Misty's Long Ride: Across America by Horseback

By Howard Wooldridge (Frosty’s brother with permission)

                                        Smooth Georgia Mist

                                                                          TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1—ALL ABOUT RESPECT IN GEORGIA

CHAPTER 2—TENNESSEE WALKING HORSES

CHAPTER 3—KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS

CHAPTER 4—LAND OF LINCOLN

CHAPTER 5—SHOW ME STATE

CHAPTER 6—JAYHAWKS AND PRAIRIE STATE

CHAPTER 7—COLORADO ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH

CHAPTER 8—BURNING INFERNO IN UTAH

CHAPTER 9—IDAHO ON NO GRASS, NO SHADE, NO RELIEF

CHAPTER 10–END OF THE TRAIL WITH LEWIS AND CLARK

                                                    FOREWORD

In the spring of 1994, I emerged from my mother’s womb and into the hands of Lou & Joyce Smith in Argyle, Texas. I had the good fortune to have such a kind couple raise me from a filly to adulthood. I received the best food, medicine, grooming and loving care. They allowed me to be a horse as I frolicked with three other horses on their small ranch. Life was one carefree day after another, season after season. Such was my life for five years.

One day, a tall, lanky stranger visited the ranch. Joyce guided me into a round pen, where she made me walk, trot and lope. The mysterious stranger observed me as I trotted round and around. The next weekend he returned with a truck and trailer. Joyce was leading me, when she broke into tears and threw her arms around my neck. She explained to me this stranger, Howard, would be my new owner and I was leaving her ranch forever. She promised that he would take good care of me and I would have other horses to play with at his ranch. After I hopped into the trailer, I looked back at my mom and two other equine friends. I whinnied long and hard that I did not want to leave but Howard shut the door. Such is the life of a horse.

The next weekend Howard put me in a trailer with my new horse friends, Leah and Scout. After a 30-minute ride, I backed out of the trailer and onto the grounds of the Will Rogers Center in Fort Worth. The next two days Howard led me around the grounds, past hundreds of horses, thousands of cowboys and cowgirls and many new sights and smells. This was my first taste of exploring the world, seeing and feeling something new. Little did I know I had taken my first baby step in preparation for a journey across a continent.

The next weekend Howard guided me around and around in a pen. After a few minutes, he put a saddle pad on me. Then he eased a saddle onto my back for the first time. Since Joyce had assured me that Howard was okay, I trusted what he was doing. A few days later, I felt the pressure of a foot in the left stirrup and then in a slow motion, Howard swung his right leg over the saddle and he was on top of me. It was a shock to have him there but not unpleasant. Soon he had me learning when to go, when to trot and when to stop—on his command.

My education increased in the next few months. Howard trailered me to a lake near Fort Worth where we rode on trails between the trees. I learned what was a threat or danger and what was not. I continued to gain confidence in Howard as a rider and provider.

A year before our Long Ride began, Howard rode me out to US 377 and we spent the morning at a busy intersection. The next week we rode along a seven-lane highway about 10 miles to a coffee shop in Southlake. After a 30-minute stop being tied to a post, we rode home. Screeching tires, police sirens, jack hammers, thundering motorcycles and big 18-wheelers became as common to my senses as squirrels, rabbits and other forest creatures were on nature trail rides. I didn’t really know what to think of all this. I met many horses on nature trail rides but Howard and I seemed to be the only ones who navigated urban trail rides.

In the winter of 2002, Howard and I went for a couple of rides along the busy highway at night. That was different!  We horses have excellent night vision but the cars now had their headlights on–white on the front and red to the rear. It was just more stuff to become used to and I did.

One morning Howard brought two big boxes to the barn. Out of one, he pulled a brand new saddle that looked like half the size of my normal one. Out of the other, he pulled out various brown bags that he eventually put on top of the new saddle. Innocent of all the items, I accepted what he did. My education and training were coming to a close by March. I was about to embark on a journey that few horses could imagine in the 21^st century—coast-to-coast across America.

A couple days later Howard led me into a large, six-horse trailer driven by a stranger. Before leaving me, he promised I would be well cared for until I saw him in two days. Thus began an odyssey that was a life-changing event. I would never be the same again. For the rest of my life, I will never again take for granted steady feed, a comfortable stall and the company of other equines.  This is the story of my Long Ride.

