Horses and Snow

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So, we’ve been especially busy these past few weeks, from wine tours to horseback riding to 48 hour marathon car sessions (Tahoe to Tega Cay, SC) to, of course, mountain biking. (Hope's thankfully starting to pick up my mountain biking obsession, to a much lesser degree.)

Fortunately there isn’t any photo evidence of the wine tour. My buddy David was in town and we spent a Sunday driving through the Shenandoah Valley Wine Country in the Sierra Foothills. Napa’s little brother, the Shenandoah Valley is smaller and certainly less popular, but delivered a fabulous day of drinking. Weather was idyllic as Marissa drove the party bus (T’s 15 passenger work van) from vineyard to vineyard. Like a field reporter in Baghdad, T meticulously documented every winery’s tastes and atmosphere for future tours. (Check out www.lotsadv.com for future wine country biking tours in the Shenandoah Valley.) While T was jotting notes and swilling wines, David and I pounded everything in sight, from sparkling almond to cherry ports to every white and red you've ever seen. Tasting was free and generous; we estimated a minimum of 3 three bottles apiece for the day. Needless to say things got pretty fuzzy towards the seventh plus vineyard. Our antics included, but were not limited to: chanting, multiple vomiting, pumpkin tossing, food throwing, frivolous spending (well over 30 bottles of vino), and cursing inappropriately.

The Saturday before we left Tahoe, Hope, Marissa, Leigh Wayne (Marissa’s friend and fellow Doc) and I all went horseback riding in Gardnerville, Nevada. Leigh Wayne boards horses and we were able to spend an afternoon riding. Hope had gone down earlier in the week and had an excellent time on the nearby trails. I have little to no equestrian experience so I was afforded the luxurious ride of Rusty, a four year old gelding who was in no hurry to get anywhere. Our ride was very laid back, an up temp, medium pace trot here and there. Hope on the other hand was afforded no such luxury. With less than three hours of sleep and only a day more experience than myself (in the last 15 years anyways), Hope ended up on more lively horses that didn’t seem to want to obey. Mind you, Hope did very well earlier in the week, but her horse Little Bit wasn’t exactly the smooth, cruise control Cadillac Coup that old Rusty provided. Instead Little Bit didn’t cooperate and frequently turned off the trail and galloped ahead. So Hope switched horses with Marissa. This didn’t help. Hope’s new saddle’s stirrups were too short, so as she tried to adjust the horse misunderstood the commands and took off towards the corral. Leigh Wayne educated us that the horses sense when they are heading “home” and instinctively pick up the pace in that direction. So between Hope’s feet and the horse’s internal compass, the pace got pretty frantic. As Hope turned a sharp corner and tried to slow the horse, she was catapulted off of the saddle into the hard, dusty, desert ground. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt and was able to ride the rest of the way home. (She may be small, but she’s tough. I would have cried if I were thrown from that horse.) Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures.

The next day we were scheduled to begin the trip from Tahoe to Carolina, 42 hour, 2800-mile drive. (Which we did in 48 hours, with only one parking lot sleep break.) But Old Man Winter decided to snow on our road trip. We made the best of our bonus day in Tahoe and went snow shoeing in Marissa’s back yard. Despite the snow, the temps were pretty warm and the sun was shinning.

Right now we’re visiting family for the holidays in both Michigan and Tega Cay. Starting January 1 we’ll be in Savannah, Georgia for three months of winter sunshine.

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Comments

[Uncle Mike]

Looks like you guys are doing it all. Have Fun. You guys might be candidates for a tandem.

[FrankHope]

Tandem...
Maybe Santa will be leaving one under our tree.