Genesee 2 Day 50

GENESEE 2 DAY 50 - HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!

JULY 29, 2006 Sunny, 94 degrees in the shade, 89% humidity. [183]

JULY 30, 2006 Sunny, 97 degrees in the shade, 76% humidity. [173]

I DID IT! MY FIRST MULTI-DAY RIDE!

Okay, I'm starting to sound like a broken record on getting to a ride. 4 1/2 hours and one tank of gas to travel 138 miles. How the hell does that work? First, you take the Friday vacationer traffic and add to that a mile long section on I-80 that is under construction and that totals up to an 8 mile parking lot at 3:00 in the afternoon.

Coming home took a little over 2 hours and a half a tank of gas. Go figure.

So, after cursing and grumbling, and getting 10 miles off course to get gas, we arrive at the BEAUTIFUL property of the Reis's. Not only did they let us camp on their lovely green hay field, they let us walk all over their manicured lawns with our shod horses, beat deep grooves into their woodlands as we wore down the paths, and allowed us the hospitality known mostly in the south.

THANK YOU!

Wow. The views there at the Reis farm in Pennsdale are gorgeous!. Once again, Samantha out did herself, topping the marvelous production last year at Peace Point with a spectacular production at Genesee I & II. And this she managed to do even though she lost her beloved best friend and husband last fall in a coal mining accident. Remarkable. Not only did she feed us well (I don't even want to know how many pizzas we went through on Friday) she provides excellent volunteers that were everywhere. Two vets riding the event even gave their reins over to a volunteer and jumped in to vet horses through on Saturday when the line got really long. Amazing how endurance people are always right there to help out.

So, now for my view point of the ride.

For the first time in years, I was anxious and nervous about a ride. I really think Joker has a lot more talent for this sport than I am using, and I want to really move her along without breaking her spirit or her body. I wasn't sure if she was ready to do a multi-day ride. I wasn't sure if I was ready to do a multi-day ride. I've never done one before and I didn't know how to pace Joker and myself. Then, on Wednesday before the ride, watching the weather like a hawk, I discover that there is going to be a heat advisory for the weekend and we're gonna be in mid to upper 90 degree weather. Dammit, Jim. I just HAD to have black horses to ride endurance, didn't I?

I almost bailed at the last minute when I saw the heat advisories for the weekend. I also learned something I didn't know before about riding horses in the heat. Heat is okay, humidity is okay, if the two don't total over 150. [Heat + Humidity] as you can see in the title. Thank You Dr. Art for that lecture Saturday night, I learned many things about riding my black horse in the heat.

I was arriving at this ride with advice from Mary Coleman on keeping an anti-hot-weather-horse cool (She rides Hawk, a gorgeous Morgan gelding) and he doesn't like hot, either. I also had advice from several people on Ride-Camp on how to keep my dark horse cool. I was going to be a better rider this year. I think I almost killed me and Joker last year in the overwhelming heat we had. We survived, but I wanted to do better.

Kyle also observed some tips for hot weather cooling that he incorporated into his crewing techniques for Sunday's ride. I'm going to discuss all these things in this story. Choose to use whatever works for you! All hydration techniques will be bold and italics.

Okay, so I'm nervous. Yes, the famous Dodie Sable was working up a sweat thinking about doing a multi-day ride. Now, it was 25 miles each day - not a lot considering Joker is consistently doing 50's this year with no troubles at all. However, this is two days of working 25 miles, in the heat, without proper sleeping and resting. Standing in the sun all day after the ride and being generally off schedule for everything. Last weekend, I was actually beating myself up because I wanted to do 50 miles so badly (I really love 50 miles!) but by Wednesday when the weather forecast was screaming HOT, I was glad I opted to only do the 25's.

TO THOSE OF YOU THAT RODE 50 MILES! Kudos to you! That had to be really horrible. Kudos to your horses that did all that work in the heat. You guys are awesome.

Connie came to ride Image on Saturday and if she felt she was good, she was going to ride her on Sunday. Kyle came to ride both days on Kolby. Of course, they had no clue how nervous I was (well, maybe they did when I started snapping at everyone Saturday night).

