have you ever seen the horses running, racing through the fields like fire...Copper, Chestnut gold and amber...all the colors of desire

Finally, I might be able to catch up on the blog. I kept having all these problems uploading pictures to the blog....for 3 days I have been cursing and wondering what was wrong. Finally I figured out that 2 of the pictures I tried to upload were pictures that Betty sent and they were too large for the blog to accept.

On Wednesday, our good friends Bob and Julie Purcell flew in from Syracuse. Julie is my friend who so lovingly took my 3 horses when Salt and I decided to travel and downsize. They were headed for the Villages to visit some friends. Since we are very close, they asked us to have lunch with them on Thursday. Knowing how Julie LOVES horses, we decided to check out the Florida Carriage Museum. We had NO idea how large it was and what interesting carriages were housed there. Since I took over 80 pictures, it is going to be very difficult to pick my favorites. Here are some of them....

Of course the mail wagon for Salt....

Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus Wagon

A Roman Chariot...

Civil War carriage for carrying cannons...

Everyone recognizes the Chuck Wagon.....

This was the highlight of the museum....a totally restored carriage from Belgium aristocracy.

The covered wagon....I can't even imagine crossing the country in one of these!!!

But.....I always wanted to ride in one of these....stage coach

After touring the museum, we toured the grounds and were able to see many of the beautiful horses. Julie and I both thought this was a very clever way to exercise them!

This guy was the most unusual looking donkey...check out the size of the ears!

He was so fuzzy he almost didn't real....sort of like a teddy bear.

These are for you Mike....Check out the white one which is the Chief. He rode ahead of the tankers ringing the bell. And of course the Dalmatian. If any of you don't know how the Dalmatian became the "fire dog". It was from the days when the tankers were pulled by horses. The dogs were trained to run for miles and nip at the horses heels to keep the horses going at a fast steady pace.

Check out the lift that sets the harnesses on for speed in preparing them to haul.

I loved the all these food related carriages that were used before the invention of the automobile/truck.

I could post 50 more pictures but this input is getting way too long. If you are interested, check out www.austincarriagemuseum.com . If you get to this area it is definitely an informative, FUN day!!

This was a cool little pond on the grounds which was full of fish.

When we finally left the museum (before Bob and Salt passed out from hunger), we went to lunch at Gator Joe's , a Key West type restaurant just a short distance from the museum. What a great day....thanks Bob and Julie!!!