Memphis Allen

Dad and Son
Why do boys get the good hair?
Mommy's Doing a Great Job!
I wonder if Carla will still find time to get her nails done when she gets home?
See a tad of tension in Mommy's face, (known her a long time!) Hang in there you are doing fine!
Snug as a Bug in a Rug!

Proud Parents

Memphis was discharged from the hospital yesterday. Discharge from a hospital is monumental in and of itself. All those instructions, forms to sign, etc., add a new baby and here is a quote from Carla's e-mail, "I seriously thought I was having meltdown when we got to the hotel. This is the scariest thing I've ever done and it terrifies me. Here's our newest problem. We are afraid to go to bed! I think we are going to take turns standing guard. How do people do it? We're scared to go to sleep!!!!!"

Frank and Carla's Christmas Present Delivered!!

Will write more later, but Memphis was born at 11:25 Seattle time: He weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces and is 19.5 inches long, lots of blondish hair. Carla got to go in the delivery room and has already fed him once. Everybody is doing fine!

Here is their blog:
http://memphis-in-seattle.blogspot.com

Stacey

Merry Christmas

Jeanne gave Sadie a Christmas collar. She loves it and if I take it off she whines at me to put it back on!

Yesterday we went to Miliken for a walk. Sadie was the envy of all the other dogs at the park with her Christmas collar. Then we had our traditional Thin and Crispy Hamburger Pizza from Pizza Hut. Jeff doesn't like pizza much, but we have it on Christmas Eve.

Today another walk at the soccer park. There was no one around so we had the playground to ourselves. We even convinced Sadie it was okay for her to go down the slide. Jeff and I played on the swings. I had forgotten how much fun it is gliding through the air!

For Christmas Jeff got a refrigerator to have at work and a safe to store our papers in. I got some cheese stuff, but the coolest present was a photo of Secretariat at the Belmont. It's signed by his jockey Ron Turcotte and it is shot from the front during the race. The jockey's head is turned slightly looking at the other horses 31 lengths behind him as he crossed the finish line!

Dan Fogelberg

I was saddened to hear Dan Fogelberg died today after battling prostate cancer since 2004. I always loved his music but one of my favorites is about a horse and the Kentucky Derby (the race is also known as The Run for the Roses). So in memory of him:

Run For The Roses

Born in the valley and raised in the trees
Of Western Kentucky on wobbly knees
With mama beside you to help you along
You'll soon be a-growing up strong

All the long, lazy mornings in pastures of green
The sun on your withers, the wind in your mane
Could never prepare you for what lies ahead
The run for the roses so red

And it's run for the roses as fast as you can
Your fate is delivered, your moment's at hand
It's the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of chance
And it's high time you joined in the dance
It's high time you joined in the dance

From sire to sire, it's born in the blood
The fire of a mare and the strength of a stud
It's breeding and it's training and it's something unknown
That drives you and carries you home

And it's run for the roses as fast as you can
Your fate is delivered, your moment's at hand
It's the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of chance
And it's high time you joined in the dance
It's high time you joined in the dance

Depressing Saturday

Karen and Ray were on the road by 0830 and then we left to take Sherrie to the airport a few hours later. We made one quick trip through Cowpens so she could see what it was. Next week is going to be lonely.

Most Wanted

Jeff has a pistol range down in the back and every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving we go down and do some target shooting. Steve loves to shoot and has an assortment of vintage guns from WWII and so forth. And Karen is really good also!

She always has the best ideas for the annual group picture. Last year we took pictures of everyone sitting on the tractor with our croquet mallets. Now after seeing the picture of Jeff's version of a hot dog bonfire, we don't want you to get the idea we are a bunch of rednecks but a picture is worth a thousand words. By the way we had the camera on a timer!





Steve left to go down to Charleston for the week-end. Jeff the pyromaniac with Rays help built a little fire out in the driveway and the seven of us (Keeshia and Sadie included) sat in our chairs around it. I'm sure the neighbors think we are nuts!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we girls did it right. We made enough of the food ahead of time that we didn't spend all day in the kitchen. Most of the afternoon we spent out in the yard watching the guys fry the turkeys. Everybody was a little tired from last night. After a wonderful dinner we all collapsed in the living room and watched a movie! Wonderful day spent with wonderful friends!

