Road Trip - getting to California

Sunny California here we come....who would have thought it would be cold and raining the entire way!!!  I packed sunglasses and shorts! This horse girl planned for an early tan!

Day 1 started off with our beautiful black beast of a truck "Rowanda" protesting against the length of our trip.....a full tank of fuel and some lovin' we were on our way! Good girl 😊 By 8 am on we (Sara, TJ, Femika, Ari, Brad and the stowaway Rubicon) are officially in the truck , loaded and on our way. A snowfall on the Coquihalla made us choose the Fraser canyon - but we were en route!  We ended the day at our favorite layover Roseburg Fairgrounds (http://www.co.douglas.or.us/dcfair/arenas.html)  in Oregon.  By 1:00 am the horses were settled and we moved enough "stuff " to crash for a few hours.  After a full day of rain it wasn't too shocking that the trailer had a wee leak... or 2.

Day 2 is a 6:30am start. The constant snowfall warning along the Oregon mountain passes started to make us a bit apprehensive.  But we were prepared (and appreciative) with a new set of tire chains for the trailer. However winter in Oregon  is no quite the same as ol' BC ..so we were fine. We reached our second layover in Fresno California  around 7 pm. A quick dinner of pizza and wine and  we were DONE!

Day 3 started off a bit more exciting.  Fresno offers a great opportunity  for schooling cross country so we took full advantage!  For us girls living in the "tundra",  this is the first time our horses have seen a cross-country fence since last fall. A perfect opportunity to dust off the cobwebs, build some confidence and start the season off with a bang! 

After a great school on all horses we hit the very straight, very boring 3 lane traffic of California.  This is the ONLY stretch of the 2437 km that I (TJ)  can't stand! It's sooooo boring!  This is where Sara steps in as the driver for a few hours. When we hit the grid lock traffic of Sacramento,  5 Lanes going 120 km /hrs, I take over again.

Through the beautiful Tejon pass followed by the incredibly barren landscape of the desert we hit the 4 lane gridlock traffic of LA...we are almost there!  I swear anyone who repair brakes would make a fortune in this country!

By 6:00 that evening we were finding stalls and settling our beautiful horses in for the night. Galaway Downs (galwaydowns.net) in Temecula  California  hosts big beautiful cement stalls, hooks for our buckets and a welcoming atmosphere. We all slept well!

Tomorrow is the start of a new season of opportunity ....