The Life of a Roadie

Green Cove Springs, FL

2009-05-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

This drive was the average 400 something mile drive. A long day, but it was a nice one. Once we got into Florida, we made a stop so that Dennis and Deborah could meet up with Pat Parelli (http://www.ultimateparelli.com/ ). Pat's program uses the Natural Horsemenship as well, but of course, he has his own ways.

Our meeting place turned out to be in one of the smallest Walmart parking lots I've seen. Here we have our convoy of two Peterbilt trucks and trailers, the Freightliner with the Featherlight trailer and the Custom Luxury Motor Coach. Pat's in an amazing Custom Luxury Motor Coach pulling a matching horse trailer. Very impressive setup.

So here we are in this already packed parking lot when the security guard came up and said we only had 5 minutes before we had to leave. Well, about an hour later, we finally hit the road again.

Not long after, we made it to our destination. The side streets that led up to the arena were beautifully tree lined with quite the mix of nice houses sprinkled along with shacks. The arena was located on the fairgrounds, which turned out to be another open arena. By the time we hooked up the Jamco and Custom Luxury Motor Coach, we had lost the light of day. We had to fumble around arranging the trucks so that we could use their headlights to see into the arena's outdoor pens that we were going to use for the night. Finally, Toni received a phone call from one of the fairground employees who explained where the light switches were. It sure made things easier for getting the horses settled.

The next day, Mark and I went about our normal procedure for setup. We were thankful that we were underneath the shade the whole time because it was getting hotter as the day wore on. Actually, the cloud formations reminded me a lot of Hawaii. All throughout the show it was hot, but there was still a light breeze which made things tolerable.

The show was pretty much the same as usual. The students were many of the same that had been following us around. Nathan, Shirley, Ed and Karen, Michelle, etc. There was another Ed and his wife Kyle that we had first met in Georgia. Great couple! Ed was amazing help with setting up the store and during the show. He is one of those people that just always has a smile on his face and is willing to help anyone out. Another couple was Lisa and her 11 year old daughter Presley. Lisa is married to Dr Karl's brother, who just happens to be the CFO for Aflac Insurance ( http://www.aflac.com/us/en/aboutaflac/ManagementCloninger.aspx). Presley looks small for her age, but she sure makes up for it with her maturity. It was fun to watch Presley out there with all of the other students. She could do the ground school with her horse just as well as anyone else.

After we packed everything up on Sunday, a few of us went into St Augustine. Here's a link that describes the city better than I can: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine,_Florida. Of course, the best part is that the city is that the city was founded in 1565. It makes it pretty old, huh???

It was me, Mark, Shirley, Nathan, Michelle, Lisa and Presley, and Shirley's friend Kathy. We found a really cute little New Orleans style restaurant that had great food. Although the food was good, the company was much better. I haven't laughed so hard and had such a relaxing time in quite awhile. Afterwards, Michelle, Nathan, Lisa and Presley all decided to go back home. Me, Mark, Shirley and Kathy walked around checking out the town. We went down to the old fort pictured in wikipedia and sat around talking. We finally got back around 2 am.

Monday was the normal day off. Wash clothes, Walmart, etc. Mark and I decided that it would be great to see the Atlantic Ocean, so Dennis allowed us to take my Peterbilt truck (without the trailer, of course). We were only about 30 miles away, but we didn't get out there until 4 pm or so. We didn't stay more than an hour, but it was long enough to spend the time body surfing. Mark mostly sat up on the beach while I spent almost all of the time out in the water. It seems that it's been so long since I've actually been able to spend time in the ocean. I had forgotten what it's like to have the strength of the ocean push you while the water flows along your body. There was a time when I was able to spend at least 3 hours, if not longer, out in the water boogie boarding using fins and a full wet suit several times a week. I carried my wet suit and board in the trunk of my company car and hit the beach every chance that I got, which was quite often since my region was along the coast from SF up to the Oregon border and Hawaii. It can be quite addicting...

It was a great start to the adventure of our next stop.

Murray, Kentucky

2009-05-11T19:26:00.001-07:00

Whoops, I jumped one stop ahead. Murray, KY was before Gainesville, GA.

Kentucky is a really beautiful state. Everywhere you look it's green and lush. I really enjoyed the drive out there. Although, we hit one scary portion of the road on the way out to the arena. We had taken the northern back roads and came across two separate bridges that only had one lane each way. The lanes were so narrow that we drove about 15 miles an hour over them. It didn't look like there was any room on either side. At one point, I passed another truck and could swear that we touched mirrors! I heard the clink...but luckily there wasn't even a scratch.

Turns out this arena was located at the Murray University. We were met by two young men named Taylor and Ben, who worked at the arena and went to school there. By the time we started to unload, there were a few more young men that were in some type of rodeo class there who had also came to help out. This time, I was able to back my truck into the arena, which made unloading the panels so much easier. It also helped that we had so much assistance. By the end of the day we had the horses in their stalls; the Featherlight trailer in it's spot; the cross fence up as well as the round pen. We really had a big jump on getting the store set up.

Dennis added a lot more information for this show then I had seen up to this point. Turns out there was a Reining Hall of Famer, Charlie Hutton (spelling???) at the show. During Sunday's show, Dennis has an hour long lecture on the proper use of bits and bridles. It's a wealth of information just in itself. After that portion, Charlie made the comment to Dennis, which he was given a microphone to repeat to the audience, that he learned more the last couple of days that he had ever expected. This from a Hall of Famer that has been around for many years!