Turkey Frier Set-Up

The Chef's

Garage turned TV Room

Karen and Sherrie

Sherrie and her friend The Sadie Lady

Sadie fell in love with Steve this year!

Thanksgiving Eve

We all slept in a little this morning, then Sherrie and I started making appetizers (beefy cheese dip and crab dip), pumpkin pie and a cherry pie. She and Jeff hung the pictures we picked up yesterday. Jeff worked on getting the tables moved down to the backyard and running errands to town for stuff we forgot yesterday. Steve got here around one. We were still chopping stuff for gumbo and roped him into slicing all the cheese to go with the sausage Jeff was going to cook on the grill. Ray and Karen showed up around four. The three guys finished carrying stuff down to the back. The evening was a blast, we had a great time and hope to do it again next year. Several neighbors and their kids came. Judy and her mother came down also. I was so glad that Karen, Ray and Steve finally got to meet Sherrie, they've heard me talk about her for years. Here's a few pictures from the evening.

The wind started picking up during the afternoon and we thought we would have to cancel the bonfire. But by 7pm it had died down. I was up at the house directing someone down to the back when Jeff lit the fire. All I remember was seeing a big swoosh and the whole back yard lighting up. That's Jeff standing by it with the little bucket of water. We had to build a little fire off to the side so the kids could roast their hot dogs.



Finally the fire died down enough that we were able to sit around it!

Shopped Till We Dropped

Thank-goodness we canceled the trip to Gatlinburg. We started out around 0930 this morning and didn't get home till after 1600. The three (yes Sadie always goes with me) of us piled in the Subaru. First stop was Hobby Lobby in Spartanburg. Jeff told me if I didn't hang some pictures on the walls before Thanksgiving he was going to go around the house and start putting pictures up with scotch tape. Last week we gathered up all the large prints we've collected over the years and the four oil paintings we bought in Paris (in May of 06) and I took them to be framed.

Today only the horse pictures are ready, imagine that! But, it will please Jeff to have a few things on the wall. One horse picture is going above the black wrought iron bed in the guest room. The other one is a picture done by Orren Mixer, called Legends of the Breed. Orren Mixer has been known for his paintings of American Quarter Horses. I got this print from AQHA many years ago. It has three horses (just the heads) on it: King, Wimpy and Leo. Leo is Skipper's great-great-great grandpa and Peanut goes back to Leo and Wimpy. This one is going to hang in at the end entry hall where you come in the back door.

The Secretariat picture is going in the living room, to hang above an old antique table I found somewhere along the way. The photo was taken after he won the Belmont Stakes and thus the Triple Crown in 1973. The race is also know as The Final Jewel of the Triple Crown series. (The Derby is The Run for the Roses, the Preakness is the Middle Jewel). Only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown and Secretariat won the Belmont by 31 lengths. I get chills and tears whenever I listen to the live radio broadcast of that race, unbelievable!! In 1973 he was featured on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated in the same week. A few years ago I read an article about Secretariat and it said a group of MIT scientists entered his vital statistics into a computer and it told them he was not possible! I've been in love with him since I was 12 years old and he captured the hearts of Americans and horse lovers throughout the world.

While we were over near the mall trying to find a place to get a replacement battery we made the mistake of asking some guys sitting at a bus stop for directions and the next thing we know the crazy man is walking up to the car asking us for money. Sadie did not like it and told him about it! He didn't come much closer, I threw two dollars out the window and we got out of there.

Last stop of the day was to get stuff so Sherrie could teach me how she makes her meatloaf and it was great!

Landrum, NC

Today Sherrie and I went up to Landrum. We stopped in The Hare and Hound for lunch and were able to sit outside on the patio. It was a beautiful afternoon in the 70's. Did some shopping in town, tried to find a new battery for her camera, and then stopped in The Hayrack to pick up some wormer for the horses. Of course The Sadie Lady went with us.

