Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Geeze Louise The coast of Louisiana and Texas is pummeled yet again. It makes my events of the past week trivial compared to what is happening there. In fact I cant think of anything that I accomplished this past week at all other than getting the daily chores done and working on a couple articles. The weather has been crisp and enjoyable. I’m working with Jupiter to get him tuned up for the riding classes at the Great Lakes show. Midnight did really well 2 years ago and Doug did ok last year. What is interesting is that Midnight was extremely well trained to ride and had a flawless go in both the English and Western class yet she placed middle of the pack against a variety of horses, some of those that placed high were very big hitchy horses and Midnight was in no way a big hitch horse. Then you look at Doug, a huge strapping hitchy gelding who blew his leads bad and he placed middle of the pack. I’m confused and have no idea what the heck they are looking for in that ring. So Jupiter will give it a go. He is more along the lines of Midnight so we will see how this works out. It should be interesting.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 8:34 AM
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Back To Business As Usual I was spent yesterday. I didn’t do much here at home other than what was necessary. I jotted down a draft for an article I’m writing about the trip while its fresh in my head. I will have lots of revisions to do at a later date once I can look more objectively at what I wrote. It’s all still to fresh and raw to be coherent about. Lauren went back to school and Duane is off to work at Stevens. Its already Wednesday and I can hardly believe that a week ago today I was packing for our trip. It seems like a lifetime ago now. We received our entry info for the Great Lakes Draft Horse Show in Lansing, which is less than 3 weeks away now. Even though I knew it was approaching it has snuck up on me. I have to get my butt in gear getting stuff ready for the last and greatest hurrah of the show season. This will be the biggest show that we will attend this year so I’m very excited and anxious all at the same time to get things taken care of on my end so that we are properly prepared. We will get a month of down time after that show till the beginning of the holiday work, which begins just prior to Thanksgiving. So off I must go to get busy since I’m burning daylight sitting here at the computer.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 11:17 AM
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Monday, September 19, 2005
Just A Jaunt Away We ended up making it as far as Elizabeth Town KY last night. It was not a restful sleep. I think that the anticipation of getting home makes it hard to sleep. I find my mind wandering and replaying the events that unfolded over the last couple days. I’m looking forward to being in my own bed tonight and I really miss the horses. There is something reassuring about their massive bodies, warm breath and inquisitive quiet nature that seems to make the worlds woes not quite so close to home with I’m with them. I am so thankful that my family and I are safe and that we have a home to return to. I’m ever more thankful of all that we have after witnessing the tragedy and turmoil that the hurricane left behind. The reality of the situation in Louisiana is still with us and weighs heavy on our minds and will be forever etched in our memory. The gratitude that was shown to us for our efforts in getting the aid to Baton Rouge was ill deserved. We only did what we could which was made possible by the great people in our community and the generosity of the businesses that put this trip together. We only played a small part in the grand scheme of things delivering the goods. The last day of our trip was as uneventful as the first day and we arrived home to a news crew from WNEM at the Saginaw yard. Duane had a phone interview for the 5 o’clock news and then a live interview at 6:30 when we arrived. Poor guy was a bit of a deer in the headlights for the live interview. We all have a hard time putting words to what we witnessed… well I don’t have a problem with typing it but being quizzed about it with a microphone in my face is quite another story. We got home finally at close to 7:30. Our neighbor was there waiting for us, he had fed the horses in our absence and wanted to chat about our trip. Thank you so much Dwight and Janet for helping with the boys. We couldn’t have gone on this adventure without your help at home. Our life goes back to normal for us now but I cant help but think about what I saw and the tragedy of it. I’ll say a prayer tonight for those who are not as blessed as I am.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 9:04 PM
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Sunday, September 18, 2005