Dennis added a couple of fun bits to both the student instruction as well as the show. He "leased" several roping steers from the college for his students to practice herding. It was fun to watch them do something a little different. During one portion, Dennis actually wrestled a steer to the ground. Dennis just turned 51...not bad! Especially since there were several of the young college guys hanging around during the whole time that also tried. They were able to do it, but not as fast as Dennis. Mark gave it a shot and was successful. I was going to, but after watching Dennis wrestle another steer down by twisting it's neck almost all the way around, I changed my mind.

During one of the shows...can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday, Dennis pitted me and Mark against two of the students in a soccer game using the big 6' red ball. Bear in mind, I'm 43. Mark is almost 50. The two students were in their early twenties. Knowing that they had the advantage of youth, Mark devised a plan to call both of them over once we started and tackle them. At that point, I could then push the ball into their goal.

Well...it was a good plan in theory. But I had poorly positioned myself so that I couldn't see Mark. He called them over, but I jumped the gun and tried to take the ball before he could tackle them. Needless to say, they quickly recovered the ball and scored. We had one more round, which was well fought, but they ended up scoring again. It only lasted a couple of minutes, but I was sucking air like never before. It must've taken 10 minutes to recover to normal breathing afterwards. I didn't feel too bad, though, because one of the younger guys (he was 22) was breathing just as hard. We had a lot of fun, but it made me realize that my theme song in my older years is Toby Keith's song that says "I may not be as good as I once was, but I'm good once as I ever was." Truthfully, it doesn't apply to this game, huh, because we lost...:)

At one point during the show, Dennis was awarded as an true Honorable Kentucky Colonel by the Governor because of he created and pushed through the Day of the Horse as an official US holiday.

No other memorable things happened that I can think of right off...

I do remember we took another route on the way out instead of crossing those bridges again!

Gainesville, GA

2009-05-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finding myself getting futher and futher behind on the stops. For the sake of time, I'll give you a highlight of events and try to fill in more later.

Georgia had an open arena. At first, I was a little apprehensive, but turns out it was a really nice experience! During the shows, there was a constant breeze blowing though. It was warm, but quite comfortable with the breeze.

All of the students parked right next to us since all of the RV hookups were right next to the arena. That Thursday night seemed like one big family reunion. Many of the students returned to ride with Dennis again. Ed and Karen had put hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill to share with everyone. We were able to just sit around and shoot the breeze like a group of old friends.

The show went off pretty well. It seemed like the two show days passed by pretty quickly. Before I knew it, it was time to pack everything up again.

We had our normal day off again. Nothing new or exciting to report about it.

Cookeville, TN

2009-04-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

We pretty much took the same route out of North Carolina, which meant the beautiful drive through the mountains again. The route continued through Tennessee with a stop in Cookeville for a layover.

We didn't get to Cookeville until late in the evening. You probably wouldn't be that surprised to hear that it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning, huh? Well, it was quite the storm. We connected the "Custom Luxury Motor Coach" to power and water as well as the Jamco. Got the food and water together for the horses. This time, there were stalls already available, but they had concrete floors. What this meant was that we put down the rubber mats we carry on the back of the mid-size Frieghtliner. A bag of wood shavings were put down on top of the mats for the horses to lay down on.

The worst of the storm had passed right after we finished getting the stalls together. But by this time, we were soaked. There were a few times where I thought I might have to use the method learned at Philmont that lessens your chance of being struck by lightning. I had left my raincoat in my truck, so I was a wet, muddy mess. We were a bit rushed because Dennis was already running a few minutes behind on getting on his phone call.

Dennis' show comes on three times during the week and after each show he makes himself available to talk to viewers live. He's the only horse clinician that does that. It takes a big commitment to make the calls, though because two of the shows come on Monday. One is mid-day and the other in the evening. The other show is mid-day on Sunday. Pat and Deborah are also part of the call. Pat has a program on her computer that allows her to see each caller's telephone number and location. She tracks it and helps coordinate either herself, Deborah, Ken, and Fran to make return phone calls to each caller to either answer questions or sell their products.

Not only do they make themselves available to their veiwing public, but they also have an "Ambassador" and "Membership" call during the week. An Ambassador is a volunteer that helps spreads the word about the upcoming show in their area by passing out free tickets; talking to the local tack - feed stores about getting merchandise for the raffles during the show; helping out with the logistics; etc. The Membership call is for members that have joined the Support group made available by Dennis to answer any questions they may have about their horses. They also get a monthly DVD that is made up of the best parts of the taped portion of the tour stops.

It was pretty late by the time we finally had the horses bedded for the night and went to bed ourselves.

The next morning, we found out that Dennis gave us the day off. It was well needed and appreciated! Usual things once again...wash clothes, Walmart, good food, etc. This day off really worked out great since Mark and I had taken the last day off to go to the Biltmore. Neither one of us had done laundry so I was getting worried that I was going to have to wear the same dirty clothes one more time.

We ended up staying one more day after that. Mark and I did various repairs on the vehicles. Pretty light day overall.

The next morning we were off for our next stop.

Fletcher, NC

2009-04-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

I keep saying that we've had some nice drives, but the one to North Carolina was breathtaking! What a beautiful drive! We drove through the Smokey mountains, which reminded me many times of the drive along the Sierras out there in California.

It would've taken lesser trucks a longer time just because of the steeper grades, but Dennis' trucks have enough power to chug on up the hill without dropping below 55. It's nice to have that much power!

