Before our horses were unloaded, the man and woman in the next spot came over, introduced themselves and expressed polite appreciation for the mare and gelding.

“We’re into spotted,” he said as he pointed to a paddock that contained two big, beautiful black and white Tennessee Walking horses. “Do you all want to take a little ride.”

“Do you want to, Melani?” Eddie asked.

Eddie always wants to ride but I said, “Maybe we should wait around and visit with Harold and Lane.”

“We’re just going to be gone an hour or two and it is only four o’clock,” encouraged Bob O‘Daniel, our new friend.

“They might not be in here until after dark,” Eddie argued in his desire to trail ride.

“All right. I’d like to take a little ride without too many horses to settle Teege down a little bit,” I agreed. My big mare is 12 years old, but she is pretty spirited and the more horses around, the more excided she gets.

“We’re the slowest people in the world getting saddled,” I warned them.

Diane and Bob were ready before we were and rode down the camp. They came back in a little while and said, “There are some more that want to go with us.”

When we left camp there were nine of us. James Graham, a man with a black walker had agreed to lead the ride since he had been here many times before. We rode out to the highway and saw a cable across the trail on the other side. He decided we would have to go another way.

“Monica said that man is hunting and he has closed his property off for the hunting season,” I said.

We all turned around and rode down past the pond, down the field, through woods, and finally on a sandy road. It was really wonderful riding. There were a few soft spots but there was no place that was dangerous or difficult.

“I love this,” Diane said. “I love the smell of the woods and riding trails and roads like this.”

Diane and I both rode with helmets. It was only the second time I had worn mine, but I dearly loved it. I had only expected to endure it, but it is really my hat of choice now. It is so light weight, it doesn’t flop around or come off. I quickly forget that I am wearing it. I don’t see why everybody doesn’t wear one. However, I do remember when I used to think they looked strange on the trail. Now that is all gone in my joy of the fit. Oh yes. I wear a sandstone Troxel Laredo with a washable liner.

When we arrived at a dirt road, James stopped and said, “If any of you want to go back to camp now, there is a short cut,” he said indicating a path beside the highway that led back into the woods, “We’re going to cross the road here and ride this other side for a while.”

Cathy said, “I think I am ready to start back. I want to walk a while.” They turned their beautiful chocolate Kentucky saddle horses back toward camp.

We had been gaiting for the entire trip so far without any rest or slowing down. Dusty and Teege were so excited and pranced so much that they were both worked up in a lather. Dusty was puffing in his fretting.

“Do you want to take them back, Eddie?” I asked. “They have already traveled in the trail for six hours already.”

“No. They are all right.”

So the remaining seven horses crossed the dirt road and locked back in gait. As we twisted and turned through the fields and woods, I appreciated the leadership of James. There were “You are Here” maps posted frequently and the bright bands of paint on the marker trees was easy to spot. But this trip we did not have to refer to the map. James was twisting and turning through the woods without hesitation as we gaited without slowing down very often.

When we arrived back out on the nice dirt road, Diane and I stepped them up and went on down the road. We enjoyed the freedom of the ride.

I heard James ask Eddie, “Is that a Pusher horse? I like the way she is walking in that back end.”

Teege is not of the Pusher bloodline, but I appreciated the traits and to have her mistaken for it.

When we came to the place to turn back in the road, it got a little soft in spots and we slowed down just a little every now and then. Finally we arrived at the hard top road and traveled in the big, wide berm back to camp and back to the barn.

After unsaddling I took the mare over to wash her legs with the water hose. I thought it might be too cold to wash her down, but I found the water not cold at all and I gave her a short rinse.

The stalls had two big black tubs in each one. We filled the first with hay and the second had to wait until they cooled to get more than a couple quarts of water.

Harold and Lane had arrived and they came to give us a hug. The four of us had lost more than 30 pounds each and I thought they looked younger than when I last saw them five years ago, even if Harold did shave his head completely.

We went over and were introduced to more family and friends that night, but Eddie and I were an hour later on our Eastern Daylight time and we made it an early night and turned into bed.

“You all come over for breakfast in the morning. I am having blueberry pancakes. I always have blueberry pancakes when the grands are at my house and camping is no exception.”

The next morning Eddie and I were up early and I fixed our usual turkey bacon and eggs, since we had been on the Atkins low carb diet. I still intended to slip over and top it off with a pancake, but when I got there early, Harold said, “You all might not want to ride with us today. We have the grandkids with us and some man has come to try out a horse.”

I thought that might be a good idea to find a group riding faster since it was only the second day of riding and the horses would not appreciate taking it easy yet. Pancakes were not ready yet, so I went over to tell Eddie so we could look for another group.

