Kitty and I recently returned from our honeymoon in Sonoma and Napa. It was a fantastic trip that included much tasting of wine and fine food, we headed out to Point Reyes on the California Coast.
As a surprise, I planned a horseback ride through the hills of Point Reyes National Seashore. It would have been a lovely surprise, but as we sat at breakfast, one of the staff who helped me organize it came up to us and said, "Sooooooo.... today is the big horseback ride, huh?" Kitty roared with laughter as she saw my face twist in horror that the surprise was shattered. She tried to console me all morning.
The ride itself was pretty fun. Kitty was so happy with it. The bad news? We renamed our horses, Dusty and Jack, to Apathy and Lethargy. They were ancient horses and mine, Lethargy, had emphysema and would cough like he was dying as he trudged and tripped up the small hills we rode up. We were consistently 25 yards behind the rest of the group and no amount of yelling at those horses would get them to catch up. That made the ride a little stressful. I kept saying to Lethargy, "Choose Life!" and "Don't walk into the Light!" and "Dear Sweet Jesus, don't die until we get back to the camp!" We made light of it all after a while and would yell back and forth, with our lips pressed together, "I can't quit you!" and "I swear to you, Jack Twist" and roar with laughter. (See Brokeback Mountain...) I think the guy leading our little group thought we were crazy. Riding horses is definitely out of my comfort zone.
