Nothing like the challenge of putting together a trip for two people and one horse from Eagle, Idaho, to Gladstone, NJ, via Ontario, California. First challenge is finding out how others are getting to the show from the west coast...thanks to Erin Alberta for helping me with that! Second challenge is getting a spot on a charter flight that leaves from Ontario, California, with under a week's notice. Third challenge is getting the horse to the airport in Ontario, CA, from Idaho. Not many horse haulers willing or able to make the trip from Eagle to Ontario on such short notice. Decide to screw them all...I've driven to So Cal on numerous occasions so I'll do it myself!
Fourth challenge: getting two people to NJ. One person is fine to accompany the horse on the flight to the East coast, two people...not sure. Still not sure, according to the agent, although the flight leaves in 5 days and I leave to drive to So Cal in 2. So of course, we're looking at flying the other person on a commercial flight...oh yeah, how much is that going to cost on such short notice? Plus there are no flights out of Ontario, you have to go to LAX or one of the other commercial flight centers (since she's driving down with me). Add in additional driving time (heck, after 15 hours what's another hour???), plus the uncertainty of how it'll work on the other end. I arrive with horse in NY (charter flight arrives into Farmingdale, NY, or something like that), commercial flight with Lana arrives into Newark, NJ. Timing? Rental car? Aaack!!
Oh yeah, we haven't talked about the return flight yet. Not going there until we figure out how to get there. Oh, and did I mention when the flight leaves on June 6th? Yes, 5am. We have to be at the airport in Ontario with horse at 3:30am. I suppose I won't be sleeping anyway, so that will fit quite nicely into my insomnia pattern.
Today I rode outside in 95+% degree heat in a black jacket (not my show coat), just to get acclimated to it. Maybe tomorrow we'll turn on the industrial-sized sprinklers and I'll ride a test through that, to simulate the other NJ possibility, torrential downpours. Wait, is this supposed to be fun???
On the plus side, my FEI passports arrived today. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that after I decided, yes!! I'm going to do it!! I realized that I couldn't find Monk's FEI passport. Oops. After tearing apart my house, and then my horse trailer, I realized where I had left them...at the last CDI I attended. So I call up show secretary extraordinare Connie Davenport and *thank god* discover that she's had it (them, I left all 3) all along. Connie agrees to overnight them to me, and thankfully they arrive at my house today. Did I mention I leave for So Cal on Sunday???
Friday, June 1, 2012
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What a rush! Congrats!
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