Once we arrived at the arena, we were met by a couple of the local Ambassadors. One was Tim, and the other...well, it's been too long...I can't remember his name. Both nice gentleman, though. There were a couple of other students that were already around ready to lend a hand. One of Dennis' other instructor's was there as well. Ken lives in Florida and guess what...he's an Eagle Scout. There have been quite a few Eagle Scouts or just other Scouters that I've met along this journey.

Unfortantely, there wasn't anyone available from the arena. It took forever to find the light switches later that evening. But they were locked up so we were stumbling around in the dark trying to get the sound set up before the next morning.

Before that point, yet after we had the horses in the stalls fed and watered for the evening, we went out to dinner with a few of the other students. Once again, there were several that had already made it to the other shows, so it felt like a big ol' family reunion. A few that really stand out are Ed and Karen - a married couple (Ed's an Eagle Scout) who always team up for the student games. They are a force to be recogned with. Both are really nice. A young man named Nathan, who you'd never guess by his maturity level that he is only 21. Dennis relentlessly teases him by calling him "Raoul - the pool boy" since he's young and keeps himself in shape. It's funny, that nickname has stuck to him pretty good. His mother and father showed up at this last show in Georgia. His father was wearing a nametag that said "Raoul's Father". Pretty funny stuff. He has always traveled with his aunt, Shirley. Shirley is a really positive and fun person to be around. Her wardrobe is something else. She's always impecciably dressed with matching cowboy hats and scarfs, really nice boots and blouses. Another really sweet lady is Michelle, who is also from Georgia. She's really one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Always smiling; always joking. Dennis' nickname for her is Ellie May Clampet from the Beverly Hillbillies. Once again, the nickname has followed her to each of the stops she's been at. Her mother, Louise, comes with her to all of the shows as well. Once again, a very sweet lady. Like mother like daughter. I could go on and on about the other students, but I'll just say that I haven't met one that I didn't like.

This time around, Mark and I really only had a day and a half to set up the store since we traveled and arrived on Wednesday this time. This show was going to be different since Easter was on that Sunday. The students rode with Dennis Friday morning instead of Thursday and the show actually started on Friday at 5 pm and ran until 10 pm. Saturday was the usual Sunday show. Needless to say, we were a bit worried about having everything set up. It was amazing how "easily" things came together this time. We're pretty much at that stage of being able to throw things up without much thought. We really surprised ourselves...that's for sure.

After scrambling around Friday morning to put everything together, the show started at 5 pm. Of course, just like the other stops, it started raining that evening. Truthfully, it was much more than rain. It was a pretty bad thunder and lightning storm. Some of the arenas that we've been in have been closed off with the exception of the front glass doors. This time, the arena was recessed down below the bleachers. There were glass doors and windows all away around the building so that we had natural sun light during the day. But Friday night we were able to see just how bad the lightning was flashing. I was waiting for the lights and the power to cut out at any point.

So, needless to say, since Friday's show went until 10 pm, we had a long day. Mark and I still had to feed by 5 am the next morning. That weekend was one of the hardest ones, as far as back to back long hour days, yet.

Sunday, Easter, made up for it, though. Shirley and Nathan took Mark and I to the Biltmore house in Asheville, NC. It's the largest home in North America. It was owned by George Vanderbuilt, who only lived in it a year after it was built before he died. Here is the link to the house: http://www.biltmore.com/visit/house/default.asp . We spent the day roaming around the house and playing tourist. It wasn't our normal day off...no laundry...no Walmart. It was a well needed restful day.

This day off prepared us for our next stop, which was in Kentucky.

Decatur, AL

2009-04-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

Our next stop on the tour was Decatur, AL. Once again, it was a beautiful drive that included plenty of green grass and trees. The arena was named Racking Horse Celebration Arena. Here's a link that describe what Racking Horses are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racking_horse. There are some debates about the horses because of the actual chains and the extensions that are put on the horses front feet. They are used to give the horse the gait which causes the horse to raise his front feet in an unnatural way. It's considered to be inhuman to many.

On a more positive note, we were met by the facility manager Donna and the maintenance guy Jesse. Both nice people. One of the common things that I've learned about each arena is the costs of running the lights. They are 1000 watt bulbs, which draw a lot of power, especially when you first turn them on. Donna explained that she has to turn each row of lights on individually with at least 15 minute intervals because otherwise it is such a draw on the local power company that they charge her a large fee. It was funny how tough she was about the lights, almost like she was the guardian of them. She turned them off the minute that we were through with them.

As well as Donna and Jesse, we were also met by two gentleman, Danny and Gary and his son and daughter. They assisted with getting the panels for the stalls off my trailer and set up. They were down-home fellows that seemed like they would give you the shirt off their back. Saturday, after the show, they, along with Gary's mom and dad, cooked up some fried catfish, cole slaw, fries, and homemade pecan (properly pronounced in the southern drawl: "p-can") pies that were so good they left you wanting more. I haven't had pecan pie that good since my grandmother made it many years back. That was a good meal, needless to say! They also were kind enough to bring in extra panels that were needed to run the perimeter of the arena since there was only a half wall...the horses would've easily jumped the fence...

The weather was an interesting combination of warm, very cold with light snow, and wild storms that included thunder and lightning and wind so bad that it rocked the big rig while sitting still...oh, and there was also the threat of tornadoes. This weird combo was all in the period of a week.

