I purchased a mule from my friend Anthony in southern
Illinois back in, I think, Feb of 2015 with plans to pick her up in May. The
plan to pick her up changed many times over the months but was finally settled
for the 2nd week of June. After I had already purchased my new mule,
Nell, my husband and I decided that we wanted to move to Southern Illinois to
the Shawnee National Forest. We have put our house up for sale and my husband
went on this trip with me so we could look at some houses there and he could
get familiar with the area. Also on this trip was my friend Amy Beem, whose
truck and trailer we used and both are much nicer than mine. Another friend of
ours, Michele Cozart and my friend who boards her horse with me, Cierra Baxter.
Saturday June 6, 2015
We left on Saturday. Amy brought her mule, Annabelle, and
gelding, Washburn with her to ride. Amy
lives 1 ¼ + hour drive north of me so she and Michele were going to come down
Friday night and stay at my place so we could head out early Saturday. Michele
didn’t get to Amy’s house until later in the evening so they decided to just
come down early Saturday morning. They arrived at my house around 8:00/8:30 am.
Cierra arrived soon after. We loaded up all our stuff into Amy’s trailer and
were on the road by 9:00 am. With three people that could drive, we made the
decision to drive straight though and just keep taking turns. Amy took the
first shift of driving. We had no problem and didn’t hit any problem traffic.
We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for supper. Fred took the 2nd shift
of driving and I took the 3rd.
Then back to Fred and Amy drove the last stretch.
Sunday June 7, 2015
We stopped for a
quick breakfast at a McDonalds, I don’t remember where and arrived at High Knob
Camp at 10:30 am on Sunday. We unloaded our stuff to our rooms. Amy and Michele
were in the Motel. Fred, Cierra and I were in a trailer behind the Motel. Both
fairly close to Anthony’s camp. Amy got Washburn and Annabelle settled into
pens by Anthony’s place. Anthony and Cathy were at their camp but had to leave
that evening. We were all tired but Anthony and Cathy were going to ride and I
really wanted to ride Nell for the first time while Anthony was there. She has
just been started under saddle with only 6 or 7 rides on her. Anthony was a bit worried I would not like the
look of he Nell. He said she was real scrawny and he’d done all he knew to do
to get weight on her. He’d had her teeth done, wormed her and fed her as much
as she would eat of good grass and hay. Anthony said the vet told him she was
ok but Anthony was worried.
So, after months of waiting, I finally got to meet my new mule,
Nell. She was in a pen and came to say hi as soon as I walked over to her. Nell
is 6 years old and 16H and all white with the pink around eyes and muzzle. Not
my favorite color by any means but also not all that important to me either.
You don’t ride color. Anthony was right in that she is “scrawny” so to speak.
But, she is not much underweight. A little but not much. Nell has a very narrow
build and “rafter” hips. She is about as wide as a 2x4 from front or back view
but I really was pleased with her overall look. She has a good balance to her.
Nice long, well shaped neck and nice shaped head. Her shoulders, barrel and
hindquarter in good proportion to each other. And very long, but sturdy legs.
Her feet looked good too. Now, to see how she would ride.
She came and put her head right into the halter when I went
into her pen. She led out quietly and respectfully and was quite while tied to
the rail as I brushed and saddled her. She is completely trusting and didn’t
mind me touching her anywhere. She was a bit squeamish about the fly spray but
made no real fuss. Michele decided to take a nap so didn’t ride with us. Fred
took a nap also but hadn’t planned to ride anyway. Cierra chose to ride Elwood.
Always a good choice for anyone and one of my favorite of Anthony’s mules. Amy
decided to let her two rest and she rode one of her favorite mules, Inca. Anthony
rode Lewis, a mule he has in to sell for someone and Cathy rode Jed. Nell stood
nicely for me when I mounted. I thought I should be nervous riding a new mule
that is so green. But, I was too tired to really be worried. Anthony had me
take the lead with Nell right away and she walked right out with no hesitation.