Jeff took us to dinner at the Mexican Restaurant in Chesnee. We spent the time talking about everything we have left to do for tomorrow and decided to trash the idea about driving over to Gatlinburg. Tomorrow night after Ray and Karen get in we're having a bonfire/hotdog roast way down in the back yard near the creek. Also invited the neighbors (Jimmy, Robin, Christy, Brian and all the kids). This will be the first time they have all been down to our place.

Jeff and Sherrie tried hard to convince me it was okay to serve boxed wine down by the bonfire with all the appetizers we're making on Wednesday. It didn't work. I just can't imagine serving boxed wine to the neighbors we just recently met. My plan for a hotdog roast was to get screw off cap wine, which seemed as redneck as the boxed kind. We laughed till we cried arguing the points of boxed wine versus screw off cap wine. Finally they decided they weren't going to convince me and so screw off cap wine is what we're getting and hoping that our first impression on the neighbors is a little less redneck than serving wine in a box!

Chimney Rock, NC

Chimney Rock Park, NC

Today we loaded up in the Chevelle and headed for Chimney Rock (all the beautiful scenes from Last of the Mohicans were filmed there, and also Dirty Dancing .) It's about an hour from our house and the foliage color is at it's peak this week. We walked out to the falls then had a quick lunch back at the car. Spent a little time walking through the shops in town. We were thinking about going to Bat Cave but Jeff and I have never been there and didn't know exactly where it was. I had the misfortune of asking one of the clerks in a shop, "What is at the Bat Cave?" She looked at me kind of odd and said, "Bats," which Sherrie promptly replied, "She doesn't get out much and we have to take her back in an hour!"

I love this picture of Sherrie with the falls in the background

Sadie, Stacey and Sherrie

Pool that runs off over the falls

Picnic Lunch: Sadie Always has Her Own Chair

Sherrie's Here for a Visit

Every year we have a Thanksgiving get together at our house. Ray, Karen and Brian always come from Virginia Beach. Steve comes up from Sumter, the kids come from Charleston and then sometimes there are a few more. Susan and Tony came last year but her brother Guiddo is getting married so then can't make it this year. This is going to be a great year. Sherrie is coming from Missouri.

Sadie and I picked her up from the airport this afternoon. Had to show her the outside stuff (barn, cabin, horse barn, horses, garden, etc.) before going in the house. The house is just a house! I have this advertisement for Southern States horse products on the frig, it says, "If you've ever built an extension on your barn instead of your house, then you're our kind of people!" And I guess we are since the stall barn got an extension before we did much of anything else.

Reunion! Sherrie and Skipper haven't seen each other in 8 years!

Got Mozzarella!

I've got mozzarella made with dry milk powder! Now it doesn't taste exactly like the mozzarella you buy at the store, but it is mozzarella. A little rubbery and I think I heated it up too long in the stretching phase. I gave Sadie a bite and she spit it out. Jeff wasn't quite so rude. He didn't spit it out, but I noticed he didn't eat but two pieces of my mozzarella balls rolled in basil and olive oil. It looks like more practice is needed, but at least after yesterday's disaster I have cheese!

Disastrous Mozzarella!

Well the first attempt at homemade mozzarella appears to be a disaster. The instructions say you can use store bought milk. So I tried it with Wal-Mart's Great Value brand. I ended up with something that looked like Ricotta and made my kitchen, towels and hands smell like sour milk. Yuck! The instructions also say that you cannot use ultra-pasteurized milk. The milk jug doesn't say ultra-pasteurized, but I have noticed in the last year or so that all the cream, half-and-half and organic milk cartons in the grocery store are labeled ultra-pasteurized.

I'm not going to give up yet, the instructions say if you have trouble with store bought milk to make a gallon using dry milk powder. I don't know how I got so lucky to marry a man who supports all my crazy schemes, but he just ran off to the store to get some dry milk powder while I clean up this mess I have in the kitchen!

Great Birthday Present

I didn't get a goat for my birthday, but this cute little thing is one of the goats at Heidi's place in Maienfeld Switzerland. It was taken on our trip there in May of 2006.

