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Wagonteamster

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4-22 & 4-23-10

4/22/10, Tierra Amarillo, NM - I took the day of this day. After a brief thunderstorm the previous evening, I awoke to an inch of new snow. The elevation here is about 7500 feet above sea level, so this is pretty normal for mid-April. After doing a little wagon maintenance and feeding the crew, I gave Leonard a hand with his 20 year old Percheron. First, I pulled his shoes off and trimmed his feet.

The seen out the front window when I woke up

Then, I harnessed him up using Doc’s harness and we took turns driving him around the yard a bit. After he was going pretty good, we had him drag around a log. It’s been at least 4 or 5 years since he’s been in harness, but he remembered his old lessons well. I don’t think he ever dragged a log around, but Percherons are fast learners (much faster than humans) and he was used to it in no time.

All in all, this was a very relaxing day. It was also the second time in a row that I got to play with someone else’s horse on my day off.

Leonard driving his Percheron “Sampson”. For his first time driving, he did real well.

4/23/10, Chama, NM - Back on the road again. I thanked my host and hit the road at about 8:30. It was still pretty chilly (about freezing) but Doc and Bob leaned right into their collars. We would have made great time today, but we kept stopping to talk with people. That’s okay with me, because I’m not really in a hurry.

Some of the folks we talked with today include, a lady who had a ranch, south of Durango, and had a load of honeybees in the back of the truck; Don, from Dover, OH, Sandi, who runs a mustang horse rescue; and Estella, from Ireland. This just a few of the many folks who stopped to say ‘hi’.

Coming into Los Brazos, NM. You can still see the remains of about an inch of snow that fell overnight. Also the mountains are socked in by the clouds.

When I stopped for lunch, a lady from across the street came over and introduced herself. Estella is from Ireland, and splits her time between three places. Part of the year she teaches Masai, in Tanzania; part of the year she’s here in New Mexico; and the remainder of the year she’s in Ireland. It’s always interesting talking to folks with diverse interests, and the lunch hour passed quickly.


	This is Don Allman, from Dover, OH; who is currently living is Colorado. Don has been following me on the internet since I came through Dover, OH, a year and a half ago.


Don Allman, his son and daughter-in-law came cruising up on motorcycles. He’s on his way back to his home in Colorado, and wanted to see if he could find me. Don started following the blog after I came through Dover, OH, on the first journey. It’s a small world, as Don knows my good friend Pinky Sheers, from Dover. OH. When I left this morning, I had my sights set on reaching a small campground, located about 1/2 mile past the Continental Divide. But, this would have been a 25 mile day, and I quickly ran out of ambition. Instead, I opted to stay with Leonard Orr’s friend Jack, on the far side of Chama. It was a couple of miles out of the way, but neither the team nor I felt like pushing it.



		Estella, from Ireland

	I’m at nearly 8000 feet above sea level here, and I sure could feel the difference when I went to fetch a few buckets of water from the river. This should be the last blog for Leg #2 of Trip #3. Tomorrow night we should be on the other side of the Divide. The number of waypoints that Barry has on the Google Map for the trip is just about at it’s maximum. So, what we’re going to do is split the map for the trip in two different ones. I’ll leave the old map link up and name it “Google Map for Legs 1 & 2”. There will be a new map that is titled “Google Map for Legs 3 & 4”. I hope this isn’t too confusing, but it’s the only way we can do things. Tonight, I’m also going to update the “Where’s Bob - Trip #3” page. I’m going to assume that I make the divide tomorrow, and close this section out, with the mileage I’ll have to cover. All in all, Leg #2 has been really fantastic. It has been lonelier without someone along to share it with, but it has been really full of great places and even greater people. But, no matter how lonely it gets, I always take comfort in the fact that I have thousands of people to share it with. I don’t run a hit counter on the sight, but for those of you who are interested, I can see through my website control page that the site is getting at least 2,000 hits a day. With most people logging on more infrequently than once a day, I figure about 10,000 to 30,000 people are following the trip. I hope all of you are enjoying the journey as much as I am. And, thank you for all your support!