We finally made it to Wildwood stables after 4100 miles from Keller, WA. It's a great setup with 6 Acadia Sociables, acouple of 20 passenger trolleys and 10 teams to go around. They put me to work as soon as I got here. I did the obligatory ride with each of the teamsters to hear their speal and the next day was handed the lines of a team and off I went with a load of carriage riders, pointing out the highlights of the ride and a general line of BS that would have given a farmer with hip waders fits. It's been five days of 16 hours a day of driving horses, feeding horses and shoveling road apples and I love it. The guys are great and the boss is a prince.
It's all about Rockefeller's Roads. I load up a gaggle of tourists and begin my spiel. "Hi, I'm Gregg and I came 4100 miles for the priveledge of driving horses on Mr. Rockefeller's Roads and I want to welcome you to my time machine as we take a trip back in time to a simpler and perhaps gentler time when life went at the break neck speed of 3 miles an hour. The speed a horse walks. We're going to have the opportunity to see how roads were built by muscle power and how ingeneous our great grandad had to be to forge a way through the wilderness." I say as I cluck to the team to step up and off we go hauling anywhere from 12 to 22 passengers on an Acadia Sociable or Trolley for an 1 hour, 2 hour or, if you're really into it, a charter tour of wherever you want to go on the 57 miles of hand built roads John D. Rockefeller built in 1914, so he could drive horse in the wilderness he loved so much. Quite a hobby for a guy whose papa started Standard Oil, now Exxon Mobil. Some kind of justice in that I'd say.
I'll be sharing more of the trip but for now I best hit the hay as the day starts at 4:30 a.m. and doesn't end untill the last horse is put to bed at 9 or 10 at night. TALLY HO!
