 |
| Lee Bolduc, Mass Outrider, catching up on mail |
*************************
 |
| Roger Morse, Wagonmaster, everyone did their part cleaning up in the morning before we hit the trail |
Last night a girl tied her horse to a telephone pole ,bridle saddle and all ! Roger found it this morning and Elmer brought it to the girl's home !
 | |
| Pat LeClerc is holding the horse that was found tied to a telephone in the morning. | Lee R in the background looking on. |
We are going to leave at 8:25. Had pancakes & bacon for breakfast.
 | |
| On to Newtown,Sandy Hook,Ct | Thunder ,lt and KK on rt , Ranny Tuchon ,RI Outrider ,far rt |
 |
| Paul Cabot , NH Teamster |
Lunch at Newtown Middle School.
( Yes ,that Newtown !) They made a very good lunch for us. Lots of cake and cookies too. We all signed a book made by the students which will stay at the school.
After lunch, the tide turned !!
We hooked up "KK" at a water stop ,he was on the left and about 5 minutes later while we were stopped in traffic on Dodgingtown Rd.(two lane country road..no sidewalks) the driver of a very large dump truck in the road next to us released the air brakes ! This caused Ranny Tuchon's horse to jump up in the air, landing on KK . The team took off !!
I was the outrider on the right side so as this happened I quickly looked around and saw that there were two women with a small boy sitting on a blanket, on the ground. I yelled at them to move !! * As I was doing this the horses took off for the only opening available , the driveway. Lee and Tom's feet were in the air as they had been knocked backwards by the jolt of the horses taking off ! Todd (age 6) was in the back of the wagon screaming, He was riding in the wagon today.
As the wagon turned into the driveway I switched sides behind the wagon with Lee Bolduc the Mass. Outrider... I was riding Breezy**. With me now on the left and Lee B on the right we started to lean in to stop the horses but... just as we approached the garage the horses took an abrupt right hand turn causing the wagon to "slide" right around the back of the house into an open field !! Throughout Lee never let go of the reins , even though he could not see them he could feel them.
Lee B and I continued the chase and "herding " the runaways toward a "Big" rock hoping this would stop them. We yelled at Lee R to pull back to stop the horses as we got to the rock Lee B grabbed Thunder's bridle and I was able to grab KK so we were able to stop the team at the rock... without tipping the wagon over.
Many of the riders from the "Train" came quickly and held the wagon and the horses so it would not roll back ,allowing Lee and Tom to get out of the wagon and un-hitch the horses while they were still on the rock ! Then they rolled the wagon back to level ground.
Thanks to them there was no damage to the wagon and no one and no horses got hurt.
And thanks to Terry Veinot we now have some photos of that experience !!
This is one event I was not able to capture as I was "Busy" !
And thanks to Terry Veinot we now have some photos of that experience !!
This is one event I was not able to capture as I was "Busy" !
Then we hooked up Breezy and Thunder and I rode KK to camp we had no further problems , but, one of the Ct. team horses "lost" his bridle , and while we were traveling on the road Melissa's horse got caught up in the picket line at the new camp. She was not riding today and her horse had been trucked to Roger's Park.
* (The women on the blanket rolled with the boy under a car which was next to them. There were "wheel tracks" over the blanket. They were very happy that I had called out to them.)
**( I tell people today that I think we had one of the most spectacular runaways with the least amount of damage !! If the Wagon Train was giving out pins I would have earned my "Cowgirl" pin that day !! To be fair Breezy would have helped me earn it. She was one of the best horses we ever owned. Breezy was a sweet and giving horse and she would continue to outdo herself until we lost her to a very bad case of colic in 1979. That was a very sad day.)
We are now spending the night at Roger's Park, Danbury,Ct. it's about 90 deg.
On to NY tomorrow !
