Let’s see now, where were we….

First, let me apologize for so-called ‘dropping off the face of the earth’ when we reached the Atlantic. We’ve received many wonderful phone calls, emails, and blog comments- which we are still catching up on! It has been quite a whirlwind since we finished, including a trip up to New England to see family, planning logistics for how we were getting us, our gear, and our 4-legged heroes home, moving back into our house, and job hunting. We’ve hardly had a moment to breath (not to mention a lack of internet access), so please forgive the quite long delay on finishing the story!  I will be sure to tell you all about the final days and the trip home in the next few blogs.

And for the record, we do plan to continue periodic blogging (we are thinking once or twice a week at the moment) to keep you up to date on the progress of Hearts Up Ranch. We have developed such wonderful friends and extended family along this journey that we can not help but desire to keep you informed and in touch.

In the meantime, please know that we are finally back at home, getting settled in, and very much enjoying our Tempurpedic bed! All 5 horses and Bella are healthy and doing very well adjusting to their new lifestyle.

Again, words do not express our gratitude for the outpouring of love, support, concern, and excitement that so many of you shared with us in the last couple months. (It really has been that long already!) We love you, we appreciate you, and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Oh- and there are potential plans for a book- or perhaps several books- coming in the future, so tuck that in the back of your minds and we’ll keep you posted on that as well.

WE DID IT!!!!!

We are so ecstatic! There are no words….. we are overwhelmed with joy!

We have so many wonderful stories, thoughts, and photos to share with you. Please forgive the delay while we visit family and friends who came from all over the country to watch us finish. When ‘the dust settles’ a bit more, we will be sure to share blogs about the grand finale of the Ride Across America. In the meantime, check out Facebook where many people have already posted pictures and the Virginia $ tally!!!!!

Finish Line and Benefit Dinner Details!!!

After a grueling 21 months and 4,000 miles, a dream is finally coming true!

Richard and Jeannette McGrath and their four-legged companions are arriving at the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach after traveling by horseback across America all the way from California’s Pacific Coast. Their purpose is to raise awareness and funds for Hearts Up Ranch, a charity that combines the benefits of horses and outdoor adventure with prayer ministry to facilitate emotional healing from traumatic incidents.

Please join us when they cross the finish line at the Atlantic and for a benefit dinner for Hearts Up Ranch as we celebrate with the McGraths the successful completion of this journey.

The Finish Line

On Saturday, December 10, 2011 the coast-to-coast riders will splash 4 feet, 20 hooves and 4 paws in the Atlantic Ocean! You are invited to celebrate with them as they cross the ’finish line’ at 1:00pm at the 17th St. Park in Virginia Beach. Parking is available at this location.

Benefit Dinner and Celebration:

Afterwards there will be a gathering of friends, family, hosts and well-wishers from across the country bringing donations and a potluck dish to share. There will be music provided by Andre Lopez and cowboy fare and ice cream provided by the church and members of the community.

5:00 pm
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Rugged Cross Calvary Baptist Cowboy Church
4832 Haygood Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23455
(757) 499-1572
www.calvarybaptistchurchva.org

Bring a donation and a dish to share!

If your last name begins with:
A-K bring a side dish or veggies
L-T bring a main dish for 6+ people
U-Z bring drinks or a dessert

Richard and Jeannette are filled with excitement and joy as they approach the end of their journey and can’t wait to share this special day with you. Hope to see you there!

First sign for Virginia Beach!!!

We have a habit of singing the chorus of “on the road again…” when we get going in the morning- especially after a stop. Not for much longer!!!

We were greeted once again by highway 460, ever straight, ever busy. The highlite of the day was when a lady from a bank we passed came running out to meet us. She had been watching out the window all day and was so excited- she was the mother-in-law of Danny who hosted us at his auto-body shop in Roanoke! It’s such a small world.

We stayed at a horse stable right on the outskirts of Petersburg, which was perfect because we were able to sleep in the office and pack the horses up in the morning protected from the rain. Joy and her husband took us to a Mexican restaurant, and we were joined by her friends who had heard of us and were incredibly excited to meet us. It was a great evening with ‘horsey’ people.