Diane and Bob were getting ready to ride again and I asked if we could go with them. We got ready quickly because they were almost ready to leave. Eventually we jointed about 25 people and left camp. James couldn’t go yet because he was waiting on the vet. We rode across the field and climbed the hill to the opening in the fence. The ride wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t the slowest either.

The field full of horses and riders was absolutely beautiful. On a trail ride it seems that people are so thankful to be out in the fields and woods on a animal they dearly love.

Everyone seemed very comfortable on their horse. It is a good thing for each person to believe that his or her horse is the best one out there.

We rode though the fields knee deep in the grass which seemed to flow in the wind. The trail around the back of the fence had some places where there was an old fence line or trees had been removed.

“Hole on the left,” was a frequent call to warn the riders to avoid the sunken places. It appeared to be well maintained and fresh dirt put into those places to make the ground more even. The trail was mowed to a width of six or eight feet so there were times two riders could move side by side.

We then moved into a trail through the woods and later down by the brown river that moved so slowly that it appeared to not move at all, but it was obviously not stagnant. The sand was deep and several hitching posts were scattered around the area to provide a rest stop for horses in order that the riders could enjoy the river side.

Later we came to a dirt road and our guide from yesterday appeared on his black walking horse.

“I told you I would catch you,” he said to Bob.

“If you all want a longer ride, we can go up the road and turn left into the woods and ride another loop before heading back home.”

“Sounds good to me,” we quickly agreed, so five walking horses were off down the road in a good running walk.

When we got to the top of the hill, we turned into the woods and rode about another hour. Eventually we came out in the field above the camp.

“We could ride around the edge and go back to camp or if you want to show out a little bit, we could ride across the middle of the field and we would be visible from camp for a long time.

“I never saw anybody riding walkers that didn’t want to show out a little bit,” I commented, so Jimmy swung the horse out into the field to cross the middle. It was rather exhilarating to ride the knob in an open field with the bright sun and gentle wind. Showing out, we always called it showing off back in the hills of West Virginia, was not really the drift of the ride. It was a closeness with nature of the earth and sun, the animal and friends that lifted our spirits along with the powerful stroke of the horses that effected us within our hearts.

All of us were quiet as we rode off the hill and across the fill of the pond and backing to campground. Ed and I quickly unsaddled the horses as they stood in the open camp. We led them behind the stalls and I gave the black mare a good wash with the water hose. I put Teege in her stall and went to mix a bucket with Bigeoil to give the horses a final wet down with a brush to further soothe the skin and muscles of the big horses with the liniment solution. A friend at the Horse Park at home taught us that grooming aid and we have followed it faithfully ever since.

Harold and Lane came over to visit and asked, “Do you all want some hot dogs?”

“I just fixed some,” I told here.

“Well, don’t fix supper. Come over and eat with us. We are going to have pork roast, sweet potatoes, turnip greens, corn bread and beef stew. I am going to go to town and get Hallee a new pair of boots and go to Wal-Mart if you want to go with us,” Lane added.

“I’ll probably go with you, but Eddie will want to ride again this evening,” I told her.

I changed clothes and went over to join the ‘girl’s evening out’.

Lane drove the truck. Young granddaughter Hallee, Molly and I climbed in the back seat and that left the front for Carol. We stopped at the western wear store first. Hallee tried on about every boot in the store that would fit her and finally settled on some black ropers. Lane got Harold a pair of short top rubber boots. Molly Chamberland, the woman from England, got Harold a belt and some other items she found delight in. For some reason I didn’t find anything but I sure enjoyed the looking.

I asked Lane about Molly, “Is she a relative.”

“No. We got acquainted with her through the Peruvian Paso web site. When I sent out a request for prayer when Harold was going to have his last eye surgery, she sent an email and said her passport was current. She said she could come and help us. Since I could feed the horses and the only thing I really had to do for Harold was put drops in his eye, I told her to wait until he could ride again and come visit us.”

Wal-Mart was next and we made arrangements to meet at the food exit. I only planned to get sugar and milk, but I arrived at the checkout with half a buggy full. Of course, the short line I got in was the long time wait because a lady’s credit card did not clear easily. When I got back to the truck I was glad to see that I wasn’t the last arrival. Carol was ready but she was waiting at the pick up lane and soon we had it all together, stopped for the new tank of propane.

“Just for fun I am going to drive by my old school and show it to you,” Lane told us.

As we got closer to the school traffic got very heavy.

“This probably wasn’t such a good idea. It is homecoming. I better turn around,” she said as she turned the truck. There was still some heavy traffic but we were soon back at camp.