We did lots of visiting Friday night. Sallie was there with Kirby and she came to see me. Sue was there crewing, she came to see me. Mike stopped by (I love Mike - think he'll marry me if I ask him???) Mike had a hysterical story to tell about Dr. Nick and B-scores for anal tone. What exactly does anal tone tell the vet anyway? I'd like to know! So would Mike! Shannon came to see me. Sam was excited to see me and we had a great visit. I'm surprised she took the time to visit with me when she was managing five rides over two days. Either she needed some Dodie Amusement Value, or she was ducking someone (grin).

SALLIE! I am so sorry I never made it over to see your new trailer. I'm bummed. You better be at another ride this year so I can see it. (frown)

Ride meeting was a very informative lecture from Art. Note! He has been doing this sport for 30 years and has seen and done it all. He advices us to remember with the heat and the trail conditions, this was not a 5 hour 50 mile ride. If he saw a horse back into camp before 1 hour and 20 minutes, then he was going to rattle someone's brain. He advised slow even pace about 7 miles per hour to get you and your horse through the ride safely. The first rider in was 7 hrs. That's a 7 mile an hour ride!

So we had camp all setup with few incidents. The horse in the trailer ahead of us wasn't at ALL amused by us putting up the canopy. His owner stood there with him for the 15 minutes it took for us to get it all setup and she didn't look happy with us at all. I just smile to myself because all three of our horses were busy munching on hay and couldn't care less about that green plastic stuff flapping around their heads, and they were right next to the horrible killer canopy. Gotta love those Apps. No interest in those things that aren't interesting.

All the horses are checked in, food is in our bellies, and we were ready to sleep. I have to tell you, the people next to us need to get a grip on "10:00 curfew". When the ride is leaving at 5:30 AM and wake-up call is at 4:00 AM - we certainly didn't need to listen to their nonsense until after midnight.

Now, I don't know who this group was, and I'll mention no names that I overheard, but I can tell two young junior riders in that group who received bad advice the following.

First rider! Yes, you can and should canter your horse on an endurance ride. It helps to alleviate back strain and rear end strain and a horse breathes better at a canter. So don't believe the advice you received of "NEVER NEVER NEVER CANTER YOUR HORSE" I almost walked over there and had a discussion with that gentleman about telling his junior riders stupid stuff like that.

Second rider! If your horse is rearing and you're frightened, there is no shame in that and you should NOT have been told to get over it, bang your horse on the head and ride. I would have coached you in finding out "why" the horse was rearing? And then coached you in the famous Dodie Sable motto; "Forward, always move forward. If you try to hold it back, the energy has to go somewhere and it's usually straight up. Put the energy into forward motion and ride." (Of course, there's more that goes along with that, but the general motto is "FORWARD" will cure most ails.) This advice of get over, told to a frightened junior rider had Connie (yes, meek mild Connie) ready to get into the cab of the truck, get the gun out and go over and shoot that guy right in the foot.

Sheesh.

Before I went to bed, I gave all three horses their grain with some sea salt in it, filled their water buckets to max and hoped they drank all they could.

I slept well even though the camper was on a tilt in the field and we were sliding in the bed (chuckle). It was an amusing sleep, to be sure. I woke up at 3:45 and laid there waiting to hear revelry. What I actually heard was Tarzan doing his Ahh-ah-ah-ah on the microphone. What a grand way to start a day. Buck has some wonderful recordings in that pick-up of his.

I fed the horses, wetting down Joker's hay and mixing her grain with applesauce to get her hydrated. The sea salt worked. All three horses drank every bit of their water during the night and most the bucket I gave them in the morning. I started coffee and put on my riding clothes before I sweated up and could not peel them on.

Connie smelled the coffee and got up. She was in a fine mood. I like sleeping with Connie (get your mind out of the gutter) because she gets up pleasant like I do. I was nervous as hell. Running through my mind all the things I needed to do to pace Joker, cool Joker, cool myself, keep and eye on Kolby and Image, etc etc etc. I was in a sweat before the heat came up just thinking about all this stuff. Very nerve wracking. And remember, this is the first ride that I even thought about anything like this. Mostly, I go and enjoy myself. I was having a hard time finding the joy in the morning on Saturday.

Humidity was so high Saturday morning that we had a pea soup thick fog going. Couldn't see anything more than about 10 feet as the sun came up. They decided to delay the 50 milers due to the fog. That set us 25 milers back, too. (sigh of relief) Extra minutes to get myself organized.