Jeff with Heidi's goats.

I don't know why I exactly got interested in cheesemaking, but I remember reading Heidi when I was a little girl. I think the description of her sitting on a rock with her goats overlooking the Swiss mountains drinking her warm milk and eating her cheese curds left an image on me. Or maybe it was all the stories my Grandma Wagenknecht told me about her goats. Uncle Emery had an ulcer and the recommended treatment at the time was to drink goat milk. Johnny and Edna had the land so they bought some goats and milked them for Emery. I don't know if she ever made cheese, but she sure had some memorable moments with her goats.

When I was in my twenties I bought a book about cheesemaking. At that time there was no Internet and trying to find a place to buy cultures and rennet, building a press and getting cheese molds must have seemed near impossible. And I remember the book suggested making yogurt cheese as the first step. Yogurt cheese didn't sound all that good to me and the whole book sounded like a lot of work. So it ended up on a shelf. I wish I could find it now, but I imagine it got sold or lost along the way leading up to my 47th birthday.

I was reading a magazine a few weeks ago and the feature article was about home cheesemaking. The article described the explosive growth in artesian cheesemaking in the United States, it included a few recipes and a table describing the various types of cheeses (cow, goat and sheep), their characteristics and differences. And there at the end of the article was a web site that sold "cheesemaking kits" for the beginner. Jeff's comment was, "Don't you think that sounds like something you should try after you retire?"

I was totally surprised when my birthday present was a Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit. So here's to you Heidi!

Me and Heidi's Goats

Playing Mommy

Looks like both the North girls practiced playing mommy last week-end. Hopefully practicing won't be much longer! I don't know about Carla but I probably need a lot more practice after I let Kayleigh fly off the end of a playground slide.

Carla and Frank are at Hunts Apple Orchard in St. Joe. They spent the day with their friends TJ and Sarah and kids. TJ and Sarah adopted Miles in Thailand. They've been home for about a month.


Carla, Miles and Frank



Stacey and Paige

Kids and Pets Rule!

Charla, Jeremy, Kayleigh and Paige came for a visit this week-end. And it was all about the kids and animals! Friday night we took them to the diner in Chesnee. It's a little place we go almost every Friday night. The owner always asks us how were doing. The waitress knows Jeff likes sweet tea and I need a handful of lemon packets to go with the fish. It's a kind of quiet little place, southern cooking and kid friendly. Kayleigh got a little bored before we were all finished and Jeff took her for a walk around the restaurant. A perfectly okay thing to do here. Little old men gave her pennies and dimes and thought she was the cutest thing around. She came back with over a dollar in change.

Saturday morning all of us got around to go out and feed the horses. Kayleigh's smile captures it all! I've have that same feeling when I go in the barn and hear horses munching on their oats, the smell of our hay barn when it is stocked up for winter and the pure pleasure when a horse nuzzles his head against your chest. Hay and horses, if they bottled the scent I would buy it. That's Skipper blowing in her ear!

For the Love of Horses!

Horses seem to know the difference between adults and kids, at least mine do. Skipper is a perfect gentleman around them. He takes the carrots a little slower and puts up with more rubbing on his nose. He's taking a keene interest in Paige below.

Peanut was enchanted by Kayleigh and kept his head down to the ground so he could be at her eye level.

Let Me Tell You a Secret

I asked her if she wanted to ride Peanut. Not sure if she really knew what I meant, but she said "yes". Jeff got him out and I sat her up on his back. No tears, just smiles as he and Jeremy walked Peanut around the yard. Several times later that day Kayleigh said, "Ride horses."

Kayleigh loved Sami too and helped me put him to bed every night. She'd help me pull the curtain over his cage and we would wait for him to say “Nite, Nite”, which he always does when I turn off the lights.



Now Sadie was another story. The poor dog, Kayleigh wanted to pet her so much and was going after her around the coffee table. It must have scared Sadie to death because she peed on the rug! She must have been mortified because she hasn’t done anything like that since she was a puppy. By Sunday morning she was finally warming up to Kayleigh. It was better when we were outside and Sadie could get away, then Sadie wanted to play with her and would come up and give her a big doggie kiss.