When I got to the trailer, Eddie was no where to be found. I assumed he was visiting and talking, so I went over to check the horses. Teege was gone! I went to check the saddles and sure enough, Eddie’s saddle was gone. He had gone trail riding and took my horse.

“If he took my horse riding and left his, he better have sold Dusty,” I told my neighboring camper.

Eventually he came riding back.

After putting her back in the barn, he came over and said, “Those people just got a new trailer. It has a 17 foot living quarters. Would you like to go over and see it?”

“Yes, I guess we could,” I answered.

Mr. Spears was getting the fire ready to cook some stakes. Eddie asked if I could see their new trailer. He asked his wife if she wanted to give me the tour and she agreed.

“I used to ride by myself,” she told us, “He didn’t ride and I bought me a little old trailer with a 4 x 8 living quarters. I thought it was fine, but he told me I spent too much money on it. Then he got him a horse and started riding and we traded it off for a better one. Then we got this one. We had three trailers in two years.”

This was certainly a beauty and something to be proud of. It had a slide out that had two chairs, and L shaped kitchen, a bathroom with a big shower and skylight and a mud room.

We then walked over to help eat birthday cake at Harold’s party. There was a big circle of chairs around the roaring campfire. Tall tales were flying first and furious. Harold had already received his presents, so I gave him a signed copy of my Smoky Mountain book.

Harold told the group, “Melani sent us a picture of them on horses at Myrtle Beach. Then she sent a picture of a young couple on horses. After I read the story I found it was them when they were young. I’ll send both of them to you all in a puzzle on email.”

Soon we left the campfire to get some sleep.

The next morning Lane stayed in camp to take care of the children. Harold and a lot of his friends rode out. We crossed the field and started around the back side of the camp. Soon Harold turned left down the hill.

“I don’t know if everybody wants to go this way or not, but this is my ride and I’ll go where I want to.” Harold said with conviction as he smoked one of his gift cigars from Lee Lawrence.

We rode down past the old barn and across the field, went through the gate and followed the outside of the field where cattle grazed. Harold turned down to ride beside a pond. He hadn’t gone a hundred feet when somebody from the back hollered, “You missed the trail.”

Harold turned around and said, “Well now, you be the leader then,” and the rider closest to the path became the leader.

Beautiful Jessie Lawrence gravitated to the front.

“She just graduated from the Louie L’Amour Trail Riding School,” Harold explained.

That path had not been traveled as extensively as some of the other ones and we had to keep a sharp eye out for the bright band of white paint above and below the green stripe.

Soon Jessie was stopped in a group of trees looking around.

“You’re not leader any more, Jessie,” yelled young Jacob, a thirteen year old boy who was definitely bigger than most men. Michelle Parks, his mother, had brought the big Appaloosa pony her son rode.

“Oh hush. What do you know? You’re riding a trotter,” Jessie quickly shot back at him as a new leader took the position.

The group made four or five paths down the hill to gather back up before the marker tree. One horse stopped and didn’t want to go down a bank, through some soft mud and over the small stream of water.

“That’s the first he ever did that,” Lee said about his chocolate Kentucky Mountain horse.

Jessie slipped her gelding around her father and crossed the ditch. When Lee’s horse followed, he gave a jump and cleared the water. Other horses then followed with ease.

When Teege got to the top of the bank and neared the water, I said, “Jump,” and raised the reins. She gave a leap and was soon hurrying up the other side. I have attempted to teach her to jump, but I don’t want any surprises. I figure there might be some places that it would be an advantage to have us both comfortable with jumping. Years ago she responded the first time I ever asked her to jump. I was fully surprised, but I was also very pleased. We do it every now and then just to keep fresh on it.

Lee was in the front but I eased around him when we got to a wide grassy road through the woods. I was anxious to let the mare move a little more quickly. I traveled at a running walk. I get the best ride in front, but I don’t want to hog the position. I could hear Dusty behind me calling for his mare to wait on him, because Eddie pulled in beside Lee to talk as they rode.

When I first started riding again, I was so nervous that I couldn’t ride by myself, so Eddie rode beside me all of the time. I sometimes felt bad about that because Eddie like to talk to a lot of people. In high school, he was known as the strong silent type, but the older he got the more he talks. So baby sitting me cut down on his great interest of communicating with new people.

When I got the mare, Eddie’s stallion liked her by his side and when we got separated, he was not a bit happy if he wasn’t staring into her eyes. It made it easier on both me and Cody if we rode together.

Today Eddie rode Dusty, the son of Cody, but the gelding also like to be with the mare. Eddie kept him back and talked as I followed the beautiful trail all alone. When we came to another road that turned to the left, Teege left the road to join the new trail. I stopped her to wait on the crowd, since I had no idea where I was or where I was going.