I only dank one half a cup of coffee and then started drinking water. I wanted to get myself as hydrated as possible. Last year, I was delirious on two rides in the heat and I truly believe that's because I had no water in me. I ate the fruit I brought for breakfast, also another way to hydrate yourself. 1/2 a cantaloupe, a peach and an orange. And then I sloshed up to the porta-john 15 minutes before mount up time to get rid of half of it.

Kyle had some issues with soreness from his saddle at the last ride we did so he shopped around and bought himself a $200 piece of foam. A glorified bareback pad, I think. I'm not sure exactly what advantage it was supposed to give because in my mind, it was a heat magnet. I didn't like him changing saddles so quickly without Kolby having ample time to get used to a new one and I certainly didn't like the two inch piece of black foam bareback pad her got. And he also got a thick synthetic fleece pad to put under it. In my mind, this was a problem waiting to happen. What I thought would happen would be that Kolby would get sore.

Connie has had some personal issues in caring for her husband after he broke nine ribs and three vertebrae falling from a horse, so she hasn't been riding as much as she could/should and I was a little concerned for Image's state of readiness for this ride. It's a nice ride but I heard there were lots of up and downs. [When Mike came over to visit me, he confirmed that the trail was up or down.] (shrug) Hey, we're in the hills of PA ... of course it's up or down! I'm ready for that! I was concerned that Image would be in enough condition to handle the heat and the hills at the same time.

We (okay - Connie and Kyle) toted everything up to the hold the night before so we had very little to worry about in the morning. We had plenty of ice and plenty of people water.

We cleaned up, tacked up and were ready to rock-n-roll. Image was in rare form and of course, Connie was presenting her with the brick wall I mentioned earlier so Image's front and hind end were going UP. FORWARD CONNIE, FORWARD. Kolby was feeding off of Image and was not his usual calm and relaxed gelding self. Joker was her normal accessory holding self. "IS IT TIME YET? IS IT TIME YET? Wait, there's the timer looking at us, it must be time now. IS IT TIME YET?"

And we're off.

The first loop (red) was awesome. The heat wasn't up yet and the trail was really nice. it was easy but fun because it had twists and turns, up and downs, and several passes by nice houses. I liked it. There was lots of natural water on the trail (sponge sponge sponge) and Joker was drinking well. She wasn't eating much, but it was the first loop and she was raring to go so I wasn't worried about it.

There was one lollipop on the red loop that I will remember for a long time (chuckle) and I'm sure Connie will, too (at least until her bruises fade away). We went up up up up (did I mention up?) cut across the top then started down down down. Image, being built just like her sire, has little to no wither and is kinda just round. Connie has trouble with her saddle sliding all the time, and as we were working our way down, I heard a little girl scream from behind me. I quick whipped around in the saddle to watch the slow motion slide of Connie and her saddle off Image. (grin). Now that was about as graceful as it gets! Unfortunately, we were on a single track path so not wanting to add to the blockage, I kept going down down down and waited for her at the creek crossing (while I took advantage of the wait by sponging and sponging and sponging)

After we left that water crossing, back onto the trail back to finish, I notice that Kyle is riding sideways and one stirrup is about 6 inches longer than the other. I hollered up to him to fix himself. Let me tell you, it's usually me yelling at Connie to fix herself so this was a new one for me.

We came in off the red 10 mile loop at just under 2 hours. I was taking it very easy on the horses and figured that we had plenty of time to finish if we kept them motivated at 6 miles an hour.It was a nice warm up loop.

Water water water water. Water on, water off. Sponge sponge sponge. Get the heat off them.

We went to the timer at 7 minutes, Joker was at 52, at her CRI she didn't go up one bit, still 52. Kolby was 56 and at his CRI he elevated a little to 60. If I had known that at the time, it would have been a red flag to me because Kolby has awesome recoveries and that's not at all like him to be that high. Image was high at 68 and Connie had to go cool her off some more and before going back for another pulse check. I completely forgot to bring out stethoscope to the hold so we could check it ourselves before going into the pulse area. My bad.

Trot out was fine, CRI was fine. (whew)

Image finally pulsed down but then her CRI didn't go so well. Pulse shot straight up after the trot out. (hmmmm). Personally, with the heat the way it was, I would have pulled her, but since Connie hasn't ridden and completed one ride yet this year, I figured I'd keep my mouth shut. I've been trying to wean Connie off me this year and let her make her own decisions about things. So far, she's got the right information. At the trot out, Image looked drunk, which says to me heat issues and that combined with the pulse would have had me sidelining it the rest of the ride.