The crowd was about average. Nothing really different. There was a really big learning experience during the show on Saturday, though. One of the students was riding a pretty high spirited horse using a cheap synthetic saddle with plastic stirrups. There was a point in the show were the horse spooked, reared back and caused the rider to have to stand up in the stirrups. They broke while she was standing, causing her to fall off the horse. The arena dirt was pretty packed, so she didn't have much to cushion the fall. She passed out for a brief minute. Luckily, two other students were doctors so they immediately ran to her aid. I ran out there behind Pat, who is a retired heart surgical nurse, and called 911 to the arena. While waiting for the ambulance outside, I was talking to Gary. Since he was from there and knew the volunteer paramedics, he was going to try to talk them into not having the helicopter fly out since it cost so much. According to him, they have a bad habit of immediately sending the helicopter for the flight to the hospital 12 miles away because they can charge $8000 for the ride. Pretty expensive! Turns out, they still flew her out.

She was up and getting around in the hospital later that day. Sounds like she'll be fine and will be at one of the other upcoming shows with the same horse for Dennis to work with to try to calm it down.

Obviously, things could've been a lot worse, but there is a definite lesson with this experience. The lesson is that you shouldn't skimp on the tools that are designed to keep you safe. In this case, one should never ride a horse with a cheap saddle that has plastic stirrups.

Dennis continued the show and the rest of the time including Sunday went off without any problems.

At this point, I'm getting several stops behind, so I'll post pictures a little later so I can try to get caught up.

Forest, MS

2009-04-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

Forest, Mississippi was the next stop on the tour. Deborah and Toni had flown back to California once again to complete work that they had to do, so they didn't travel with us.

It was a little under 300 miles of beautiful country. It was one of the best drives so far. The reason being is because we had to cut down from Interstate 40 to Interstate 20 using a little four lane road that took us through towns and stoplights. It was nice to see something other than trees and road, which is really the only thing you see driving the Interstates. We meandered along a river, drove through some really cute little towns where people actually waved from their front porches, and such.

We came across this hill portion of the road in this one little town where at the crest was railroad tracks. For a normal vehicle, you wouldn't think twice about it. For us, though, we have the horse trailer and the "Custom Luxury Motor Coach" that both have really low clearances. We made it with about two inches to spare with the horse trailer. There was going to be no way with the bus. Dennis ended up backing it down this one way street a couple of blocks away that had a little less incline. Luckily, there wasn't a lot of traffic. It only added an interesting part to the day.

We arrived in town at around 8 pm and were met by Reis Ranch Ambassador Stacy and his 12 year old son Reagan. Stacy is the type of down-home guy that made you feel right at home and his son was well mannered and acted much more mature than his age.

The arena manager met us as well to let us into the facility. It was a very nice venue with plenty of seating and a very large arena. It was right off the freeway, which was nice, and it was a cool to see that they had their large sign advertising Dennis' show.

First things always is first: get Deborah and Dennis' "Custom Luxury Motor Coach" connected with water, sewer and power and the Jamco (name brand of the trailer) horse trailer connected to water, sewer and power.

Afterwards, Stacy and Reagan helped us get the panels out for the horse's stalls. Mark started getting their feed together while Reagan started filling their water buckets. Once everything was ready, the horses were brought up and put in their stalls.

As always, the Featherlight trailer was driven into the arena and parked in it's normal area that creates the separating line between the store area and the main arena. Since Pat sleeps in the front part of the trailer (it has a nice little living quarter with a bed, little kitchenette, closet and a bathroom with a shower), power was run to it.

It was a long 18 hour day, so you bet that I slept good that night!

The next morning, Mark and I started to unpack the Featherlight to set up the cross fence that goes next to the trailer and from one side to the other side of the arena. The facility had a young man named Charles that worked there. Turns out he was a BIG help setting up things. He didn't mind doing grunt type work and was willing to help out with anything else that needed to be done.

Dennis surprised Mark and I mid-day by giving us the rest of the day off. After the previous day, it was well needed! We decided to go see a movie to relax. The nearest place was in Jackson about 35 miles away. Didn't start out at relaxing as it should've, though. We were on our way in the mid-size Frieghtliner when I was pulled over by a Mississippi DOT police officer. The DOT police mostly concentrate on big rigs and larger vehicles. I only received a warning for not having my log book up to date, even though we tried to convince him that we were off duty. If one didn't know better, it almost seemed as if he had singled us our right from the start. He was parked on the on ramp when we first got on the freeway. He started to follow us, eventually passing us. Meanwhile, we both passed a disabled car with people working on it and one car towing another car, which is illegal, going our way. Not much further up the freeway, we passed him parked on the shoulder of the road. As soon as we passed, he pulled us over and talked to us for about 30 minutes.

Spoiler and all, we still made it to the movies. Mark saw Escape to Witch Mountain, which I teased him unmercifully for seeing. I saw that new movie with Nicolas Cage. Pretty good movie...lot of action, but the ending was disappointing in my opinion.

The next day was pretty easy overall since we had help from Charles, Stacy and Fran, who is the Lead Instructor for Dennis. Great lady! She's looks petite, but I tell you what, I wouldn't want to mess with her! Not only is she an Instructor, but she's also shoes horses professionally. She's got a great personality with a wonderful smile and sparkling eyes.

It also helped that by this point, both Mark and I pretty much know exactly what we need to do. It not quite to the point of being second nature yet, but I figure we'll be there after a couple of more stops.

By mid-day Friday, the store was setup. It was a satisfying feeling to be completed that early.