“Teege wants to turn here,” I told Lee.

“OK, we’ll go that way,” he said, to my surprise.

“But is this the right way? We can go anywhere. I don’t know where I am.”

“All of these places join up. Just go on. It will be fine,” Lee said.

When we got to the river, most people got off and tied up the horses. Some walked down to the river, others got out a soft drink and some just stood around and talked.

Carol Smith took her horse down to the river for water. Then she came back and tied up the spotted mare and led Buddy’s horse away for water. The spotted mare then tried to pull back and broke her Novel bridle. Buddy reached over and got the horse.

“Can you fix it with latigo? Michelle asked as she began to dig into her supplies.

“Yeah,” Buddy said easily.

Carol returned with the sorrel mare and assisted Buddy in repairing the bridle.

Jessie led her horse over and lay down on the picnic table. The beautiful horse stood over her and I realized it was a ‘must have’ picture. I got it and it is absolutely wonderful. Her long blonde hair is streaming off the table as the horse stands guard.

“Aren’t you going to get off your horse?” a young man asked a heavy woman who remained sitting on her horse.

“Are you going to put me back on?” she responded quickly.

“Lead her over to the picnic table and get on. We do that stuff all of the time,” I suggested.

“She won’t get anywhere near a picnic table,” the lady said.

“I have very weak legs and a bad back. I just have to stay on until I can get back to camp,” she added. “My doctor says I can’t exercise or walk very much. He did say I can ride some, so that’s about all I can do,” she adds regretfully.

Some campers need to get back to camp early. Jessie had a riding lesson to teach. Other people had to leave camp, so some chose to take the short ride back to camp. Carol wanted to ride some more, so Eddie and I wanted to go with her. We had a most delightful walking horse ride back to camp. We took turns riding in the lead. It is always easier to ride as a group if the horses are of like gait and speed.

Bob and Diane came over to talk before they got ready to leave camp for the week end. Eddie got out the rugs and opened up the awning. After they cleaned their stalls, Bob said, “We’re leaving and we are not going to take this half bale of hay. You all can have it if you want it.”

I thought, “Another bale of hay might mean we can stay gone another day!” so I went around and took it to Dusty and Teege.

A horse and rider were at the awning. “I’m ready to go when you are,” Carol called to us.

“All right. We’ll get ready,” I told her as Eddie and I rushed to saddle up.

Soon the horses were saddled and we rode across the field. We stopped at Lane’s trailer and Carol called to them. “Are you all going to go with us?”

“We’re not ready. You all go on,” Lane answered.

“We’re not in a hurry. Get ready and we’ll wait on you,” Carol assured her.

We rode out and met a couple of people riding. Eddie asked them if they knew anything about the trails on the other side of the road and they responded that they did not. This was their first trip to the horse camp too.

There were a lot of people sitting at a couple picnic tables beside the road, so Eddie hollered and asked them if they knew anything about the trails across the road. A man came over to the road to talk to us.

When he walked up to me, I asked him, “Are you Mr. Heart of Dixie Trail Ride?”

“Yes,” he said, “I’m Richard.”

I told him how much we were enjoying the place and the facilities and then asked for directions.

“Did you get a map?” he asked.

“Yes. I have one that you gave me when I registered."

“All right. Ride down that way until you come to a double gate. Ride up beside the road a little way and cross the road at the old store. Go into the woods. There blue signs on two trees, either way will take you on the blue trial. It is about seven miles long.”

“So we can ride it on these walkers in a couple of hours?” I asked because it was after four o’clock and I didn’t want any night ride.

“Yes. You can do that,” Richard said and we moved on.

Carol said, “I think I read somewhere that walkers cover about four miles an hour just walking.”

Soon Lane, Harold, Molly, and Hallee were on the move. We rode down past the old barn and started down the fence line when we heard a shot ring out.

“Sassie won’t go over there. She is afraid of gun shots,” Lane said quickly.

“We’ll turn and ride on this other side again,” Harold added as he turned Patches around and began back toward the barn.

We knew that one of the landowners had closed his portion of land because it was now hunting season. It was probably just sighting a gun in or target practice behind the brick house, but it was loud.

Carol hesitated. “We can all go back if you want to.”

“I don’t care. Dusty will be all right,” Eddie said.

“Teege has been shot around and she didn’t do anything but flinch, but that was a long time ago. She will probably be all right,” I added because I knew Eddie had already ridden on this side four times. He had told me earlier that he wanted to ride the other side before we left.