Here is Stan's account of that memorable day :
We got up early because we knew it was going to be a long travel day to reach Rogers Park in Danbury by dinner time. It was a sunny and hot and humid as most of our travel days have been so far. Geri helped me hitch up the team and prep the wagon for the trip. We all had gotten a pretty good nights sleep in Southbury because it was so quiet and peaceful there. The day was going well for all the wagons and riders and we stopped in Newtown for lunch and the scroll ceremonies. The people of Newtown turned out in droves to see and welcome us to their Town. They had prepared plenty of food for our lunches and we ate well as the horses were rested and watered. We said goodbye to all the wonderful people in Newtown and headed out about 1 PM to continue our trek to Rogers Park in Danbury. About mid afternoon while traveling down Route 302, which was a National Historic Route, we had an incident that really gave us all a real scare. One of Rhode Island's outrider's horse got spooked when a dump truck had gotten too close and put on it's air brakes. The horse ran into the Rhode Island Wagon's hitch and spooked them as well.
The R.I. hitched took off , went off the road and around a house and came to a stop
on the side of a hill on a rock under the wagon. The Wagon was tilted precariously on a steep angle. It took 6 of us to hold the R.I. Team until we could get them unhitched and off the hill. It took another 20 of us to get the wagon back down as well. There was a small child on the front lawn of the house where the wagon went. Some thought the mother of the child got her out of the way just in time, however, onlookers and some wagon folk said the saw the R.I. Team actually JUMP over the child and missed her completely.* Wow! Fortunately, and other than some rattled nerves, thank God, the child no one and no horses were injured! Great driving by the R.I. Teamster!! Once all was settled down, we got the R.I. Team hitched back up and we continued on. The rest of the day went well with no other issues and arrived at Rogers Park on time. What a day!
(* Don't think this really happened but it might have looked that way to the bystander. I was almost on the blanket when I yelled at them to move and I was between them and the wagon and the wheel of the wagon actually did go over the blanket. I actually talked to them later while Lee was hooking up the team because I wanted to make sure everybody was OK. They told me they quickly rolled out of the way under a car. I have their names and the address. SMR 6/9/2016)
Here is Stan's account of that memorable day :
 | |
| Stan Bashura, Ct. Teamster |
We got up early because we knew it was going to be a long travel day to reach Rogers Park in Danbury by dinner time. It was a sunny and hot and humid as most of our travel days have been so far. Geri helped me hitch up the team and prep the wagon for the trip. We all had gotten a pretty good nights sleep in Southbury because it was so quiet and peaceful there. The day was going well for all the wagons and riders and we stopped in Newtown for lunch and the scroll ceremonies. The people of Newtown turned out in droves to see and welcome us to their Town. They had prepared plenty of food for our lunches and we ate well as the horses were rested and watered. We said goodbye to all the wonderful people in Newtown and headed out about 1 PM to continue our trek to Rogers Park in Danbury. About mid afternoon while traveling down Route 302, which was a National Historic Route, we had an incident that really gave us all a real scare. One of Rhode Island's outrider's horse got spooked when a dump truck had gotten too close and put on it's air brakes. The horse ran into the Rhode Island Wagon's hitch and spooked them as well.
The R.I. hitched took off , went off the road and around a house and came to a stop
on the side of a hill on a rock under the wagon. The Wagon was tilted precariously on a steep angle. It took 6 of us to hold the R.I. Team until we could get them unhitched and off the hill. It took another 20 of us to get the wagon back down as well. There was a small child on the front lawn of the house where the wagon went. Some thought the mother of the child got her out of the way just in time, however, onlookers and some wagon folk said the saw the R.I. Team actually JUMP over the child and missed her completely.* Wow! Fortunately, and other than some rattled nerves, thank God, the child no one and no horses were injured! Great driving by the R.I. Teamster!! Once all was settled down, we got the R.I. Team hitched back up and we continued on. The rest of the day went well with no other issues and arrived at Rogers Park on time. What a day!
(* Don't think this really happened but it might have looked that way to the bystander. I was almost on the blanket when I yelled at them to move and I was between them and the wagon and the wheel of the wagon actually did go over the blanket. I actually talked to them later while Lee was hooking up the team because I wanted to make sure everybody was OK. They told me they quickly rolled out of the way under a car. I have their names and the address. SMR 6/9/2016)
No comments:
Post a Comment