Since it was raining in the morning, we were thrilled when Joy offered to drive our packs to our  next night stop. It takes days to dry out all our stuff after a rain, so not only would it save the horses backs, it also kept everything dry. It turned out to be a huge deal too, because we took a wrong turn, added on 2 miles, had two interviews on the way, and had to trot alot to get to our stop before pitch dark. But during the day we got to see some cool sights. First was Joy’s house. It had been owned by a close friend of General Robert E. Lee’s- who just so happens to be a relative of mine- and he had visited there. I was sure to get a picture in front of the house! Then we passed several remnants of forts from the Civil War. Apparently Petersburg was the longest town under siege of any ever in the United States. We also saw cotton growing in the fields, lots of swampy areas, and very sandy soil. Then Bella FINALLY caught her first squirrel- it was a city squirrel and he didn’t have a chance!  Plus WE SAW OUR FIRST SIGN FOR VIRGINIA BEACH!!! Yay!!!

We stayed at the wood working shop of Anne and Jack Abeel- who kindly let us sleep in their shop and put our horses in a chain link enclosure they had. Surprisingly, they had a resident rooster there, and we were glad at 3:00 in the morning that we had bought ear plugs after sleeping too many nights next to train tracks!

The following day was a nerve-wracking ride down a very busy section of 460 with no shoulder and tons of trailer truck traffic between Petersburg and Virginia Beach area. We arrived unscathed, however, to Adams Country Store where they sold a tasty array of famous Virginia Peanuts and other specialty items. We made a rare splurge and bought a big supply of peanuts- something Richard has been looking forward to since we entered Virginia. The store owners were nice enough to allow us to highline the horses out back and camp in their garage. One of the sweet ladies we met at the Mexican restaurant brought hay, and another local man hooked us up with a space heater. It was pretty cold that night, but at least the heater took the edge off.

Again, we survived another day riding down 460, but this time Anne was able to follow us for the later and busier part of the day. En route, we were greeted by a huge crowd at Crop Production Services where they had filled a huge tub of water for the horses and put out a great welcome sign! It was a joy to stop there, and it certainly lifted our spirits when they joined in a circle and prayed for us! During the day, we also met Jane who had attempted to ride across the country and she was helping us find places to stop. Plus we met Mitch, a farrier who we had been in touch with and was also helping us with networking. We made it to Nan’s house just before dark and we had lots of help unpacking. We had a nice visit with Nan while our horses visited with her alpacas- and surprisingly didn’t seem scared by them! All in all, it was a pretty cool day with lots of new friends made.

Leaving Nan’s house, we made one final push towards Suffolk- down 460 again- and we were utterly grateful for Jane’s decision to follow us for the day, and for her friend Holly, who jumped in when Jane’s brakes went out. It was a pretty chaotic section of road, so they were a huge help in keeping us safe. I rode Satchmo for like the third time on the trip since Apache’s back was bothering him and Satchmo seemed to still be too tired. At least I am quite a bit lighter than Richard, so this helped him a bit. We got to do one really cool thing that day- something I’ve been wanting to do the whole ride: We rode through a Dairy Queen drive through!!! It was AWESOME!

We finally made it to our last rest stop hosts- Matt and Dianna- who welcomed us with ‘open arms.’  Here we spent the next few days working like crazy to prepare for the final steps to the ocean and the celebration afterward!

Thanksgiving thankfulness!

God sends us human ‘angels’ in our most pitiful moments. Such was the case the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We had been riding 6 or 7 days in a row. It was too much. We are all too worn out to manage more than 5 days in a row now. We are barely making our 15 mile goal each day and the horses are barely walking 2 miles an hour by the end of 5 days. Richard and I were walking down460, taking a break from being in the saddle, when Teresa drove by. She pulled over and said, “You guys look pitiful and exhausted. Do you need a place to stop?”  Hit the nail on the head there, sister.

We couldn’t have been more blessed by her and Glenn’s hospitality and kindness. They invited us to stay through Thanksgiving, or as long as we wanted. We had to make a physical and conscious effort to turn off the phone, avoid computers, and just rest for Thanksgiving. There are so many details to plan as we come to the end, but they will all come together in time. A holiday for thankfulness is not the time to be working.

We spent actual Thanksgiving day with Cory, Katie, and their son Trotter. We met them back in Lexington, KY and have stayed in touch over the last several months. Cory is a vet and has hooked us up with vet needs as we’ve headed east, and we’ve been planning, if at all possible, to do Thanksgiving with them when they came out to visit family since we’d be so close. We had a wonderful visit and a delicious all-natural home cooked Turkey meal. We also spent quite a while on the phone with our families, which has come to be a Thanksgiving tradition.

Back at Teresa and Glenn’s, we had a second Thanksgiving meal and got to hang out with their friends and family. They really made us feel quite at home, and it was a blessedly relaxed holiday stop. Even Bella made a new friend with their little dog, and they played incessantly during the time we were there.