Jeremy and Charla had been wanting to take Kayleigh to a zoo because she loves animals. We have a zoo, mind you it is a South Cackalacky zoo not your regular kind of zoo. Our zoo has a safari ride where the animals come right up to this open air bus and stick their heads in so you can feed them. The bus has a big tub of bagels and all the animals regardless of species are addicted to them.

Feeding the llama's and the deer was a pretty tame experience, but then the Bull came. It was your regular American Bull. He was taller than Skipper and probably weighed over 3000 pounds. He stuck his nose right up to Kayleigh, opened his mouth and she stuck her bagel AND hand right in. Of course I was screaming and snapping pictures at the same time and Charla and Jeremy were grabbing for her hand. In the meantime I forgot I had a bagel sitting in my lap. This bull stuck his head right in my lap and was kind of butting me in the stomach trying to get the bagel. Jeff was laughing so hard, he sat there and watched me scream. Ginny said we should have got it all on video we could have won 10,000 dollars on America's Funniest Videos.

Kayleigh was very particular about which piece of kibble she fed the llamas and goats.

Charla said llamas are one of the most gentle animals around kids and they only have teeth on the bottom. Kayleigh called this one, "Momma Llama".

Feeding the baby goats was a treat! They are sort of obnoxious about it and butt each other out of the way. Kayleigh has no fear of animals. I see a vet in the future!

Our neighbors were having a block party this week-end so after the zoo we went to the pig roast. There were lots of kids and Kayleigh got to play on the slides and swings. We came home and Jeff started on his Gumbo for dinner while Charla and Kayleigh took a nap.

I decided I was never going to get to know Paige if I didn't just pick her up. She is such a sweet quiet little thing you would hardly know she is there. She sits in her carrier and doesn't make a sound, but smiles a lot when you talk to her. So I started carrying her around and she became a permanent attachment the rest of the week-end.

We spent the evening watching Jeff and Kayleigh build blocks and play hide and seek with a blanket. Sunday morning we had to all say good-bye. It was a great week-end.

Parent's Week-End at College of Charleston

We went down to Charleston for Parent's Week-End at College of Charleston. Dropped Sadie and Chase off with Sherri then Sarah took us on a tour of the college. It is absolutely a beautiful campus. All the old buildings. I remember driving by it when we lived there, but had never actually went in any of the buildings. We had lunch at one of her favorite places and then hit the school bookstore to buy some sweatshirts!

Lance Left for Japan

We drove down to Charleston today to see Lance off to Japan. Met him, Sarah and Sherri at the airport. It was sad, but hopefully he'll be able to come home this summer. He is so grown up now. I can't imagine not seeing him for over a year.

Went Shopping with Lance

Lance came up for a few days. We went to meet Jeff for lunch at the Thai restaurant then headed up to Gaffney to go shopping. We picked out a pair of tennis shoes for Jeff then got some new shirts and pants for Lance to take to Japan. We had a dinner at church this evening that we had planned a long time ago, so Lance went with us. Had a good evening just being able to talk.

Kids Here this Week-End

Lance, Sarah and two of their friends went to the Clemson game on Saturday then stopped back at our house today. I love having them and their friends around. We all sat out on the swing and chairs in the front. They are the greatest kids. We are so lucky!

No Chickens

Jeff said the one thing we can't get is chickens, but it seems they have gotten us. Down by the creek bank we have a family of orange and black chickens. They live in the trees and peck around on the ground when Sadie isn't in sight. Today I'm off to the feed store to get some cracked corn for them and the deer. I guess Jeff will be okay with that as long as they stay down by the creek and don't decide to take up residence in our front yard (like the neighbors down the road).

Yesterday an 8 point buck ran in front of us as we were on our way to dinner and last week I saw Skipper alertly eyeing something down near the creek. He's the leader of the herd (now 4 horses, I'm keeping two for a friend) and is on constant look out for anything that might endanger his entourage. With his companions unaware of the danger he watched the two deer and one spring baby make their way across the open area into the woods. I love horses...they fear everything that moves...and everything that doesn't.

