Annapolis Rock

We hunted yesterday in the beautiful 70 degree weather. Location was Annapolis Rock (my favorite!). True to form, nothing happened for the first two hours and then we hit the "one o'clock fox" and had a 35 minute run over hill and dale and then we were all so incredibly hot (horses, hounds and humans) that we called it a day.

Of note:

• I drove the small trailer with Burton and my friend Amanda's mount. I was very excited, convinced it would all go better than last time because my only passenger was my friend Amanda, a supporting, soothing, wise and experienced soul.
• Everything went exceedingly well for the first two and a half minutes until I hit my friend Crystal's truck before we even left the barn yard.
• Please note that Crystal was parked in an extremely stupid place -- leaving barely any room to get between her and a stone wall. I elected not to drive the horses into the stone wall but instead to slide by Crystal's bumper.
• The aluminum fender of my driver's side trailer wheel made contact with the passenger side front fender of Crystal's truck.
• Amanda and I immediately start worrying. OMIGOD! I HIT CRYSTAL's TRUCK! Do you think Dale saw? (she was in front with the big rig). Shall I keep going? Was that really bad?
• We keep driving. Me: Do you hear that funny noise? Is the fender hitting the trailer tire? Amanda: I don't hear anything. Do you see the tire smoking? If not, it's fine. Me: You don't here that weird whiny noise? I don't see any smoke -- that's good. Amanda: That whine is the sound of your diesel engine. Kim: Oh. Dang that's loud. Amanda: What does the damage look like? Kim: Looks bad, real bad. Fender all bashed up. Amanda: Don't tell Dale until after we're done hunting. Kim: Dale's gonna KILL me! Amanda: I'd be more worried about Crystal if I were you. Kim: I'm going to die. [note we do not wonder how the horses are, oddly]
• I did in fact drive exceedingly well the rest of the way and even made a hairpin turn into the fixture with no problem at all AND I pushed the four wheel drive button with no problem.
• We arrive at Annapolis Rock. We get out and rush to the trailer fender. There is a dent and a scrape and the fender was touching the tire. But, being aluminum, I was able to pull it right back into shape mostly except for the dent.
• Then I actually have the stupidity to ask Amanda if she thought I drove okay. She looked at me sideways and said, "well, uh, except for hitting that other truck, yeah, you did pretty good. I wasn't really that scared. Once we got over, you know, hitting the truck and all."
• Crystal did not notice anything amiss, believe it or not, until I went over to her truck once she finally arrived and pointed it out. She said, "Oh, whatever, that's just rubber. Rubs right off." How 'bout that?
• So that just left dealing with Dale -- which we agreed to do much later in the day.
• Then we finally opened the trailer and looked at the horses. They were both standing there very wide-eyed, as if they were saying, "Gee, that was .... different."
• Main features of the hunt were I almost fell off at the walk because I was turned around talking to Amanda and a tree came out of the woods and got itself all tangled up in my hat/head/reins, etc. I was pulled all the way down like I was doing the limbo off the back of my horse -- I thought my hat was going to get ripped off. I stayed on amid shrieks of laughter from everyone else in the field and Burton looked back at me as if to say, "I'm SO EMBARRASSED."
• From then on for the rest of the day the man riding in front of me would turn around to say "Low branch Kim, be careful, hah hah hah." Whatever. This is, of course, why one is always told to try to face in the direction one's horse is traveling.
• Then, our run was notable because the hounds got the scent on a hot southerly wind which is apparently almost unheard of. Good hounds.
• Kathy Brighoff's horse tried to roll with her on it and she stood next to it on the ground with her reins in her hand kicking at him with the toe of her boot in a very funny looking way and hollering "get up you idiot! get up!" (letting your horse roll like that, even if you manage to get off in time, is a good way to ruin your saddle).
• When we were done, we took all the horses down to the river for a drink and a cool down.
  Then Rich Roemer's horse actually did roll in the water without any regard for Rich. This earned Rich the "Rubber Ducky Award" which goes to the rider with who takes the most interesting spill in the water during the season. People started singing "Rubber Ducky, you're the one! You make hunting lots of fun!" on our amble through the pine trees back to the trailers.
• The weather was so warm that it made the pine needles smell yummy just like summers down South in pine tree land. And the warm breeze and the visit to the river was all very summery.
• Later that night at the barn I show Dale the trailer. And you would never believe it but she says to me, "you actually did not make that dent. Ironically, Crystal made that dent herself a few years in a similar vehicular mishap." Can you believe that? What are the chances? No wonder she wasn't peeved. Dale also said she was perfectly fine with the scrape on the fender because at least now the fender looked a little bit shiny in one place and wasn't that nice?
• But we had a lot of fun with Robbie later on -- Dale made us a yummy venison dinner. I say very casually -- "so, I did a great job driving the trailer today. Went fast where I was supposed to and slow where I was supposed and didn't clobber the horses and even did the hairpin turn into Annapolis Rock with no problem. I was really proud of myself. You would have been really proud of me too." Robbie looks at me in wonderment. "Dang." A moment of silence. Then Dale can't help herself any longer --- "Yeah, she did real good. Great Except that she HIT CRYSTAL'S TRUCK BEFORE SHE EVEN GOT OUT OF THE YARD!!!" Hoots of laughter from me and Dale. Robbie literally sits down on the floor and looks at me with a totally shocked expression on his face. Dale finally explains to him that Crystal had in fact parked in a really stupid place etc. etc. but closes by looking at me and saying, "but nevertheless, I think it will be a while before we let you drive the big rig." Oh well.