We all seemed to be in high spirits because things were going well and this place had a good vibe. Although Arkansas had a nice complex, it had a couple of hurdles, the biggest being the location. It was out in the middle of nowhere. This place was in a great location and Stacy had worked hard to promote the event by passing out over a thousand tickets.

If anything, the weather was the only thing that was strange this time. There were threats of tornadoes and really bad rainstorms at night. The days were beautiful, but the nights were something else! I kept being woke up throughout the night because the rain was so bad several times. The truck is insulated pretty well, but it's still metal.

Saturday's show had roughly four hundred people...if I remember correctly. Things went well with the show. He had less than 10 students that he worked with this time, all but one had been students as previous shows. It was like a big family reunion again. Loved it!

We had Dr. Carl and Becky back for this show. Both were not available for the last two shows because of other commitments.

Looking back, the start of Saturday's show was the only real hiccup. Once again, it was a sound issue. There was a bad sound cable that caused three speakers to go out, which was right at the start of the show. I was scrambling like a madman to rewire them before we actually got started. Meanwhile, I was told that the Internet connection went out. This is a big deal because it is necessary for our cash registers. Each issue was a big deal in itself, but combined...well, not good. After side tracking the speakers for the Internet connection, I found out that the router had been knocked off the table that it sat on...whew, easy fix. I ran back out to fix the speaker situation.

Normally, we have four large speakers on each side of the arena in the bleachers. One also sits on top of the Featherlight and one right behind the store where Dennis sits during the breaks (They're called "breaks", but Dennis just moves from the arena into the store to sit and talk to people face to face answering their questions, signing autographs, and marketing his products. He barely has time to eat during lunch because he spends his time in the store talking with customers. Deborah spends her time at the cash registers, or being the accountant, or when she's not monitoring the editing equipment being the producer during filming for the TV show / Membership DVDs or being part of the show, etc. Her theme song should be Sammy Kershaw's "National Working Woman's Holiday"). Since everyone was sitting on the one side and they still were having problems hearing him, we moved the four speakers and the wiring from one vacant side to the other side.

Other than the sound issues, things went off without any hitches. They were both entertaining and informative.

Sunday's packing up went really well. We had good volunteers that had everything packed up within an hour and a half. The volunteers get a horse stick for their services signed by both Deborah and Dennis.

Monday was our day off again. Can you guess what we done??? Yep, laundry, Walmart, and a good meal. Both Toni and Pat fed for both Mark and I so we didn't have to get up early. Didn't seem like it really matters anymore because I've gotten use to waking up at 4:30 am and then again at 6:30 am, my normal schedule. It was still nice to lay there a little longer, especially since I was able to get back to sleep until around 9 am.

Tuesday morning we were up to feed the horses and get the panels loaded on my trailer and ready to go right on schedule.

Our next stop was Decatur, Alabama.

Clarksville, AR

2009-04-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

The trip to Clarksville, AR was pretty easy. It was less than 200 miles, which meant that we arrived mid afternoon. The arena was out in the middle of nowhere it seemed. We were about 15 miles from Clarksville down a two lane road that was just barely wide enough for our rigs. I was watching my mirrors and noticed that the truck was as wide as the lane was. Beautiful country, though!

Here are a couple of pics:

Once we arrived, we were met by Dean, the facility maintenance man. He was a really fun, entertaining guy in his early 60's. The better we got to know each other, the more we laughed and joked with each other. His wife has his same since of humor...go figure...

We really lucked out since they had stalls available for us to use that were a pretty good size. Normally, we use the panels loaded inside my trailer to build the individual stalls. This saved us some set up time. All we had to do was fill up their water buckets and get the feed ready. It was a pretty light day overall.

The next day Mark and I started setting up the round pen, cross fence, and store frame. By this point, we both have it down pretty well. It also helped that we had help from two of the instructors, Phyllis and Lisa. It was almost a 9 - 6 type of day, with the exception of feeding in the morning. But since the facility's pens were so big, we didn't turn the horses out at night in the arena. Mark was actually kind enough to get up early and feed. I keep asking him, "are you sure?", and he kept saying, "yep". So, I took advantage of it and started working on this blog and going to bed early. Other than the days off, it was the first time I actually got a full night sleep. It was quite nice...

I had kept hearing about Lavone and Ted from the beginning of the trip - how they will keep us fed. Well, true to the stories, Lavone fed us a really great meal Thursday night; made us breakfast sandwiches for the morning and had donuts available; made us lunch during the shows both days; well, let's just say that she kept us fat and happy throughout our stay.

Saturday's crowd was one of the smallest so far, but ironically, Sunday's crowd was about the same number. The reason that it's ironic is because normally our Sunday's crowd is only a portion of the original Saturday crowd. The show both days went off pretty much without any real problems.

There was a difference in Sunday's show, though. Normally, Dennis goes over the students tasks that they will have to perform for Sunday morning show. This includes having them start off in a walk walking side by side on their horse in pairs holding a string between them. Then they are to start cantering and if one person of the pair lets go of the rope, they're out. They keep going until they're down to the last pair still holding on. One of the other events is to have them in pairs again and roll this 6' red rubber ball at them and they are suppose to push, kick, or have their horse roll it in between the gauntlet (a U - shaped apparatus made out of PVC pipe with strips of a blue tarp hanging down that the horse with rider has to go through) and then ride though the gauntlet after the ball. This is a timed event. This time, though, Dennis threw in the Ranch's Lethal Weapon and mascot - a donkey named Dusty. Along with getting the ball and themselves through the gauntlet, first they have to use teamwork to coax Dusty into the round pen, ride in themselves, and then get Dusty back out. It's really funny because Dusty doesn't always want to cooperate. He'll make the riders really work.

