The Wilsons turned left and the Adkins went straight ahead when we left the Natchez Trace Horse Camp. They were headed home to Alabama and we were on the road toward West Virginia, with a stop or two for another trail ride.

I was navigating and talked Eddie into avoiding the busy interstate and we were on a winding road headed north when Eddie said, "When we find a place big enough to get off the road, I need to check the power steering."

The hair stood up on the back of my head. Here we were in the middle of nowhere and not a house or car in sight! Truck trouble was not what we needed as we pulled a four-horse 28 foot Sundowner with living quarters.

The blacktop road was not very wide and we drove several miles with that soft whine of the truck keeping us aware of the need for power steering fluid.

When we found a road turning off, we pulled in the deserted highway to check it. There was only a little bit left in the bottle, but Eddie added it. We didn’t know it then but the hydrobooster on the brakes was going bad. When we got home, a new one had to be installed.

The road was deserted when we stopped, but in less than a minute two cars came along and had to ease slowly around us.

"If you had told me we needed anything, I would not have chosen this deserted, narrow road," I told Eddie.

"It will be all right until we find a service station."

Finally we came to a little town with a larger highway going east/west. Eddie got more power steering fluid and brake fluid. I tried to call Art Howell at Big Sandy Trail Ride in Tennessee. I was thankful to have the old cell phone, even if it didn’t get enough signal to get out all of the time.

Before we left home, I copied the states I would visit out of the trail rides in the Trail Rider Magazine. The first time I got through, I asked Art if we could come by and ride a day or two on our way home. He told us we were welcome to come by but they were closed and they were all going to Coldwater, Florida, at six o’clock in the morning!

"I don’t believe that I want to leave that early in the morning, so we will catch you all next time. Thanks anyway." I told the man we had met several times on the National Trail Rides.

Back to the notebook as Eddie drove on toward home. Bucksnort was also closed for the season this late in November. I had to find a place to stay and ride soon because the route we took had to be decided.

Double J Stables in Mammoth Caves, Kentucky, was open! We made the reservations for the night and refined our course of travel.

Again, we arrived about four o’clock which was within our goal of not driving after dark. We stopped at the mailbox at the end of the road and called on the walkie talkie as directed. The road was too narrow for passing, so we needed to have clearance that nothing was coming toward us. After several calls with no response, Eddie pulled out in search of the campground.

After we cleared the trees, we could see that the way was open. We pulled up in front of the barn and the man came out to assign a stall for the horses and a camp site. Stalls were under roof and we were glad to let the mare and gelding have room to move around after traveling about all day. Camping was $20 a night and $5 each per horse. I thought that was very reasonable for the facility.

Also available were paddocks and lots where several horses roamed and grazed. I particularly like the place provided to bathe the horses. A large ramp was constructed and a manure spreader was parked along side it to facilitate cleaning the stalls.

The camp was just across from the barn and we could look out and see the horses, which always lets me sleep a little better. There were electric and water connections. A dump station was available. There were lights on posts between the sites in the cleared field.

A bath house was over the large barn. Although we have shower facilities in our trailer, we usually go to the bathhouse. I had to circle the barn twice before I found the entrance between two stalls to get inside the barn and the steps leading upstairs to the lounge and four bathrooms, complete with shower, sink and commode.

The first people we talked to two sites over were Wayne and Pam Guffey from Kentucky. They had been to the area riding several times. Since they were going to go out riding the next day, we asked if we could tag along with them. It is wonderful to meet new people on the trail riding circuit that allow you to follow them. It always takes the pressure off of me to not be required to read the trail maps and keep us from getting lost. Eddie can’t see the small maps very well but he has a wonder sense of which way home lays. I am still in the process of learning to use the new GPS we bought last year. This year I learned that you have to put new batteries in every day if you want it to keep on ticking.

Across the road were several people from up near Columbus, Ohio. Athy was very friendly as she went about tending to her quarter horse that was located in one of the turn outs. They invited us to come sit around the fire and talk that night.

After fixing supper, we got ready to go over to talk and it began to rain. When it slacked up we took chairs over and talked for a half hour until the rain returned. With a "see you in the morning" we left for the Sundowner.

Monday morning we joined Pam and Wayne to hit the trail. Athy and her young friend Suzanne joined us on their horses. They had ridden yesterday and got away too far and had to run for hours to get back to the barn before dark. They really appreciated the opportunity to ride with somebody who knew where they were going!

The group took the trail away from camp and traveled down the great path that was fixed with landscaping timbers along the sides. That went for 300 feet or more.

After crossing a little creek, we rode into the woods for a long, long way. Wayne would point us which way to go and Ed and I rode at a quick gait through the woodland trail until we came to a divide in the road. We would stop and wait for the slower riders and further directions.

Wayne would tell us to go to a mile or so and come to another trail. Finally we came to a place where Ed and I rode out to a little camping area where people would tie up and build a campfire.

Returning to the main road, the group rode down off the mountain and hit an old haul road. We turned right and went back down to where a bridge was, but we crossed the creek.

After riding back up the hill, we came to a church beside the road. There were several people doing remodeling work on the church. There was a road for automobiles to reach the church.

Everybody stopped and got off to either use the outside toilets or just have lunch. A very old man came over to talk to us. He had been the first group to make the trails and mark when they first opened Mammoth Cave trail system.

He was a walking horse man and appreciated our horses.

I pulled out my GPS and looked it with amazement.

"Eddie, when I put new batteries in this GPS it must have messed it up somehow. It says this mare has gone 142 miles per hour!"

Pam quietly said, "I believe it!"

We all got a good laugh out of that because all of the other riders rode at a slow walk as Ed and I sped off down the trail.

After gathering up and mounting up, we rode off to the left and down the hill into a big, big bottom and evidently there had been houses down in there before the dam was built.

Now it was very soft and muddy as if the water had backed over it and went back off. For 200 or 300 yards we had to zigzag and stay out of the real soft bogs.

Finally we made it to where we turn back up the mountain and there was a lot of rock in the drain we rode up all the way to the top of the hill. We made it to the top and rested the horses.

After we got out to the road and we knew where we were going back towards camp, so we let the horses out into a fast rack or running walk. Dusty was getting faster every day.

Athy and Suzanne were riding behind on their quarter horse and Arabian.

"Don’t you all ever just walk your horses?" Athy asked.

Without looking back, I answered, "Not a flat, slow walk. We usually ride this rack or running walk."

It was a wonderful, fast ride and I regretted having to slow them down when we got pretty near camp.

That night Athy told us that Suzanne had told her after two days of long hard riding, that she decided she didn’t like trail riding. She would rather go to horse shows.

Athy enjoyed every minute on a horse and she told us to call her if we were in the Hocking Hills area to ride and she would come and join us.

After another night of sitting around the campfire and socializing with the new people in camp, we settled in the Sundowner so we could go back toward home in the morning.