My friend Kevin (the D.Q.'s mechanic) picked me up in the morning in downtown Omaha. I was still bleary eyed from a long, cold night uncomfortably squeezing myself across two seats of the bus in order to attempt some semblence of sleep. Hopefully I'll have the energy to detail the full story some other time. Kevin drove me to Julie's house, where I could finally shower and rest (but only after saying hello to my ponies!).
Julie helped me run some errands during the course of my brief visit. We headed out at around 11 am on Saturday morning, intending to take mostly interstate in order to avoid stop-and-go traffic. We weren't aware, at the time, that stop-and-go traffic did NOT intend to afford us the same courtesy.
In case you aren't aware, this has been one of the rainiest summers in Iowa ever (as well as other places). Severe flooding, primarily in central Iowa, has garnered national headlines. While we saw some of this intense flooding, that was not the main cause of our troubles. Our delay resulted from an accident (an apparently devastating one) when people driving past the flooding did not pay enough attention to the road as they must have been gawking at all the water everywhere. The only exit we passed where we might have been able to escape the backed up interstate proved to be under water as well, and cars that had attempted to ditch the traffic jam found themselves turning around to return and join us on the sweltering highway.
After roasting for at least two hours to travel perhaps 4 miles down the road, Jazzy and Zeplin were NOT happy campers. We pulled over to offer them water, but they were so upset they refused to drink. Both had slick summer coats soaked in perspiration from the heat and muscle use required to brace against ever shifting flooring.
Here are some flood pictures (Julie took most of these with my new camera):
Can you see the ambulance and the vans nearly submerged?
Farther down the road, we checked on the ponies again and found that the breeze created by cruising along the interstate at normal speeds dried their sweaty coats. We fed them while fueling up, hanging hay bags in front of each velvety muzzle. They were no longer angry, although they still didn't want to drink. They quietly munched their hay and gazed out the dropped down trailer windows.
We stopped a couple more times for gas, and in Illinois gave the horses an extended break in a hotel parking lot, enjoying the quiet still of the night after moving for so long. We pulled handfuls of grass and proffered them to the goat in her crate in the back of the truck, along with the horses. She seemed to take the trip a bit more easily than the horses.
For the remainder of the trip, we untied the horses' heads and let them relax their necks, heads hanging wearily from equally tired shoulders. This time they drank all the water we had with us. We did not unload them for fear that they wouldn't want to get back in the trailer so soon after such a difficult journey.
We reached our destination in Indiana in the very early hours of the morning, probably around 3:00 or so. The horses unloaded gratefully, stretching necks to take in all the new sites. They both snorted at unusual objects shrouded in clouds of fogs created by the heavy humidity in the air. Although Julie and I were just as exhausted, we made sure the horses were comfortable in their new barn, throwing them some hay and rubbing some linament (made from wintergreen isopropanol, witch hazel and water) along their sore muscles.
Julie unhooked the trailer and I drove us silently over to Jane's house to rest for a short time, combatting the humid condensation with sluggish windshield wipers.
My ponies were finally here!!
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