Wild Pink Yonder -- the pink wagon train: an update

Jane Hurl · Wild Pink Yonder -- the pink wagon train: an update

I don't think I've told you folks about our wagon train -- its trials, tribulations and successes. WHAT an adventure! We started it off by having me in a freak accident with my team. (NOT their fault.) I broke my back in 5 places, my right hip in 3 places and my left leg. This happened 2 weeks before we were scheduled to leave. *sigh* *eyes rolling*

Okay, so now what? I was determined to keep it going, believing that if we postponed it, as was suggested by many, it would die. (And I still believe that.) So ... from my hospital bed in the trauma unit, loopy with pain killers, I had meetings with my son (who left the real world to come work in mine). We cut the first half of the trip off completely. We limited the number of riders, and my darling, adorable, gutsy son (who is NOT a horse person) said he'd take the wagon train for me. All but single-handedly. All 3 weeks. All 400 miles.

But he couldn't do everything else needed AND drive the team (which he didn't know how to do anyway), so I talked a farm equipment company into lending us a beautiful $100,000 tractor to pull the pink wagon and I found a guy willing to drive 400 miles at 3.5 mph! *grin* It may not have looked too 1874 era, but it got the job done with a little more integrity than having the wagon pulled by an SUV!

And away we (well, they) went! I worked the phone, getting what they needed, talking to media etc from the hospital.

We had a contest for the towns we visited. It was called "Pinkest Little Town in the West", and the towns ate it up. Their challenge was to make their town the pinkest when we came through, and raise the most money per capita for breast cancer research. It was wild! The Co-op in one town sold 1 litre pails of assorted shades of pink paint with a roller for $10 each and challenged the town to paint the outside of their building pink! (Man, is it PINK, and no, it doesn't wash off! It looks like a big pink birthday cake! Wish I was better at the "add a picture" thing.) One town had pink desserts in the park as a fundraiser and pink pancakes for everybody the morning we left. They raffled off a pink guitar ... painted their yellow curbs pink ... sold and wore pink T-shirts with our name on them. It was amazing.

At trail's end, we had a performance by Lord Strathcona's Horse -- a musical ride much like that of the RCMP -- and a demonstration of "tent pegging", which has nothing to do with tents, very little to do with pegs ... but is heart-stopping to watch.

We did it! 400 miles ... 23 towns ... 21 days. And now that the dust has settled and the bills are paid, we will cut a cheque to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (for research grants and education) for $55,651.46.

Not bad for two little red-headed Canadian nobodies.

(Yes, we have holes in our heads. We WILL be doing it again next year. Please feel free to visit our site at www.WildPinkYonder.com.)

caliber

WOW JANE!!!!!!!!!! congratulations! you are a brave lady and determine! WOWOWOWOWOWOW! for some odd reason, good things don't come easy, they are always accompanied by obstacles along the way.......but your will, strength and determination, is what makes succeeded the cause!

Sorry to hear about your accident! I'm glad you are doing better, and my prayers to you for a speedy recovery! WOW! I'm so proud of you! Thanks for sharing, I truly admire and respect your will.............

Abrazos! Blessings to you!

Jane Hurl

I will admit that it has not been a lot of fun. I was in hospital from May 31st to August 19th ... some of it flat on my back in bed and not allowed to sit up, never mind get out of bed.

When they turned me loose, I'd been wearing a full body cast for 10 weeks, so I had NO muscles left! It is a loooooooooooong haul back.

But I am ahead of schedule (as far as the docs are concerned). If you see me walk across a room, you'd never know anything happened. But if you saw me walk a city block ... well, that's a horse of a different colour! I can do it, but just barely, and I need a cane. This, too, will pass.

The accident was freaky. When we came to a stop it was VERY abruptly because the team went through a small opening that led them directly into the side of a building! WHAM! (I had no reins.) Gallop to dead stop in a split second. They hit so hard that they bent their 3" steel pole (the one between them that hitches them to the wagon) to a 45 degree angle!

But the BIG news is that the ride went ahead, and it was a big, fat, whopping success. We were all over the news ... TV, radio, print. We did a lot of good out there, and a lot of riders had a lot of fun.

We had entertainment for riders every evening. We had pink towns to visit. It was great.

Marleen Robinson

Wow Jane, That's incredible. I am glad it was a great succes! So sorry you where injured so badly!! What a sad story.. Would love to see pics of The 'TRAIN'!
Kudos to you, and your son, for making this an obviously succesful point 'against cancer'!

Great Job!

Jane Hurl

Well, Marleen ... as it turned out, we had riders and not ONE other wagon, so it wasn't much of a "train". More like a trail ride.

And then, to add insult to injury, I couldn't find ANYONE willing to take 3 weeks out of their life and drive my team across the province. (Can't figure that one out. *grin*) So, my wagon got pulled by ... a tractor. *sigh* *eyes rolling*

Crud.

But we (well, "they") had a blast and everybody is up for it again next year. And next year I will be driving my beautiful team as I sit up on the driver's seat of my outrageously PINK covered wagon!