Nell was keeping her eye on Anthony and wanted to be near him but made no fuss
about it. She really trusts him. He does indeed have a magic touch with the
mules. We had a great ride and Nell never did a wrong thing. She has a very
soft mouth and is soft in body and willing to bend and flex. She is still
figuring out the steering but did extremely well. She responded to leg cue as
well. She was very relaxed right from the start which made me very relaxed. We
stopped a few times when we came upon some large groups of riders. Nell was not
at all bothered by the big groups. She did great when asked to stand. I would
have to repeat my request several times as she does not yet understand what is
expected of her but she complied quickly each time. Again, I was impressed. We did a bit of bushwhacking as there is a
mule loose in the forest right now. He’s been loose for a week or more and has
been spotted a few time still wearing all his tack. The mule was spotted that
day and Anthony wanted to check a few areas. We saw some deer but no stray
mules. Cierra jumped Elwood up into Wobble rock when we got there. I was
content to just get Nell to jump up on one of the small ledges. She didn’t know
what to do and balked at first but before long, she made an attempt and finally
did as I asked. Again, I was very pleased with her. When we got back to camp,
we took care of the mules and I took a cold shower in our trailer. There was no
hot water and I didn’t realize that I just needed to flip a switch by the
kitchen sink to turn on the water heater. The bathroom in the trailer is very
small and the shower quite tiny. A bit of a challenge for us tall folk. Anthony
and Cathy left all the mules except for Jed, for us to use during the week.
Once the mules and horse were taken care of we headed to the Wal-Mart in
Harrisburg to pick up some groceries for the week. Except for Cierra who
decided to stay in camp and head to bed before it was too late. We stopped at a
Mexican restaurant for supper. My meal was pretty good but the others weren’t
too impressed with their meals. We were all exhausted by the time we got back
to camp and made one last check on the animals. Poor Fred ended up having a bad
night waking up many times with leg cramps.
Monday June 8, 2015
It rained during the night and was still drizzling when I
got up. I had a bowl of cereal then headed over to Anthony’s to check the
mules. Amy was already there and had fed and cleaned stalls. We went back to
Harrisburg to pick up a rental car. We took a quick detour to stop at a house
Fred and I wanted to look at. No one is living there and though we could not go
in the house, we took a quick walk around the property. After we picked up the
rental car, we stopped in to Kroger’s and picked up a few more things we’d
forgotten last night. When we got back to camp, we had lunch and by then the
rain had stopped and the sun was out so we decided to go riding. I rode Nell,
Cierra rode Elwood, Amy rode Washburn and Michele rode Annabelle. We rode by
the “Spring” and along the bottom of Hurricane Bluff. I led some with Nell, but
also put her in the middle and then the back of the group at various times. She
was fine no matter where I put her. We rode up around to the top of Hurricane
Bluff. We tied the mules up on the high line so we could check out some of the
great views from the top of the bluffs.
There is a tree on top of the bluff that is called the Christmas tree.
People have put all sorts of things on it such as bits, girths, horse shoes
and, well, just all sorts of things. It took us a few short circles around the
top of the bluff before we found the trail we were looking for to go back to
camp but we made it back just fine. We did get on a long stretch of trail that
was muddy but not so bad we could not get through. Whenever we were unsure of
which way to go, we let Elwood choose the way. We knew he’d bring us back to
camp. When we got back to camp, I turned Nell out on the grass so she could
roll. But, she just grazed and waited until she was back in her dirt floor
stall to roll. What was I thinking when I bought a white mule!!!
After showering, this time with warm water, in the tiny,
tiny bathroom in our trailer, I headed over to the hotel to help get supper
ready. Fred started a fire over at Anthony’s. We were making foil packets of
vegetables and chicken to grill over the fire. Just before we got them started,
I saw a big group of people all crammed into a truck heading up to the top of
High Knob and realized they were going to watch the sunset. I suggested that we
go up in the golf cart that we had permission to use and everyone quickly
agreed. Fred stayed back to tend the fire while the rest of us piled into the
cart hoping it had enough power to haul us all up the hill. I’ve never been all
the way to the top of High Knob. The view from there is beautiful and we had
the pleasure of getting to see a beautiful sunset. Then we prayed on the way
back down that the breaks worked well on the cart. They did and our skilled
driver, Amy, got us back in one piece. We went over to Anthony’s and grilled up
supper. The foil packets were fantastic with the marinated chicken that Amy
brought and we had potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, green
beans and summer squash in them. Cierra headed to bed not long after we had
supper. The rest of us hung out and just relaxed for a while, then fed the
mules and horse before heading to bed.
