Past few days, the more I get done, the more I realise I'm forgetting. Keep finding notes: "call insur. re prepay" "HC papers" "cat carrier" etc. ... each one eliciting an "Oh, crap!" as I try to figure out how to fit one more thing into the day's errands. Managed to ride Butch at least a few miles every day up until this one. Left the house at 9:30 am and didn't get back until dusk; turned him out to roll, mucked, put him up & drove off again. Even with fresh hay in the bin, poor Butch stood at the gate, staring anxiously as I departed. I suspect he senses something's up.
I can't even recall what took up all the hours. Let's see - visit friend in hospital, say goodbyes before trip. To CPA to file taxes. Office store, misc. Map store, long talk with veteran horseman from Texas who knew the route, knows equine travel and gave me some great advice, esp. on riding in the duststorms. I prepaid the cell phone/ISP for 5 months, which is a huge expense I won't have to factor in for the rest of the summer. (contract isn't up til September.) Spent time looking at a tablet to possibly buy for blogging en route, I'll sleep on it. (Can't afford to buy it, but since documenting is a big part of the ride, not sure I can afford not to.) I got vest, windbreaker & pants at the thrift store, good finds! Gassed up truck... cat supplies to go with Poots tomorrow... now, I should be packing, or in bed, Pitagirl aka Poots goes to Jack's tomorrow, and I've barely put a dent in getting ready!
So why am I listing all these mundane details? For future reference. I know I'll forget what this was like.
If anyone's reading - thanks for your interest!
On the night in 1925 before his departure to ride 10,000 miles from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Washington D.C. the young Swiss Long Rider, Aime Tschiffely, recalled that the carping of his critics caused him “to be assailed by a sickly feeling, as if my stomach were a vacuum.”
ReplyDeleteLike many before him, Aime’s longing for adventure had brought him to the point of no return. The historic horseback ride which had previously sounded so thrilling, was now looming with all its dangers, real and imagined, only a few hours away.
Perhaps it was in fact because he had no prior equestrian travel experience to fall back on that 29-year-old Tschiffely ignored the legion of critics who told him his quest was “impossible” and “absurd.” The morning he was scheduled to leave rain was falling and the roads leading out of Buenos Aires were already hock-deep in thick, sticky mud. The reporters regarded the whole thing as a huge joke: “A lunatic proposing to travel overland to New York,” – ran one story.
The intrepid horseman later wrote, “Eventually there was only one thing to do: screw up my courage, burn all the bridges behind me, and start a new life, no matter whither it might lead. Convinced that he who has not lived dangerously has never tasted the salt of life, that day I decided to take the plunge.”
The brave Swiss Long Rider went on to survive a host of dangers, then wrote a best-selling book, Tschiffely’s Ride, which exerted the strongest influence ever seen across every subsequent generation of Long Riders.
Yet less than ten years later, when Margaret Leigh was inspired by his example to announce that she was going to ride from Cornwall to Scotland, she too had to face the critics before she ever saw the road. In her own book, Leigh cautioned future Long Riders not to be discouraged before they ever set out. “I would warn you not to listen to the pessimistic comments coming from the host of clever people (in their own opinion) by whom you are sure to be beset when you announce your travel plans.”
Nor had the carping critics ceased their work as the twentieth century came to a close. That’s when an adventurous young Australian named Steve Nott announced that Tschiffely had inspired him to ride around the perimeter of that continent. Though the times, and continents had changed, the ridicule remained.
“You’re mad. You’ll perish in the desert. It can’t be done,” were some of the comments aimed at the would-be Long Rider before he set off in 1986. Nott didn’t listen either and went on to successfully complete his 16,000 kilometre journey around the Australian continent.
All three of these singular people were urged not to risk their lives, were told they would die, were reminded that their journey was irresponsible, dangerous, immature and ill advised. All three went anyway and no one now remembers the names of their cowardly critics. Yet we revere these heroes of the saddle.
Their courage demonstates that sometimes we just have to put our foot in the stirrup, swing into the saddle, take a deep breath and then head our mount towards the distant horizon.
Good luck on your journey,
CuChullaine O'Reilly FRGS
The Long Riders' Guild
Thank you CuChullaine! I needed this as I set out. I'm sure others will take heart from your words as well, as they plan their journeys. I'm carrying your well wishes with me... -kt
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