Buggy ride from Kansas to Pryor's Country Fest

Thousands of country music fans are headed to Pryor, for next week's Country Fever concerts. How many of them do you think are getting there in a buggy? <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Rick Wells found

Friday, June 3rd 2005, 12:13 pm

By: News On 6

Thousands of country music fans are headed to Pryor, for next week's Country Fever concerts. How many of them do you think are getting there in a buggy?

News on 6 reporter Rick Wells found a couple who left Wichita two weeks ago heading for Country Fever behind a team of horses.

Their route took them to Sedan and Coffeyville Kansas, then south into Oklahoma, to Vinita and then on into Mayes County. Eleven days on the road, they slept under the stars and are having a wonderful time. Art and Frieda Dobbeke had enough time to make a little side trip into Wagoner County to visit relatives. That's where we caught up with them. Art's giving one of the neighborhood kids a ride. He wants everyone to enjoy the experience. "The ones that smile and wave, they're getting' joy out of this. So that gives me joy."

And that's the payoff for all the work, a year to train the horses to pull the buggy and it takes about an hour to get them hitched up every morning. Frieda follows along in a pickup with a horse trailer and the supplies. The pace on the road averages about 3 miles an hour. They go until the horses get tired, which is usually about 12 to 15 miles a day. Frieda Dobbeke: "We slept in a tent the first night, then no more, the rest of it was on the ground."

On the ground under the stars, right there along side the road. Frieda Dobbeke: "People have been so good to us." They've had almost no trouble. Art Dobbeke: "the first night we stopped we had it planned, after that it was all free." They just kind of went on faith and it worked out, but they gotta know there are people who think this is a crazy idea. Frieda: "Well let 'em think that, we've just had too much fun."

The couple will head up to Pryor next week; they have a spot reserved at Country Fever and then make the trip back home to Wichita on Monday after the concerts.