Since Connie was timed behind us, we waited in hold 53 minutes so she could start out with us. Off we go and we're out for the blue loop, 15 miles.

Slow and easy. Heat is up and I'm feeling it. I am sweating like a weasel in a hen house and the heat coming off Joker is bad. Whenever we come out of the trees, we're stifling. We lost Connie about a mile into the ride, Image was slowing down. I coached her to scream really loud if she needed me and I'd come find her, otherwise, she had enough mileage under her belt to do the ride by herself.

Kyle and I worked up the hills, down the hills, around the hills, over the hills and gods I was hot. Hot Hot Hot. Yuck. There was one point on this blue loop that I found exceptionally dangerous for me and my horse. Now, knowing me, and my "hell bent for leather" riding, for me to say it was dangerous, you know it was bad. We came out of a corn field, down a ten foot bank that was a sheer straight drop (90 degrees) right onto blacktop. Not only was that landing on the blacktop hard on the horse's legs, and sheer danger as their shoes hit the macadam and skidded all over the place, but there was no people standing there to make sure a car wasn't coming to run us down as we ice skated out into the middle of the road. There was no help for it. When the horse slid down the bank and hit the blacktop, that forward motion had to go somewhere and it took them right into the middle of the road. I am so thankful that no cars were coming when we crossed! Sam, it was fun, but next time put a person there to keep us from becoming road kill.

Every chance we got we stopped at water and sponged sponged sponged. Water on water off. Sponge sponge sponge. There wasn't a lot of natural water on this blue loop. I was faint from heat fatigue and was searching and searching for a stream or mud puddle for Joker. She was doing okay but breathing like a freight train trying to pant off the heat that was building up in her.

Several times, people had put out water tubs for us and a garden hose. That ice cold well water felt very good on the horses (on us, too!)

We're hot and running out of time but I refuse to speed up. If I can keep them steady, we can pulse down quickly. And we struggled through that blue loop cursing the heat every step of the way. No offense to Sam, but I think I would have sent us out of the 15 mile loop first in the morning when it was cool (especially since it was much harder to ride) and then save the 10 mile red loop (which was easy to ride) for the heat of the day.

Our small incident on the blue loop (other than the corn field road crossing) was a sheer downhill travel of about 150 yards. Straight down. I got off to walk Joker and that was my first mistake. Downhill walking is still very hard on my knee and as I started sliding down this hill in the loose rocks and dirt, my knee was singing a horrible song to my brain. That did me in. After that, I had the knee throb from hell. (sigh) Every day it's better and the last two rides I went on I had no troubles with my knee, so I did the famous Dodie Sable "grin and bear it" and kept on going.

Anyway, we make it back into base camp with 15 minutes to get pulsed down. Water on, water off, soak soak soak. 11 minutes, Joker is at 56. 1:11 PM - At that point I'm guessing I must have finished dead last. Time for the LD was 1:15 PM (Whew)

Kolby, though, has a high pulse - way high. That's not like him at all - he is usually way lower than Joker at every ride. I did notice that Kyle was riding crooked almost the entire ride and his posting wasn't as nice as crisp as it usually is. Not at all like his normal skinny butt self perfectly positioned in the saddle and riding with little to no effort. I was concerned that Kolby was sore somewhere from Kyle riding crooked and riding in a new saddle. It occurred to me later when we couldn't get Kolby's breathing down that maybe that foam saddle pad thing heated him up too much. I don't know. I metioned all these things to Kyle so he could investigate.

The crucial thing is that Kolby did not pulse down and when we went for CRI it shot straight up and the vets were concerned. He didn't pulse down for a long while after the ride closed at 1:15 so Kyle and I spent a lot of time cooling him off. Kyle didn't complete and I was very bummed out for him.

Water on water off. I stuck Joker in the tub with Kolby to help his get his pulse down. She didn't mind one bit. Buddy system works really well for getting a horse to relax and it's saved me a couple times with Joker. She gets too worried about where everyone is if you go off and leave her.

While we're watering Kolby (Kyle working one side, me working the other side) we hear this familiar voice "I'm here! I'm here!" Way over time, but Connie made it! She finished the 25 miles all by herself without me to yell at her, lecture her, scare her, and get on her nerves. And she didn't get lost. That was my biggest fear, especially since we got off that stupid blue trail at least four times. I was fearful Connie would end up in the Pocono's or something.