Claytor Lake 10th Anniversary 2007

Lake Week is the end of summer vacation Jeff and I look forward to every year. And this year was the 10th anniversary of Lake Week with the Nuszkiwics’s. Every year Ray and Karen rent a house (Betty’s Folly) on Claytor Lake in western Virginia the week before Labor Day week-end. In that part of Virginia the kids are back at school and for the most part we have the lake to ourselves. It’s a wonderful place to relax for a week. The house is right on the lake with a boat dock in the back yard for the Joanie Belle. The house has three bedrooms, two baths, and a large screened in porch that overlooks the lake. The yard is huge with a patio that stretches the whole width of the house.

This year there a great crowd to celebrated the 10th anniversary. Ray, Karen, Brian and their doggie Keeshia. Colleen (Ray’s sister) and her partner Tina were able to come from Arizona. Susan and Tony brought their daughter Gina and her partner Kate and their doggie Connely. Jeff and I came of course with Sadie. Lance came up for a few days as he started his 30 day leave from the Navy.

Jeff and I brought our tent this year, we thought it would be no problem for us to sleep in the tent on blow up mattresses. We had barely gotten the tent up on Saturday afternoon when the most horrendous storm blew in across the lake. The wind must have been 40-50 miles/hours. For over an hour the rain and wind beat up the tent and eventually flattened it. We ended up putting our blow up mattresses on the screened in porch. We tried the tent the next evening and Sadie kept us up all night. She was certain the boogy man or some critter was outside and spent the whole night getting up and looking out the windows. At one point we thought she was actually going to go through the window. After that we opted for the screened in porch. It was a comfortable, cool place to sleep.

Sunday August 26th was the big family/friend get together. There were at least 40 people there. Karen’s dad Marcel and his wife Kathleen cook most of the food for the traditional gathering on Sunday. They live in a small town about 30 minutes from Claytor Lake. We had perfect weather and spent the day sitting in lawn chairs, eating, water skiing and visiting with people we hadn’t seen since last year.

Once the big get together is over the rest of the week is pretty quiet. Karen always brings a few puzzles and she, Susan, and I have a tendency to get totally focused on working them. All three of us love to read and so it is not unusual to find all of us sitting together out on the patio, noses in books, perfectly contented. Ray and Jeff are the boat/cruise directors. Their role is making sure everyone has a great time on the boat and they take their job seriously! They’re at everyone’s beck and call when it’s time to go for a dip in the lake, run to the marina grocery store, or take a turn water skiing. Brian is a born natural when it comes to water sports and every year he has some new wake board tricks in his repertoire.

This year Ray brought up this thing (that’s all I can call it, so a description is probably better). First off three adults can sit in it. It’s like a little blow up boat in the shape of a circle. The sides come up about two feet all the way around. He pulls it behind the big boat with a ski rope. You might think that sounds fun and relaxing to be pulled in a little boat behind a big one. It would be relaxing but the intent is to flip the riders out of the little boat into the bigger lake. Ray zigs and zags the big boat in an “S” shape and that sends the little boat flying across the waves from the wake. Karen, Susan and I decided to give it a try. It was going pretty good at first, actually I think Ray was being easier on us than he is on the teenagers. I don’t even think he saw this coming. It was one of those “in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe the right place at the right time”. We hit a high wake that shot us into the air. When we hit the water all I saw was four legs, spread eagle flying out the back of the little boat. The next wake was a repeat of the first one. One minute I was airborne in the little boat the next minute I joined the girls in the lake.

We played the usual card/board games: Golf, Domino’s, Cribbage, and Poker. This year Lance and Brian showed the adults some new card games. Mind you Lance is 22 and in the Navy, but Brian is still in high school. So we adults wondered how Brian knew the rules to these games so well, considering they were “drinking card games”!

Happy 10th anniversary to Ray and Karen, I hope we get to spend many more lake weeks together.

