Postscript... how we made it home alive

Rode Walter mule from Mississippi to Duncan, Oklahoma, where he got injured in fence wreck. Spent 7 weeks in Duncan while Walter recovered. Rode Walter from Oklahoma to New Mexico. Walter mule still showing signs of hip strain, decided he needed to get home and rest, not to ride him over the mountains. Kyle trailered us from Clovis NM to midstate... rode Walter a little further... hauled with racehorses from Albuquerque to north end of Phoenix... rode another day... Randy and Tony gifted us with the blessing of a trailer haul to Tucson, dropped us off a couple miles from the stable... and Sir Walter and I rode into town as I had imagined we would, slowly savoring our lone quiet walk up the dry Rillito riverbed, climbing the access ramp to the road, and riding up the drive to Riverbend Stables. 

 

Home.

 

Walter is in better shape now than the day we started. It was one of my goals. I'm proud of that.

[Postscript: Walter's hip strain healed up completely.]

Thank you to all who followed the ride for your support. I know there were times when y'all wrote wonderful comments on the blog and I could not reply, as I can't do comments from my phone.

But I want you to know that every word of support and encouragement from each one of you, whether comments on the blog, emails or phone calls, gave me a HUGE lift in spirits and morale - you have no idea how much it meant! Just knowing there were people out there who were sure we could do this.

When out on a Long Ride, if a rider gets lonely and discouraged they can stop thinking straight and make stupid mistakes, life-threatening stupid. Love and encouragement saves lives.

All of you helped keep me and Walter alive.

May all of you be showered with blessings, and may you enjoy many happy trails!

- Katie Cooper, Long Rider
(with a bray from Sir Walter the Red)

We made it to Tucson!

We're home.

Mississippi to Arizona!

Tonight... just want to say

THANK YOU to EVERYONE

One love, one life, blessings and beauty abound.

My love to you all!

And brave Sir Walter sends his regards.




Sir Walter the Red surveys his new realm

Almost home

Toni and Randy picked us up this afternoon and brought us to their
spread in Queen Valley, where we are their guests for the night.
Having a great time with new friends, freshening up, enjoying
wonderful hospitality & good company. Walter happy to be with horses.

Too tired to write more. g'nite all...

Next morning... went on beautiful ride in the Superstition Mountains

Toni and Randy, trail angels!

 

backtracking

Got great news! Toni, a member of AZBTR (who has never met me) is
going to haul us past the Phoenix metroplex Saturday, to her place in
West Queen Valley, south of town.

Last night was a pleasant stay at the racing barn, me in the tack room and
Walter in a ritzy pen with shavings. Trainer Juan's wife brought me
hot soup with the thinnest, best tortillas ever.

Today, rode off to get another 12-15 miles closer to Toni's spread, and find another
place to stay tonight. This is a very wealthy area near Scottsdale. The main road
we rode along is lined with huge million-dollar equestrian estates, elegant high-end boarding stables and training barns. All of them are behind locked automatic gates that open only to
vehicles. What side roads I tried out lead either to locked back entrances or to non-horse-property suburban houses, thier landscaped front yards planted with carefully chosen cacti.

We rode past all the fancy estates to the outskirts, where groomed grounds
gave way to empty desert and dirt roads leading to the occasional California-style house. No horse properties though, oddly. Then nothing, just desert hills as far as the eye could see.

We turned back.

We had travelled maybe 8 miles. We backtracked about 6 more miles before I
finally spotted a house with empty pens and what looked like an open side entrance. As I struggled with the wire ranch gate next to a cattle guard, a man stopped his car to offer help and ask who I was. Ron then called the neighbors - who weren't home - and got us permission to stay.

Tonight we are grateful guests of Dana and Trish, who own a pawn shop and have
6 dogs, 2 cats and no horses. That's right, they sold their last two horses three days ago.
Shower and cold milk (which I've craved, my body must need it), aaah!

Walter was pacing frantically alone in his pen, calling to the neighbor's horse. So
I pitched my tent in the pen next to his to keep him company. It
worked. He's quiet now, calmly munching hay pellets.

Early next morning...

Hellloooo Arizona

After six and a half impatient stress-filled days trapped in Bernardo
with no way out but riding Interstate 25 for 30 extremely dangerous
miles, riding the desolate road to Magdalena for 40 waterless
miles, or finding someone to haul us, we finally escaped. I paid a
racehorse hauler Vance had contacted to stash Sir Walter in back
behind the thoroughbreds and haul us to the owner's barn in Fountain
Hills, northeast of Phoenix.

Back in Arizona at last!

It felt very strange to trailer here, about 500 miles, eight hours in the
truck. Started out bad weather - wind gusts to 50mph, dust, then rain
off and on for a few hours. The beauty of the landscape was
breathtaking. Being accustomed to 3 miles an hour, the changes felt
like the speeded up time-lapse of an instructional science film. The
billboards, neon casino signs, trash and advertising and loud vehicles
farting exhaust felt like an assault.

