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We took our time about the 3rd loop, too. There was a rider behind me still to 
leave the vet check and I thought she wasn't far behind. So I dilly-dallied a 
bit, hoping she would catch me and we could ride together. I stopped often to 
let Tanna graze and offered water. He drank within 45 minutes of leaving camp 
and I electrolyted him an hour after being out. After awhile, I decided that 
the rider just wasn't coming, so I became more dogged in our pace, but still 
allowing plenty of time for grazing when there was grass.

Around 4 PM, my MP3 player crashed to the ground during a dismount and no 
amount of coaxing could entice it to come back on. I had been listening to it 
for all of the 2nd and 3rd loops. But, since it was dead, I removed it from my 
belt and stuffed it into my pommel bag and continued on.

I began to get bored and Tanna and I both perked up when we reached the part of 
the trail we had pre-ridden the day before. Less than 2 miles to the finish! I 
glanced at my watch and realized that we were on target to do our 9 hour ride 
time after all. We trotted onto the gravel road and I toyed with the idea of 
cantering in for the finish, but nixed that idea when I saw Dr. Mike's van 
headed towards me. He got out of the van and clapped as I finished our ride.

I was the last rider out and he had come to be sure I didn't feel left out 
since the timers were not there. He gave me my ride time. 5:05 PM. Taking out 
the holds, that gave me 8 hours 55 minutes ride time. Heheh. Pretty close to my 
9 hour goal after all!

I trotted Tanna out to the pavement and then dismounted and led him to our 
camp. I stripped him and sponged him off really well before continuing on to 
vet out. His impulsion and attitude and guts were still about the same, but his 
jugular refill had improven all the way to an A. The vet cautioned me about his 
guts and I agreed, saying Tanna would get plenty of food and he would probably 
eat it. I hadn't been happy with his eating and drinking, but was sure he'd be 
fine.

Daniel and I returned Tanna to his pen and went to look at the pictures taken. 
There were 3 nice ones of us (and two pretty bad ones when I was off-balance 
and fighting with Tanna near the beginning). So we bought the 3 nice ones and I 
got my t-shirt completion award.

All the vet cards were being kept and would be mailed out later. However, I 
like to have my vet card to analyze after the ride, so Daniel got his camera 
and took pictures of each side of my vet card for me to look at later. Solved 
that problem quite quickly. :-)

Still dressed in my ride clothes, I got Tanna from his pen and Daniel and I 
took him for a stroll. There were not nearly as many people in camp. Most 
everybody had left during the course of the day. I normally didn't go into the 
primitive camping area simply because there was lots of grass in the main 
campground, but we decided to wander through the primitive field for awhile.

As we were passing one trailer, I heard somebody call out to me. It was Eva de 
Paulis! She and Roger were sitting in front of their trailer passing the time 
and Daniel and I sat and visited with them for quite awhile while Tanna ate 
grass around us. Kinda sad when you have to travel 6 hours to visit with 
friends that live an hour away! LOL. Eva had come in first and I had come in 
last. We had a great visit, but eventually had to take our leave. I still 
hadn't had a shower, changed my clothes or had my supper yet and it was getting 
dark. Tanna had gotten a good lot of grass while we chatted.

The next morning, we loaded up and headed back home. We returned Terry's 
electricity converter and thanked her. She responded by giving me some horse 
cookies that my horse likes. I will have to figure out where to get some of 
those! :-) Thank you, again, Terry! Email me so I can find out how to get more! 
:-)

What an absolutely great place! The temperatures were awesome! Upper 70s, maybe 
lower 80s on Sunday, and low humidity. The bugs got Tanna and me while we were 
out later on Sunday afternoon, but not too bad. The camp ground was nice. Barns 
(with stalls a bit on the small side, but sufficient), electric and water at 
the camp sites, a hot shower, friendly owners. The ride management was great! 
Edie and Ken Keesee handled the huge turnout well and were very sweet the 
entire time, even though they must have been dead tired from all the work. The 
trail markings were great. I love pie plate directions. And I especially like 
the big X plates to keep me from going down the wrong trail. Short of roping 
off trails I shouldn't go down, it doesn't get much easier than that! I only 
had to consult my maps twice the entire time and never once got lost. The 
trails were very nice. Great footing. Some short stretches of gravel road. 
Water along the trail. Most of the trail was in the shade, which was very nice 
for me being out in the hottest part of the day.  Just great. I will definitely 
have this one on my calendar for next year. Thanks to all the volunteers that 
helped put this ride on. Thanks to the vets, Dr. Habel, Dr. Mayer, and Dr. 
Marheine. And a big thanks to the Keesees. I had a great time!

April
Nashville, TN


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