With that Carol turned the sorrel mare back toward the gunshots. When we got near the house, Eddie was in front. Just as we approached a drain where we had to ride down and back up the other side, another shot was fired. Dusty wheeled. Eddie held on to him, turned the gelding around, and put him back toward the drain. Dusty went with ease.

“Get on through and away as fast as you can, Eddie, so we will be past it if he shoots again,” I urged my husband.

We all rushed down the bank, crossed the drain and up the other side. We were moving rather quickly down the fence line, but no other shots rang out. When we arrived at a double gate, Eddie turned the sorrel to go through the double gates and down the grassy berm.

I could hear Carol close behind me and then hear the hoof beats on the highway. Eddie also moved out onto the highway when he got near a culvert that made the berm more narrow. I followed suit. It only took us a few minutes to reach the old store building where we crossed the highway.

“We go up beside this store,” Carol offered. “I have been out this way, but I have not entered at this point before.”

She led the way into the grassy trail and entered the woods and went straight ahead. At that point I became disoriented, but I didn’t realize it yet. It was a beautiful trail through tall pine trees. I am sure it could been only a straight shot to the other end, but the trailblazer made beautiful twists and turns to wind down little hills and wander around the land. It was a most pleasant ride.

Eventually we came to a red trail.

“Richard said not to take the red trail. It’s too wet at this time,” I said. Since the blue trail was the main long ride, it was the one we had chosen to ride. The other yellow, orange and red trails were merely short cuts on the blue.

Carol rode through the beautiful woods.

Eddie began singing, “Back in the saddle again….”

“Oh. Does he sing?”

“Not really. Just on the trail.”

Dusty got jumpy.

“What’s the matter with you?” Eddie asked the gelding. “There is nothing out there. Why are you acting like that?”

“There might be something you don’t know about, Eddie,” I said, taking up for the horse.

The horse settled back down and we never did know what had concerned him.

We came to a place that held a lot of water. The trail was really soft, but Richard had said it wouldn’t be any problem. When Angel hesitated, Carol gently reached up and took the little crop off the hook and switched her on the hip very softly. Angel eased out into the sloppy mud and continued through the other four or five spots.

“Angel, you’re throwing mud balls at me,” I told her as Teege followed the lead of the sorrel mare.

“Yes, she does that sometimes,” Carol admitted.

“We’ve got one at home that is good at that,” Eddie said. “We were riding over on Kiah’s Creek one time and she would throw rocks at you!”

“Our friend Sam said, ‘Eddie, you’re gonna have to put some mud flaps on that mare!’” I added.

Eventually we came to a yellow trail.

“I wonder if that takes us to the Indian mound?” Eddie asked.

“I don’t know. It might. We can ride out there a little ways and turn back if it doesn’t,” Carol said.

We followed the yellow trail and it probably wasn’t 100 feet long.

“No. This is where we just came through,” Carol said as she turned her mare around.

We rode back to the blue trail and soon we were at a cable beside a dirt road. At the “You are here” map, I realized we had started the trail toward the south and I had believed we began north.

“All right. I know where we are now. It doesn’t make any difference because we planned to ride it all anyway. We are already past the Indian mound but I don’t have any idea when we passed it,” I added with a silent determination that I would see it if I ever came back to this camp.

During that ride we took about three trails that turned out to be just exploratory. We were not sure which one was the trail so we rode down a bit to see. We did not perceive that as a problem. It was just more good trail riding.

A couple of the trail maps on the posts did not show a continuation of the blue trail. I didn’t understand that, but at one point we took the yellow and were soon back on the blue. I guess that is just another trail.

All too soon we were back at the old store. Sure enough, we had taken the southern route first. It had only taken us an hour and 15 minutes. Oh well. It was really a wonderful ride, not counting the soft spot!

We got back to camp, unsaddled and rinsed the horses before Harold’s group returned. Lane was in camp. She had not ridden, but Dillon, their grandson, had taken his second trail ride with his family.

After taking more pictures, the horses were settled back in the paddock. Carol and Buddy loaded the horses and left. Almost all of the camp was empty except us and a couple new trailers that had just arrived.

A man from Tennessee put his horses in stalls and struck up a conversation with Eddie. The Slacks had never been to this camp before. They asked if we had been to Moses Creek or something in North Carolina.

“It is where there was a great estate and the man created a lot of carriage trails they would ride. They kept them mowed and they were very nice.”

“I’d like to go there sometime, Eddie,” I said.

After more talk about the low price of horses these days, we returned to the trailer.

That night we sat around the camp fire and told old stories. It was a comfortable evening and the kids fell asleep in their chairs. Their Dad came out and rousted them over to the big tent to bed. Soon the rest of us gave up and went back to the trailers.