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A couple of years ago, I had a similar opportunity like this one, and I drove all the way down to Fort Meyer. Stopped and visited with the DC chapter of FR and the Trooprallys, visited friends along the way, and drove up and stayed at Sevierville, TN for a couple of days with a plan to drive all the way up to MA via the Blue Ridge in one day.

I got up at 4 AM but the weather was pouring rain and fog, and I endured an hour of white knuckle driving until I recognized there was no way I was going to make it. I pulled out my iPad and began looking for a place to stay.

There was only one place I could find (it was a popular wedding time of the year) and it turned out to be completely fortuitous. It was a horse farm, and I got a chance to really ride a horse for the first time in my life. I had been riding plenty of times, but you know how that was...you look at the butt of the horse in front of you, and that is pretty much it.

There were not many people there to ride, so one day I went out and me and the guy who ran the place split off from his wife, who had three 12 year old girls riding for a birthday party. Off we went, just me and him.

It was beautiful. The grass was lush green and spotted with tiny little bright yellow specks that were buttercups, the terrain in the Shenandoah Mountains was just...typical. Large boulders, little creeks here and there, lots of broadleaf trees. Just beautiful. Here is what it looked like:

I was able to take the horse wherever I wanted, off the trail, whatever suited me. He was galloping his horse to and fro, the front of the brim of his broad hat flattened up like a mule skinner! When we came out higher up into a large meadow, he said "You want to gallop that horse?" and with a huge grin I said "You bet!"

He said "Let's go, then!" and kick his horse and we began to run. He had been bragging about how his stallion was the fastest horse in those parts, and that horse just took off. As my horse began going faster, I just began to laugh. It was amazing, and I was having the damnedest time just staying in the saddle, having never done that before. I was slamming up and down to the point where it began to hurt, but it was unbelievably exhilarating.

I have driven fast cars and boats, but I have to tell you: riding a living thing and hurtling over the earth like that was like nothing else I had ever done.

I began to try to figure out how to keep from crashing up and down, and oddly, I actually felt the horse accelerate...she apparently had got the idea she could keep up with the other horse, and began to really speed up. It was astonishing to me. I could feel her come alive, as if she actually did gather herself up, coil and expand...and suddenly the ride smoothed out just a little the faster we went.

The closest thing I can liken it to is sailing in a small fast racing type of boat, when you trim it just right, it heels as you hang over the side, and as you pull in the sheet...you can actually FEEL the power of the wind get transferred right into the boat, and it has a feel of a living thing as it accelerates.

That was what it was like for me to do that for the first time, galloping that horse.

We ran across that meadow, the pale grass up there growing maybe a foot or two high. As we ran, I saw something else I had never seen before. A turkey appeared ahead, and began to make a beeline for the treeline. As the turkey picked up speed, it amazed me how fast it was, it was leaning further forward the faster it ran until suddenly...it took off! Now, I KNEW turkeys could fly, but all I had ever seen of them was a group standing together picking at the ground.

As this turkey ran, about fifty yards from the trees it suddenly began to fly, and I was amazed to see how broad its wings were, front to back.

What a day.