In which this part of the Cross-State ride was not very much fun for me

I didn't expect trouble.  But I sure got some.

Practice tying horses to weird objects:  in this case, sage bushes

I don't know if Fiddle ate rubberbands and bumblebees for breakfast or what, but this day was awful.  She insisted that we needed to RUN FAST all day long--and of course, she isn't actually in shape to do that. So I had to stand on the brakes all day, and try to school my suddenly-naughty Dragon.

A brief moment of calm at the lunch stop

I repeatedly turned my horse around and made her trot the other way, which frustrated me, made her mad, and left Darlene without a clue when we would rejoin her and Lola.

I took very few photos on this leg of the ride because I needed both hands on the wheel all day!

Finally, we saw our next camp at the foot of the Wanapum Dam, on the banks of the mighty Columbia River.

I have never been so glad to see trucks in my life.

However, Lola wasn't quite right.  We don't know for sure what the problem was, but Darlene knew that continuing ahead with the ride would be a very bad idea for her.  She packed up her rig and made to leave.

Which left me homeless.  For about 10 minutes.

My gear in the back of Andrea's truck.

10 minutes is all the time it took for the people in the camp to find room for me.  Because of the short notice, I was literally spread from one end of the parking lot to the other end, with my hay and saddle in Andrea's rig, my corral panels in Susie's rig, my sleeping bag in Christine's motorhome...

I was determined to continue the ride, and people who were essentially strangers (but not for long!) stepped up to help me do it.

A cot in the back of Susie's trailer became my home for a week

And once we crossed the river, things got better.  More about that in the next post!