We also got a surprise visit from one of our PA friends- Emmett and Kathy. I used to train their horses when we lived in PA, and they were in the area and swung by to see us! We haven’t seen them in several years, so it was good to catch up.

On the day we were planning to head out again, we had started to pack up when we lower back started spasming. Both Teresa and Richard wouldn’t hear of me trying to lift stuff and ride, so by ‘doctor’s orders’ I was slathered with icey-hot, fed ibuprofin, layed on my back on a heating pad with my feet up, and stayed there pretty much all day. We watched an NCIS marathon, ate leftover Thanksgiving food, and I don’t think I’ve hardly ever sat still that long in my life! But it worked- by the next morning I was feeling tremendously better and we continued on our ocean-bound way.

On a  Thanksgiving note, we have to share our thanks!

First, I am blessed to have Richard as my husband. What other woman finds a man who is willing to give up years of his life to pursue the childhood dream of his wife? But he took it one step further- he literally adopted the dream as his own, invested himself in it completely, and has no regrets in doing so. What a loyal, supportive, and honorable husband.
Second, we are grateful beyond words to have such a trail of people behind us who have loved us, supported us, and helped us in so many ways- those who did not let any excuse stop them from being kind to a stranger. We have so many new friends, and some of our most cherished memories are with the people we met. Many of you may never know just how much we needed you at that very moment, how much of an angel you were to us. This has not been a journey of two people, but a community effort across the nation. We couldn’t have done it without you.
And last, we are thankful to know Jesus, to have him as our strength and protection. After writing in my journal what I shared with you yesterday about my dreams, I read in my bible, “Not a scratch was found on him, for he had trusted in his God.” – Daniel 6. I knew this was a reminder for me yet again that God is trustworthy and has kept us safe in so many dangerous situations. A lady recently told us that she was proud of us, to which I replied, “I am proud of us too.” Shortly after, I thought about that and realized that was an incorrect statement. I have very little to be proud of. We have only succeeded in this journey because of God’s help and because of the people he has put in our path right when we needed them. We were the ones on the journey who put out the effort, but the glory goes to God and the real heroes in this story are the ones spread out in a suspiciously straight line from California to Virginia!

THANK YOU,  THANK YOU,  AND THANK YOU!

Reminder to Self

We had a joyful surprise this day. First, about lunchtime, we were hailed by a couple as we passed their yard. We pulled off and they were so excited to meet us, offer us lunch, water, a bathroom, goodies for the horses, and help finding a place to stop that night. Ric and Gail were just a joy, and they got us hooked up with a church down the road where we were allowed to camp out back. They brought us hay and then spent the evening with us because it just so happened that the church was having an early Thanksgiving celebration that night. So instead of nasty dehydrated food, we got stuffed on homemade Thanksgiving dishes!

Since we camped at a church, we attended their Sunday service in between packing up, then we rode a shorter distance that afternoon. We were met about 2 miles from our goal by Harold and Dorris who rode their horses with us back to their place. We were in for a nice treat. Harold, a cowboy at heart, had a fire going in the firepit (with a piece of cedar smoking that smelled amazing), had BBQ going on his grill (permanently located in his barn next to his horses), opened an old bottle of wine saved for a special occasion, and invited over good company. It was an enjoyable evening that made it hard to leave- especially when we were serenaded by Mandolin playing and breakfast on the grill in the morning.

The following day was a reality check. We came out on highway 460 and realized that we would be on busy roads – mainly 460- all the way to the end. It’s not exactly relaxing riding, but it is exciting that we are getting so close! Poor Apache is just emotionally maxed out on trailer trucks- he is just  having a hard time dealing with them going by. He’s better than he was after Roanoke, but not nearly like he used to be. We found a semi quiet yard to camp in just a short ways off 460 and we got in our tent just as it started raining. We were counting our blessings that this tent is much more water proof than our last one was! (Not that it owed us anything after the use it got!)

