The Heat is On

And I am Exhausted

I never did work the horses yesterday. Too hot during the day, and when it cooled off, I wore myself out unloading 15 bags of grain.

So what happened today? Well, I had an Ansur saddle demo to do up in New York State. By the map, it was a 114 mile drive that should have taken about two hours.

If you have never tried to cross the George Washington Bridge on a week day....DON'T!!! The last time I did this, was on a weekend and I was stuck in a toll booth traffic jam for a good 40 minutes. Today? Well over and hour and a half from the end of the NJ Turnpike to NY Rte 87, just across the bridge.

Was there an accident? Construction? Nah, just traffic for about 6 miles. At least had a crossword puzzle to do for part of the time.

That set me back from my planned arrival time of 12 noon to 1:30 PM. The demo took a good while as the prospective customer and her trainer gave both Ansur models a good test ride before deciding--yea!!-- to buy the Carlton. So that was a good result. The farm was beautiful up there and the horses were really lovely. As well, the people were all friendly and good horsemen, so it was a pleasant time there.

I decided to take the Tappan Zee Bridge to get home. That route took me some 40 miles farther, but at least the first part of the drive was far better than the route closer to New York City.

I was actually making better time going home that way, until....I reached New Jersey and the inexplicable 287 traffic backups. Mind you, now I was driving during rush hour--from 4:30 to 7 PM....not an hour, I know, but it sure didn't get any better as we neared 7 PM--so I was competing for road space with all those commuters heading home from work.

If you have never experienced a rush hour in New Jersey--DON'T. It's just not worth the aggravation.

So, the drive up took 4 hours for 116 miles, and the drive back of about 148 miles took 3 hours.

I don't plan on doing that again any time soon.

Will I work the horses tonight? Not likely.

I am beat.