Smooth Georgia Mist

Keller, Texas

A MOMENT TO REMEMBER ON THE LONG RIDE

As we rode into Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the sun shined across the waving tree tops on a blustery day. Clouds skidded across the sky. Howard stripped off my saddle at the city limits.  I grazed for an hour while Howard ate a candy bar. After a quick stop at the Burger Barn, we moved westward. I smelled the Mississippi River as Howard stopped to let some kids pet me.  After a man took some pictures, Howard dismounted and checked all the tie-downs, my cinch, my hooves and my bridle. We must be close to the bridge he had mentioned this morning.  Howard seemed nervous and excited.  He mounted up, stroked my neck and told me what a magnificent horse I was in all respects.

“Okay Misty girl,” he said, “We’re going to take a high sidewalk in the sky.  No problem for you girl.”

He said that today we would complete 1000 miles after we crossed the bridge.  We were about to become long riders.

          Howard halted and waited for a semi-truck to pass.  He urged me into a slow trot as I stepped onto the bridge. Immediately I knew we were 200 feet off the ground. My one eye saw through the old, rusting, gray steel girders to an angry river.  The wind formed white caps as it tried to push the water back up stream. The crosswind blew 40 miles per hour from the south. As the traffic built up behind us, I felt Howard’s tension in his seat and legs. He had good reason.

As my gut tightened, we began crossing the 20 foot wide, rickety two-lane bridge built 80 years ago. When the asphalt ended, there was a steel girder about three feet high and then nothing but air and the river far below. As I moved my head to the right to compensate for no eye, I was none too happy to spot holes where the asphalt met the girder. They were big enough to put my hoof through. I knew if Howard did not help me avoid those holes we would fall over and tumble into the river. I thought he had taken leave of his senses. Why had he not hired a trailer to take me across?  Despite Howard giving me good leg cues to stay in the middle of our lane, sometimes the wind blew harder for a bit and we stepped way too near those holes on the edge.   Several times he over-compensated and pushed me too far to the left. The on-coming traffic scared me.  After a couple of minutes my nerves jangled inside my head. I stopped, pooped and didn’t quite know what to do. Where was Texas?  My comfortable stall? Would I ever see my buddies back at the corral?    What was a horse supposed to do when her owner got a hair-brained idea to ride coast to coast across America?

##       

How to Live a Positive, Meaningful and Fulfilling Life—by your choices and actions

Motivational program: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge  www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

Do you represent a high school, college, church, civic club or retirement organization? Are your colleagues and friends ready to step into a positive, meaningful and fulfilling life?  Do you want to unlock the best within everyone in your organization?  If they want to become adventure seekers, let’s propel them toward successful adventures at whatever level they choose. 

Discover your peak potential without making a ton of mistakes

I aim to make this personal. Let me open up possibilities for your organization.  I’ll show your members how to create spellbinding experiences while climbing to new heights of self-confidence and accomplishment.  Foremost, I want to make certain that members of your organization, school or club don’t make the “basketful of rotten apples” mistakes that I made in my quests for adventure.

For starters, have you inhaled the scent of mountain evergreens at 14,000 feet?  Have you raced the rapids on a raging river?  How would your organization like to feel the exhilaration of crossing the continental divide by bicycle, horse or backpack? Have your friends thought of standing on the equator? Would you like to walk the Great Wall of China?  Would you like to feel the raw energy from climbing to new heights through adventure?  How about the energy surge of triumph of some achieved goal as only a few have ever known with the satisfaction of knowing it’s all you?

I present motivational programs for high schools, colleges, civic clubs and retirement organizations across the United States.  I bring high energy, humorous stories and an enthralling “around the world” slide show to your friends or organization. I focus on the five concepts and six practices within my book that will propel your organization’s members to their own local and world adventures.  Additionally, I honor all kinds of adventure: sculpting, painting, travel, parenting, sports, creative self-expression, acting, self-discovery and all avenues leading toward personal fulfillment.

