Coldwater Ranch Take-Two, & Tire Trauma

Alan and I first visited Coldwater Ranch last year, and I wrote about it here. Like last year, we came to this camp immediately after leaving 4-J Big Piney Horse Camp. Unlike last year, we only got two rides in before I retreated to our trailer with Covid…

We arrived at camp on Friday night. Coldwater is a short trip south from the Big Piney. We were able to have the same spot this year as last year. It really is a lovely camp, and quiet for the most part. There is a dog kennel nearby and the dogs can be noisy at times.

We took a long ride on Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t start feeling sick until midway through our ride on Sunday. Although I coughed some on Saturday, I was hoping it was an allergic reaction to all of the flora and fauna. We did struggle with coughing horses for much for our Midwest trip, thanks to equine allergies. But when I started to ache, I knew I was in trouble.

Before things went south, we were fortunate to cross paths with Annette and her husband Brian. We actually met them midway through our first ride and ended up riding together the second day. We really enjoyed their company, and I was totally bummed to have to retreat to our trailer for our remaining time there. Not that I felt like being the life of the party…

The river was higher this year, at least at the place we crossed one day. Alan’s mare Sadie would decide Alan’s navigation was incorrect, and she’d plow off in the direction she deemed to be better. She was wrong both times! Alan ended up with water in his boots. One time, they practically had to jump a large, downed tree in the river. That gave me pause, for sure!

By Sunday night I was pretty punk. Monday was my positive test. After that, I never left the trailer (except to go get the monoclonal antibody infusion on Wednesday) until Alan was breaking camp Thursday morning. Thank heavens he remained healthy, as he had to carry the entire load.

We were 1300 miles away from home… a 3-day trip. Once again, I never left the trailer so as not to expose anyone. We dry camped one night and had electricity one night. We were up early on the last day, with 400 miles to go. We should have arrived at home by mid-afternoon. But it was not to be…

We had only been on the road for a little over an hour when Alan sucked in his breath in disbelief. A tire was rolling along next to the trailer, preparing to pass us on the highway! The movement in the rearview mirror had caught his eye. We both watched in horror as the entire wheel from the rear of the trailer rolled past us, across the median, over the northbound lanes of I-25, and finally stopped well off the road after a couple of massive bounces.

We limped to the next exit, which was only a few miles away. We were in Nowheresville, New Mexico. It was a little after 10 AM when we reached out to US Rider. They followed up with the tire place we had located at the exit 10 miles north. The guys were on scene within an hour. But then the real wait began…

The awesome mechanics had to rebuild a wheel in their shop. We had sheared off 7 of the 8 lugs. About 4 hours after their initial assessment, they finally returned with a wheel. Unfortunately, it was over 7 hours of waiting before we finally headed home again.

We arrived home late on Saturday night, to a filthy house that was still under construction (because we were home 11 days early!) I was a couch potato for another week. The cough lingers…

Check out our new podcast that I wrote about last week. It’s a little bit rough around the edges initially, but we’re going to get better and we have some really great interviews already recorded.