Hi All!

It was Great!!!!

Grit in your teeth, hot, sweaty horses and people… and the mochila, being handed from horse to horse every two miles, for 2000 miles…

What else could it be but fantastic?

Here’s where our group started, at Simpson’s!

It was a three-generation-Hearty Family affair, from Izzy, below shown with dad Matt, Gregg (a few pics below), Jeff (no pics, only saw him once!) and Kellie with her babies and hubby Kevin!

Pat Hearty’s Group III  of the National Pony Express Association’s Utah Chapter took over the mochila on the morning of the 19th June and we passed it hand to hand and horse to horse until we got into Salt Lake City that evening at around 6 pm. Group II caught up an hour on its runs and we caught it up a further half hour during ours, which was a bit tricky in the streets of Salt Lake City!

What with small disasters besetting some of our group’s members, several of us got to ride two and three times!  I was lucky enough to ride the Pat Hearty’s Leonard and Matt Hearty’s Sonny!

I was even brave enough to use a Go Pro AND a helmet (the former unheard-of and the latter rare)!  Footage will follow after I learn how to edit it…it’s very long and a bit repetitive… but it gives a non-rider the sense of what it might feel like!

Sonny and I coming down from Lookout, or General Johnstone’s Pass, on my first PX ride, the same hill where Aleksandra finds plenty of trouble in A Long Trail Rolling!

Here’s Sonny and Leonard having a little break between rides:

Gregg Hearty off to an interesting start! (Sorry Gregg, this pic from previous year, but my rides seemed to always follow Gregg’s and wasn’t able to get a pic!) Kellie and Kevin Kimber in the background

Linda Hearty and a few riders at the Historic Stagecoach Inn near the old Camp Floyd!

 

The oh-so cruisy Sonny in the streets of Salt Lake, pausing for a snack with the freesias, lavender and freeway behind…

The Deseret News came and met with us on State Street leading in to Salt Lake and Pat’s son Matt Hearty and Kevin Kimber, Pat’s son-in-law made front page news on the day! Here’s the photo I took while the reporter got his famous slinging-on-of the mochila for the front page… starring Sonny on the right and Kellie (nee-Hearty) Kimber’s mare Cheyenne on the left.

 

 

Sonny and Matt racing down the streets of Salt Lake City, complete with pilot cars before and after, led by a police escort!

 

Sonny the posing horse, doing his thing again with me after Matt took him on his last lope of the 2016 Express Re-Ride down the streets of Salt Lake:

‘Let’s go!’  he says…

Thanks to the National Pony Express Association and the State Branches!  My personal appreciation to the Hearty and Hatch families for all their care and assistance!!

That’s all for tonight, folks!

Author Talks this week:

Take good care out there, and if you’re in the Humboldt, CA area, come on by one of the Author Talks I’m giving on Friday and Saturday of this week!

Fortuna Library: Friday 24 June, 4 pm at  753 14th St, Fortuna

Eureka Library: Saturday June 25, 3 pm at 1313 3rd St, Eureka

Bayside Grange: Saturday 25 June, 7-9 pm at 2297 Jacoby Creek Rd

 

Everyone welcome!

Hope to see you there!

Regards,

Lizzi