Loose Ends

Today I need to wrap up loose ends! The last couple of days I have been very discombobulated (as you could probably tell from my posts). This is sort of long but oh well.

Most in important thing

First things first: I am almost finished with my 2 pound heart box of See's candy :( BUT my lovely Matt also gave me a little gold box of truffles to ease the pain of the end of the heart shaped box :) I didn't eat all the candy in the heart box...the whole point of the beautiful box is to show it off, so, I kept it in my truck (it matched the interior beautifully - black and grey with a red satin heart in the seat) and offered it to especially deserving people - ie my very patient and understanding family. I will selfishly say that the gold box never saw the light of day. I do so LOVE truffles.

Second most important thing:

I got tentative approval from my boss to take tomorrow off in exchange for working this Saturday. "Why not just ride Saturday?", you might ask. Well, that would be one week before the 65 miler and one of my rules is not to ride the weekend before, or haul the competing horse the weekend/week before the ride. The weather is starting to clear up today. Tomorrow will be the test run for: My new saddle pad, my new hind boots, possibly the hackamore, my "new" riding tights, my "new" jacket, my new truck.

I just remembered:

Talking about my "new" riding tights reminds me of a website I forgot to share with you last time. http://www.saddlesandmore.com/ is a wonderful place to get used riding clothes. I have bought boots, spurs, 2 pairs of riding tights, riding mittens, a cooler and much more from her. Her prices are reasonable and she's a very nice lady. Please check her out! When looking for tights for endurance, I look at the fabric. I have found that cotton does not work well for me in the long run on the trail, so I try to get tights that are mostly lycra, spandex, etc.

The real point of the post:

And that brings us to the real point of the post - I test drove the trailer (without horses) with the truck yesterday. It was rainy and there was a lot of water on the road (as you can see in the pictures) so I thought it would be a good test. The trailer is a tad nose low without horses, but it levels out when loaded (or at least it did with my half ton). The amount of drop on my "stinger" (hitch? whatever) was a point of contention between my Dad, Matt, and me last weekend. The 2" drop on my half ton was OBVIOUSLY not going to work. I thought I needed a 4" drop. Unfortunately what they sell is a 3 1/4" and a 5 3/4". My Dad and Matt were adamant that a 6" (5 3/4") would be the ticket. They even got out fancy tape measures to prove it to me. So I bought a 5 3/4". What's the big deal you ask? Once I leave my parent's/Matt's I do not have the capability to change or remove a ball on a hitch because although my tool box contains all-important items such as hammers and screwdrivers (used to pry and poke at things), I do not have the GIANT wrench needed to install balls. Unfortunately my trailer was at home so we just had to guess and hope it was close enough. I'll be able to make a decision after tomorrow.

The truck pulls the trailer great. The trailer whipped my 1/2 ton truck around if I wasn't REALLY careful. As one reviewer put it on a truck website, this truck should come equipped with a sticker on the dash board that says "warning - you are pulling a trailer". The other neat thing is that when put into hauling mode, when you let off the gas, the truck downshifts instead of coasts. On my 1/2 ton, the hauling mode adjusted the RPM's, but not much else.

Only one little "situation" occurred. I tried to accelerate to 60 with the trailer, but it wouldn't shift into the next gear. The RPM's were as high as I was comfortable with (and actually they were higher than I was comfortable with....). With my half ton when that happened, I would let off the gas for a moment and then give it more. This truck didn't cooperate. I pulled over and got out (I could smell something once I got out of the truck, which meant I was REALLY glad I didn't keep pushing it). Then I pulled the owners manual out and read about the break in period. :(

I knew I was suppose to keep the truck at 50-55 during the break in period. Unfortunately I thought that period was 200 miles and it was actually 500 miles. Oops. Too late now. Believe it or not I already have over 500 miles on it. I bought it Sunday with 23 miles on it. So I screwed that up, but considering I'm a conservative driver, it might be OK. I drove home from my parent's at ~60mph. I'm also not suppose to pull a trailer for the first 500 miles. Good thing I drove a lot over the weekend huh? Unfortunately I wasn't suppose to go over 50-55 for the first 500 towing miles. Ooops. Hopefully I didn't shorten the life on my (what I imagine to be) a very expensive transmission too much during my little test drive. I did go 50-55 mph most of the way, but there was ~0.5 mile I tried to get it to shift to go up to 60-62 mph. Live and learn right?