Day 04 - Columbia, MO to Emporia, KS

Happy Birthday to our niece Amelia who turned the Big 3 today!

Today we met the Clydesdales! The celebrity Budweiser Clydesdales, their ladies and two foals. 

Before we get to that, Michele forgot to add that she had a "Can you spare a square?" request from a lady in the restaurant restroom after lunch yesterday. She said, "Hey neighbor, don't leave! I'm down to my last square in here!" Michele passed a TP bunch under the stall door to her while laughing.

This morning we didn't have to leave until 9:15am since the Clydesdale ranch was only 20 minutes away. They are pretty strict and emailed on Monday that they did not want us arriving more than 10 minutes early. We figured we'd try to get in earlier since we had to take off all our gear and put on comfy shoes before the tour. As Rob was checking and airing up the tires on the Wing and trailer, two older gents on Goldwings had parked behind us at the hotel and were rapidly getting ready to head out. They weren't too chatty and seemed kind of stressed to leave quickly. Rob said they told him they are from Nebraska and were on their way home. We had breakfast at the hotel and were rolling at 9:15am. 

The Budweiser Clydesdale farm is over 330 acres. There are 60-75 horses in total at this particular facility, and nationally three teams of 10 horses that attend events a whopping 300 days a year! 

These letters were from the original bottling plant's "BUDWIESER" sign on top of the building. Surrounding it were pretty flowers that the hummingbirds were fighting over. They buzzed all around us, Michele thinks she saw a female ruby throat, but since we're now west of the Mississippi it could have been another species.

Soon after our tour started, everyone was so excited to meet Stan, who was getting groomed for us nearby, so the tour guide introduced us to him and let us pet him. Our tour guide teaches kindergarten during the school year and this is her summer job. Meet handsome Stan! 

He's famous and has appeared in Super Bowl commercials. Michele fell in love with him, somewhat ignored the tour guide, and kept sneaking back to pet him. He has cute freckles on his nose, which is very soft, and likes ear scratches. He is 9 years old and 17.2 hands high and about 2,000 pounds. A hand is about 4 inches so that translates to about 5'8" at his withers--the part at the end of his mane--to the floor. He is not even the largest horse they have. They have one that is 19 hands. Clydesdales are a breed from Scotland and are considered full grown at age 7. They are unusual in that they like rain and cold, but not the heat. Every field has a shelter with a fan and automated water for them. They all come in at night. Clydesdales eat about 20 quarts of oats and grain, 50 pounds of timothy hay, and consume 30 gallons of water daily!

After visiting Stan, we learned about how the horses are bred and that the mares are pregnant for 11 months! The horse manager lives on the property and is always the first one to arrive at the pregnant mares when it's delivery time. A small device is stitched into the mares' insides and when the foal kicks it, it's birth time, sometimes as soon as 5 minutes! 

These three ladies are pregnant and due within the next 30 days. At this time they are kept in this paddock where they are fed delicious alfalfa that has higher protein than their usual hay that comes specially from a farm in Idaho. Their names are Rita, JLo and Melania. We all laughed. One is already 16 years old. A mare can deliver 10 foals on average in her lifetime.

We also learned about the events and the famous Budweiser carriage. Eight horses make up the team, with two backup horses in case something happens. They are about 4-5 years old when they join a team. The four horses closest to the carriage are the wheel horses and do all the pulling, the largest ones are located there. The two horses in front of them are called the Swing horses and are used to steer the carriage. The two in front are called the Lead horses and are the showiest and don't do anything but put on a good show! 

We got to see where the farrier re-shoes them. The Clydesdale horseshoe weighs 5 times more than a regular horse shoe and is twice the size of a normal horse shoe.

The white on their feet is called feathers. A man in our group asked how they get so white, are they dyed? The tour guide said they use a special purple shampoo that makes it really white. The man joked that he uses the same shampoo!

Their horses are retired at 15 years old. We got to see Retirement Row and several were in their stalls. Michele was horse whispering to several of them and missed most of what the tour guide was explaining about the carriage and events. Rob explained it all to her later. 

Then we met the foals! They were born in March and average about 150lbs at birth. They are typically standing on wobbling legs within 2 hours. They will either sleep on their side or snooze a bit in a sternal position. Each stall has a fan and they get misted for flies twice a day. The snoozy foal didn't care about the flies. Their mamas each are good caregivers as they are attentively looking over them. 

On our way out, we got a photo op with the three pregnant mares again. 

This visit was a lot of fun and great for anyone of any age. 

Back on the road, we continued onto I-70 West. Rob planned a lunch and fuel stop at a TA truck area that had a Subway. Our GPS was not cooperating and didn't tell us when to turn, so we missed it. We drove a few miles and turned around since it wasn't clear if we'd have food options at the next stop over 20 miles ahead. Michele picked up our lunch inside. Rob said during that time a man who was pulling a Jeep behind his SUV said he's from Pennsylvania and taking his son to Utah for college. He liked our trailer. We drove a mile west on I-70 to a rest area with covered picnic tables that Rob had previously scoped out on the satellite map. In the shade the temps were much cooler and we watched the traffic on the highway. As we were leaving, a truck driver had called in a big tow truck to load up his huge 18 wheeler. We wondered what could be wrong with it. 

Soon we arrived in Kansas City and traffic was hectic. Take our word for it as this photo doesn't show any!

We kept West until I-435 which we took around the southern side of the city to connect with I-35 South towards Emporia. We had 90 minutes on I-35 South and traffic was much calmer back in the country. 

We arrived at our hotel around 3:45pm after fueling up across the street. The Hampton Inn Emporia is brand new and our room is nice. We got takeout dinner from Applebees next door. Today's mileage was very low at about 250 miles. Total mileage for the trip so far is about 1,300 miles.

 

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve during our scenic ride through Kansas to Dodge City.  It looks like it will be our hottest day so far on the trip.