FROM: Sam DiMuzio
PST
It’s finally here! After a chaotic morning of last-minute prep and wondering whether or not I was going to run out of gas in my SxS as I did the 6-mile roundtrip to the mailbox to pick up the ride pins, Kaity shows up, we load the ponies and head to Woodfords Station for the CA to NV Handoff and start of Section 1.
We get there just after 11am and most everyone is there getting ready-go team! We learn CA is about 20 minutes behind schedule-not too shabby as it’s already in the 90’s. We mingle with the crowd and just before 1pm we all jump in our rigs to go stage at our first exchange points. Kaity and Rhyolite were scheduled to be leg 2 and get the mail from Jim, but we had a last-minute adjustment. Apache was going to give a retiring XP rider his 20th and final 1-mile ride down the road. Kaity and Rhy finished up the rest of the leg.
Unfortunately, the next pony was not to keen on going out by himself. So Kaity hopped back on Rhy, and buddied the other horse onto the next exchange point. As we continued down Section 1, I tried my hand at Facebook Live. (To see those gems go check out the National Pony Express Nevada Division’s Facebook page ). Before we knew it, Pach and I were up again. As we were going down the road, I got word that the next rider took a saddle horn to her ribs and wasn’t able to ride…so on we went nearly an extra 2 miles on top of the two we just did. We met the next rider, handed off the mochila, loaded up and got to going! We needed to get Kaity to the other side of Genoa and the boys really needed some time where the trailer was not in motion. The temperature gauge in my truck was registering the heat radiating off the pavement at 111* -going slowly down the road was not helping.
After doing some more horse-trailer circus-rodeo leapfrog, Kaity and Rhy did their next 2-mile section and passed off to the next rider. We and the last Section 1 rider then got stuck in traffic trying to get to the last exchange position. The upside was we were now nearly 30 minutes ahead of schedule, the downside was our fastest riders in Section 1 were next up. We got to the last exchange spot of Section 1 just as our rider did. After making a last-minute safety decision for the final Section 1 pony rider to stay on the backstreets, Kaity and I took off to the beginning of Section 2-which was my next leg….
Mile tally: Apache- 4.8 Rhyolite- 4.8
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GO! PONY! GO!
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(( ))………..
Sam DiMuzio
NPEA-Nevada Division
Secretary
From Sam DiMuzio
Day One in Nevada
From Sam DiMuzio
Nevada Day One
From Sam DiMuzio
Day One in Nevada