Newberry Springs Stories: Friendship and Freedom, Rescuing Animals and Riding Trails

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Alright everybody, guess what? This is my last episode here in Newberry Springs. It's late in the day, Sunday afternoon, the sun is setting, and I have to say I'm ending it on a very high note. I have actually had the opportunity to feed a couple horses. The first one I almost lost a finger doing it, but that's okay. But I am actually in a beautiful ranch, the RJB ranch, out here in Newbury Springs. Now we episode prior to this, I was with Ron Prudelis. He and his wife owned the Thrift and More store in Yermo. As we were driving back, Carla, who has been my guide this weekend, said this is this is the icing on the cake. And I think it's important. I'd like you to meet Gene Prudelis and Diane Louia. And Gene is Ron's husband. Diane is a close friend and confidant and author of the book about author of the book about now. This is a beautiful ranch. How long have you had this ranch?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

In operation.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Fifteen years. Okay. Now we've already settled. I'm always looking for my next place to live, and we're gonna kind of corner off a hundred acres somewhere on all these acres. The North 40. Okay, good. I just wanted to get that out of the way. So you've been in here 15 years. I mean, walking through the grounds here, absolutely gorgeous. With Gene and Diane, they have authored a number of books, Clyde's Forever Home and Hugh's Forever Home. Now, Clyde is a Clydesdale and absolutely magnificent. We've got a couple photos we're gonna share in the show notes. And Q. Do we know what kind of dog Q is?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Mixed. A mixed? Yeah. Maybe have some boxer, possibly.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I was thinking it looks a little bit like a boxer, but a very handsome young man. Yeah, he's just living his best life. And well, okay, Q is is a female.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

That went into the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

I should I should have looked, I should have checked. I didn't do all my fact checking, all right? Okay. But we are in a beautiful piece of land. Passion here is around just the the arc, the the artifacts that that are making up the land. It's gorgeous. They really rescue horses in a way. Some very special horses here. No?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Not just Clyde.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Just Clyde. Okay. But Clyde is a very special horse. Gorgeous Clydesdale. Black and white. I just I actually fed him. I didn't lose a finger on that. I was getting good three times. For the fourth time, I was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

You were.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

What is special about just being out here with a land with with your thrifting items that you and you and your husband have collected over the years? What's special about here? Peace. Peace.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Serenity.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Serenity.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Quietness.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Quietness. Now I heard a secret from Ron that you both every day that you've lived here, you sleep out at the pond.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I love that. Okay. I'm not gonna ask any more questions about that, but uh we'll have a picture of the pond. But absolutely gorgeous. And when you first found the property, what did did your heart skip a beat a little bit like this is it?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

It did. The first piece was ten acres with a little can on it.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

The little candy bought it. And then as time passed, we acquired another ten. Two more rental hours. Okay. 75 all together.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

At the thrift store, Ron mentioned he doesn't want anybody around him for uh a a ways. So I think you've achieved that. It took a while to get here. We almost lost Brad on the way. Okay, but we found him.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

So Daniel, what is it like coming out here and working with Jean with the horses, helping to write the book?

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Well, I love spending time here. They've practically adopted me because I come over and spend much time. We do a lot of our equestrian groups rides out of out of here. And you can see there's mountains all around, and Jean knows the area. So there's been places like Camp Katy, Fort Katy, all of those. And then there's just some other places that she could say, okay, this happened here. In fact, the Richter scale, we found out on one of our last rides that the Richter scale earthquake measurement was developed in a little canyon over in the Fort Katy area that away, north, north of here. Yeah, and we rode over and saw the area where it was where there had been an earthquake. So it was really wonderful. But Gene had told us about the rescue of both Clyde and then two weeks later, in without food, water, in August, in a garage, rescue was found. And she had she'd had puppies. It was just an unfortunate situation. And so we had to talk about it. We had to do much talking about it. And we just kind of wanted to tell, and we want to tell kids and adults.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah, you can't just let them go like that. You hear so many stories. Coming out here, when you begin your day, are you uh do you ride the horses every day?

unknown 5:50

No.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

I wish. If you wish. Now I heard a rumor yesterday from Diane that you're you're you're pretty strong and you actually are able to kind of take the saddles and just kind of throw them over on top of the That sounds wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Okay, Daryl's something that's a little up a hole in the boy.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I I know that I know that sound. I would manage it takes a lot of effort to to manage horses, to have them to take care of them, keep them healthy, feed them, give them a place to live a forever home in this case. As you look back and you kind of think about th this love and this passion you have for horses, hasn't horses always been a passion of yours?