For the normal show, Dusty only has a few minutes worth of work for the weekend and that's how he usually likes it. On occasion, Dusty will go into the round pen with a horse that is too high strung. It's interesting to see how Dusty will actually calm the horse down because the horse will focus in on him instead of all of the crowd, music, lights and other scary things that he's not use to. Dusty doesn't really have to do anything, but donkeys don't really take any messing around. If the horse messes with Dusty, Dusty isn't afraid to give back.

Packing up Sunday night has gotten easier as well. With the help of some of the students and Phyllis and Lisa, the instructors, as well as our normal 10 volunteers from the audience, we've got it down to about 90 minutes. Not bad for something that usually takes a couple of days to set up, huh???

We had Monday off again and went into downtown Clarksville (population 7000ish). It was a cute little town with the typical main street square centrally located around the courthouse. We washed clothes, had lunch, stopped by the feed store, and of course, Walmart. When we returned, Dennis was shoeing one of the horses. Dennis gave us a course on how to shoe a horse. It was pretty interesting. Being a carpenter, there were similarities. Of course, if I mess up a piece of wood, I can just throw it on the scrape pile. If Dennis messes up, well, let's just say that he doesn't. It takes a real perfectionist to get the shoe just right. He explained how a really good shoe-er uses the natural fall of the leg and foot to determine how much of the hoof to cut off and to properly shape it for the shoe. Watching him nail the shoe on was another show of patience. This horse kept jerking his leg back while he was trying to nail. A less than patient man would have totally screwed up because there isn't much margin for error with the nailing. But Dennis' experience made it look easy.

Our next stop was Forest, MS. It was a great time! More to come...

Tulsa OK

2009-03-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

We made it to Tulsa, OK pretty quickly from Springfield, MO since it's less than 200 miles. Compared to New Mexico's trip, seemed like the vehicles just barely got warmed up good.

Speaking of which, the temperature was about 70 degrees that evening and throughout the night when we arrived. The next day, it was really cold and it snowed, not much, but there were flakes for awhile. The next day, it was back up into the 70s again where it pretty much stayed the rest of our visit. Weird weather...

Turned out Tulsa was a pretty good stop. Once again, we had some hiccups when unexpected events happened. We arrived on Monday so that Deborah, Toni and Dennis could catch a flight out that evening. Turns out, their flight didn't go out because of some type of mechanics strike. Deborah and Toni left out the next morning, but Dennis ended up staying.

We had that next day off, Tuesday. Seems like we drove all over Tulsa. First I was looking for a branch of my bank to deposit my check, but, of course, there weren't any. Then had to find a UPS store to mail it home. We lucked out, though, because there were washers and dryers at the arena so we didn't have to waste time at a laundry mat. The day was pretty filled up by all of our running around.

Tulsa's show was located in a huge state fairgrounds complex. There was a ballfield, race track and many horse barns / arenas. They actually made our arena by bringing in stands and over 60 dump truck loads of dirt into a large concrete floor building. I really liked the location because there was a Target, Sears, a Walmart grocery store (not a typical Walmart), and several different eating joints all within walking distance of our arena. It was nice, especially since we ended up having two days off there.

Saturday's show didn't start off that well. Thirty minutes before the show started, we thought we were having major problems with our sound. After fretting pretty hard - not having sound before a show isn't good - we finally figured out it was the cable that ran to one of the IPODs that had gone out. Since I didn't know anything about the sound system, our MC for the shows - Dr Carl (he's the announcer for the Extreme Mustang Makeover event: http://extrememustangmakeover.com/ ) asked if there were any sound experts at the show. There was one gentleman named Bubba that had been a roadie for several big names and knew sound systems pretty well. Even though we had figured out the problem before Bubba come over to help, he still was able to tweak the system for us. Watching Bubba was a learning experience because it was obvious he knew how to be a good roadie, meaning, he knew how to respond to the performer's needs. Small and simple things such as getting an item prepared for an autograph for Dennis instead of letting him deal with it and still try to talk to the crowd simultaneously.

Going back to Dr. Carl, our MC, he really adds a lot to the show. He and Dennis really have a great banter back and forth which the crowd eats up. He is also really good about keeping Dennis on schedule. He is also an Eagle Scout and an experienced Philmont regular.

His wife, Becky, helps out with the set-up and with the cash registers during the show. She's a really sweet lady with a great southern drawl. She's the type of person that you can't help but smile when you see her coming.

All throughout the show, Dennis continued to have problems with the head worn microphone. Turns out, there was a break in the earpiece that caused feedback through the system every time the two separations moved against each other. He switched over to Deborah's setup, but hers was going bad as well.

With all things considered about the sound, we still ended up with a pretty good show. The audience was pretty receptive to the humor throughout the show. Between Dr Carl - Dennis - Deborah's banter and Dennis' laugh (He has a really funny "hee" that he does sporadically throughout the show. Even now, I can't help but laugh when he does it.), the audience seemed to stay pretty entertained. There's also a couple of things throughout the show that helps lighten the mood. One thing is that we pull various audience members out to the arena floor and have a dance contest. It's pretty funny stuff.

Another thing is to have us staff put on goofy hats resembling the Village People (the cop, cowboy, indian, construction guy, etc.) and sing along with "YMCA" while dancing around in front of everyone. Pretty fun stuff, but I'm glad I learned how to relax and laugh at myself through Scouting!