Sharing a lifetime of global adventure

“Frosty’s experiences include traveling over 100,000 miles via bicycle across six continents. He has circled the globe three times. He backpacked, climbed, scuba dived, canoed, skied and cycled from the Arctic to Antarctica.  He traveled from the Amazon jungles to the Australian Outback.  He paddled the Mississippi River and rafted through the Grand Canyon.  He walked on the Great Wall of China and cycled Route 66. He witnessed 12 foot wing-spanned condors soaring off his bicycle handlebars at 16,000 feet in the Andes to having Emperor penguins scratching their heads in his hand in Antarctica. That’s just for starters.”  Allen Hamilton

Program appeals to teens, college, middle and retirement audiences

Golden, Colorado high school senior Josh Reynolds, 18, said, “This is the best 90 minutes of learning I have spent in the past four years of my high school career.  I feel like I have a better understanding on how to conduct my life.  Mr. Wooldridge really showed me to succeed…and I’m going to.”

Cincinnati, Ohio, cyclist, mountain climber and skier—Chef Joe Comer, 44, said, “Through experiential living, Frosty Wooldridge brings his wit and wisdom to life through his wonderful and energetic presentation on how to live a life of adventure.  As a world traveler with a lifetime of experience, through a wide variety of mechanized and pedal travel, Frosty brings the audience along—transporting them to Australia, Europe, Asia, South America, Antarctica and beyond.  With the heart of a vagabond and the lyrical content of Shakespeare, Frosty will inspire any group of any age and demographic to push their boundaries in a safe and thought-out manner.” 

New York radio talk show host Barry Farber, 75, said, “The only thing I might suggest, if a revolver were pressed against my head demanding some sort of response, would be to look at his record of eight times across America by bicycle and around-the-world. He shows folks how to smash down the iron curtain between their being spectators and participants.  He lets them know they can vault from overweight couch potato to “participant” today without transmogrifying their way of life.  They will be thankful they embraced Frosty’s action-filled life into their personal present and future.  They may not become P. T. Barnum’s hero dwarf or the first conqueror of Mt. Everest, but adventure NOW can lift their lives monumentally and send them soaring upward like a Frisbee caught in a tornado.”

What audiences can expect

Each attendee enjoys a five page handout, pencil and paper to record notes.  As a teacher, I expect every audience member to learn every dynamic concept and apply it to his or her own life. I will answer all your questions.  Each attendee enjoys a signed “Certificate of Adventure” from the author.

What you can expect from the program

·         You and your organization will learn five dynamic and easily employed concepts to move toward yours and their own chosen destinies. 

·         You and your members will be taught how to engage the six action steps that move your dreams to reality.

·         You and your members will learn how to discover your own life passions.

·         Everyone will learn how to fund their adventure paths.

·         Everyone will discover professional clubs to join for relationship building.

·         All members will be directed to websites where young, middle and retirees are in the process of living their adventures.

·         You and your members will leave with everything you need to move into your own adventures.

·         As my book says and I state during the program and each member of the audience will say as they walk out the door,   “I can do it.”

Take action

If you or your organization would like to enjoy this unique program, please contact me at [email protected]  or go to the website for further investigation by clicking: http://www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

Motivational program: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World

Contact: [email protected]

Website: http://www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

 DVD: You may purchase a DVD of the program after the program–$19.95.  Or, write Frosty Wooldridge at POB 207, Louisville, CO 80027 and send a check for $19.95 which includes postage.

Book: You may purchase a signed copy of his book after the seminar–$19.95

Copies from publisher: 1 888 280 7715 or www.amazon.com

Live, love, laugh and adventure,

Frosty Wooldridge

Handbookfor Touring Bicyclists–Bicycling touring is growing in popularity each year. Men and women around the world are taking to the highways and the “open air” is their kitchen.  On the pages of this book, you’ll discover how to buy, carry, prepare, and store food while on tour. Discover the ‘ins and outs’ with a “Bakers Dozen” of touring tips that are essential for successful bicycle adventuring. Whether you’re going on a weekend ride, a week-long tour, or two years around the world, this handbook will help you learn the artistry of bicycling and cooking.

Strike Three! Take Your Base–The Brookfield Reader, Sterling, VA; 2001. ISBN 1-930093-01-2. To order this hardcover book, send $19.95 to Frosty Wooldridge, POB 207, Louisville, CO 80027. This poignant story is important reading for every teen that has ever experienced the loss of a parent from either death or divorce.  This is the story of a boy losing his father and growing through his sense of pain and loss. It is the story of baseball – a game that was shared by both the boy and his father – and how baseball is much like life.

