Border to Border Chapter 11

We arrived at Saddletramp Trail only to find out that recent heavy rains had washed out a portion of the road leading from Happy Hollow to the house of Tommy and Terry. This is a gravel road which is not friendly to Spyders. Nevertheless, with passenger disembarked and luggage removed we were able to pick our way up to the house at about two miles an hour. We were thankful that we had installed a rock guard on the belt prior to leaving home.

 

Here we met up with Lowell and Mary. Lowell was concerned that he would not be able to leave as scheduled due to the poor road conditions.

 

 

On our first afternoon John along with Tommy, Lowell and two of Tommy's friends mounted horses and proceeded to search for Tommy's cattle. This area of Missouri received seven inches of rain in one day. This resulted in the creeks overflowing and debris tearing down the fences that kept Tommy's cattle on his ranch. After a two hour search we were able to locate the cattle in a neighbor's pasture.

 

So this city boy got to participate in his first ever cattle round up and move the herd to an adjoining pasture where they were left for the night. The next day Tommy and this city boy returned to the pasture where we had left the cattle and proceeded to move the herd to Tommy's ranch. We also had to check and make sure that all of his herd were accounted for. Then became the daunting task of rebuilding the fence destroyed by the high water. So Tommy and  I got to work to repair the fence. A new experience for the writer. This took two days and with Lowell's help we were able to complete repairing the fence.

In the first four days of our stay here this writer has been on a horse three days, mended a barb wire fence, drove cattle from one pasture to the next and then to their final home.

 

Lowell, Mary, Terry, Tommy, Mary and John drove to the Lake of the Ozarks to tour and have dinner.

 

Team sorting! The only teams I have played on were on ice or a diamond or a 110 yard field, not in an arena and certainly not on horseback. But it was Tuesday and team sorting took place at 7pm. So here were Tommy and John signed up to sort through a group of eight mean calves and move them from one pen to another in sequential order by the numbers on each calves back. This is to be done in sixty seconds. If one calves gets into the second pen out of order then we are trashed. First time up the team of the experienced cowboy and the city boy managed to get their first calf moved to the second pen. Then disaster, a calf not playing by the rules slipped into the second pen. TRASHED! But all was not lost. We had agreed to do a second team sorting. This time we were able to move five calves in to the second pen correctly before time expired. Tommy entered two more events with friends and Tommy and Terry got two attempts. That Terry is some horsewoman. John did get one more chance to show off his riding skills. This time with a cowboy named Joe. But, alas no success here.

 

 I think I will stick to riding Spyders.

 

I mowed the horse pasture of 18 acres. I drove a Massey-Ferguson tractor towing a 15 foot wide brush hog. It took about 3.5 hours to complete the operation. Jay could do the SPR field in about 30 minutes.

 

Sunday night after dinner at the Willows, Tommy, Terry, Mary and John got in one last horseback ride.

 

Monday morning it was time to load up the Spyder and say goodbye to some excellent hosts in Terry and Tommy. A whole lot of memories were made at Saddletramp Trail that will remain with us for a long, long time. A return visit is something to consider.

 

We are heading south into some hot weather. We will stop in Greenville for the Spyders 8000 miles service. Then on to Houston for a few days. Our goal is to be back at SPR Labor day. This will result in a 94 day ride.

 

Hugs

John & Mary