But we made it. Arizona!

Next challenge: how to get around the Phoenix metroplex? Stay tuned!

the weekend

Our hosts in Bernardo, Vance and Alice M., run a thoroughbred breeding
operation. They have been going all out calling their racing contacts
to find us a haul to Arizona. It's looking pretty optimistic for next
week. Please think good thoughts and keep your fingers crossed for us!

In the meantime, I am spending the weekend in Albuquerque with my
Goddaughter Chloe and her boyfriend Jake. They are both wonderful
company - only wish I could have planned more time!

Chloe, not sure she wants her picture taken...

It was Balloon Festival weekend! This launch at 8am

Brrrrr

The weather has turned.

This morning I woke shivering in the predawn darkness, my little
shelter in the gooseneck of a horse trailer rocking in the blasting
wind. Cold as it was, I was grateful not to be in the tent with gusts
blowing in the sides.

Walter is starting to fur up. He seems to be adapting better to this
dry climate.

Tonight he's resting contentedly despite being in an open pen, feeling
safe and calm in the company of the surrounding herd.

And I'm snug in my little platform cave, having learned from last
night: wearing 2 layers, socks and gloves, with the wool horse blanket
draped over my sleeping bag. It's quite comfortable.

Don't know what gifts the morning will bring. Still in Bernardo.
Hoping to be home soon...

crossed the Rio Grande

In Bernardo tonight, low signal. (Bernardo isn't really a town - it's a place on the map where Hwy 60 and I-25 meet.) Vance M. stopped his truck this morning to ask where I was travelling to? Then offered to put us up about another 12 miles on, across the river and under the interstate, down a dirt road to his place with "lots of empty pens."

Crossing the Rio Grande was another one of those moments that had way more impact than I expected. The river under the bridge was running high from recent floods. Drivers passed us just before, giving us emphatic thumbs-up out their windows. Then there seemed to be a window of stillness as we crossed. No traffic, no sound but rushing water and the staccato beat of hooves on concrete. Walter was all business: trotting briskly with head up, ears forward.

And then it was done. We had reached the other side.

I tied Walter to a fence and tossed my canvas bucket over the rail, letting it fill and hauling it back up by the parachute string I have attached. My mule drank from the waters of the Rio Grande.

Tonight, guests of Vance and Alice M. at their breeding farm. Walter in pen, me out of the wind in horse trailer. Don't know if riding out tomorrow or waiting on possible haul. Didn't pass any N/S roads I could see besides I-25 on the way in. Don't see any side roads on the map either. Hmmm.

Walter wondering: "How will we get to Arizona?"

Sunset over Bernardo

Long haul & short ride

Once again I am humbled and blown away by the generosity shown us.

Johnny's friend Kyle S. has been keeping a roping horse and huge LQ
trailer at the house. Kyle lives 170 miles west. This morning Kyle
took his horse in the LQ and offered me and Walter a ride. Kyle being
good company, we got to talking... Kyle gets on the phone with
someone, and I hear him say "...we'll be stopping at the ranch to
switch trailers, and then I'm taking the mule lady to Bernardo..."
another 50 miles west! In one day, he got us past the truly desolate
dry stretch and to a couple miles east of the the Rio Grande.

Kyle dropped us off at the intersection of Hwy 60 and Hwy 308, a little 2-laner with barely any traffic that runs south, on the opposite side of the river from I-25.

heading down 380

Walter thinks he's on another planet

No Walter, we're not in Louisiana anymore...

From there we rode south on 308 about 8 miles to La Joya, where we are
tonight. I love these tiny New Mexican villages. It's good to be back
in the Southwest. And mountains! Mountains on the horizon! I know where
I am again!

First glimpse of the Rio Grande valley

La Joya post office

The only intersection in town. 380 dead-ends here.

Turns out 308 ends at this village. All roads south end at this village.
The Rio Grande is flooded and can't be forded. We'll have to ride all the way back to 60 tomorrow,
to where we got dropped off today, and cross near Bernardo. Ah, well.
It's only one day.

Tonight we are staying with Vince and Teresa, at the first horse pens I saw when we rode into town. Vince - with no prior horse experience - rescued an unhandled pregnant mare last year. She blessed him with an appaloosa baby with the most beautiful spotted blanket I've ever seen. Vince named the colt "Luna" because he was born at night under the full moon.

Teresa and Vince with mother and baby

Have to say it felt really, really good to be back on the road today on Sir
Walter. Walter seemed glad to be out too.

All tacked up & nowhere to go

Had Walter all saddled this morning and was about to lift the packs on
when I got a call - if I could wait just one more day, a haul to
Tucson.

I waited. This evening, the trailer ride fell through. But! Johnny
scored us a ride to Willard, 170 miles west of here. To put it in
perspective, that's almost 3 week's riding including rest days. Walter
and I are most grateful.

Yes, indeed we are.