Cross Country Trail Ride, Eminence, MO

My friend Sherrie and I have been going to the August "Cross Country Trail Ride" (CCTR) held in Eminence MO for over 10 years. After moving to South Carolina I've been able to make it home for the trip occasionally and have gone a total of 6 times. Sherrie's a little ahead of me with 8 trips. We each earned our coveted "5-Year Silver Buckles" and are working on the "10 Year Buckles". We've had such a good time each year that I'm always a little sad in August if it happens to be a year when I can't get back to Missouri for the ride.

I wish over the years I would have written about each of those weeks. They hold some of the special memories of my life. I decided I was definitely going to get some of the moments down on paper from this year’s trip (August 5-11, 2007). Maybe some day I will write about the funny things that happened in the past.

But, first a little about CCTR, CCTR is not trail ride where all the participants get in a long line and follow each other through the woods, though the name sort of implies that. CCTR is actually a 75 acre campground that sits along side the Jack’s Fork River in Eminence, MO. Sherrie and I were able to go to the August 2005 ride which marked CCTR’s 50th year anniversary.

Cross Country Trail Ride Campground


Campground Map

To register for the ride you pay a fee to reserve your camp site (15$), a fee for each horse stall you reserve (15$/stall, we always get four stalls) and a registration fee that is amazingly less than 225$/person for the week. There are about six week long scheduled rides during the year (about one every two months) and a few special 3-4 day rides over the Fourth of July and Labor Day. We’ve always gone to the August ride. There are usually 2,500 to 3,000+ riders in August. It's one of the biggest rides for CCTR, the other being the October Ride.

All your meals are provided, so other than any snacks and drinks for the cooler at your campsite the only food you need to bring is what your horses need. And if you run out they will surely sell you hay, feed and horse bedding in the CCTR Camp Store. The people food is home cooked and served in a huge Mess Hall; breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have a snack bar for stuff like burgers and fries and a camp restaurant if you want to purchase a meal rather than eat whatever is being served in the Mess Hall. But, the food in the Mess Hall is great and it's always amazing to me that they can serve as many people as they do in such an efficient manner.

You can tent camp or bring a camper. Each campsite has electricity and water. They have around 3000 stalls in multiple barns that are scattered around the campground conveniently located near the campsites. From our campsite we can see our horses hanging their heads out of the stalls watching us. The stalls have easy access to water (need to bring your own hose, though usually the first campers that bring their horses in the barn hook up their hose and we all share it for the week).

Our campsite is #143. We sit at the intersection of six camp roads. From our comfy chairs in front of our tent we see every kind of horse and every kind of rider go by. One of the camp farriers is across the street from us. Everybody calls him Arkansas because that's where he's from. I don't know his full name but he comes over every morning for a cup of our coffee before the Mess Hall opens. We've met lots of friends over the years that camp close to us or keep their horses in our barn. It's always fun to see them again and catch up on what's been going on.

There's an inside riding arena at the camp. During the week events such as barrel racing, kid horse shows, amateur horse shows, and horse sales take place in the evening and you are free to ride your horse in the arena anytime of the day or night. A country western band plays on a stage under the stars every night during the week. You can faintly hear the music from most places in camp. One evening during the August ride there is special entertainment by a prominent Nashville entertainer. We’ve seen George Jones, Joe Diffie, Rhett Akins and Daryle Singletary to name a few.

The horseback riding trails crisscross the Jack’s Fork and Current Rivers in the Ozark Mountains and are accessed from various river crossings and logging roads from the campground. Most of the trails are in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri’s largest national park. CCTR sponsors daily organized rides guided by CCTR trail bosses or you are free to venture out on your own. Riding along the rivers and crossing them are experiences every rider should have. The horses like playing in the cold water also. They splash it with their noses or paw at it with their feet and nothing feels better than having your horse flip his wet tail and send a spray of cold water on your back in the hot sun. Every once in awhile you see someone get bucked off in the river which is sort of entertaining if it isn't you.

When the horseback riding is done for the day, there are several beaches along the Jack’s Fork. Tubing down the river from the town of Eminence back to camp is a popular afternoon activity. We have a beach near our campsite. It is about a three city block walk. We used to go inner tubing but this year we decided to just hang out at the beach. Much less hassle than blowing up tubes then finding someone to ride with to Eminence so you can float down.

