Saturday, August 4, 2007

Morning ride

I seldom decide where Blue and I will go until I'm on his back and headed down the road.  This morning as we turned east, I decided to ride to my little town and back.

There are several reasons I don't normally ride there:  In places, there's no room to get Blue off the road because of high banks on either side.  During the day, there's quite a bit of traffic, and although Blue isn't frightened by moving cars, I don't want to push my luck too much.  Also, since there's a horse-breeder and trainer in town, there's a doo-doo law.  If your horse poops, you have to pick it up.  So I'm always scared Blue will unload in the wrong place, and I'll have to figure out some way to clean up his mess.

At 6 A.M. on Saturday morning, the traffic isn't much problem.  As for the poop problem, I'd cross that bridge when I came to it.



I'd already ridden through town the back way and was headed back in when I took this picture; you can see how high the bank is on the right.  In other spots, it's this way on both sides.



Blue doesn't get to town often, so he was taking in all the sights.  I don't think we went over the speed limit.



I was surprised to see the local "Spit-and-Whittle" guys gathered at 6:30 in the morning, and told them so.

"Just us and the cowgirls are up this early," one answered.

"I'm trying to beat the heat," I said.

"Why do that?  It's the horse doing all the work!"



As I was riding toward home, I turned back to take this shot.  Some guy, a business owner of some sort, bought all the buildings on the right-hand side of the street and began doing a total makeover on them.  He paid people to work on the remodeling all last winter, keeping heat going for them.  Then when weather got nice, everybody disappeared and the project hasn't been touched since.  Rumor is, the man ran out of money and is waiting until he gets more funds to finish.  (You knew there would be a rumor in a small town, didn't you?)



As we passedthe local horse guy's barn, Blue nickered a greeting to a Tennessee Walking Horse.



After a detour through the cemetery, we headed home.  I got here in time to make Cliff biscuits and gravy, a rare treat around this place.

To see some of Cliff's creative ideas on ways to use junk, click HERE.


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, horse poop could be a problem. LOL
Have a good weekend.
Hugz,
Sugar

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you got out before the heat.  It's another hot one here too!  I'm in for most of the day as I have lots to do at home...I probably won't go out til after the sun goes down.  'On Ya' - ma

Anonymous said...

Looks like a good ride but like you I would be a little fearful of the high banks. Glad the traffic was light at that time of the morning. Cliff is pretty smart to figure out how to recycle those things. If he keeps that that up he may not need to sell all that iron cause he will find a way to use it. Have a nice day. Helen

Anonymous said...

Ahh, another relaxing ride on Blue this morning; feels like I was right there with you, and we got to see many new sights today.   Enjoyed the comments from the "spit-and-whittle" guys, lol!  Yep, gonna be another hot one here in the NE .. up in the 90's.  Not even cooling down overnight lately, Ugh!    Judy

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed your ride through town! Horses ride by my house each day 'cause I'm near horse trails. They poop all over and they don't have to pick it up. Man!! I wish they did!
LOL on the local group. They are up early!
Pam

Anonymous said...

Loved the ride to town with you and Blue this morning. You definitely have to get a jump on the day before it gets too hot.

Anonymous said...

I loved it!  I loved it!  That sidewalk cut into the bank above the road is really neat!  The building make-overs sounds like one of my husband's projects.  It took us 4 years to build this house.

Anonymous said...

What a great treat.  I enjoyed the trip to town.  How fun!!!!

Deb

Anonymous said...

I'm just catching up on some entries that I had missed.  I really enjoyed this one and had to tell you so!  I loved going along with you on your ride.
Lori

Anonymous said...

What a great entry. I miss riding horses so much.
Hugs
Carrie

Anonymous said...

I'll have to take shots of my tour through the neighbourhoods on my way to the gym, now.
That was nice, by the way.  

Anonymous said...

Your town looks like mine well kinda. Love the pictures.
Take care, Chrissie