For those interested in our full journey of Nationals this year, here it is LOL! We got a great start to our trip by getting horses fed on time and on the road around 5:30am which was only 30min later than planned but still good time. We were alert and ready for the day, the weather was beautiful for driving, no wind, nice sunshine, ect.....WELLLLL it wasnt to last....we get to Butler, MO on I49 and blow an inside dual tire on our truck....GREAT! So we call for road assistance and then sit for a couple hours just waiting for them to find us someone, THEN if that isnt bad enough sitting on an exit ramp with a load of horses, the guy that finally shows up FORGETS his tools and we have to follow him into town to the garage.....we get there and his grumpy old boss chews us out for not telling the road assistance lady that we had a trailer on our truck, well we didnt know it mattered and had answered all questions she asked us so told him so but he just said, make sure and do it next time! Remember this guy for later in our story! So got the tire changed and back on the road, now 4 hours later than planned! By this time our friend, Russ, who was 2hrs behind us, has passed us and waited for us in Lamar which was our next gas stop. We get caught up with him and get to Nationals with no further issues. We get there and I send mom to check us in while I clean and disinfect our stalls (all needed a thorough cleaning as they still had sawdust and manure in a lot of them). Mom comes back and tells me she slipped on the uneven cement by the arena and thinks she hurt her arm....we keep unloading and cleaning at that point since we need to get the horses off the trailer. Once we finally get everyone unloaded, watered, and fed we realize one horse is acting off and colicky so the long night of walking, banamine, and getting water into her begins....we get her to drink a bunch of water and she starts looking better so we figure we should get a little sleep since she wasnt acting colicky anymore (about 3am)....well mom is in a lot of pain so we text our other friend Sandy to call us when she gets up in the morning to see if she could take her to the ER but she was still awake even though in bed already and got up to take her in right then....so her and mom both were up all night and I got a whole 3 hrs of sleep before I had to get up and get our Ammy mares ready to show. We show pretty much through the day and attempt to organize through the other portions of the day and then drive Monte at night. Well little did we know that almost EVERY day the evening portions of the show went into the wee hours of the mornings and guess what I had to show each of the next mornings LOL! So not only did we go with little to no sleep each day but also rarely had time to get real food if any food! But as for our show we did very well with 2 Reserve National Champions and several National Top Tens! And we had LOTS of fun even in our sleep deprived states! So the week went on and we started packing up to leave sunday, got on the road after 11am which was already later than originally planned but no worries still going to be home at a decent time. O NO, BLEW THE SAME DANG TIRE ONLY 5 MILES SOUTH OF WHERE WE DID THE FIRST TIME!!!! OMG, our luck right! So we limp to the next exit to pull off and check everything over with Russ following us as we were travelling together. O boy this time did some decent damage, ripped up our electrical for our brakes/trailer, and the mudflap and bracket were bent up and rubbing on the good tire too so Russ, Mr. handyman that he is, got all the bolts off and took the whole thing off so it wouldnt ruin the good tire plus unwrapped the blown tire from around our axel, he was pretty much a rockstar! So we are sitting there trying to get help again so call Dons Tire and Service Center (remember that old grumpy guy earlier, well guess what same guy since we knew where he was and that he was a 24hr AAA emergency service center---yea right)....well he was there and told us we could come in but since he was the only one on call that he may have to go out for other calls while working on us...so we are like well we will just do that, but while we are sitting there Mom and Russ witness a car on the other side of the interstate lose control and hit the exit sign flipping the vehicle several times in the ditch!!! CALL 911 was all I heard since I was on the phone, so I hang up on who I was talking to, to make the call! Everyone was ok but shaken up and such, they got taken care of and we got back into our vehicles to limp to the service center. WELL we get there and guess what, Don is off to get the vehicle that flipped and claims he isnt coming back and is done for the day-awesome, plus he was really short and rude with us so! Well we call roadside assistance again and tell them we need someone to change the tire and not to bother calling Dons Tire and Service Center since we knew that would be the first on their list and told them he had no desire to help us.....while waiting for them to call back, Don shows back up (so much for not coming back) and still will not assist us so we had to wait for a very kind gentleman from a neighboring town (Rich Hill Tire) to change it for us and he was great! We had long ago sent Russ on his way when other friends were going by so he would have someone to travel with again since there was no point in him being delayed that much. So we went over to walmart once our tire was back on to get water for the horses and to electrical tape our wires so they would stop shorting out. So all that done and back on the road! We make it to our next gas stop and there are emergency vehicles all over the gas station we normally go to, well guess what, we have had enough excitement for one day and decide to go to the other station across the road! Surprisingly enough the rest of our trip goes pretty smoothly but we do have to pull off around 2:30am to get a 2 hr nap.....well we finally got home around 6:30am and get everyone unloaded, make sure they all get good drinks, and then feed them their breakfast. I then slept til noon and still feel exhausted today, going to take a while to get back into my normal schedule! If I forgot anything important I am sure Russ or Mom will add it in LOL!
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:57:15 +0000
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