An Extreme Encounter: Antarctica—“This booktransports readers into the bowels of million year old glaciers, katabatic winds, to the tops of smoking volcanoes, scuba diving under the ice, wacky people, death, outlaw activities and rare moments where he meets penguins, whales, seals and Skua birds. Hang on to your seat belts–you’re in for a wild ride where the bolt goes into the bottom of the world.” Sandy Colhoun, editor-in- chief, The Antarctic Sun

Bicycling Around the World: Tire Tracks for your Imagination–This book mesmerizes readers with animal stories that bring a smile to your face. It will pain your mind and heart seeing the Third World. It chills you with a once-in-a-lifetime ride in Antarctica where you’ll meet a family of Emperor penguins. Along the way, you’ll find out that you have to go without a mirror, sometimes, in order to see yourself. The greatest aspect of this book comes from–expectation! Not since ‘Miles from Nowhere’ has a writer captured the Zen and Art of Bicycle Adventure as well as Wooldridge. Not only that, you enjoy a final section-’Everything you need to know about long distance touring’. He shows you ‘How to live the dream’. You’ll have the right bike, equipment, money and tools to ride into your own long distance touring adventures. If you like bicycling, you’ll go wild reading this book. If you don’t like bicycling, you’ll still go wild reading this book.

Motorcycle Adventure to Alaska: Into the Wind—“Seldom does a book capture the fantasy and reality of an epic journey the magnitude of a ‘Motorcycle Adventure to Alaska’. Trevor and Dan resemble another duo rich in America’s history of youthful explorers who get into all kinds of trouble – Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. They plied the Mississippi River, but Dan and his brother push their machines into a wild and savage land—Alaska. My boys loved it.” John Mathews, father of two boys and a daughter.

Bicycling the Continental Divide: Slice of Heaven, Taste of Hell—“This bicycle dream ride carries a bit of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The author mixes hope with adventure, pain with courage and bicycling with mountains. John Brown, a friend left behind to battle cancer, provides guts and heart for his two friends who ride into the teeth of nature’s fury. Along the way, you’ll laugh, cry and gain new appreciations while pondering the meaning of life.”

Losing Your Best Friend: Vacancies of the Heart—“This is one heck of a powerful book!  It’s a must read for anyone that has lost a friend or parent.  It will give you answers that you may not have thought about.  It will touch your heart and you will learn from their experiences.  It also shows you what you can do if you suffer conflict with your friend’s wife or girlfriend.”   Jonathan Runy

Rafting the Rolling Thunder—“Fasten your ‘raft-belts’ folks!  You’re in for the white water rafting ride of your life.  Wooldridge keeps readers on the edge of their seats on a wild excursion through the Grand Canyon.  Along the way, he offers you an ‘outlaw’ run by intrepid legend “Highwater Harry”, a man who makes a bet with the devil and nearly loses his life.  The raft bucks beneath you as Harry crashes through Class V rapids.  And the Grand Canyon Dish Fairies, well, they take you on separate rides of laughter and miles of smiles!  Enjoy this untamed excursion on a river through time.”  Jason Rogers

Misty’s Long Ride: Across America on Horseback—Misty’s Long Ride, by Smooth Georgia Mist (Howard Wooldridge – Frosty Wooldridge’s brother), AuthorHouse, 2005. ISBN 1-4208-5766-5 (sc).  “As good as Howard was, sometimes there was nothing he could do about our situation in the burning inferno of Utah. In that agonizing desert, a man’s mouth became so dry, he couldn’t spit. I felt the heat cook my hooves at ground level where it felt like walking alone in the middle of a farrier’s furnace. Above us, vultures soared in the skies searching for road-kill. Yet, Howard pulled down the brim of his hat and pushed forward. I followed this cowboy because he was a Long Rider and I was his horse….” For anyone who loves horses and high adventure – Howard’s horse Misty tells one of the great adventure tales in the 21^st century by galloping coast to coast across America. You’ll enjoy horse sense, horse humor, unique characters and ride the wild wind.

All books available at: 1 888 280 7715, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com