And now to share a short excerpt from my journal:

“Note to self: Why to never do this again even when it sounds like fun after the memory of the pain fades…….   We are all struggling to finish. It’s so close, yet it’s like senioritis in high school. I don’t want to sit in the saddle anymore. I don’t want to walk. I don’t want to make phone calls, yet I do just to pass the time. I am so bored of going the same speed in the same direction all day. I feel braindead from doing the same thing day in and day out…. But my nerves are fried from our constant brushes with danger. My day and night dreams are plagued by nightmares of the horses or Bella getting run over and looking like the road-kill we ride by on a daily basis. I think that’s called ‘battle stress’. We sing and pray constantly to stay sane and calm, reminding ourselves that God is bigger than all this. I am tired of chafing and getting rashes (in unmentionable places). I can hardly remember a time when my back, neck, shoulders, tailbone, and hips didn’t hurt. It is a constant pain- often nagging, sometimes stabbing. I slouch in the saddle because I am too tired to bother riding properly. I don’t think I even keep my heels down anymore. I am so stiff and inflexible- what a chore it will be to bring my body back from this abuse. If I have this pain, I know the horses all have pain too. We are all living on Ibuprofen and Bute for the next couple weeks just to get through….”

Does that answer the question of if we are riding home or not and if we are happy or sad to finish?!?   We are so definitely NOT riding home (it would be horse abuse to even think about it- not to mention self abuse) and definitely ARE ready and happy to finish!!!    Hanging on to Jesus for strength and keeping our eyes on the finish line………

Never Too Old

The day we left Nick and his family I think takes the cake for ‘most turns in one day’ on this trip. I had written them all down on a piece of paper so we didn’t have to keep looking at the map since the longest we stayed on any one road was like 2 miles. It was pretty though, and mostly quiet. It was a rare (now that we are out East) opportunity to get focused on my “saddle horn office” and get a lot of work done while we rode.

Once again, we didn’t know where we were spending the night, so we started asking locals for ideas around dusk. They all pointed us to the same house on the Fariss Farm. So we rode down their driveway. The first thing we noticed was that one of the names on the sign was the same as a politician’s we had seen on campaign signs as we rode. We didn’t know anything about him, but there were big “Thank You” notes on his signs (apparently he’d won the election) and that gave him big brownie points in our book. We found out fast enough that Charles and Carole were the parents of this man, that they had hosted a cross country bicycle rider a few years ago, and that of course we could stay the night!

We unloaded all our gear under their carport, sat and had supper with them, and enjoyed their stories while listening to Charles very cool old style southern Virginia accent. We also spent some time in their office dealing with some critical and urgent matters that arose that morning. There aren’t too many people that have a fax machine and scanner at their fingertips- and we had access to one the exact night we needed it. Thank God for attention to details before we even know what we need!

While we were packing the horses under the car port the next morning, the sky opened up and the rain started pouring down. We had no intent to stop for a day, but the forecast said that today was the only bad rain day in the near future, and it was cold and seriously dumping. After hemming and hawing for 15 or 20 minutes, we finally decided to unpack and stay warm in the interest of not getting sick. So we did lots of administrative work instead.

The following day was dreary, misty, and chilly, but at least not pouring. We rode past many farms, and Bella came nose to nose with a bull strength electric fence. This resulted in her howling, bolting across the road, and yiping at a dead run in the opposite direction. Thankfully, she came back to us when we called her, nearly climbing up on my head in fright.  So there we sat in the middle of the road, holding and calming Bella until her racing heart slowed and her tail started to come out from between her legs. Within 20 minutes, she was back to her normal self trotting down the road happily. She has been with us for 10 months now and I think she trusts us so much more now than she did the last time she got hit with an electric fence. What a difference! From 3 days to 20 minutes of being back to normal!

Several people had driven by us that day and warned, “you do know it’s going to be like 24 degrees tonight right?” Well, no, but oh well. So when ‘Nappy’ met us on the road with her golf cart and invited us to stay with them, we checked our mileage for the day, said ‘good enough’ and ‘yes, thank you!’  I definitely don’t mind avoiding the tent on cold nights!

Nappy and her son Buck made us and our animals very comfortable and welcomed. Buck asked the best questions too. We even got to see them again the next night when they brought hay and grain for the horses.

We had ridden through more rural country and once again, it was dusk when we finally found a area that wasn’t all thickly treed and tried to find a place to stop. We knocked on a door to ask about permission to highline the horses to the trees in back of an abandoned meeting building. They sent us to the neighbor, an old man living alone. He had read about us in the paper and was tickled pink to meet us, let alone have the opportunity to help! He didn’t want our horses to be so close to the road at night, so he offered the trees in his back yard, and invited us inside for the night. He wasn’t able to get around very well and he had care takers check in on him twice a day to make meals and such. But what he had he offered to us. We were blessed by his hospitality, excitement, and kindness. And once again, we were reminded (through the people who have shown this to us) how you are never too poor, too sad, too busy, too unprepared, too old, or too anything to not offer hospitality and to share what you have. Thank you to everyone who falls in one of these categories or in any “too” category I didn’t mention who has, without hesitation, generously offered what they had.

