep her eyes open, that is!)

I am sitting in my own bedroom as I type. It's warm, my stomach is full and my bed looks wonderfully inviting! :-)

Yes, we made it. I am so thankful!

When we got to the place where we are boarding our horses (thank you!!!), the lady asked what highway we traveled on today. When Ellie told her highway #2, she said we were crazy. After our experiences today, I must say I was doubting our sanity as well. We are so thankful to have safely ended our journey.

Millie perked up after the shot of penicillin (PTL!) and Hannah is going to give her another one tomorrow. Hopefully she'll heal fine and all will be well. Al will most likely be a different story since his injury is more complicated than Millie's.

The shower is calling for me, so I bid you a goodnight. :-)

2 comments:

Kristen said...

Yay! PTL that you got home safely!

The Panhandle Roughriders said...

Hi Kristen!
Did you see my post with the email address? :-) I just thought I'd ask because it didn't look like you had.
Blessings to you!
Love,
Naomi