The Wagonteamster Channel has it’s first video production - Journey To the Valley Of the Wild Horses

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5/18/12, Rangely, CO - Tonight, I’m staying with some great folks on the east side of Rangely. The wagon repairs are complete, the horses are well fed and rested, and all is good in the world.

This morning, I was careful to baby the wagon with it’s temporary repair job when I drove it off the BLM land and back on to the highway.  I had Doc and Bill hitched, and after we got underway, they set a blistering pace down highway 139 to Rangely.

At several locations on the canyon cliff faces, ancient petroglyphs  were visible from the highway.  I’ve included a couple of shots of some artwork that predated the works of masterpieces that can be seen in most museums.

According to the BLM sign, Spanish Explorer Escalante noted these particular petroglyphs when traveling through here in the late 1700’s.

These rock paintings had a wooden fence erected around them for protection.

The lads continue to do well and are pulling strongly. They have lost most of their winter fat and are becoming lean pulling machines. For the second day, they had an easy pull as the road steadily sloped down in elevation as it followed the creek down to Rangely. Shortly after 2 pm, they picked up the pace and trotted the last two miles into town.

Tonight, we’re comfortably settled at John’s house, a close friend of Steve, my companion for the past couple of days.

My view out the front of the wagon at break time.  You’ll notice that the front canvass is now packed away so the wagon is sporting it’s summer, convertible look.  What some folks previously thought was haze in the pictures was just the camera shooting through the clear plastic windshield of the front canvass.

Shortly after arriving at John’s place, we all got down to making the repairs to the wagon chassis. The biggest job was to align the rear end, reposition the pipe holding the front and rear sections of the chassis together and bolt it together good.  To do this, it was necessary to jack up the wagon body to remove the weight from the chassis.  Then we had to bar over the rear portion of the chassis so it was in alignment before rejoining the two sections together.

After this was done, we did some other minor repairs, including fixing a leak on the rear brake lines. In the morning, I have to stop at the auto parts store and pick up a new light bulb for the white strobe light.

Ace Wagon Repairman, Steve Brady.  He’s either fixing the wagon or getting ready to take a nap in the shade.  I’m not sure which?

Thanks to the help of some really good friends, the wagon is now roadworthy and ready to continue the journey. John has been a tremendous host and has gone out of his way to help, and feed both me and the lads.

In the morning, Steve leaves to return to his home in Delta. It was great having him aboard.

Tomorrow, after a few stops in town to pick up some supplies, I’m headed to Vernal, UT.  To eliminate a lot of truck traffic and do some visiting, I’ll be taking the slightly longer route through Blue Mountain, CO.