Sherrie and I came back with the best tans this year than ever. We took our beach chairs out to the middle of the river where there's a shallow place, sat in them and watched the tubers go by. The last day, some guy came up to us and said, "Haven't you two ladies been sitting here all week?" We surely had. It was so hot this year that we got up early to ride and were sitting in the cool river by one every afternoon. We have a little "red-neck" cooler I got for Sherrie this year. It's an insulated tin pail and lid stuck down in a small inner tube. We tie it to the chairs and with something cool to drink we sat there everyday till 4 or 5pm.


CCTR is a great place to vacation if you love horses and riding. The following posts are memorable moments from the August 2007 CCTR.

Casper the Friendly Spook

There is an old saying that the art of horseback riding is keeping a horse between you and the ground. Sherrie gets a gold medal for that!

This year Sherrie brought her beautiful black Quarter Horse Poncho and a sorrel and white Paint, named Red Cloud (who was the nemesis of Skipper and Dakota when he was growing up). When we went on the ride in 2005 she brought the same two horses. She road Poncho and I road Red Cloud. She asked me if I wanted to switch this year and I said no, I'd just ride Red Cloud again. I've known him since he was a baby and he still has that inquisitive personality that we all fell in love with. Boy, am I glad I made that decision!

Poncho (alias Casper) spooked at everything this year. He spooked at his reflection in pick-up trucks, he spooked at little pieces of paper on the ground, he spooked at the same yellow trailer everyday for a week! He got so spooky with his spooking that as we came to bends in the trail he would veer off to the side and crane his neck around the corner to peek down the trail ahead.

Poncho doesn't do "little spooks". He does have one good habit about the whole thing; he faces his fear rather than running away from it. The bad part though is he spooks after he has already passed the fearful object, meaning he does a 180 in order to get a better look at whatever set him off.

I rode most of the trip behind Poncho (for reasons I'll explain later) and I was overcome by pure awe, amazement and admiration whenever I watched Sherrie manage to stay on him. If he had spooked and jumped 8 feet with me, I would have been catapulted another 16 feet through the air.

If you are not familiar with spooking horses let me explain how it all works. A spook is an electrical charge that starts deep in the horses body and develops into a lightening bolt. Then it travels bi-directionally out of his body.... out of his mouth into the butt of the horse in front of him and out of his butt into the mouth of the horse behind him. You have a magnificent chain reaction as this bolt of electricity travels through the whole crowd.

Pity the poor horse in front of a spooker. He doesn't get any visual warning just a shock with a cattle prod from behind. And so Red Cloud and I decided it was best to stay behind Casper. At least we could see him in action before the lightening bolt shot out his butt. As with anything desensitization rules, Red Cloud finally ignored Poncho and came to the conclusion that the horse in front of him was just plum crazy. Red Cloud deflected most of the lightening bolts with a toss of his head.

Notice I said "most of". The last day of the trip we were riding down a trail towards a clearing that is sort of like a wagon wheel where 6 separate trails come to a head. The ever cautious Poncho peered out into the clearing before walking the last few feet. Unbeknownst to him another group of riders were coming down the trail opposite us.

Just like crossing a narrow bridge in the middle of Timbuktu an 18 wheeler always comes along and crosses at the same time. As Poncho walked into the clearing the other horses came off the trail on the opposite side. These were not little lightening bolts. It was an electrical storm that shot bolts from all directions as the horses across from us spooked at Poncho spooking. The clearing was such a mess of electricity that Red Cloud spun around and started to high tail it for home via any other route.

Within minutes all the riders had control of their horses. Everyone managed to keep a horse between them and the ground. We all passed each other in the clearing laughing and shaking our heads at the little electricity generators we were riding.


Poncho (Casper) looking at the Loch Ness Monster.



Opps! The Monster swam off to the right!



Ponchs says, "Get me outta here!"

(Eminence, Cross Country Trail Ride, August 5-11, 2007)