On Our Way Home We arrived in Greenville, AL at my grandparents home last night at midnight. I’m just in a state of shock over what we witnessed yesterday. People with no homes, clothes, missing loved ones, grieving over those they lost in the hurricane, no food, no way to cook any food, no bathrooms, showers, medicine and the list goes on and on. Some of those neighborhoods only had the Red Cross and National Guard make their way into the area just last week. Can you imagine them fending for themselves for 2 weeks with nothing and when I say nothing I mean NOTHING. There was raw sewage everywhere, parts of peoples houses, furniture, boats, cars, appliances all over the place where the flood water had washed them. We saw first hand Slidell, Gulfport and Biloxi where there had been a flood of up to 20 feet from the storm surge. While the water had receded right after the storm the devastation that it wreaked remained. There were billboard sign’s that were twisted like pretzels, washed out bridges that had been battered by both the storm and boats that had broke free of their moorings and trees snapped off and littered everywhere like they were tinker toys. Cleaning up the area and getting the community back on its feet will be a huge task that will take a massive effort, one that will not happen over night. We are now back on the road to drop off the trailer we have in Pelham, AL then we begin the final leg of our trip home. I don’t see how we could possibly get home today because we didn’t get started on the road till 11am. At least we are headed in the right direction NORTH.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 2:53 AM
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Saturday, September 17, 2005
Distribution Begins We got to the church at midnight local time. We really pushed it hard to get there. It was a long day and a longer night. When we arrived we were greeted by Pastor Greenlee of the Cross of Glory Church and Pastor Wernecki of the WELS Committee Relief and close to 30 volunteers. We worked long into the night to get the trucks unloaded finally getting the last boxes off the truck at 4am local time. We headed off to bed which was provided to us by the Church and ABC Trailer Sales out of Anchorage Alaska, who provided a number of RV’s to house relief workers. At that point I really didn’t care where I was sleeping. We all got a shower and crashed hard to get 4 hours of sleep. We got up at 8am so that we could get some video of the distribution and we also were able to get a couple interviews of evacuees. We only were able to get 2 trucks unloaded and the church lot was full so we had a long day ahead of us to get the remaining 2 trucks unloaded. We were told that Slidell LA was in need and that the Church set up for us to take our 2 remaining loads to that community so we sent off the Gainey drivers and followed them after presenting Pastor Greenlee and Wernecki with the cash donations. That’s when our day became a saga. We arrived in Slidell around noon on Saturday at the parish’s offices. We had been told that the National Guard would be there to receive the aid and that they would unload it. That was not the case. We were rerouted to the 1st Baptist Church down near lake Ponchatrain and they were struggling there to keep up with the aid coming in and the people. That area was hit very hard and it was complete devastation there. They had no place to unload us and there was nowhere for us to get the truck into. It was sad because they needed the load but it was impossible to get it to them. So we were rerouted to another church in Slidell where we thought we would get to drop our load. It was a Red Cross site and they really had it going on there. There were hot meals, showers, porta potty’s, clothes, food and all sorts of items for those that needed it. I can remember thinking that the Red Cross was mostly just a non-profit that distributed aid like what we brought but boy was I wrong. They were the only outfit out there that had it all together. They were very short on manpower but they had the necessary equipment and goods to do what was necessary. It was amazing to see. In getting the 1st truck to unload we blew out a sidewall of a tire on the trailer. It seemed like we were doomed in our efforts because when we called for mobile service to fix the tire we were greeted with a “we will get to you when we can”. Remember we are under marshal law there and services are extremely limited if not almost non-existent. So by 4pm we still had not gotten the tire fixed so we made an executive decision to limp to the nearest truck stop with the trailer still loaded to get the tire fixed. In the mean time the Church we were at had another load come in and told us they would not be able to take either of our loads due to manpower and space limitations. My heart sank. So we got back on the phone to call over to the Cross of Glory Church back in Baton Rouge to see if they had any help for us. Its funny how things work out because when we talked to the Pastor he told us to bring both of those trucks back to him because they had given away all of the aid we had left only 7 hours ago. So after we made sure that the 2 last trucks were safely on their way back to Baton Rouge we headed off for Alabama and our last stop on the way home.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 7:59 PM
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Friday, September 16, 2005
The Cross of Glory Church There seemed to be a mix up in communications between the powers that put this together and the church. Turns out that we were supposed to be there today to unload the goods and that the distribution to the needy people was to happen tomorrow at 8am. I can see how that might have happened easily in the haste to get this show on the road. Everyone thought that we were scheduled to be there at 8am on Saturday morning – tomorrow. Duane and Brad are putting the “hammer down” to get there as quickly as possible. These guys with their trucker talk are so funny and the fella’s that are on the CB are quite a hoot - It a whole different lingo. So we are really pushing it today to try to get there as soon as possible to give the church time to unload and prepare for Saturday. I know we can get our 2 trucks there sometime between 11pm and 1am but the Gainey drivers are about 5 hours behind us so I’m not sure how that is all going to work out. I still dont know what to expect when we get there.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 5:06 PM
