“I’m just traveling the country visiting people.”
Lee the Horse Logger came through Bethel Township as he was “heading home to Montana.”
He started his journey on August 9, 2006 when his Montana farm was sold out from under him. He now cris-crosses the country in his horse-drawn wagon.
“This is a new wagon - lighter than the old one,” Lee said. “My old wagon was too heavy and it was too hard on the horses.” He said that one of his horses died as a result of his trek.
He now has a team of three horses.
Lee supports himself doing horse logging jobs. “It doesn’t pay a whole lot, but it pays most of the expenses.” He gets additional help from people he meets along the way. “I don’t ask anyone for anything - it just shows up,” he said.
“I’m just trying to obey the law we’re supposed to obey - Love your Neighbor,” he said. “When you do that, everything else just happens.”
Lee picked up a traveling companion in Springfield. Stephanie (she wouldn’t give her last name) said she saw Lee camped across from where her father worked. “I talked with him and decided I wanted to go with him,” she said. She did not say how long she planned on accompanying Lee.
Lee had a TIA stroke 2 years ago. “That changed my outlook on life,” he said. “I’m not in a hurry to get anywhere quick.” And he doesn’t. He travels 10-12 miles per day at 2 1/2 MPH.
“I saw one of those how-fast-you’re-going signs and it said I was doing 8 MPH,” he said. “I can’t do 8 MPH. If you threw me out of a plane, I would hit the ground at 2 1/2 MPH.”
“How far I get each day depends upon how I feel in the morning,” said Lee. “We try to get going at the crack of noon, but sometimes I don’t feel quite up to it, or it takes longer to get the horses ready.”He arrived at the Farm Restaurant on Friday afternoon and spent the weekend there. He left Monday morning, and we met up with him at the Donnelsville Fire Station where he was camping Monday evening.”
His plans were to leave Donnelsville on Tuesday morning, go north on Hampton Road, then follow New Carlisle Pike into town, where he planned on camping Tuesday night. By Wednesday evening, he expected to be on Rt. 235 at Rt. 41. He said he would head north on 235 to Rt. 36, then head west.
You can follow Lee’s travels on Facebook. Search for Lee the Horselogger.
