This summer Wellspring Farm decided to take a trip to Del Mar, CA to show our horses at Show Park. Show Park is a lovely place to ride. We always enjoy riding there on the grass, having some good competition, perfect weather, and the ability to visit Mary's Tack Shop every day.
I had not originally planned on going to the show because my horse wasn't going to be ready. However, at the last minute, a horse named Tarzan became available and so I decided to hit the road with everyone else.
We all decided to leave the barn at 3:00am on July 12th. I should have known the day was not going to go my way when I realized I forgot Lillian's bottles and had to drive almost all the way home to pick them up. That little inconvenience was nothing compared to all that was going to happen! The first disaster occurred about an hour outside Tucson when there was a blowout on the trailer and I had to pull over and change the trailer tire in the dark. I got the tire up on the jack and off of the trailer just fine. When I went to get the spare tire from inside the trailer, I realized I did not have a wrench to get it off. I unpacked the entire tackroom on the side of I-10 looking for a wrench only to be saddly disappointed. So, I put in a call to Dad and repacked the tackroom while I awaited his arrival with a wrench. A little over an hour after I pulled over, I was back on the road.
Disaster two happened in Yuma when I stopped for fuel. Another trailer tire was flat and would not hold air. I limped my way over to Discount Tire where I was told I would have to wait over an hour until they could put four new tires on my trailer. So Lillian, Susie, Toni, and I waited outside the store while people gawked at Tarzan munching hay in the horse trailer.
At 3:00pm we rolled into Del Mar, CA relieved that the long journey was over. I picked up my sister at the train station and we proceeded to have a few good days before another disaster hit.
We went to the races...
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And the beach...
We shopped at the outlet mall in Carlsbad...
And I found my old friend Bachelor...
Besides the problems with the tires on the way there, everything was going well. Lillian was happy and Sam was very helpful. Show life is a good life even when you are only three and half months old.
And then disaster hit again. I was exiting I-5 one morning when all of a sudden the brakes on the truck started to sound funny. I rolled to a stop at the stop light, heard a loud pop and then felt the truck hit the ground.
I called Susie and she came, along with Betsy, to help me figure out what to do with the truck. Magically, a tow truck appeared behind me and blocked the on-coming traffic so that I could drive the truck very slowly and painfully, off of the freeway off ramp and into a gas station parking lot. Susie and I began changing the truck tire while the tow truck angel went to rescue the person he had originally been called to rescue. He returned shortly and helped us finish up the truck. Hoping this would be an easy fix I headed to Discount Tire for the second time in only a few days. Boy was I wrong! Not only did the store not have the tires and rim for my truck but as I was leaving the parking lot the brakes on the truck went out. I had to have the truck towed to the nearest dealership to be repaired and had to have the tires and rim ordered and shipped to the nearest Discount Tire. This left a house full of ten women and a baby one vehicle short.
There were only a few more small disasters before we returned home to Tucson. The plumming in the house we rented decided to back up, Susie's gas was siphened out of her vehicle, Sam missed her flight back to Utah and we had to drive through this dust storm to get home.
Amid all of the disasters there were many blessings, lots of laughing, and time spent in good company. I would not have been able to make this trip with out the best sister in the world, a loving father and good friends who don't mind sitting at Discount Tire with me and who don't abandon me on the side of the road.
Thank you very much everyone! XO
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