Fred had a much better night this night.
Tuesday June 9, 2015
Tuesday was the day Fred and I set up with a local real
estate agent to look at some properties. Our first appointment was for a home
close to camp at 9:30 am. I was up by 8:00 am and headed right over to
Anthony’s to feed the mules and clean stalls. Again Amy beat me to it and had
already fed. I told her for the rest of our week that I would take care of
cleaning Nell and Inca and Cierra would clean Elwood and Tiny. She and Michele
would then only have to clean out Lewis, Annabelle and Washburn’s stalls. That
way anyone could sleep as late as they like and no one would be stuck with all
the work. Fred and I met the realtor at the first house, which we loved. We
also liked the 2nd house we looked at. We looked at quite a few
houses but in the end liked the first two the best. The realtor was great and
very patient with us. We got back to camp sometime after noon. Cierra and Amy
had gone out for a ride in the morning. Cierra rode Annabelle and I think Amy
rode Washburn.
It was hot but we decided to head out for a ride after we had
some lunch. I decided to give Nell a break and rode Tiny. I’ve never ridden
Tiny before and enjoyed him a lot. I used my own tack on him and that was not a
good choice. My Steve Edwards saddle did not fit him and the more hills we did,
the more clear he made it that his shoulders were being pinched. I felt so bad
and bless his heart he dealt with it and didn’t unload me or anything. Cierra
rode Elwood, Michele rode Inca and Amy rode Lewis. We rode out to Buzzard’s
Roost and towards Garden of the Gods and made a loop. Once we were back, Fred
and I went over to look at Shawnee Vicky’s home that is for sale right by the
campground. It was good to see her again and she has a very nice piece of
property. For supper we once again made foil packets of vegetables to grill for
supper. Amy also made up some bacon wrapped scallops and Fred cooked some
Hamburg and hot dogs. I ate too much but it was all so good!
Cierra once again
went to bed before the rest of us. We sat by the fire for a while enjoying the
evening. Anthony had called earlier saying a woman was going to come look at
the mule Lewis that we had with us in camp. The woman, Sandy, did contact me
via facebook message. She had wanted to come that day but we were riding. So, we
arranged for her to come Wednesday morning. Michele’s sister, Didi arrived at
camp to stay for the rest of the week.
Wednesday June 10,
2015
I got up a bit earlier this morning and went down and fed
the mules and cleaned my stalls. I made a pot of coffee at Anthony’s. We
decided to ride to Garden of the Gods. Sandy arrived right on time. Then
started the fun of who would ride who and what saddle would work. Sandy of
course, was riding Lewis as she was interested in buying him. She had brought
her own saddle. I rode Nell in my own tack, which seems to be working well on
Nell. Didi rode Elwood and used my Tex Tan saddle I’d brought down, Cierra rode
Tiny in the saddle she’d been using on Elwood. Michele rode Annabelle and Amy
rode Washburn. Inca got the day off. We all packed a lunch to have at Garden of
the Gods. I put saddle bags on Nell but didn’t put anything in them. She has
never worn saddle bags before and I didn’t know if it would bother her or not.
