Chris & Betsy's great Oklahoma adventure

[Chris Paus <paus@micoks.net>]

This is a true story about the Okmulgee Cougar Prowl and two grandmas who
did it!!

On Friday morning, my friend and riding buddy, Betsy O'Shea picked me and
Star up for our big trip to OK. She was late, but we had the whole day
ahead of us....We were in great spirits...

About 15 miles into the journey, we stopped at a grocery store. I stayed in
the truck while Betsy went for supplies. I decided to get out and THE SEAT
BELT WAS STUCK. Now I am not a tiny person, so it took a great deal of
contortion to wriggle out of that.... I wanted to check on the boys, Star &
Glo. As I walked in front of the truck, I noticed a river of green running
under it -- green antifreeze!

When Betsy came back, we drove to a nearby Ford dealer. The head service
guy looked under the hood, declared a hole in the radiator, saw our glum
faces and filled the radiator with antifreeze and stop leak. He said it
might get us back to Paola, our home town. It was noon. We looked at each
other and decided to keep heading toward OK, watching the temperature gauge
all the way... If we had trouble, our plan was to call a wrecker for the
truck adn my husband to come get the trailer and horses..

WE kept driving, the truck was all right! We got to camp about 6 p.m.,
missed the easy route through Beggs and took the long scenic route through
Okmulgee...

There we were -- the poor white trash contingent from Kansas in our beater
Ford truck and two horse trailer nestled amongst the shiny gooseneck rigs
and new diesel trucks...

Still, we were in good spirits....

The next morning, we awoke to thunder and lightning and a light rain. No
problem. We've come this far, we're going to ride. Betsy was game for 50. I
was doing my second 25 LD. By the time the ride meeting was over, the
lightning was closer and the rain was harder.

The 50 milers were off. A short time later, the 25 milers were off. My
usual plan is to hold Star behind because he is so competitive and wants to
race, but we had a controlled start, so I thought it would be ok.

WRONG. He didn't pay attention when Louise Burton told us this is not a
race, there is no award except BC for the 25 mile ride! The race was on.
Star galloped with me barely in control. Another horse kept egging him on
and he egged back. Finally that horse let fly with his right hind foot,
catching me in the left foot. YEAOWWWW... That hurt. Almost unseated me and
nearly caused a 6 horse pileup! But on we went. Finally, I asked the
closest riders to stop so I could dismount safely. I was going to let them
go ahead and settle down my horse.

Mind you while all this is going on, it is windy, rainy, stormy, the
Oklahoma clay is slick as snot.

I held Star back much to his dismay, and ended up riding for a few miles
with a nice older man and his appy mare, but Star was wearing her out, so
we forged ahead. 

I couldn't see the trail markers -- too much rain on the glasses. I took
off my glasses and my 20-300 vision kept me from seeing the trail markers.
I THINK the trail was pretty -- following the ARkansas river and its
tributaries through a wildlife area....

Then Star pulled his "oh, I'm so tired." routine. I thought he was sick.
His nose went ot the ground. He plodded step by step slowly I thought he
might drop right out from under me...

Then, we came to an oil well pump jack. He PERKED RIGHT UP AND TROTTED
SMARTLY AWAY... We trotted the rest of the way into camp.

Now I was soaked -- Star was soaked, my new, expensive Aussie saddle was
soaked, my sheepskin seatsaver went squish, squish, when my butt hit the
saddle...

After a soggy P & R stop, we were off again --, trotting and cantering most
of the second loop. My goal was to reach the top 10 -- we were pretty far
behind the other riders, but still finished in 8th place!

It took me 3 coats, 2 pairs of boots, 4 pairs of gloves, 6 pairs of socks,
and 3 changes of pants and sweaters to get through the day... I finally ran
out of dry coats and wore a blanket in camp that night!

Betsy did well on Glo. They finished more than an hour faster than their
previous 50. she also looked bedraggled adn wet. Her wonderful rain coat
was not enough for the heavy downpour we rode in for hour after hour. She
finished the ride with plastic bags and sock mittens on her hands and came
into camp with a muddy face -- Glo fell down, and Betsy ended up
unceremoniously face first in the mud. But they finished...And DID NOT get
the turtle award this time!

As we cooked our dinner in the trailer Saturday night, nursing our sore,
cold, wet aging bodies, we mused that we have surely been more miserable at
some time in our lives, but we just couldn't remember when!

It was too long a drive to head home, so we camped again. A borrowed cot
was the only thing keeping me out of the puddles in my tent. Neither of us
had much left for dry clothes. I gave up one of my blankets for Star, who
also had no more dry clothes.

During the night, the wind whipped up. HUGE wind, COLD wind. Neither of us
wanted to crawl out of our cocoons in the morning, but there were horses to
wrap, bags to pack, the trailer to load...

Then there was the mud to contend with.. Rig after rig required pulling by
a tractor. Betsy said "I can make it out" She did. Our poor old truck and
little trailer got out with nary a skid...

All went well on the trip back home, except for the strange looks I got at
McDonalds when I traipsed in wrapped in a blanket!

All was fine until we got 5 miles from home-- the BLIZZARD. The winds were
ferocious. The snow was blowing. IT WAS COLD. We got stuff unloaded and
noticed the final catastrophe -- a flat tire on the trailer. How long had
we driven that way??/ 

My husband saw these two bedraggled women, declared us insane, helped us
unload the truck and trailer and put air in the tire.

"Now, tell me again why you do this?" He asked -- 

BECAUSE IT IS FUN!! I told him!

chris paus & star