Simpler Times?

My daughter Morgan and I took a horseback ride to The Red Mill in Waupaca on Sunday. A place we have visited hundreds of times as shes grown but traveled by vehicle and recently UTV many many times. It usually would have been roughly an 8 -10 minute drive. Reminder, it's Sunday November 13th in Wisconsin and 36 degrees. Why not mount up and take a ride for distance right?

The fall day was biting cold yet beautiful. The wind was crisp, the leather saddles were stiff, and the steam from our horses nostrils and the on and off small snowflakes were a definite reminder that summer of 2022 is completely over. It took 4 hours round trip to get coffee from our hidden gem. An unforgettable adventure. We figured out later that we traveled 14 miles!

Teachers when we talk about the "olden days" to young minds and refer to them as "simpler times"... I must interject. Morgan and I were discussing our distance on our ride and trying to estimate how far we had traveled but judgement is completely distorted when riding a horse vs driving an automobile. Distance and time for a trek like this are completely underestimated when you have to think about it because you dont take this trip regularly on a living animal. A trip to the grocery store would be a day trip by horseback, not minutes... so who really is living in simpler times? I'm not even getting into the discussion of refrigeration or electricity.

 This time with my soon to be 18 year old daughter (who will be leaving next fall for college outwest) on horseback was something I will never forget. This valuable time together that includes the usual beginning ride bickering at eachother and turns into relaxation and reminiscing, laughing and an all around good time is something I have been consciously trying to remind myself are numbered. I remind myself to soak it all in and wish for time to slow down. The days of me being able to go to her room in the morning and say, "Hey Morgan it's a beautiful day outside do you want to go for a horseback ride?" are coming to a close. A new life chapter is on the horizon. I wish I took more pictures of our trip but fingers were frozen.