Raw thighs, raw butt…..BUT finally everything clicked and we were both riding like the wind. It was just fantastic. We loped (cantered) up and down trails round twisting bends at what days ago would have seemed like a crazy pace. Riding twice a day for 6 days on different horses gave us the opportunity to improve and gather confidence. We relaxed more each day and moving more and more with the horse, instead of bouncing against the poor beast. Duke and Navajo got tired and were replaced by Dusty and Cochise, we even swaped horses on the last day so we both rode 3 different ones. We both have fantastic memories of our full day out on the range stopping in a dry river bed - tying our horses to a tree and having a picnic ... read more

Yesterday the weather just switched to summer - we drove East up highway 10 towards the desert. What fun it is driving this Mustang with the roof down - although it doesn’t do very much for my hair!! We arrived in Pioneer Town around 2.00 p.m booked into Gene Autry’s old room- what fun !! This town was originally a Cowboy movie set and has been kept alive for tourism. Took loads of photo’s and then went for a beer in the Saloon. Off for dinner tonight at Pappy and Harriet’s with a live band. Just a few hours to polish up on our line dancing!! It’s amazing how many odd looking critters we have seen here in the desert - road runners, jack rabbits, turkeys, ………… Today started the day with a sunshine breakfast in ... read more

We did oursleves proud yesterday. 24 hours of staying awake. Went to bed at 21.30 which was really 5.30 in the morning UK time. no flight delays 3 hours in Chicago and arrived in Los Angeles at 19.30 local time. We found Hertz rentacar and the guy managed to persuade us to upgrade to a brand new Bright red hot looking Mustang convertible - not that I'm excited !!!!! With Andy map reading and me in the drivers seat I managed to hit the kerb getting out of the parking space - oops! No damage done though as I was moving at 1 mph!!! We found our travelodge and we are very pleased with our room which includes a little kitchen fridge etc- excellent. Now it's 8.30 and we are off to Santa Monica beach and ... read more

All though January we kept trying to work out what to do in Feb and March. Last Wednesday we hit on the idea of ‘doing’ California. We have this tick list of ‘things to do before we die’ and with a 2 month window of time it seems quite a few of them will be ticked off on this trip. Particularly Las Vegas, a Dude ranch, monument valley, San Fransisco and the list goes on. Andy has been a star researcher and booked our return flight from Manchester and a rather flash looking hire car for 7 weeks. Mind you anything is flashy compared to our little Bellendo!! He found this amazing family run ‘dude’ ranch in Arizona and after trying for 2 days managed to book us in for a week. Obviously very thrilled with ... read more