March 3, 2003

I was packed and ready to head out on the adventure of a lifetime. I was on my way to the East Coast to Compete with the many that I had only read about in the ADS publication, The Whip and the driving magazine, "Carriage Driving World"

The plan was to drive with a group of Californians in a caravan style to the East Coast. We would get to Arizona, onto Florida and then Georgia to compete at the advanced level. Terry would fly into the events because of his work schedule.

The first leg of my trip proved to be the beginning of a very interesting voyage. Many plans were developed with fellow West Coast competitors that included our good friends Jay Hubert traveling with Buck Schoulderer ( Geezers in tandem), Leo Roman traveling for Fritz and Phyllis Grupe, Colleen Balarsky, Caroline Whittle, Irene Gillis and David Ketcher, (of mule fame) who made the decision at the last minute.

While our destination was to be the East Coast, our first stop would be Coolidge Arizona. This event is held on the ranch owned by our good friends, Bob and Marybeth Goree. Coolidge is a small farming town somewhere between Tucson and Phoenix Arizona just outside of Casa Grande.

Starting out at about 3:00 from home, I was to meet up with Colleen at a rest stop on I-5. This is where things started to get interesting. While I waited for Colleen to arrive, the phone rang and it was she. She was running a little late as she had managed to pull out of her driveway without unplugging her electrical hook-up. This of course ripped out the cord and we would need to make a stop somewhere along the way for repairs. We did find a full service RV outfit where Colleen managed to get the parts and get the electrical repaired thanks to a gentleman friend that she new in the LA area.

Later in the morning I received another call from my long time friend, (Gramma) Barbara Lively, who was home managing all the ponies in my absence. One of our mares was due to foal at just about any minute when I left had foaled a lovely, chestnut, overo filly who was struggling to breath. Two hours later Gramma called to say that she did not survive. Driving through tears, I asked Gramma if she wanted me to turn around and come home, her reply was "no, there is nothing to do here". Gramma blamed the fact that we had vaccinated all the ponies including the pregnant ones with West Nile.

We pulled into Cherry Valley for the evening at GEE JAY ranch at about 7:00 and settled in for the evening. This is a very nice private small ranch that is a good spot for travelers with equines. The ranch is owned by Judi Brey and can be found in the Bed and Barn travel book in Cherry Valley Calif.

We were up early and ready to head out to Coolidge when Colleen realized that the batteries on her new truck were dead. Working quickly we hooked up my truck to hers and within a few minutes we were off and headed to the Gorees ranch for out first event, so we thought..

As we traveled this long desert highway suddenly my good old Chevy diesel was running very hot and the idiot gauge said that the coolant was low. We found a small town where I filled the coolant and again we were back on the road to Coolidge. With two more stops to refill the coolant finally we arrived in mid afternoon to good weather and some concern about my truck.

Colleen was now set up in her very nice camper horse trailer combo and I was comfortably settled into our spacious tent with our trailer as a second living space, office, bar. This is a very comfortable way to camp though somewhat labor intensive at events.

Wednesday evening I drove to the Phoenix airport to pick up Terry and another fellow Californian, Debbie Packard who was Colleens driving coach at the time. My truck seemed to be doing ok so my worries sort of went away.

We were joined in our camp by Terry's sister Karen Clemmensen and him mom Jean Merritt. They drove to Coolidge from Colorado to support "Team Nifty" Mom Merritt pretty much stayed around the camp and kept us neat: but Karen is an active team member and has cleaned and polished harness, walked hazards and studied dressage test with us. This family support makes events very special. Karen is also the benefactor of the beautiful Buckeye Norena Easy Entry Cart that has enabled us to compete at the advanced level.

The event began with dressage on a beautiful Arizona Friday morning. This our was to be our first go at advanced dressage in the new cart. I was very nervous as this test is tough. Terry as my groom we turned in a pretty good test but well back of David Ketcher and his wonder mule " Mariah". Horses and ponies were combined in this class giving the ponies a distinct disadvantage as far as the hazards go. Some of the hazards were fairly long. Wow, Nifty was awesome really closing the gap of points after marathon. Even with the long runs our score brought us up within the top three and very close in points.

Many times places will change after cones and Drew Callahan, David Ketcher and we were hoping to go as clean as possible and of course within time to edge each other out.

We ended up in third place with a score of 125 and David took first after Drew took down too many balls. This was not a bad score for our first time out in the advanced level but we really had our work cut out for us. Arizona was a good first advanced venue for us as the dressage court is on grass and the marathon is on good farm roads. I got some good experience with the dressage test in the new cart.

Sunday afternoon It was time to pack up the truck and break camp as plans were to head out with the group on Monday morning. Terry and I loaded up pretty much everything except the tent. I could handle that by myself. Once again It was time to take Terry back to the airport in Phoenix and to say good-by. The trip to the airport was full of lively what-if's and how to get better scores at the next event but otherwise uneventful. With a hug and kiss Terry was on his way home and I was headed back to the Goree Ranch to finish packing. It makes me sad to head out without Terry but I would see him very soon on the East Coast.

