Into Las Cruces

It's Sunday evening, we've returned from the parade in Old Masilla. The weather today has been in the high 70's. More on this later.

On Thursday, we rode 17 miles and spent the night at the J.C. Johns Ranch south of Las Cruces. Ali and I had a much better day. We didn't have the arguments we had on the first morning. He's having a tendency to shy at unknown objects, though. Chip Johns, our host, allowed us access to his ranch house. It is a beautiful, one-story, Spanish style home with patios and gardens. Pictures will follow.

On Friday, we rode out of the desert and into the Rio Grande river valley. What a sight! From the brown and prickly desert to the lush green irrigated farmland. Pecan groves went on for miles with alfalfa and produce fields interspersed. We rode another 16 miles and then moved camp to the Las Cruces fairground for the weekend. Ali is improving on each outing.

This weekend, I've been getting help on my horsemanship and Ali has gotten some training from an experienced horseman.

During the parade today, in Old Masilla, all the riders congregated in front of St. Albino's Catholic church. The mayor of Old Masilla read a proclamation and wished the riders safe travel and God speed. Many of the children and families of Old Masilla came to view the parade and intermingle with the riders. There was a teen-aged girl who came up to give Ali a kiss on his nose and several children petted him. Many other children found there way to the horses in our group. PBS New York was there to film the event. Pictures were taken in front of the museum of all the riders to be put on display inside. Pictures will follow.

Tomorrow morning we leave Las Cruces and will ride 14 miles to Radium Springs, NM and stay at a state park campground.

Here's a little side note about travelling conditions on the ride....

Each day of travel, we break the day up into sections. As I pack Ali up for the day I do warm-up and stretching exercises each morning. We ride until mid-morning and take a water and snack break. A truck is travelling with us as an emergency vehicle and as a water carrier. They carry 150 gallons of water for our horses, and they drink almost all of it each day. We ride again until noon and have lunch and a water break. Each rider packs himself a lunch and plenty of water to last the day. In addition, we pack our horses a small amount of feed. Our average moving speed is about 3.5 mph. We take one additional break mid-afternoon and when we ride into camp each night we are all worn out and ready for dinner. And, you might be surprised to know that my seat is not sore!

I know you may be interested in the company I'm keeping on this adventure, but stay tuned, I've just met them myself. I'll be giving you a snapshot of who they are in the coming weeks.

The Start of the Adventure

Here I am in a Starbucks cafe in El Paso TX. We arrived in Las Cruces, NM on Friday and jumped right into the adventure.

Our trip out was mostly uneventful. We stayed at the Cactus Ranch in Shawnee, OK on the first night. Our hosts were very gracious and friendly. The second night we spent with Danny and Karen Alewine in Lubbock. They made us a great meal for dinner. We saw the southern high plains across OK, TX, and NM. The truck worked pretty hard getting us up and over the Franklin Mountains on US 70 highway in NM.

We are now staying at the grounds of the El Paso County Sheriff's Posse, oldest continuous sheriff's posse in the United States, what a lot of history there is on their beautiful facility. The Posse took many of us on a six mile ride along the Rio Grande River this morning. It is a spectacular site. I will add pictures when I get it figured out.??

We will go to the border at Santa Teresa, NM on Tuesday morning to start our ride north. My internet access availability may be less then I expected. I will do my best to post new events.

Trial Run

On Tuesday of this week Ali and I went to the Big River Ranch near Lexington,MO for a 2 day trial run. We tested our tack up time and various other processes to see what we could change or improve on. There are a couple of minor changes I made to the tack room to improve access.
I rode Ali 11 plus miles for 4:5 hours on Wednesday. I packed lunch for both of us and we ate on the edge of a pond. Ali was more interested in the lush grass then in the grain I brought for him. He did finally eat it along with half my apple. On Thursday morning we again went through our morning feeding routine (for both of us). We again made a timely departure from camp and rode off down the Missouri River levee.
Big River Ranch is a great place to ride. It follows the Mighty Mo for six miles and the trail are also up along the bluffs and ridges. There are good views all along the way and of course the river is just awesome.