First on-the-road update

Finally, we are here! I'm using the computer at the ranch so I can't upload photos, and I don't have glasses at the moment so forgive the typos.

We had an uneventful (thankfully!) trip with animals, people and equipment all working perfectly. The boys were cooperative, loading into the trail for their trip like good little soldiers, and rode quietly 11 hours until we reached our first stop in Elko. Next day, same thing, with all going well until we approached our next overnight spot at Moab, UT, where we were greeted with a spectacular lightning show. It looked like we were right in the middle of it but there was no thunder so it must have been far away. Still, it was dark, windy and the sky was lighting up every few seconds, so it was high drama. The boys were a little less happy about this, especially Cowboy who is my drama boy, and we had a little more action that night. The stalls were very small, only 8x12, and the wind was howling and the sand blowing. We got them settled in and got to bed very late, only to be woken by Cowboy whinnying frantically at 3:30 a.m. We had planned on getting up at 4:30 to hit the road by 6 anyway, so what's an hour? The horses never got breakfast so early. By the time we were ready to leave, Cowboy was in quite a state and wouldn't load, so we were delayed about 20 minutes trying to be good Parelli horsepeople and firmly but fairly shove him in the trailer.

Finally, we were on the road. The sand had been blowing so hard that we had sand in our hair, our clothes, our fillings had been polished and we had involuntary dermabrasion. We decided that the film on our faces was just mineral makeup. Fortunately, the rest of the trip was less dramatic and we arrived safely at Pagosa Springs, only to completely miss the entrance to the Parelli ranch and wind up in town, which we knew was a mistake. At least we knew enough to turn around and go back and not wind up in New Mexico like we did on another memorable trip to the ranch (my bad).

Everyone is settled in. The weather is gorgeous and the horses are happy. Looks to be a great class. One glitch is that I forgot the power cord to my laptop and the battery is low, so I'm doing this at the Parelli center and can't upload photos. I'm going to try to see if I can get another cord in town, otherwise the photos will have to be uploaded post-trip.

More later!