Stories from Bernie's current trip - a mule voyage from Canada to Mexico
There may be no mules to pull it, but the Lost Sea Expedition wagon is set to appear in Saturday’s Croaker Festival Parade in Oriental, NC.
Keith Smith agreed to provide his Wizard lawn mower for locomotion.
Gee! (that means right in mulespeak)
For more pictures visit towndock.net.
As I rode Woody and Maggie across America, I wrote a series of articles for RiverEarth and various newspapers.
There was only one problem.
I couldn’t carry a computer in my saddlebag because it weighed too much.
Enter libraries. They had public computers and Internet access. But what would I do with my mounts as I filed my stories?
Bringing them inside was out. I’d tried that at Gaskill’s Hardware Store in Beaufort and when Woody wasn’t eying the peanuts, he was sizing up the Duron paint samples for a nibble.
“Bernie? This is going to work in a library?”
Gaskill’s Hardware – Beaufort, NC, March 2004
So the gig went like this.
Bernie rode his mounts to a library, tied them by the front door, dove inside, dashed out an article and escaped before his two chargers got into a kicking match.
If it hadn’t been for libraries, RiverEarth couldn’t have brought you stories and pictures from the road.
So, this summer and fall, as a thank you gesture, I’ll be visiting North Carolina libraries on my “Captain Bernie’s Mule Speed Library Tour”. I’ll be talking about my trip across America – letting folks across the state find out what ever happened to that guy that tied his mule in front of libraries in Garland and Wallace, North Carolina – and Gila Bend, Arizona.
If not for the Gila Bend Public Library, you wouldn’t be seeing this photo
Gila Bend, AZ March 2005
Talks will consist of a half-hour narrated slide show followed by a question and answer session.
Yes, Woody and Maggie are joining me for a few of these visits – via trailer this time.
If your library our group would like to have us over for a presentation, just drop us a line…
I hear it all the time. “If you call it MuleCam, where are the mules?”
Mules?
The answer’s simple. I don’t have any right now – well, not any I’d trust to pull my wagon.
What about Woody?
It occurred to me that since he’d had already walked across America, he’d probably make a fine wagon-pulling mule. And he jumped too. That showed flexibility.
Woody the showjumping mule
In a moment of enthusiasm, I draped an old harness on him, hitched him to a log and as I stepped aboard, called to my buddy Alex, “Watch this!”
Woody bolted, flipped me off the log and galloped loose across Mel’s lawn, the log bouncing ever-higher and coming down ever-harder on his heels. That only fueled his flight, he wrapped the log around a fence post and ripped of most of his harness before he came to stop in his pasture. It took me the rest of the afternoon to find the hame-ball, that silver ball that goes on top of the harness. He’d thrown clear into another horse’s pasture.
Ok, he just needed a heavier load.
Figuring more weight might help, I hitched him to a quiet draft mule and hooked the team to a 600 pound wood sled. With a superior grin, I hopped onto the heavy conveyance and snickered “Ok, Woody boy. Let’s see you run off now.”
He squatted, lurched into his harness and the sled jumped forward. Then we settled into a steady walking pace.
Yes! I’d just found a mule to pull my wagon!
I steered the team down to Mel’s house for a good gloat. Mel was on the back porch. “Mel check this out!” I shouted and slid the sled to a stop next to her red sports car. “I think I’ve found Woody a new career as a pulling mule!”
I stepped off the wagon to pet Woody. “Way to go old…” and before “boy” escaped my lips Woody bolted toward Mel’s car. With a rear Pegasus couldn’t match he cleared the roof with his chest and galloped down the driveway, the other mule and the 600 pound sled in tow.
“Woody! No!” was all I could get out and then I saw the vet at the clinic next door lead a sleek show-horse from his barn. “Loose mule!” I shouted just as Woody leveled out a dead run.
Just then Mel’s holly tree hove into view. Woody ran on one side of it, his teammate on the other, and the sled crashed square into the trunk. That brought the runaway to a dead stop and I could only wonder.
Tree-wrecked
What would’ve happened if Woody had spooked with my wagon – the one with the MuleCam in it? Sure, it would’ve made a few fantastic shots. But the last one would be of the wagon on its side.
So I untangled Woody, the sled and the other mule and drove them back to the barn. Then I unharnessed both animals and swore never again to hitch the one I’d ridden across America.
That’s why you see barbecues and blue bottles on MuleCam. For now…
(Photos courtesy of Susan Edwards)
Bernie
RiverEarth.com
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