Camping with Rita at the LBJ Grasslands

1. This is my horse, an AQHA registered gelding named "A Real Gamble". His nickname is "Gabby". (We didn't name him). He was born on my baby brother Mel's birthday, February 13. He is 15 years old. (Melvin is 46--HA!).

2. My friend, Rita, and her purebred Arabian, "Styxx". He is 18 years old. The poles that our horses are tied to have been used by many different horses. Some horses will paw at the ground when they are tied, and so the areas around the poles are hollowed out. You can see that Styxx's rear-end is on higher ground than his front-end, and that my horse (above) is standing "downhill", too.

3. Rita and our camp. We drove Rita's 3/4-ton Dodge and pulled my dad's 16-foot stock trailer. This was the first time I tried out my new portable corral, and it worked great.

4. On the trail Saturday evening (Rita & Styxx). We rode from 7:00-9:15 p.m.

5. Rita and Styxx. Saturday evening, June 10, 2006.

6. The beautiful Grasslands are not all grasslands, as you can see!

7. Rita & Styxx on the trail, and Gabby's head. I am "always the bridesmaid, never the bride", when it comes to pictures--HA!

8. Blurry. We were all on the move, but still I tried to get a shot of Rita taking Styxx through this small gully.

9. Rita and Styxx at one of the many small ponds (or "tanks", depending on if you are from Muenster or from Saint Jo--HA!). If these pictures are in order, then this is late evening on Saturday, June 10.

10. An evening shot, out on the trail.

11. Rita thought it would look better if she was riding towards me as I took the picture, so she did, even though we were really heading in the direction that Gabby is facing. Heh. I just wanted to get the pretty sunset-through-the-trees in the background.

12. This might have come out better if I had known about the "campfire setting" on the camera. DUH! It was after 10:00 p.m. by now, with a nearly-full moon lighting our way...What a late supper. Rita went to bed at 11:30 but I stayed up 'till a quarter-to-one, just sitting there watching the fire, drinking a few cold ones, and marveling over the fact that I could SEE--EVERYTHING!! (Cataract surgeries May 22 & June 1). God is sooooo good.

13. Ditto.

14. Rita cooking our smokies before sunrise on Sunday morning, June 11, 2006.

15. Ditto.

16. Same thing, only trying the normal setting, which used the flash. SIGH! I am digital-camera illiterate.

17. Rita and the boys on Sunday morning. They are hoping for a handout!

18. Rita feeds Styxx a piece of her hot dog bun on Sunday morning.

19. Styxx licks Rita's wrist as she feeds Gabby a piece of bread (hot dog bun). Say THAT fast for 6 times...Styxx licks Rita's wrist, Styxx licks Rita's wrist...

20. Wanna kiss?

21. What a great camp we had!

22. The camp from the back. We stored our saddles in the trailer overnight, which was plumb handy. Don't know if you can see this, but the entire rig (truck & trailer) was squeeeeezed between several trees on both sides--whew! How'd we do that??!!

23. Gabby curling his upper lip--was there a bit of mustard on that bread?!

24. Rita thought Gabby was funny when he curled his lips.

25. BLAH! says Gabby. Or maybe he's saying YUM. With horses, Who can tell??! Heh!

26. "I am Mr. Gab-by"!

27. An early morning before-the-sunrise shot taken using the flash--not as good as the others where I used the little "moon" setting. The boys have "flash-stars" in their eyes.

28. Pretty boys. We finally got saddled and rode out this morning. We rode 2 hours, 45 minutes on Sunday morning, for a two-day total of 5 hours. (Note: Rode Gabby without booting him on Saturday, but he did better with his boots on, on Sunday. Still, he's getting there! Thanks Gates!).

29. Army cots are comfy to sleep on but oh-so-hard to assemble! We had an AWESOME CAMPOUT!!!! Go us!!