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Since I competed on horses in her earlier years. Okay. I didn't get to have horses until I was in my thirties. But Jean was a competitor in Riverside and Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

What what what does competition mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Well, like barrel racing.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

I was gonna ask the barrel racing.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

A little bending.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

I tried to have my J C or bioscope for my first horse when I was eleven.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Okay. So you're probably pretty good at lassoing as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Oh, it says I was gonna say that's probably how you lasso'ed Ron, but okay, I was I was thinking we might go there. Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

And like for a horse, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Like for a horse. So how did you how did you and Ron meet? Through dance. Okay, gotcha. And we heard a little bit of the stories. We heard you at some point, uh maybe not you, but Ron was flipping burgers at the original Del Taco. I I love that. And the the thrift store is is wonderful. As you kind of get up every day, do you like coffee? Do you still drink coffee?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

No. What do you drink in the morning? It's like a cup of tea, a glass of water?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Well, a glass of water.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Oh, lovely drops.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Oh, very good.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Claw luncheon.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So you're in low naturopathic health. Okay. Yes, homeopathic. Homeopathic. I love that. And because for me, I mean I still drink coffee, but just the idea of waking up every morning and this wonderful view and the pond, and I know we're gonna take a picture of the pond in just a second. This has got to be phenomenal. This is like living the life.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

How about going to bed not under star?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

And for our listeners full moon. A full moon. So what I we was shared by Ron at the interview with him at the thrift store is that Hin jeans have spent every night outside underneath the stars, the moon, the clouds. And that's I I can't think of a better place to just have a sleep.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Hell yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

It's very interesting. Probably the homeopathic aspect of of health care is there is this connection between our bodies and nature and the be and walking and and you're literally doing it here. And I I love the fact that it's just that's why you're in your great spirits in the mood and just good health. You've got these wonderful horses, our dogs, and what a great life. I love it. Diane, I know why you come out here so much.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

I do. No, I we because we're buddies and we just like to spend time riding together. She'll come over. Sometimes we'll ride. We've done one or two rides where we ride from her house to my house or vice versa. Um far is your house? It's if you just look that way. Well what do we f I think we measured it at three miles. Okay. But you if you drive it, which is what I did to get here, it's like seven. But if you just go straight through the river bottom and down the road to round the corner and through Lake Jody, then it's about three miles.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah, I like that. Yeah. So I'm curious if not that we're gonna do this, I'm just ask be out of curiosity. I've never I think I might have been on a horse when I was a little kid at a carnival, when they walk you around the the rink. If I was gonna be on a horse for the first time, of the horses that are here, which one would you recommend for me?

SPEAKER_02 10:13

My mule is 35 years old. The only thing is she's not as sound as she used to be. Okay, but that's what you'd want. She's a draft horse. So she's pretty much kind of the size of Clyde. She's a couple of she's a about four inches. How how tall is Clyde now? 18 hands? So 17. So a hand is four inches. Okay. It's it was made by doing this. That's how they measured them at the Withers. And my mule is sixteen hands, but she's big boned, and and you want steady, you want something that's not gonna lift up and be silly. And Clyde's a lot like that. Okay, but and there are others around. But the draft horse guys are pretty calm.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

So we we'll have to get you back here and do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

I love it. The last time I I we were you and I were joking a minute ago about putting the outdoors in the outdoor adventure series. When I was in the Tennessee working on a podcast project, uh, we went canoeing and it was from the shore. I literally was pushed out into the water and tipped over. Now, mind you, I had been a la kayaking in Alaska. I was okay, but I I think in this case, whatever I get on, I want it to be very stable.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

So yes, that would be that would be Vita. She's a pretty stable girl.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

That's fantastic. Listen, I want to thank you both for spending time in this beautiful day, the end of the day, beautiful setting, and just chatting with us in the outdoor adventure series and really sharing the book. And we're gonna provide links back to the uh the the store because I know that's where we can pick up the books. Is it available on the books in the bookshops?

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Like so you can get it through Amazon. Okay, and you can also get it through Dorance, okay, I believe. But but we also make it available to people whenever they come through.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

If they're in another state, probably the easiest way to get it is through Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Okay, so we'll provide a back link in our show notes.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

And in on my website that I have, I also have links on how to get it.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Excellent. So we'll make sure those are in the show notes. So Jean, thank you so much for spending time today. It was a good pleasure to meet you. And again, this place is gorgeous, gorgeous land, and truly I am looking for my next place to live. So just just just saying.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

This is a good place to be, and you're the exactly the kind of person we want to have living here.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

I love it. Thank you, thank you both.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

All right, take care. Listen, everybody, this is this is it. I am uh wrapping up, putting the equipment away, having a nice uh blast of water, and looking at the pond, some final conversations, and then we're gonna be heading back to Las Vegas. Lots of great episodes that were produced over the weekend here in Newberry Springs as we celebrate the ongoing festivitiing place because this is the centennial anniversary of Route 66, and Newberry Springs is definitely the place that you want on your destination. So, folks, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, go out there, have a fantastic day. Check us out. All of our episodes are going to be on our website, outdooradventureseries.com. You've got access there to all the social sites. And have a great start to the coming week. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, just take care of yourselves. Talk to you later. Bye bye.