OklahomaHorses Magazine July 2022

July / August 2022 • OklahomaHorses 27 Weathering the Weather Burlingame and crew left California in February and traveled to Texas for the sixtieth anniversary of the Alamo Trail Ride during the 2022 San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. Burlingame met up with a friend she had met the previous May and enjoyed riding the diverse terrain in Texas. Winter weather and truck repairs prevented her from riding in Texas as much as she wanted, however. She said, “I realized that I was over 1,000 miles from Seattle and experiencing more snow and ice than I did at home. I had been riding four or five times a week and was down to maybe once or twice a week due to weather and waiting on truck repairs.” Burlingame made her way to Oklahoma by the end of March 2022 and participat- ed in a police horse training clinic with Bonnie before traveling to the mountains of southeastern Oklahoma. She and her animals spent time at Heaven’s Gate RV Park and Retreat, which includes horse pens, near Muse. She said, “I posted pho- tos on Facebook of this area, and friends and followers commented they had no idea Oklahoma had landscape like the area around Ouachita National Forest. Heaven’s Gate was wonderful, and the scenery and trails were amazing.” Located in Oklahoma and Arkansas, Ouachita National Forest is the oldest and largest national forest in the South, encom- passing 1.8 million acres and attracting outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds. Burlingame’s next stop in Oklahoma was Prague Lake Horse Camp, where she and her mules took a few days to rest before friends joined them for more riding. “I’ve met so many wonderful people on this adventure, and it’s been fun to meet up and ride with some of them again in different places,” Burlingame said. “The trails were wonderful around a beautiful city park just outside of town, and the campground was very nice.” Burlingame also encountered Oklahoma’s severe weather at Prague Lake. When a severe thunderstorm warning and torna- do watch were issued, the camp manager authorized her to move her rig from the campsite to alongside the bathhouse to shelter from high winds and possible hail. Burlingame put Buckshot and Bonnie between the trailer and the concrete-block building and took shelter inside with Lady and Denver. “I was offered room in the manager’s storm shelter but couldn’t leave my animals unattended,” she said. “I travel with emer- gency supplies, including my orange ‘go’ bag, an emergency lantern and folding cot, and a week’s worth of emergency clothing and food for the dogs and me. I grabbed two extra saddle blankets for the dogs’ beds, and we settled in to wait for the storm to pass.” Burlingame will always remember her stay in central Oklahoma, not only for the weather but also for the loss of her dear sweet German Shepherd, Lady, who passed over the Rainbow Bridge during the stay at Prague Lake. “She was diagnosed with cancer before our trip, but she never com- plained and seemed as happy and content with traveling full time as she did when previously anchored to the farm,” Burlingame said. “Her veterinarian advised after removing tumors last September that she might not live too much longer. Lady let me know that the pain of her spreading cancer was difficult for her to manage.” Burlingame, her mules, and Denver moved on a little sooner than expected be- cause more severe weather was in the fore- cast in central Oklahoma, and she wanted better protection for her mules. Their next stop was Cowboy Up Horse Camp in the Ozark Mountains near Witts Springs, Ar- kansas. The campground is well equipped and has some natural protection from high winds and several covered stalls for protection from rain and hail. Burlingame and her animals spent 11 days at Cowboy Up before traveling to Falling Water Horse Camp near Ben Hur, Arkansas. A Special Kind of Person Burlingame and her team have traveled many more miles and visited wonderful places since this writing as they headed north from Arkansas for cooler summer rides. She worked her way back to Wash- ington and Oregon to visit horse camps she had never been to and some she loved enough to visit again. Her LQ trailer is too big for many of the smaller camps, so it has become Burlingame’s home base and is parked on a farm outside Tacoma, Washington. She bought a two-horse slant-bumper pull trailer and is roughing it by sleeping in the back of the trailer as she continues her travels. It takes a special kind of woman to embark on an adventure of this magnitude, but with courage, grit, and stamina, Burlin- game is still out there living her dream. You can follow her adventures on Facebook by joining the group “Travels with Buckshot.” Ride on, Joan Burlingame! Enjoy and be safe! In Ouachita National Forest in southeastern Oklahoma, Joan Burlingame and her mule Bonnie take a ride during their stay at Heaven’s Gate RV Park and Retreat. Photo by Jan Hudson.