I had about an hour drive from the airport back to the Goree ranch which gave me some quiet time to think about how to improve our scores and within no time I was once again anxious and ready to hit the road. The trip from the airport went quickly but as I came through Casa Grande just about sundown, I looked in the passenger side mirror and saw what looked like a huge wall of white blue smoke coming up around my truck. It is funny what one thinks about when you do not want to believe that this could be your own truck. I was at a stoplight and thought that maybe I was next to a drain that had a ton of steam rising from it. But oh no, as I drove off the big cloud just followed me and I knew this was not good, not good at all. I quickly pulled into a service station, store and tried to call Terry hoping that he was not yet on his plane. Turning off the engine, I realized that with that kind of smoke that the engine was probably blown.

Looking at my poor truck all loaded down with all that stuff including my two wheeled cart, I began thinking about what the heck was I going to do now. I called The Gorees and even though it was getting late and they would be worn out after putting on an event, they hooked up their horse trailer and headed out to pick me and all my cargo up. To my surprise It was Marybeth and Irene Gillis. In the mean time I called AAA and they showed up and hauled my truck to a local mechanic who on Monday morning delivered the bad news that the engine as I had suspected was shot......

The group was willing to wait for me but as I had no idea of what I was going to do yet we decided that they would take off on schedule to the next destination. As they all pulled out and I looked around at the empty barn and camping area, I suddenly felt very alone and disheartened. The Gorees were wonderful as they moved Nifty into their barn near the house and I stayed in the guest room.

Monday morning The mechanic said he could put a rebuilt engine in the truck but he felt that it was not a reliable thing to do. Later that afternoon after talking with Terry we decided to try to find a new truck and continue on the trek. WOW. With some quick transfers of cash arranged for by John Amaral where Terry works at Hofmann Co. I was geared up and ready to start looking.. Tuesday morning Marybeth and I were off and running. We started on the internet looking up prices of trucks with a extra/ king cab, diesel, longbed and all of the extras we thought would be important to us. With newspapers and ads in hand we finally ended up at a huge truck store in Phoenix called Auto Now. This was after looking at several other trucks and talking with people over the phone. They had seven trucks of different makes that fit our requirements and needs. I drove them all and though I fell in love with a stunning 02 Chevy Dura Max, completely loaded, I decided on a bright red 02 Dodge, Cummins Turbo 2500 diesel. I felt good about my decision and by mid afternoon I was headed back to the Gorees Ranch To transfer all my stuff and get onto the road by Wed AM.

I had been in contact with the group that had hit the road on Monday and they had offered to wait up for me but I told them that I would be ok and to stay in touch. Wednesday I was off and headed for my first overnight stop in an easy run to El Paso Texas, at a huge stopover called Jimmy Beans.

When I left the Gorees Ranch I figured I should be pulling in to El Paso by mid afternoon. NOT!!! Somewhere out on Highway 10, I heard a loud pop and once again saw smoke, this time coming from a blowout on the horse trailer. Well, ok I can handle that. I jacked up and braced the trailer and attempted to remove the lug nuts but the wrench I had only fit the Dodge and my trailer star wrench was left behind by accident in the old truck. Hmmmm With nothing in sight except weird formations of cactus and not much shoulder to pull off onto and no cell service, it suddenly dawned on me that this is how women or anyone that is alone can get into big trouble.

I started to walk up the road to see if I could get any cell service. I was lucky about a half mile up the road I was able to make a call. However I did not know where I was and the Arizona Highway patrol said that if I could not tell them where I was on the highway, that they would not look for me.

As I started walking back toward my truck and trailer I was passed by one Arizona Trooper and a Sheriff. Neither of which even slowed down....This is a huge truck route and though I was not willing to take any help from someone should they stop, it was getting dark and I still did not know where I was. I thought that I was somewhere near the Arizona and New Mexico border. I remembered that about 22 miles back I filled up with diesel and reset my trip odometer. I looked at my receipt and it had the name of the town and with this information in hand, once again I set off up the road to make a call. As evening came the cell service got better and I did not have to walk as far. I called the local police and was told that I was out of their jurisdiction and probably over the border and to call a tow service that they gave me the number to. However with no landmarks and some misunderstanding, the tow truck found me nearly three hours later. They said that they had driven up and down the highway from the last town I had been in to the tire shop.

I was lucky as they were able to change my tire and then I followed them back to their shop to get another tire and pay my bill. The tire / tow shop was only three miles up the road.....

Back on the road with only about 100 miles or so to my destination for the night, I was fighting fatigue. I turned up the oldies station, opened the window and rolled down the road singing at the top of my lungs and bouncing in my seat. This technique worked well and as I pulled into Jimmy Beans I took a big deep breath and felt relieved that this day was finally over.

Texas is a BIG state and Highway 10 just goes on and on, in fact all the way to the East Coast...I was facing a long day to get as far as I could across Texas to my next overnight destination.