We had the following Monday off. I washed clothes again - if you haven't noticed, that's a standard thing to do on our day off. Later in the day, Mark and I went to the Bass Pro Shop in Broken Arrow, OK and then to the movies. I had never been to a Bass Pro Shop before and was blown away how big it is and how much stuff they put in the store. The movie that we saw was "Watchmen". What a waste of three hours! It was all I could do to stay awake. Both of us finally got up and left before the movie ended it was so bad.

How about some pictures???

Here I am standing in front of the arena and next to the yellow Pete and horse trailer.

Here I am standing beside Dennis and Deborah bus. Don't call it an RV...Dennis will quickly correct you and say that it is a "Luxury Motor Coach". Either way, it's pretty fancy. This is the vehicle that Mark drives.

Our next stop was Clarksville, AR. Already have a couple of pictures ready...

Cool Peterbilt

2009-03-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

This is the truck that I drive now. It's a 2006 Peterbilt with a 475 Caterpillar engine and an 18 speed transmission. It's connected to a 53' trailer that contains all of the show's products that we sell as well as most of the panels that we use to build the horse's stalls. It has less than 70,000 miles, which considering the average over the road rig averages 100,000 miles per year, this one is still new.

Here it is (The picture was taken in front of the Arkansas arena):

The truck is like driving a regular truck, more specifically a Ford pickup - a little wider and a little longer of course. It has cruise control, power steering, air brakes, leather seats, wood grain accents, leather wrapped steering wheel, a three stage jake brake, power windows, mirrors, and many other options. You may ask why I pinpointed a Ford pickup? Because the steering is light and very responsive. Here is the interior view:

This is what it looks like in the driver's seat:

The sleeper portion of the cab is pretty comfortable. There is a full size bed that allows for a good night sleep. Even though I brought sheets and blankets from my spare bed, I also brought my 20 degree sleeping bag that I bought out at Philmont as a backup just in case we hit really cold weather. Speaking of which, I also packed both cold and warm weather clothes figuring that we would be starting the tour while it was still winter, but finishing in the summer. You can't see them because they're packed away, but I've got everything from my balaclava down to my synthetic long johns. Always have to "Be Prepared", right?

As you can see from the pictures, there are plenty of cubby holes and cabinets for storage. There is a space underneath the bed that I store my backpack and other gear. There is also a small refrigerator, but the truck has to be started and run for at least a half hour once a day so that the batteries don't get run down.

Springfield, MO

2009-03-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

If you haven't guessed by now, or already knew, I'm not much into taking pictures. Here are a couple of outside views of the auditorium. Not the best views, huh? But in my defense, they were taken during the show, so I didn't have time to really get great shots.

This venue was different from New Mexico, even though it was also located on the county fairgrounds. The building had a lot of character and was older, but was smaller. We arrived around noon on Tuesday and set up the pens for the horses as well as the round pen Dennis uses for his shows.

Things went smoother this time with set up. At least me and the other driver, Mark, had a better idea of how things were set up.

By the way, if you're wondering how we keep from getting the two Mark's confused, I said that I would go by Nick...short for Nichols. Funny thing, it took a little bit of time to not answer to Mark and answer to Nick. Even now, I sometimes space out when I hear my new name. Although, I'm wondering if I will answer to "Mark" when I return...:)

Things are starting to settle down in regards to the eating and sleeping situation. We finally started to split the feeding duties that allow us to sleep in up to 6:30 - 6:45 am on a rotation. It's nice to get some decent sleep once in awhile, but the work load during the days still weren't allowing for down time. Part of my set-up duties included learning how to network the computerized Point of Sale, or cash register system, from Michael, the IT guy. He only joined us for the first two shows so I had to learn what I could before he left. It's pretty simple overall, a typical network using a router and switch for multiple systems. I also had been setting up the media center, which includes three large advertising panels, three flat screen TVs on stands with a DVD attached. These are used to broadcast one of Dennis' DVDs that he has available for the public. Along with these jobs, there are many, many other things that need to be done in the setup process. I'm hoping to take pictures soon of an auditorium after we've completed setup and are ready for a show so that you have a better idea of what needs to be done.

One of the many things that I'm learning about this tour is that this is a wonderful opportunity to meet a lot of really good people. So far, I've met groups of people either being Dennis' students, instructors, venue employees and even show goers that have been good, down-to-earth people. I'm finding it harder to leave each place after getting to know everyone. Luckily, several groups of instructor/students follow us to other states. I say 'luckily' but on the flip side it also means the better chance for building a stronger relationship, which makes it harder to leave. It's one of those catch 22s.

Even though our usual day off is Monday, this time we needed to get to our next stop in Tulsa, OK since Deborah, her assistant Toni, and Dennis needed to fly back home. It's was a weird day since there were a series of constant events that didn't lead to a good day. It's strange that there were days in the beginning where nothing seem to go right the whole day. Like everyone else, I've had days where things happened throughout the day, but the difference is that one thing would go wrong one right after another. Things are different now. These days all seem to be all good with the occasional hiccup.

Anyway, we made it to Tusla, our third stop. More to follow...

Vinita, OK - Overnight Stop

2009-03-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

After we left New Mexico, our next stop was Springfield, MO, which was over 800 miles away. It was broken up into two different driving days. Our layover was in a little town in Oklahoma called Vinita. This was home to Will Rodgers. Don't know who he is? Do a seach. He was an interesting man.

Attached are pictures of the small fairgrounds where we stabled the horses for the evening. As you can tell, it was a charming little place. True to the musical Oklahoma's song, the wind was blowing pretty hard. I really enjoyed it.