Image doesn't look too bad either. Of course, they're an hour late, and Connie said she got off and walked quite a bit, but I was very proud of her. She did very well riding all alone. GOOD DEAL, CONNIE!

At the ride meeting we were told 50 LD riders started, 31 completed. And I was not last, I was 24th. Imagine.

HOWEVER! At the ride meeting, we kept hearing rumors that a couple riders were still out and weren't back. I had been looking for Sallie (she was on the 50) every since I got back and hadn't seen her. Finally, Connie asked her friend that was crewing and she said that Sallie and a couple other riders were still out on trail and they were looking for them. Now I was worried. Kirby had been throwing shoes recently and I was wondering if he threw a shoe and was lame or if she had gotten off that blue loop and was missing in action.

2 hours after ride close, here comes Sallie. And she's all smiles! Her fun-meter was still near full up and that was impressive given the heat and how late she was coming in. She told me that she really learned a lot about Kirby on the ride and their bond deepened tremendously, and to her, that was well worth the extra time for her. Apparently, she came up on this fella whose horse was done for and she stayed with them and walked back to the base. Good Ol' Sallie. What a sport. She should get an award anyway or at least get drag rider mileage.

All riders are in. We eat roast pig, corn on the cob, salad and are stuffed to our ears.

I stay for the ride meeting while Kyle and Connie go discuss their strategies for crewing for me on Sunday. What good sports they are. Neither one completed and yet their spirits are high and they were concerned to get me and Joker through the next day.

I'm worried sick. Sam gave the weather forecast, which was hotter than today's ride and I was going to die. I just knew it.

I go back to camp, take a bath and give Joker and elyte. This is the first elyte I've given her. I have experimented with them and have found if I keep her hydrated, she doesn't appear to need the elyte. And, on those rides I did elyte the shit out of her, it actually had some detrimental affects that I didn't like, so I stopped using them last year. We ran all year in the heat without them except after the ride, and she did great. This doesn't work for every horse, and I'm not recommending it unless you discuss it with your vet. I made my own choice for this particular horse. When I rode Numbers last year in the heat, I elyted her during the ride. One thing I was told [and seems to work] is that when you give an elyte, do it right after they have a big drink and don't do it right before pulsing because it tends to put their pulse high. This helps it to be absorbed better and doesn't let it sitting in a hot stomach.

I add some sea salt to her grain then hop in bed. Once again, Mr. Mouth next door is running his mouth it until after midnight. Now I fell asleep and didn't hear it but Connie and Kyle filled me in on all the details. Gods. What a crew of people over there.

Sometime during the night, it started raining. I woke up when Connie rolled over me to close the sun roof. I told her to leave it. It was hot and sticky and if it rained in, then it would just be on the floor, no big deal. She rolled over and went back to sleep. A little later (at 3:01 AM to be exact) I heard someone breathing heavy next to me. It was on the side that Connie wasn't so it instantly woke me up. Kolby had figured out how to slide the door and had most his head through the slide and was sniffing around. What the hell. The camper was rocking and I thought we must be in a wind storm. When I finally got his nose out of the door long enough to open it, I discovered he was untied and was standing on the hitch part of the trailer...mystery of the rocking camper solved. I retied him, filled up everyone's water again. Good deal, they're all drinking well.

I lay down to catch a couple more zzzz and the alarm goes off (what the hell).

Up I get and my stomach is filled with butterflies. Will she trot out okay? Is she sore on her back from yesterday? Will she have any energy today? How do I feel?

I checked her all over and she was full of herself. Knocked me down twice while I was trying to get her checked and fed. Okay, energy levels good (check). Did some hands on and leg flexions and she knocks me over again. Okay, body aches no problem (check). See that her water bucket is empty again from the 3 AM fill (hydration, check). Fed the horses and went in to peel on my riding clothes. It is definitely muggy this morning and warmer than yesterday morning. Probably due to the shower we had over night.

Time to eat my fruit salad breakfast. I didn't even want coffee but I had some anyway to hold off a caffeine headache. Water water water. Juice. Water. Pee. Water, Pee some more. Whew.

