I left my house at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday to pick up the horse trailer, and once I got there it took about 4 hours to get the trailer hooked up and on the road!  First of all the wiring between the truck and the trailer wasn't compatible (the place that installed the hitch should have known that and told me), so we drove in to town to Fleet Farm and got an adapter.  While I was there I got Dude a halter, lead rope (both blue) and a hay bag.

So we plugged in the the adapter and it looked like everything was ready to go (although it drained my battery so they had to jump it), so the hubby went hunting (and without his cell phone of course~LOL).  When I tried to leave, the trailer wheels were locked up so I couldn't move.  The adapter from the 6-prong plug on my truck to the 7-prong plug on the gooseneck wasn't letting the brakes work.  So her friend's hubby came out and unhooked the wire to the brakes so that the trailer had all the lights but no electric brakes.

Then I went to leave and the truck's battery was dead AGAIN!  So they jumped it one more time.

By this time it was too late to pick up Dude and take him home that day so I stayed at a friend's farm south of Green Bay.

Well, here is where I earned the nickname "Wrong Way Jose."  I got totally lost on the way to my friend's place, so I got them on the cell phone and they talked me the rest of the way to their place, and I got there around 7:00 p.m.

Jackie and I had the BEST time at their place!  They have three big black dogs about the same size as Jackie, and she had a blast playing with them.

I only had 45 minutes of sleep before I left Minneapolis, so I got a real good night's sleep at my friend's house and got on the road around 10:30 a.m.

I found my way to Dude with no wrong turns!  Taking care of the paperwork took about 15 minutes.  Then she pulled Dude out of the pasture where he was with his buddies, handed me the lead rope and he walked right into the trailer!  He whinnied one time after we left their driveway, and that was it.  The trailer pulled like a dream and Dude hauled like an old pro.  As long as we were on smooth roads I couldn't even feel the trailer back there. 

All was well until I got to Wausau and somehow ended up going north toward Canada!  I got within an hour of Lake Superior and then got directions at a gas station to get me going back in the correct direction.  After leaving the Green Bay arae at about 10:30 a.m., we ended up getting home around 11:30 p.m.!  Poor Dude was in the trailer for over 10 hours as I had picked him up around 1:00 p.m.  He walked calmly off the trailer and acted like he took 10-hour road trips all the time!  I put him in the stall next to Jerry and he ate hay and drank water and was totally relaxed.  What a good boy!

Then on Monday I took him to the vet clinic for a pre-purchase exam.  He loaded right into the trailer again, no problem.

He passed the pre-purchase exam with no problem, and when I went to start the truck back up so we could go home, the battery was dead, so my vet jumped the battery for me.  So that's 3 jumps in 2 days!  It looks like my next purchase will be a new battery!

After I put him back in his paddock at the barn, I went to park my trailer, and I couldn't get it unhooked from the truck!  LOL!  I was running out of time because I had to get to work so I just took the trailer home and will take it back out to the barn this weekend when the barn owner can help me unhook it.

As things kept going wrong all weekend, I figured there was nothing I could do about it so I just laughed it up.

Here are some pictures from my adventures in Wisconsin!

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Here is Jackie riding shotgun in the extended cab area of the truck.

Here is my new rig!  Ain't it purdy?

Here are Dude and me at the barn back in Minnesota. I pretty much look like crap, but that's what you get when you spent about 24 hours on the road in two days! LOL

And here are Dude and me in front of our trailer.