It didn’t. I put extra water and my lunch in the saddle bags on Tiny. We didn’t
think it would be hard to get there but it turned out a bit trickier than we
though. We believed that the River to
River trail went right to Garden of the Gods, and it may, but somehow we got
off the River to River trail. When we crossed the road to Garden of the Gods
the 2nd time I was a bit puzzled as I didn’t remember doing that
before. We did get to the picnic area with the tie rails but took a kind of
round about route doing it. All nice riding though so it didn’t matter. We
stopped at Cathedral rock and played around jumping the mules and horse up and
down off the rocks. Nell was wonderful about it. Now that she’s realized she
can do it, she is more than willing. When we got to Garden of the Gods, we tied
the mules and horse to the rails and had lunch at the picnic table by the tie
rails. Lewis managed to somehow go under the rail he was tied to and damaged
Sandy’s saddle. Cierra, Didi, Michele and I walked around the rocks. I tried
very hard to get a photo op of Cierra by Camel Rock but that turned out to be a
fiasco that resulted In no photos due to confusion on where we really where on
the rocks. Oh well, I tried. We had a bit of a discussion on how to get back to
camp. I took a wrong turn initially but realized it before we got too far. Then
we weren’t sure which way to go as we could not go back the way we came, we had
accidently gotten onto some hikers only trail and didn’t want to go on them
again. Lewis mule was pretty certain on how we needed to go to get home and my
GPS agreed with him so we went with that. Both Lewis and my GPS were right and
we had a very nice ride back. When we were back to camp, I quickly put Nell
away and went in search of Fred. He was not answering his phone. I found him in
our trailer laying down and he was not feeling well. He had a BAD case of what
we are pretty sure was poison oak. It was really bad. Enough so that I took him
into the emergency room in Harrisburg to have it looked at and so he could get
some medication for it. Cierra stayed in camp with the others. It took a while
for Fred to get in and the ER doctor agreed it looked pretty bad. They gave him
a loading dose shot of steroids and a prescription to take. It was about 10:00
pm when we left the ER but there was a pharmacy nearby still open for him to
get the prescription filled. We were both hungry but didn’t want to cook
anything at camp being so late so we stopped in for a quick supper at Sonic. We
headed right to bed once we got back. It was another rough night for Fred.
Thursday June 11,
2015
We decided to take the day off from riding and play tourists
and go sightseeing. We started by going to Cave in Rock State Park. This is a
large cave worn into the lime stone bluffs on the Ohio River by flood waters.
It is said to have been a hideout for various notorious gangs during the late
1700’s and early 1800’s.
From there we
went to the River Restaurant which is a floating restaurant in Elizabethtown.
They serve great catfish there. We were going to go to the Twin Towers but
drove by the road and decided not to go back and went on to the Iron Furnace.
This is a historic stone and brick furnace built sometime between 1837 and 1839
to smelt locally mined iron ore. The resulting iron pigs were transported to
Elizabethtown and shipped out on the Ohio River. The Illinois Gazetteer Fred
bought made it sound like there was something else to be seen by saying there
was a ½ mile hike along a stream with the trail head at the picnic area. We
searched and found nothing. And from what we are told, there is nothing else
there.
From there we headed to Stoneface. This was a trail to hike up with great
views from the top. Stoneface itself was much smaller than I expected but the
trail was a fun hike and the views were indeed good from the top. Michele
skipped this hike and stayed in the car and napped. Cierra was wearing flip
flops not really appropriate for hiking but we dug up some appropriate sandals
for her to use. I don’t think either Cierra or the sandal’s owner were thrilled
with this but it allowed Cierra to make the hike with us so the loan was
appreciated. From Stoneface, we headed back to camp. We checked and fed the
mules, showered and rested a bit. I was running out of clean laundry so Fred
scrounged around for some change as High Knob Camp does have a coin operated
laundry. We found enough and I spent the evening doing laundry. Fred did help.
We washed a few things of Amy’s for her and this started a running joke about
Fred and a particular bit of Amy’s clothing. The dryers were not working all
that well so it took a long time to get our laundry into the dryers as there
was a line for them, and then took a while to get our laundry dry. Fred made
supper for me, him and Cierra, at the trailer. I hinted to Fred he might bring
my supper up to me at the laundry room, and he did. Then I changed my mind on
him as it was taking so long to dry the clothes and took supper back to the
trailer to eat. I really appreciated his thoughtfulness. That evening we all
gathered at the Hotel and played domino games and had a good time. Cierra sat
out the games but hung around with us for a while then headed to bed early.
Friday June 12, 2015
We had to return the rental car today. Didi offered to drive
us to Harrisburg so we wouldn’t have to take Amy’s truck. We took her up on her
offer. Once the car was returned, we decided to stop into Kroger’s to pick up a
few groceries for our supper tonight. We wanted to get something we could share
with Cathy and Anthony as they were coming back to camp this evening. We picked
up some steaks and more vegetables for foil packets and salad makings. Once
back to camp, we got a quick snack and packed a lunch and decided to ride out
to Initial Tree. We checked our map, consulted a few local riders and decided
we could make it with no trouble. I rode Nell, Cierra rode Tiny, Michele rode
Inca, Didi rode Annabelle and Amy rode Washburn. It was another sunny but hot
day, as all of them have been this week.
