Yes, Felipe Masetti did arrive on time for his talk at Mat-Su College though he did cut it close. The talk was scheduled for 7 p.m. and he arrived at 6:57 p.m., in fine style, in a huge honking motor home. He pulled into the parking lot and a handful of us watched this from the second story classroom window.

He was late because he travelled up the Alcan and ran into blizzard conditions. He shared the driving responsibilities with his girlfriend, Clara. As tired and as wired as he was, he gave an excellent presentation, one in which the hook was to focus on achieving your dreams and do not give up because if you do, you will not succeed.

This made me think about my most immediate project, which is the Gift of a Good Ride proposal. I could have given up when I got the rejection notice. But no, I instead dug down deep and resumed working on it. I do not know what I will do if it is rejected again; I guess I haven’t and won’t have time to think about it.

Felipe did talk about how difficult his trip from Calgary to Brazil was, and had photos to prove it. This seemed particularly significant to me because pain and hardship are things that we soon forget about. That he would say that such trips are for the most part no fun was a wakeup call in part because this guy was both very optimistic and, it seemed, not one to complain.

Towards the end he invited all in the audience (and there were about 50 people present) to join him in his upcoming Fairbanks to Calgary ride, saying that on this trip, he’s both raising money for a children’s hospital in Brazil and talking about the importance of farming and ranching. We are going to try to get him on the radio – I just had a thought, perhaps we can get him to spend some time in the library and he could learn about the history of Palmer. It seems most notable in the context of his concerns that this area was colonized by settlers who were farmers.

I was inspired in hearing Felipe and seeing photos of him and his three horses, Frenchie, Bruiser, and Dude. He said that it’s very important to articulate our dreams, that this is one of the first steps in their becoming a reality. Well, we are doing this trip this summer, and this part of the dream. But I had been thinking that perhaps I might, next spring and summer, ride with Felipe. By then, Hrimmi and Tyra will have more trail experience, and also, Felipe said that he’d be traveling on a back road between Jasper and Banff National Parks – this would be preferable to what he’s planning to do this summer, which is to ride directly on the Alcan.

The two mustangs that he’ll be using will also be less rank by then. Nevertheless, I am going to have him ride Jokla tomorrow during a BCHA clinic. This way, he will have a back up horse if he needs one.

Next: 122. 5/4/19: Spirit Horse