Going Backwards?!?

The next few blogs will catch you up from before Thanksgiving until now. I will try to condense them a bit so you don’t have to wait very long to hear the exciting details and see the photos from our arrival at the Atlantic while the excitement is still fresh. I can hardly wrap my mind around the fact that we are almost there…….!

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Richard’s quote that “it’s like the 3 stooges go packing” today was pretty accurate. Between Apache constantly spooking, Fiddle’s saddle (it was Satchmo’s day off) constantly sliding forward no matter what we did, Chance breaking the piggin strings, Tiska’s pack having a loose cinch and not balancing correctly, and dogs that wouldn’t leave us alone, it was quite the stop-and-go day.

The highlight was that a news crew came out and did an interview which turned out pretty good on TV. We were informed by a few people that where we were heading was “horse country” and we wouldn’t have any trouble finding a place to stop. I’m not sure how they define horse country because all we could find was woods, woods, and more woods! The narrow and somewhat curvy roads we were on had little in the form of civilization, and even less grass or potential camping spots. We were left literally riding in the fast approaching dark with no idea where we were stopping.

A man named Nick pulled over because “something told him to” and offered his assistance by calling his neighbors and by offering his home. The only problem- it was a mile back WEST. We weren’t too quick to jump on the idea of riding backwards that far… in the dark. So while Nick was making calls, we saw that the folks across the street were home and they had a strip of grass large enough to feed our horses. So we went and asked them if we could camp there for the night. They hesitantly agreed, which was great because Nick wasn’t able to get ahold of the nearby farmer. We declined his offer to ride back to his house and started unpacking and setting up camp in the dark. Our hosts were a bit more confident of their choice to allow us to camp there once they saw us on the news that night!

It was supposed to be the coldest night yet, so we piled coats and tarps on top of our sleeping bags and shared a blanket with Bella. In the morning, we reluctantly got up in the freezing cold and starting getting ready for yet another day of riding. The horses were a couple days over-due for a rest, but we were hopeful that being on TV last night would create a little more welcome for us in the area and potentially help us find a place to rest.

Then Nick drove by again that morning on his way to town. He was lamenting missing out on being able to help us and give us a place to rest… if only he had been home when we passed his driveway! He offered to bring coffee back from town, so we continued to pack up and get the horses ready while we waited for him to return. It was the weirdest thing, but I had this overwhelming sense that if he brought us breakfast along with the coffee, it was a sign that we should go backwards a whole mile rather than ride forward that day to look for a place to rest. Richard agreed that this would be our sign.

Nick showed up with coffee.

And breakfast.

That was so weird! I wasn’t expecting that at all. But God is a big God and he knows what we need. Richard and I and the horses needed a friendly place with a computer to rest. It was offered to us. So for the first time in the entire 20 months of this trip, we rode backwards 1 mile! We’ve never gone more than 1/4 mile backwards to stay anywhere, no matter how nice. But we went with peace knowing that this family was excited, friendly, accommodating, and thrilled to be a part of our journey. Nick was excited to put Evington, VA on the map as having hosted the Cross Country Riders!

So we loaded our stuff in Nicks van and rode the horses back a mile to his house. Richard and Nick spent an hour fixing the fence around their yard where there was plenty of grass and running water for the horses to rejuvenate. Their brand new house was a beautiful place to rest up, finish catching up on work, do laundry, take showers, and spend time making new friends. It was well worth the mile backwards to have a safe and welcome place to stay for a couple days before we did an extra long week so we could take Thanksgiving off. We do, after all, have a date to make now!

Typing….

Hello! Well, it’s been a while since I’v had computer access. So tomorrow, you can imagine what I will be doing…. typing! Stay tuned- blogs to come and of course lots of exciting information about the upcoming FINISH!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, here we are… riding on Thanksgiving…. in the sleet…. and the traffic.

Just kidding!

Actually, we are spending the holiday with some friends we made in KEntucky who happened to travel to VA to spend Thanksgiving with their family. Then we are spending the day after with the family who is hosting us and our horses… Story to come later.

We are warm and happy and about to stuff our faces with amazing food- two days in a row!!

On this Thanksgiving, we want to remember all those very special people across America who have been the real heros in our story. May God bless you richly as you enjoy your friends and family.

And let me add WE ARE VERY THANKFUL to be ALMOST DONE!!!