Daddy-Daughter Vacation - Day 2

Mollie and I didn't rush out of the campsite this morning but we still got going by 0815. As we drove to the ACE Adventure Resort, near Minden, we saw very cool fog/clouds below the NRG Bridge. It turned out that we were a bit late (0845) to be able to raft the same day, so we made plans to come back the following morning. Instead, we bought a horse riding package. While waited for that adventure to begin, we visited the Thurmond visitors center and took a nice nature walk near the railroad tracks. The place had been a huge coal boom town but is now deserted (I heard later that the population is 6). We ate lunch at Burger King in Oak Hill (1045) on the way to Cunard (Equestrian Expeditions) and checked in for our trail ride at 1130. We ended up having a great time (2+ hours) with our guide, Jeremy, and were the only ones on the trip. Mollie rode "Nicki" and I rode "Jaqui" - there was mud was everywhere and the trail consisted of several big hills. The view at turnaround was blocked by fallen tree but we forgot about that while trotting across a huge field (the only place where I wasn't nervous that our sure footed friends would slide right down the mountain). Mollie was very proud of herself because she killed a huge horsefly that was pestering her horse.  Afterwards (1430), we took our guide's advice and located the Long Point trail head a few miles away. We walked for about 3.5 miles until we got an amazing view of the bridge. Mollie fell and skinned her knees but we both managed to keep going. Before dinner, we went back to the visitors center at Canyon Rim before it closed and got some more information about local activities. We got gas (1635) picked up more supplies at Walmart (1650).  Funny - it was the same thing we did in 2007 but the place seemed brand new... We then went to Dirty Ernie's (also recommended by Jeremy) and ate dinner: ribs and BBQ chicken, onion rings, salad and veggies and pudding (finished ata 1745). I'd told Mollie about our previous visit to Grandview so we took a drive down there. Unfortunately, it started pouring right when we got there and it never let up. I wondered how our nearly 10 year old tent was doing, so we drove back to Chestnut Creek (1830). We found out (for the first time but not the last) that the gorge is so big and the weather patterns are so diverse that there had been no rain at all at our campsite! We made the best of things: Mollie got a fire going and I walked over to meet a dad and his kids who had set up at the campsite next door. Like the previous night, Mollie and I talked a lot and we didn't get to sleep until around 11:00 PM. The temperatures must have been about 10-15 degrees cooler than home - ahhhh... We were both feeling very content in this amazing wild place!