And The Adventure Begins.....

It was a very long, adventurous, exciting, exhausting, stressful and painful 21 days away from home. I have never been happier then being at home, sleeping in my own bed, hugging and kissing my animals and seeing my OH!

About a month before we were to leave for U.S. Nationals, our assistant trainer, M, informed our trainer, D, that she wasn't going to be able to make it to Nationals, at least not for the whole show. She said she could fly in for about 5 days to help out, but that would leave us without another driver for the long drive to Oklahoma. We were taking the 6-horse and the 5-horse, and we only had 3 people that could go. We had to have 2 drivers per truck, so that put my boss in a real bind. He tried finding another person that could drive and help out at the show, he called everyone he knew to see if they knew of anyone. About a week before we were to leave, a girl that worked for him 10 yrs ago, called him back to see if he was still looking for someone to go to Nationals. The job that she had just started hadn't worked out, so she would be able to go after all. The day before we were to leave, the girl I will call AJ, came to the farm. At least I got to meet the person I would be spending the next 21 days with before we had to jump in a truck together and drive 2,000 miles.

We left on a Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. The trainer, D, and the breeding manager, T, were driving the 6-horse with 6 horses and AJ and I were driving the 5-horse with 2 horses, 50 bales of hay, a ton of grain and all the lumber we would need for our set up once we arrived in Tulsa. We arrived at our layover spot in Wyoming at 7:00 a.m. on Thursday. We unloaded the horses, fed, watered, went out to breakfast and then went to find a hotel room to check into. I hadn't slept in 24 hours. I can't sleep in a moving vehicle. Come to find out, AJ also can't sleep in a moving vehicle. So both of us were totally done and exhausted. We checked into our hotel and took a nap for about 2 hours before we had to get up, head back to the horses to handwalk and feed. We then went out to dinner, and headed back to the hotel to go to bed. On Friday morning we arrived at the stalls to load horses and we got back on the road again by 9:30 a.m.

It was about 2 hours of leaving our layover spot, when we heard a loud pop, and saw that the 6-horse had blown a tire. We both pulled over on the side of the highway to change the tire. Once we were back on the road, it was pretty uneventful driving through the rest of Wyoming and Nebraska. By the time we cut down through Kansas, it was dark. Around 3:30 a.m. we came upon a toll booth. AJ was driving at the time, and we don't have toll booths where we are from. The guys stopped and then went through the gate and we stopped and didn't know what to do, the gate came up so we just drove through. We continued on when the trainer, D, radio'd us and said he took a wrong turn so we had to turn around. We ended up going through another toll booth and once we got up to it, the screen said to "insert ticket". What ticket? We radio'd the guys and asked what we were supposed to do. They said we were to insert our ticket into the machine, it would tell us what we owed and to put money into the machine. Um, okay. But we still don't know what ticket they are talking about. D gets back onto the radio and says "Didn't you guys get a ticket at the last toll booth?" We said "No, were we supposed too?" D says "Well, I don't know what you guys are going to do, figure it out!". While this conversation was going on, a voice came over on the speaker at the toll booth. He asked where we came from. AJ and I were so tired, I mean we had only been driving for 18 hours with no sleep and AJ says "I have no F-ing idea where we came from!" (We were both very pissy, exhausted and so done.) The voice says "You don't know where you came from?" AJ says "NO! We have been driving for 18 hours and I have no idea where I am!" I get on the radio and ask the guys where we came from. They gave me some highway and we relayed that info. We finally got a total to pay and the gate came up. We pulled up next to the guys and D had gotten out of the truck to head back to a car that was behind our trailer. He went to ask for directions, but they were lost too. They said they were following us, hoping we knew where we were going. We get back on the road and a little while later D get's on the radio and says "Are you wearing the gate across the hood of your truck?" He then asks how we even got through the first toll booth without taking a ticket. Well, the gate just opened and let us through! Then he wanted to know how we made it through the second toll booth. AJ says "I had to flash my boobs to get through!". A few minutes later we both just started laughing so hard until we were crying. It wasn't funny at the time, but the toll booth story gave us a good laugh for the rest of the show!

About an hour later (4:30 a.m.), the breeding manager, T, exited off the highway due to some really bad road construction. I was driving at this point. We ended up on the curviest, bumpiest, bloodiest "highway" I have ever seen. T had to be driving at least 70 mph on this dark, scary road where the speed limit was 55 mph, seriously? This road's speed limit should have only been 35 mph! You know when you get really tired, and your mind starts to play tricks on you? And you start to see imaginary things running out in front of you? Yeah, I was in that state. I was NOT going to drive 70 mph to keep up with the guys. I kept my speed slow and totally lost sight of the guys. I sure was hoping that they didn't turn off anywhere, because I had no idea where I was. After about an hour of this crappy road, I finally caught up to them and we ended up on a freeway and they had to turn around again. After driving around thinking they "knew" where they were going (MEN!), T decided to pull into a gas station to ask for directions (Really? Who would've thought that asking for directions would be a GOOD thing!) Well, this gas station had the steepest entrance, and we couldn't drive the trucks and trailers up there without bottoming out, so we parked on the side of the road. AJ and I get out and we seriously couldn't even stand, we were dizzy from that crazy highway, everything was spinning, it was still dark, and we just wanted to get there! Once T comes out of the gas station he says we have to turn around. Great. The road we were on was not the easiest road to turn gooseneck trailers around on! It was a narrow road with no shoulders. We drove up to a driveway, and pulled in and made a u-turn, with a steep drop off on the other side! AJ said she was so glad I was driving for that! We finally get back to the freeway and we get into downtown Tulsa, the sun was barely coming up........and had to drive through more road construction where the lanes were moved over and there were those big, orange barrels on either side. The lane wasn't even wide enough to fit an S.U.V, let alone a truck and trailer! The guys just blew through it, knocking barrels down as they went. I went for it, and said if I damage the trailer, so be it. I think I made a clean run, meaning I don't think I knocked over any barrels!

Finally! We see the entrance to Expo Square and couldn't have been happier! It was 7:00 a.m. Saturday. Since we couldn't check into our hotel until noon, we bedded stalls, unloaded horses, watered, fed and unloaded everything out of the horse trailers. By the time we finished that, it was close to noon, so we went to our hotel and got our rooms, took a 2 hour nap, got back up and went back to feed and handwalk horses. We went out to dinner, and went back to the hotel to get some real sleep! We had only been going for 36 hours with no sleep (The 2 hour nap doesn't count in my mind.)

So we survived (barely) the drive to Oklahoma, but would I survive the show and the drive home?

To be continued......................