Rachel Fail Custom Tack

So far, we have covered well over 2400 miles, we left June 29th. On Wednesday July 10th, we packed up and hit the road for our longest travel day so far, from Iowa to our campsite at Hell Canyon Horse Camp and RV Resort in Custer, South Dakota.  Most of the travel was on I-90 after finishing a few hours on I-29, which for anyone who's done the badlands before, it's not exactly dramatic.  I visited Mount Rushmore during a cross country drive once when the girls where little, and I thought it was beautiful.  I drove up from Rapid City on I-90, and went back down the way we came after we saw the mountain.  If only I knew what beauty lay just beyond.   The pictures will never do this place justice, and I don't claim to be a good photographer.  Just know, it's far beyond what these photos show, and everyone should explore Custer State Park and the Black Hills. After a few hours of mountain climbing with the trucks on highway 16 after leaving I-90, we finally made it to Hell

 We spent three nights parked in the backyard of my in-laws, in Charleston, Arkansas, and the horses loved all the shady grass . They live in a beautiful neighborhood, with beautiful homes on acreages.  There aren't any other horses around, though, and my worry was what would happen if they got out of my temporary hot fence.  Though there haven't been any escapes since Razzle passed (she was the gangster who always busted out), I was afraid they would run through town in search of other horse buddies.   Over the course of the weekend, I turned my electronic savvy husband loose on the task of getting some kind of camera setup so I could check on the horses when we were in town.  I'm also blind as a bat without my contacts, and the windows are often so foggy, even with glasses I can't see them from my bed at night without going outside physically to check on them.  Also, Breeze has been known to knock over a water tub or two in her playtime, and it's really important

We had a great visit at  The Moon  with Christie and Ardicio this week, and it was all over too soon.  Thankfully, our horses are used to fireworks, and were turned out on 12 acres of well fenced pasture for the 4th of July.  Ardicio rented a pontoon boat from the marina at Pickwick Landing State Park , and took us all out on the Tennessee River/Pickwick Lake for a fun day of tubing and swimming.   The whole boat took turns out on the tube (even Popcorn their Jack Russell), in the beautifully warm water.   We stopped in a cove called Cooper Hollow for lunch, and most of us swam over to a beautiful waterfall at the end of it, unable to jump anymore because the sediment has made the base too shallow.   Emma was a true competitor out on the tube, when playing king of the hill she dug in like a tick and won most rounds.  We zig zagged into Alabama and Mississippi in the boat, hitting more states for our trip.  After going home for showers, we made our way to dinner at  Hagy's Catfish H