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Thursday, September 15, 2005
On The Road We left Saginaw at 9am this morning for Baton Rouge with another Stevens local driver, Brad Binder. There are 2 more drivers on their way from Gainey Transportation out of Grand Rapids who are picking up 2 of the Stevens trailers in Saginaw this afternoon. The plan is for them to catch up with us sometime tomorrow. So in all 4 trucks are heading down and I think the total food and supplies comes to around 100,000lbs. It’s hard to believe that our community has banded together to donate the amount of goods that they did. I’m so proud of my home area for their compassion and generosity. Duane was interviewed by WNEM Channel 5, which is our local CBS affiliate, and we were given one of their camcorders to record the trip, I hope that I am able to get what they are looking for. WNEM, Miles Petrolium, Gainey Transportation and Stevens all partnered together to get this effort off the ground. We anticipate being to Baton Rouge late Friday or early Saturday. We all went on this trip; I’m the glorified navigator (they didn’t need me but Duane gave me that title anyway), Duane who is driving and our daughter Lauren. I really didn’t like the thought of pulling her out of school for 4 or 5 days but thought that this would be an educational trip for her. I’m hoping that I’m right. We are ½ way to Baton Rouge stopping at 10:30 tonight in Bowling Green KY. It was a long day and we had dinner in Elizabeth Town KY with Brad’s family. It turns out Brad’s sister lives there and as luck would have it (well maybe not luck), his niece and her husband, who were visiting actually were a victim of Hurricane Katrina. Her and her husband have been living in New Orleans and lost everything. So it was ironic that we were sitting there with trucks full of aid eating with someone who only had the clothes and items they packed when they left New Orleans 2 weeks ago the day prior to the hurricane hitting. Tomorrow we arrive in Baton Rouge.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 11:30 PM
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Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Destination Baton Rouge Its official now. We are leaving for Baton Rouge Thursday morning with a convoy of 4 trucks provided by Stevens Worldwide Van Lines. Duane will be driving one and of course I wanted to see the area and we are also bringing along Lauren so that she can be able to see and learn about natural disasters and humanity. We should be gone for 4 days in all returning home late on Sunday if all goes well. The Red Cross is our destination point in Baton Rouge. Our local CBS network, WNEM Channel 5, is a partner with Stevens for this trip and they are sending along a camera for us to capture images of our trip. Tomorrow we make ready for our road trip.posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 7:56 PM
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Saturday, September 10, 2005
Not your average Saturday Saturday is typically a day of working horses and catching up with odd jobs around the farm that don't get done thru the week or when we are off showing. But not this Saturday. We were supposed to have been taking 4 horses to a wagon train for an enjoyable afternoon with our horse friends. As luck would have it Bobby got stung by a bee on Friday, Barney threw a shoe sometime between Wednesday and Saturday morning and that put us 2 horses down. So we scrapped the day to stay home till Duane got a call from the dispatcher at Stevens. Linda asked if he could come in to move trailers that were begin loaded for the hurricane relief effort at the local malls. Of course he said he would come so off he went and what started as just moving trailer turned into a 14 hour event. Duane came by the farm to pick me up for the final run of pickups so that I could first hand see what was going on. I have to admit that I was bowled over by the generosity of my community. There was a huge turnout and many people bringing and loading the huge 53 foot semi trailers. By the end of the night Duane ended up bringing in 4 semi trailers and a straight truck loaded with just under 100,000 pounds of food, water and clothes. Not bad for a rural community if you ask me. It makes me proud that my neighbors banded together for such a good causeposted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 11:26 PM
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Thursday, September 08, 2005
Lending a Helping Hand Since being back from the busy show season and from NARHA certification things have been slow here. Of course others have not been as fortunate as we are. The poor folks in the hurricane stricken area are devastated with destruction. Family's missing loved ones, no food, water and other necessities that we take for granted. Duanes employer, Stevens Worldwide Van Lines, has partnered with some local media and the Red Cross to collect food and other necessary items for the people that have lost everything. Today he dropped off trailers at 3 of the regional malls to be filled with donations. I sure hope they are able to get them filled up.As for the horses, they got a week off since I was at the NARHA Driving Certification and Duane had a run to make to South Carolina. Next week we begin getting ready for the Great Lakes show which begins October 13th.