Nell was a bit excited when I saddled her up this morning. It took a few
tries to get her to stand still for me to mount. But, it didn’t take long and
she did do it. Then she was a bit jazzed up as we headed out. There was a big
group of riders in front of us on the River to River trail at the start and she
wanted to be right up with them. She didn’t do anything bad at all and listened
to me. We held back a few times to get more distance between us and the other
group. Nell settled down quickly and was a good girl. We did overhear some
comments from this group about our funny “outfits”. Riding tights and helmets
are not often seen in this part of the country. We don’t care though, we love
our very comfortable outfits and are happy to protect our heads. We had no trouble finding initial tree and it
was a lovely ride. We high lined the mules/horse and relaxed to enjoy the
scenery and our lunch. Washburn did have to be moved once to a solitary
confinement spot on the high line as he was bugging Tiny who was trying to mind
his own business. After that, all was well.
On the way back, we did a bit of a loop and then returned to camp on the
River to River trail. Once back, we took care of the mules and then cleaned up
and rested for a bit at Anthony’s camp. We got supper started before they
arrived so it was ready when they got there. We had a nice evening by the fire
relaxing and chatting.
Saturday June 13,
2015
I was up fairly early and after a quick breakfast, started
packing up. I went over to the McAllister’s camp and Anthony suggested taking
Fred and I to look at a property he know was for sale not far from camp. We
wanted to take a look so we hopped into Amy’s truck, who went also, and went to
the property. The property was on the corner of a dead end road. It was fenced
so we could not drive in and parked along the side of the road. We called the
phone number that was on the for sale sign but the number had been
disconnected. The owner the property died 3 weeks ago so we figured no one had
thought yet to change the phone number on the signs. We walked around the
property and liked it real well. When we got back into Amy’s truck, she could
not get it started. Fred and Anthony checked the battery cables, then thought
it might be the starter so Fred crawled under the truck and thumped on the
starter while Amy tried to turn it over and that didn’t work. Anthony then
called Cathy who sent a neighbor camper, Tom, out with some tools. It was
decided to take the starter off and take it into Harrisburg to get it tested. Tom
drove us back to camp. Anthony, Cathy, Fred, Amy and Michele went to
Harrisburg. Cierra and I stayed at camp. I cleaned out the mules pens then
Cierra and I sat in on Anthony’s porch swing on his porch and relaxed. I kind
of dozed off. When they got back from Harrisburg, Tom, Fred, Amy and Anthony
went back over to try to get Amy’s truck started again. The starter tested to
be ok. Somehow, the did eventually get the truck started but were not sure what
thing they did to get it going as they were boosting the two batteries and
thumping the starter but in any case, it did start. It was decided that we were
not going to turn it off again until we were home. And we didn’t. We quickly
loaded all our stuff into Amy’s trailer. Amy loaded up Annabelle and Washburn,
then I got Nell. I didn’t know how she would load but she was fine. She had to
sniff the ramp a minute but then went right in when Cierra came up behind her
and clucked a few times. She stood quietly while I tied her and exited the
trailer. I was pleased. We had an uneventful drive home. Fred, Amy and I kept
taking turns driving as we had on the way down and we kept the truck running.
It was late at night when we went through Ohio and too late I realized the GPS
was taking us home via the NY throughway. I like that drive but hate the high
toll. But, I didn’t want to turn around so just kept going. Nell, Annabelle and
Washburn all traveled well. I was so happy that Nell was quiet and relaxed. She
ate and drank well also. We arrived at my house around 7:00 pm. Pam was there
to meet us as well as Fred’s brother who had just come back from a motorcycle
ride. He keeps his motorcycle at our house. We unloaded as quickly as we could
keeping in mind the running truck and burning fuel. Nell got off the trailer
quietly and was good being led out to the paddock and settled in nicely. Amy
made it home safely so it was a great trip.
