On Tuesday Jeremy and I loaded up the two horses from CA that we were going to haul to CO, to pick up our remaining 6 that the Ford's had so generously cared for all summer.  (We did leave 3 in CA, Liger, Smitty and Mo.  Skip and his daughter will ride Mo and Smitty this winter.)

We put our new 6 yr old Anglo gelding Erebus (named after a volcano in Antarctica) , and our new 6 yr old Arab gelding Gold Dust Rising aka Dust into the trailer around noon. 

We had just had our truck in the shop while we were in England to take care of a problem that we had on our way from CO to Tevis, and the truck got some new tires and the trailer had gotten new tires and rims so all should be good and things should run smoothly...we made it 3 hours!!

Just past Auburn the truck started to have the same problem that had just been "fixed".  It would just lose power and we would be climbing at a mighty 25 mph on a not too steep climb. Considering that we had traveled 3 whole hours of the 39 hour drive it seemed like we should call our friends Rachel Shackelford and Brett Lain.  They live in Newcastle, near Auburn and Brett is an awesome mechanic with his own shop.

We turned around and drove back to their house and spent the night, horses and all.  That night we had sushi and had a great time hanging out.  We also hung out with Peanut the potbelly pig.  She is pretty cute and runs to you when you call her!

The next day I went with Rachel while she gave a lesson and Jeremy and Brett went to the shop to work on the truck. They were pretty sure they had it nailed.  There was some sort of valve that when your truck has too much pressure (? not a truck person?) it breaks so that your engine doesn't blow.

After the truck repair all four of us with our three dogs went to the American River for a swim.  Jeremy and Brett ran from the Tevis finish line and Rachel and I drove down to No Hands Bridge and hiked down.  All of the dogs and Brett and Jeremy swam.  It was too cold for the girls:)

That evening we went and had Mongolian BB-Q.  Then we hooked up the truck and took off around 8 pm Weds night.  The rest of the drive went well with the exception of the AC stopped working about the time we got to Moab.  AHHH!!!  Love this truck.

We arrived in Durango, CO about 2 pm and turned the horses out with our other guys.  So good to be back in Durango!  The aspens are all changing colors to reds and yellows.  So beautiful. 

On Thursday evening we had a relaxing dinner with Lisa and Garrett and shared some laughs.  It was fun.

Friday we took both trucks (we left the second rig in CO, so now there were two:)  to get an oil change.  Then Jeremy went bike riding with Garrett.  I went and ran errands that needed to be done before pushing off on Mon morning.  After the errands and bike ride Jeremy and I met up and had lunch in Durango at a cute place.

Sat. we woke up and went up to the mountain trails.  Lise went mtn bike riding, Garrett and Jeremy went running and I went for a hike.  So awesome, all of the scenery is amazing.  On our drive back, Jeremy climbed up into an apple tree that was on the side of the road and shook the tree to get the highest apples to fall off to give to the horses.  It rained apples and we scooped them up.

That afternoon we trimmed our herd and then went to dinner with the Ford family.  It was really enjoyable as usual.  We were at a rooftop restaurant and the weather was perfect.

Today, Sunday we woke up at 6:45 to go for a ride up in the high country to find more aspens.  I rode Honor and Jeremy rode Chanses.  Lisa rode Clunk and Garrett rode Derby.  Over all it was super fun, a few wild moments on the narrow trail but a great time in all. 

After the ride I drove to the Durango airport to pick up our friend Rebecca Silva.  She was flying in to help us make the trek to FL, soo cool.  She will also be living at our place thru the winter helping us ride.

On our way home from the airport we stopped at the grocery store to get driving food so we don't have to do fast food.  Then when we got back Jeremy had already loaded up everything!  He is the BEST!!

Tomorrow we will wake at 3 am and take off headed East.  Maybe we will see you in FL!

Heather