Getting through Houston was not easy as a huge rain hit the area and I was detoured due to flooding under some major underpasses. It rains in Texas like I have never seen and the traffic was literally stopped due to of zero visability. Even stopped I could not see out and was amazed to see that someone was stopped within inches of me.As traffic would sit still for long periods of time, I was able to get my texas maps out and find my way back to highway 10.

After a while I was once again fighting fatigue and pulled off near a small store / mom pop outfit. I decided to wait out the rain and get a bite to eat. This was also a good opportunity for Nifty to rest, eat, drink and pee. I orderd a BBQ Beef sandwich and settled back into the truck. My first bite was one of sheer delight as this was the best BBQ beef sandwitch ever. Suddenly I felt warm and like this was a very good omen.

The rain had lightened up and I was again back on the road. Colleen had called to tell me that she was in Louisiana and that she had decided to leave the group and wait for me there. I was surprized but felt that it would be nice to have company for the rest of the trip. I arrived in Slidell Louisiana late on thursday night. The weather was warm and damp and so was everything else. Even the barn smelled of mold yet appeared fairly clean. I got Nifty all settled in and then decided to get a good dinner and check into a Motel 6 in downtown Slidell.

After a nice sit down dinner Colleen and I checed into the Motel. This was an experience in itself. When we drove up to the Motel we saw that most of the ground floor rooms appeared more or less occupied with somewhat shady looking characters guarding open doors. There were people coming in and out and ladies dressed in what appeared to be nighties or other scanty apparel. We were directed to an up-stairs room where we were watched very closely and certainly not through hidden glances. Some were looking at my truck and carriage and with all my equipment totally unprotected, I was very uneasy. As we entered the room Colleen headed for the bathroom and I was nearly sickened by the blackend carpet that I am sure was green at one time. The beds were swayed and dingy. When Colleen came out of the bathroom she started to sit on one of the beds and I laughed and said I would not do that if I were you. In surprise she looked up at me and said , "why"? She was in her stockings and I said simply, look at your feet. They were black from just one pass through the room. We looked at the walls and began to feel as though this was a big mistake to stay here.

We checked out and the office person said that he understood why and even directed us elswhere and kindly gave me my money back. I know that Tom Bodet says that he will leave the light on for ya, but I am sure that this is not what he had in mind.

We checked into a slightly more expensive room but clean and the parking area was protected. I slept like a dead thing and woke early and was ready to head into Florida down to Black Prong.

My experience at BlackProng starts the next part of my story about our trip to the East Coast. I invite you back as I finish my story about our wonderful journey. This will be continued very soon.

Jane Merritt

Photos of Nifty In Action 

Click on thumbnail images to view full size photos

In Dressage Nifty was solid as we performed our dressage test at the 2003 Georgia International. We had just spent a week in a USET Training camp in Aiken S Carolina with Bill Long. The results of the camp were wonderful We both learned a great deal. We also improved our over-all score by over 20 points.

This was one of the toughest courses we had encountered due to heavy rain. We walked and studied the marathon course and felt that it would be fun and challenging but when the rain turned the footing into red Georgia mud we encountered heavy going for Nifty. We were at times sliding where Nifty would need to hold the carriage back and at other times he would have to work hard to keep going because of all the heavy mud loading up on the carriage. Several of the ponies in the Advanced division were not allowed to continue after section A as the mud took it's toll. Nifty had good P&Rs and after vet check we were off to an incredible performance on Nifty's part in section E.

With eight hazards we could feel that after each one he was tiring some. But when he would see the next set of gates, something in him would come alive. He would power up and his times and accuracy were incredible. AS we came to the last of the eight hazards, once again he pricked his ears forward at the sign of the flags. He took off like a shot. He pulled from somewhere the strength to hold onto turning in the best time over the Advaced Pony division. We were so proud of him as we finished and headed for the finish line. As we came close to the line, we could see a number of officials waiting with timers for us to cross the line. Suddenly something popped, just before we were to cross the finish line. I looked down and could see that one of the traces had popped off and was laying across the right shaft, safely out of the way and as we were rolling along nicely we did not stop to fix the disconnected trace. With all the wet mud and watery hazards we had just gone through the tape had come off and the safety let go.

While sitting at the finish line a number of fellow drivers that were looking on came over to congratulate us on a marathon well driven. We were excited and so proud of Nifty as we heard the announcer say that Nifty had turned in the best time in each hazard. Wow what a little power house. After clearing the final vet check we headed back to the stabling area to cool and bath Nifty and wait for the scores to be posted.

About two hours later the scores were up for the advanced division. To our surprise and confusion there was the dreaded E behind our name. We did not know why... Our times were good in each section and our times in each hazard were incredible.

We spoke with our TD who came to us with the answer. We were eliminated because of the disconnected trace. We could not believe this and though we appealed, the decision was not turned over.

This was truly the most heartbreaking decision. However the knowledge of Nifty's tremendous performance still held in our minds and the scores were up for all to see.

Nifty turned in a good performance in cones and Terrys sister, Karen rode with me as my Groom. We had a good time and learned a great deal.