First Day on the Trail

Greetings,

May 24, 2011, Horton Kansas – The first day on the trail. Today, I decided to ride half the day to lunch both to test the footing and to ease Frank into the ride because we still have 1950 miles to go. We started down the trail at six as the day dawned clear. The weather service forecast the possibility of severe weather but the morning looked calm.

We rode west through Wathena Kansas and out to rural Kansas. The countryside is rolling hills and pastoral farmland where the Midwest begins to yield to the Great Plains. At about twelve miles or so, Cindy met us with water for Frank under the watchful eye of a wary Angus bull. The sky was beginning to darken but I had no worries.

Gary and Janus from the NW rode with me and we continued west on various section-line roads. Some roads were paved, some were packed gravel, and some we bare dirt. When dry, the bare dirt is the best footing for the horses. When the bare dirt is wet, the horses slide as if they are on skates.

Gary, Janus, and I began to become concerned about six miles from the lunch spot. By about three miles out the real rain began. Then the wind shifted to the west and the wind speed increased. The wind and rain was right in our faces.

We were soaked. Janus said that her boots were full of water. I was as wet as had I just jumped into a creek. At one point, Frank balked at the headwinds and the three of us took shelter in the lee of a barn. Between the sheets of rain we could look out and see the trailers ahead of us about half-mile. Eventually, we made it to the trailers. Cindy and I quickly untacked Frank and loaded him into the trailer.

Now, I am sitting in the van in the fairgrounds in Horton Kansas under partly cloudy skies. But, the forecast is shows an increasing chance of severe weather this evening – early summer in eastern Kansas. The fairgrounds are in an old railroad yard and we have been instructed to seek shelter in the old stone railroad roundhouse if necessary.

Best Regards,

Tom N