2003 Dressage at Devon

Pre-Devon Diary

Monday September 22, 2003: The Arrival

I had a bad night sleep. Gizmo had taken over my bed during the night and had nestled herself next to my head. She was lying on her back and snoring as if she was breathing like Darth Vader. Round 2 AM, little Trooper had already woken me up with some howling because he wanted to be released from his indoor kennel. We were back on the road round 8.30 AM.

We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast. I got my traditional Fruit 'n Yogurt parfait, a snack I discovered back in Denver in 1998 at the North American Young Riders Championships. Mary always gets a side order of eggs and sausage, while JJ just has an orange juice. I was puzzled by one specialty on the McDonalds menu: "Hash brownies". When I told Mary what I had seen, she burst out laughing. "You mean hash browns," JJ said, "those are potatoes." Well, we call them rosti in Europe.

Heading towards Carlisle on route 81, we suddenly came to a full stop in a major traffic jam. JJ put on the CB, on which the word was spread that a four wheeler had flipped over. We had to wait about half and hour for the traffic to clear. For lunch Mary made a sandwich for me and JJ and a tuna salad for herself, while JJ was filling up the tank with gas.

In Carlisle, Pennsylvania, we stopped at a Flying J truck wash stop. We were only an hour and a half away from Devon so Mary wanted to have a clean truck. After two days of traveling, the front part of the camper was sprayed with bug juice. Flying J is a really peculiar place. It has a disgusting smell both outside and inside. Outside you smell oil, gasoline and exhaust fumes of America's biggest trucks who are being washed or repaired there. Inside the little shop, tires are on sale and the smell of new rubber makes me feel dizzy after a while. It took an hour for two young boys (who still needed to be in high school in fact) to clean the whole truck and camper.

In Carlisle we took the Turnpike towards Philadelphia. Besides the Virginia part, the Turnpike is the best road to have a great view out of the window. We passed old Pennsylvania Dutch farms, large cattle farms with silos and huge fields with herd of cows and horses. When we came to Exton, a little store "Exton Glass" had a really funny quote hanging outside: "Osama, kiss our glass". After two years, the 9/11 wake is still very alive, especially on the East Coast.

When we arrived at the Devon show grounds, a police cop refused to let us on the premises. We were ordered to drive a block further and turn round there. He didn't even take the time to listen to us (so that we could tell him we had a reserved spot on the show grounds). After almost 40 minutes of waiting, we were allowed inside.

Mary set up the camper, while I went grocery shopping in a "healthy" food market, in which milk is made of soy beans, and suburban business men are going shopping with their children so that they can spend some valuable 'family time'. JJ made pork chops on the grill while Mary sauteed the stuffed portobella mushrooms. We watched the season premier of Las Vegas before going to sleep.

by Astrid Appels