Connie got up and asked what she could do. I asked her to trot out Joker to warm her up. Joker bowls over Connie (energy levels still good, check)

Alright. I don't want to get on my energizer bunny horse until we're ready to go, so I ask Connie to go up and do my trot out (BTW - knee is sore today, that's my only ache and pain to mention) and then check me in with Buck. Joker takes off and drags Connie to vet in (soundness, check).

off topic [Did you see last week's headlines? Energizer Bunny arrested for battery.]

It's time. On I go. Wait - one last pee. Now I'm on. Wait wait, Joker, will you fucking wait?" Wait wait ... And we're off.

Whoo Hoo. She's full of beans. She knows the trail from yesterday and she's raring to go.

We did the red loop in 71 minutes. A little faster than the recommended one hour twenty minutes, but not bad. And she's full of herself coming into the vet check. Not at all tired. I'm heating up, though. I don't feel very well at all. I don't mention that to anyone. I had to laugh at this vet check because there was a two dayer on a Molly Mule who was a very vocal mule. Buck scared up a recording of a donkey braying and played that over the PA system several times during our 45 minute hold. The molly mule answered back several times and we all had a good laugh. Even the gentleman that was riding her enjoyed that!

Kyle observed some people putting cold wet towels on their horses so he and Connie were ready for me with frozen towels. It really cooled Joker off fast, Her breathing came down really quickly. 7 minutes we were pulsed through. Whoo Hoo. I must be doing something right, I start to relax a little about completing the day. I'm really hot though, and feel very queasy. I drink two waters on the red loop and when I got into vet check, I drank a Gatorade and two more waters. I ate an energy bar and still didn't feel much better. I did pee a little, though. That's good (I guess). Joker peed twice so I know she's in fine fettle. She's also eating everything in sight, so she's feeling A-OK.

Off we go to do the yellow loop. Now, all the 50 milers I talked to said the yellow loop is much better than the blue loop. I sure hope so because I am starting to feel downright nauseous. I've passed queasy on by and am racing towards a vomit. I know this is heat. I don't deal with it very well. They were right, the yellow loop was awesome. Sam was with me part of the way and we had a nice talk until her mare walked away from us. I didn't want Joker working that fast in the heat so held her back. Joker was quite alright with that which surprised me, usually she wants to catch up to, and pass, the horse in front of her. Maybe she knew she needed to keep her "Joker Pace" for this loop.

Most the yellow loop was in the woods, but there was about two miles in the sun. That almost did me in. I was dying, Joker was dying, and the ground looked like molten lava. I got off and started walking. I needed to clear my head and get away from Joker's heat. About a mile after I got off, I came upon a farm with a huge water trough and a hose. THANK YOU LORD!

I hosed and hosed with that ice cold well water until Joker's breathing came down. We were there about 15 minutes. I didn't really want to lose that time, but she really eneded a breather. I hosed myself until I could see again without a purple haze on the edges of my vision. Whew. I'm healed. Praise the Lord for well water.

Off we go. Now we're with the gentleman that had the Molly mule. Joker got a big kick out of that mule and we rode the rest of the ride together. About 5 miles. He was a very interesting guy and I loved watching that mule of his working.

off topic [Walt! You did good getting Cirrocco! (click the link for the Cirrocco story) He's gonna kick butt on the trail! Trust me.]

Last mile. I get off and start walking. Joker is breathing hard but her eyes aren't red so I know her heart rate isn't up. We walk into camp and my crew (the best crew ever!) gets her cooled off. We pulse in, total ride time was 45 minutes faster than yesterday. She vets out perfectly fine (got a B for a sore back and I'm hoping to change that with the new saddle I ordered). Trot out was same as always, lazy and relaxed. Dr. Nick gave her a B on impulsion all weekend, but every time he did, he said that really means A for an Appaloosa. (chuckle). I tried to explain that those Apps refuse to burn up their energy when it isn't necessary.

YEA! I finished my first multi-day ride and was 13th on day two. There were several two day riders, I finished 3rd out of them, the gentleman on the molly mule was fourth and I think there were two others still behind us. I have to get confirmation from Sam.

I can't believe it! I'm am so psyched to do the Chesapeake now. Three days, 80 miles. I'm ready! Joker is ready! And this was a very exciting time for me, I really had to think about the ride and work Joker without burning her up.

Connie and Kyle had the camp busted up and packed so I quick bathed in the tub, put the canopy up and off we went home to unload and clean up. And that's how I was able to write this story tonight! I have the best crew ever!

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