The white smaller horse trailer attached to the mid-size Freightliner truck is the Featherlight trailer I mentioned in the last post. This was the rig that I started off driving from California to our third stop in Tulsa.

The big yellow trailer and Peterbilt is the horse trailer / crew's quarters. It will hold 8 horses; has storage in the belly for lots of equipment; holds 500 gallons of freshwater; has a black and grey tank that holds the waste from the full bathroom that even has a shower; there is a small kitchen that has a automatic slide-out kitchen table; there two bunks for sleeping; the front area is an office; on top of the trailer is a satellite that allows for both an Internet and DirectTV access. It's really quite impressive!

In the morning, me and the other driver crossed the field to the McDonalds that was directly over the freeway. It was cool to watch traffic pass under us. We hit the road around 10 am.

New Mexico Tour Stop

2009-03-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry...didn't have a chance to take pictures of this time. The first stop on the tour was so hectic that I barely had time to eat. It was over 1100 miles between Penngrove, CA and Albuquerque, NM, which took us three days to drive.

We stopped for the evening at horse hotels, which were either at small fairgrounds or an actual "horse hotel" with rental stalls available for the horses and a hotel for the people. When we arrived at each stop, the first thing that we would do would be to put water in the stalls and get their food together. As soon as that was completed, we would take the 7 horses off the trailer and put them in their stalls. Because we usually arrived late at night and had to get up early to feed, it was a tough choice between sleeping and eating. The towns usually had their streets rolled up by the time we were through anyway. Thankfully, Dennis buys us a buffet breakfast at the Flying J truck stops after we fill the trucks up with diesel every morning while we're on the road. All I'll say is that I took advantage of the available food!

We arrived in New Mexico late Thursday night and found that we had a large group of instructors and students waiting to help us start unloading. For me, this was the first time seeing everything that was loaded into the belly of the horse trailer, all of the gear in the Featherlight trailer and the 53' trailer of the other semi. The smaller Featherlight trailer is parked in the arena and is used to hold the editing equipment and one of the cameras on top of the trailer that films portions of the show that will end up as either Member DVDs or on Dennis' RFD TV show once the gear is removed. Many of the people assisting had already been to Dennis' shows previously so they at least had a general idea of where everything went. But speaking for myself, it was like being lost and just floating around trying to keep up with all of the activity around me without having a clue of what was going on. Having that many people really helped out, but we still didn't get to bed until late-late and went to bed hungry.

Typically, after we arrive at a venue and are set up, we need to have the horses heads in the bucket to eat by 5 am, which means that we get up around 4:30. The reason it's so early is because it takes so long for them to eat. I had no idea that they eat so slow! By 7 am we start grooming them so that they can be saddled and taken out to the arena to be warmed up for the day. After we are done feeding by 5 am, we could either go back to bed until 7 am or go grab a bite. That whole weekend we went to grab something because if we didn't eat breakfast, chances are we didn't eat again until right before going to bed. I was beginning to think at this point that this job was really going to allow me to lose a bunch of weight from the lack of food and all of the running around that we did.

Dennis coaches students on Friday using his methods and allowing them the opportunity to earn their endorsements while we finish doing set-up for the store which includes putting out all of the products. His show starts at 10 am Saturday and runs until 5 pm. Afterwards, he works with his students again. This particular Saturday we were up until 12:30 am while he worked with his students. He uses the students both days during the show, but especially Sunday, to demonstrate to others that his methods work. Speaking of which, it's really fascinating to watch Dennis work with a horse because once he starts, it's like there's nothing else going on around except him and the horse. Although, the whole time he can accurately articulate the horse's actions and reactions, even in advance. Needless to say, he is very focused and intense...

Before I started working here, I had never heard of Dennis or seen one of his shows. This obviously means that I had no idea what to expect. My job during the show is to work the sound box and play certain songs at specific parts of the show. There are two IPODs hooked up to the system that has all of the songs. Thank god for my mentor Pat because keeping an eye out on the schedule, for example, it said I was suppose to play...like...I Hope You Dance by Leanne Rhimes while Deborah, Dennis' wife is cantering her horse. First off, I had no idea what cantering was, so needless to say, overall I missed a bunch of cues. I'm finally starting to get the hang of it and am realizing I can have a bit of fun with it. For example, when Dennis challenges Deborah to copy moves that he does with his horse, I can play "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" when it's Deborah's turn. The crowd loves it and plays right in with their banter.

Sunday the show starts with Cowboy Church at 9 am and runs until around 5 pm. If you're wondering what Cowboy Church is, well, I was wondering myself until I experienced one. Basically, it originated as a makeshift church service for farmers, ranchers and cowboys that couldn't make it to a conventional church for Sunday services because they're out on the range or had to be out in their fields. In this case, it still allows for some type of service so church goers don't miss out by coming to the show. It only lasts for a half hour and we usually ask for a volunteer to lead the service from the crowd late Saturday.

During Sunday's show, we ask for 10 volunteers to help us with tear down and packing. As soon as the show is over, what takes us two days or so to set up between me and one other driver, it takes less than two hours to break down and pack away with the extra help. Works out quite nicely...

Monday is our day off. This particular Monday we washed clothes; went to Walmart to buy some groceries and ran some other errands. It was really nice to finally have food readily available. During the shows, there is a concession stand open, but the food is usually fried and greasy. Not conducive to a good diet...not to say that I don't partake of it.:)