And what a plunging...Part II

And what a plunging forth of faith it was!  It HAD to be.  

I contacted both the printed and television media.  "You're doing WHAT?!!"😓  

Then I arranged for a friend with a horse van to be on standby if needed.  Since the first mile of The Ride involved riding down a 4 lane highway, I had to ask if police could assist.  "You're doing WHAT?!!"😓

I only asked for, and received promise of, a few pledges prior to The Ride, since everything depended upon actually DOING The Ride, with the help of media.

Then the day came.  Everybody showed up.  Patches was only 2 years old when I did this, the deep bond we shared enabling us to embark on this amazing little journey at all...escorted by police and a media entourage as we began.  Aside from the traffic noise, and two bridges...the one I thought Patches wouldn't have a problem with, he did at first, and the one I thought would be a problem, wasn't.  Other than that, we completed it in 3 hours!  

The newspaper and television pieces hit the next day.  And then...AND THEN...our journey REALLY took off!  People were SO touched and inspired, they couldn't get enough of us.  No one could remember my name, but they sure remembered "Patches!"  I quickly became known as "the Patches lady!"  With a business, prior to The Ride, in the event donations did actually come in, we set up a trust fund, and the donations began pouring in.  Not all was monetary.  Since I needed transportation to get Patches to Baltimore, one of the largest national horse transportation firms donated their services.  Mechanics overhauled my car so I could get there too.  A vet donated his fee to vet Patches with the paperwork needed to cross state lines.  It went on and on.

Because of the keen interest in our amazing story, the media kept coming to the farm to get more coverage of Patches and I...like the way he would come running to me when he heard me call him.  The news pieces were lovely.

Yet it didn't stop in Kentucky.  The govenor of Maryland at that time, learned about us, and welcomed Patches and I to Maryland!   In all, The Ride received just over $11,000.00 in money and donations.  We were on our way.

All because I took a HUGE crazy leap of faith and plunged forth.  And it all went FORTH...not BACK!😊