You're Gonna Want to Slow Down that Horse

             For the better of nearly two months another former co-worker and myself had planned to go horseback riding at a place not too far from where I live. With the Holiday Season and being in the midst of winter, its been difficult to find a day to go. Yesterday's forecast called for warmer weather reaching up to 55 degrees, which is nearly unheard of for late-January, so we picked that day to finally saddle up and take a horse ride.

             The Bronx Equestrian Center is located on the outskirts of Pelham Bay Park and offers several different options for horse rides such as an hour ride, wagon ride, pony ride, and even riding lesson. When we pulled up to the place there were horses inside the pen getting all dirty from the mud that was create from the previous day's rainfall. Outside the main office were two cats on guard duty, assuming their job is to chase rats and mice away from the horsefeed. We were aiming for the standard hour ride on a horse which was a very reasonable $30 each. Each of us would get out own horse and would ride along with a tour guide on a trail that would roughly take about an hour back and forth back to the stable. This would be the first time I ever rode on a horse for that long a period of time. After paying, an older looking gentlemen with a grey beard and a cowboy hat, looked at the both of us and went inside the stable to select a horse he thought would be appropiate for each of us. First, he came out with a really tall dark brown horse named Ricky, who was sixteen years old, and I mounted the horse first. The old guy was very serious and gave me some basic tips on how to position myself on the horse and how to steer it left or right. He didn't let me know how to stop it, which was something I would've needed to know later on.

            Then he came out with another horse for my friend, except this time is was a light brown color and was much shorter. This horse was named Martin and was seventeen years old, according to the tour guide rider who was with us. Once we were all of our horses we began our journey on the trail. I had some concern early since the tour guide was on his cellphone for the first few minutes of the ride and not really paying attention to us. Martin was giving my friend a bumpy ride as she kept bouncing up and down and had a look of concern over her face. After being on the trail for a few minutes, we came upon a busy roadway in which the tour guide had to put his hand up to stop the traffic for all of us to cross. Once we got back onto the dirt trail, my horse got bored with following the tour guide's horse and decided he wanted to take the lead ahead of everyone. Since my friend was having difficulty with her horse, the tour guide had to stay along side her to make sure nothing went wrong, my horse took off at a faster pace and left those two about twenty yards behind. The horse must have done this trail hundreds of times before as he knew where to go. I was enjoying myself for the most part as the horse seemed it knew what to do, but I didn't like being so far ahead of the others. A couple of times I tried to pull back the reigns and nudge his side with my heels to get him to stop or slow down, but that was only a five second remedy, soon enough he start up again.

            The trail took us along side a gold course, under a train bridge built for an Amtrak line, and into the woods that surrounded us with a calming walk through nature. Since there was rain the day before, the only noise was the horses' feet clip-clopping into the muddy puddles. More often than not, the horse would avoid the really big puddles, but the trail was so muddy it was hard to avoid any spashing. I was lucky I had such a tall horse, with all the muddy water being splashed, not one drop got on my pants. It was the same story for most of the trail, I kept looking back and saw my friend and the tour guide well behind my horse. We finally reached the turnaround point and headed back on the same trail we came from. There was a moment when all three of us were together again, but that didn't last long as my horse took another commanding lead ahead of the others. We passed another couple of riders heading in the opposite direction, and actually I steered my horse too late and caused one of the other horses to do a circle turn for the guy who was riding it. I assumed the horse I was riding would've naturally gotten out of the way of oncoming horse-traffic. The horse kept going and going and I was beginning to get nervous as I knew the roadway was coming up soon and I wasn't sure how my horse would react.

             I went through a number of attempts to slow or stop my horse, I even asked it to stop, but it would just shake its head and keep on trucking. The problem was the other two were so far behind, even when I did get it to stop, the horse would be impatient to wait for the other two, and would start walking again. As I drew closer to the roadway, I saw two more riders appoaching my way on the trail, and one of them was the old guy who gave me the instructions earlier. When we crossed paths he notified me the roadway was coming up and his advice to me was, "You're gonna want to slow down that horse", as if I've been riding horses for the past twenty years and knew what I was doing. I pulled back the reigns harder and that seemed to work a little better, but it wasn't good enough. Then I looked back and saw the old man must have said something to our tour guide cause he finally hurried up to get in front of me and he used his horse to block off my horse from going any further. We waited a while until Martin showed up with my friend on him, and then we all crossed the roadway together and returned back to the stable. I enjoyed the experience very much, but my friend seemed quite bothered that her horse gave her a bumpy ride. She actually bought some apples to feed them, so we cut them up and gave them to the two horses we used, as well as some of the horses that were in the muddy pen out front.

             Next time I get on a horse, I'm going to make sure its had it's brakes fixed...

Green Saturday is the Day to Ride the Bus

            With the big game still a day away, I wanted to spend the Saturday getting to take in some of the main attractions of Green Bay, not having to do with football. I looked it up on the internet and one of the interesting features here appeared to be the locomotive trainsit museum. In order to get there I needed to either take a few buses or call a cab. Not feeling in the mood to pay cab fare, and wanting to get to know more about the area itself, I decided on taking the buses. I checked the local bus maps and I needed to walk a few blocks, take the number nine bus for a few stops, transfer to the number twelve bus, and then from there still needed to walk several blocks after getting off.

             I returned to Perkins, the diner I had a great meal at the day before, to start out with a hearty breakfast. What I didn't notice the day before is that the back of the menu had a section for people aged fifty-five and over(I wonder if they check IDs). I selected a bacon and cheddar omelette wrapped in a potato pancake, with a side of home fries. Knowing I was going to be out in the cold for a while, I also had a hot chocolate to warm my body up. I found the number nine bus stop rather easily, but had to wait nearly forty minutes for the bus to finally show up. I had a sweater and jacket on, but didn't dress as warm as I should have as I wasn't expecting to be out in the cold for that long a period of time. The bus fare is normally $1.50, but, to my delight I found out it was a free ride as per the town's Green Saturday program. I'm guessing its a method to cut down on motorists producing gas fumes by encouraging people to take a bus for free to get where they need to go. I sat towards the back of the bus and was surprised to see a civil rights notice up top towards the usual advertisements. Perhaps some riders in the area still don't know segregation ended around fifty years ago.

            The stop I was supposed to transfer to the number twelve bus was called Ashland, but I was riding for quite a while and there was no Ashland, the bus had an automatic voice system annoucing each stop. Eventually we did reach Ashland Avenue, in which I got off at, but it was basically a residential street, and furthermore, there was no other bus stops or transfer areas in sight. I looked around and saw a sign that said the neighborhood I was in was called 'Tank'. Not sure what do to, I saw an overpass down the road and figured if I crossed it, maybe they would be something there, but all that was there was another residential area, this time named 'Olde Norwood'. By this time my feet were beginning to get cold and I had given up on all hopes on getting to the museum, I just wanted to get back to my warm motel room. Across the street I did see a bus stop sign, but it wasn't for the twelve bus I was seeking, it was the eight. The good news though is that I saw the eight stops at the same area near my motel, so it was good for me to take. Luckily, the number eight came within minutes and I was on my way back from where I started out.

            I felt disappointed I didn't get to see more of Green Bay, so I did the next best thing I could by looking at some of the local stores near the motel. I found it amusing that one of the stores had a sign telling patrons that they weren't allowed to enter carrying concealed weapons. It was a store that sold indoor pools, I'm not sure how, even with firearms, that could turn deadly. Then another thing stuck out in my mind. Almost every stripmall, shopping center, and block had an establishment offering loans. There were cash loans, car loans, loans for this, loans for that, and it made me think, aren't there banks for that? Looking around, there were no banks, nothing. Unlike New York where every block has a Citibank, HSBC, Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, or local bank, in Green Bay none of these places are present. There are a few big building that have US Bank and M&I Bank, which seem to cater more for businesses, but for the local person, it seems around here these loan stores are relied upon for cash advances.

             Walking a little further I was distracted by the sounds of geese flying above me. When I looked up I saw them in formation, but not the usual V-shape I've always seen geese make, this time there was a straight line in front of the V-shape, making it look more like an arrow. I saw other packs of geese flying around in the afternoon with the same arrow look about them. Another interesting establishment I came upon was an apple store. I never been inside an apple store before, not dealing with macintosh, and since it was going out of business soon, I wanted to check it out. There wasn't much in there except bags of apples, canned goods, and apple cider. The cider was only $3.50 and I felt bad they were going out of business soon, so I bought one. The last store I visited was called Shopko, it was one of those stores that does everything, like a Walmart or Kmart. Checking out their DVD section I had my second delight surprise of the day by seeing a release of the latest and final edition of the Columbo series, a DVD I didn't even know existed. It was a no-brainer to buy that one as it gave me something to look forward to for the rest of the day.

              At that point I was happy I couldn't find the number twelve bus...