Archives for October 2012

Managed to find a hay provider from craigslist (I LOVE CRAIGSLIST!!!), who was only about 20 minutes away, so I headed down with the horse trailer to pick up a load. The owner wasn’t there, but he arranged with a neighbor and a helper to meet me, and we loaded 26 bales, three more than the pickup would normally carry, but I figured we would use those before we left next week, so we’d still have a full load when we left. Nice heavy bales for $6 each, though not as green as the last bunch, for a first cutting they were in nice shape. On the way back, I stopped at the ranger station to pay for our stay, and soon learned that there was a big fall festival scheduled at the park and that every campsite had been reserved! In other words, we would have to leave tomorrow! No matter what suggestion I made, it was no, no, no. There is actually a lot of room next to the officials sites in the primitive horse camping area, but they were insistent that only the official sites could be used. They were unmoved, their hands tied by the main office in Richmond (or so they said), so we had no choice. I had to scramble all day trying to solve the problem, debating whether we should just move on to Richmond early, which meant, essentially, being in someone’s back yard for a week, a less than satisfying prospect, or to find someplace locally to move to for Friday and Saturday nights, then come back to James River for the rest of the week. Adding two days of moves to our already short week was not a happy thought, it really cut into our relaxation and preparation time before our next job in Richmond, but it seemed the better option. Eventually I found a place called Robbins’ Nest Farm, which was only 3 miles as the crow flies, but 50 minutes drive as the road goes (I later found a back route over gravel roads that cit that down to about 30), but it was pretty expensive relatively speaking, but I figured saving on fuel would help offset the cost, plus they had water and electric so at least I’d be able to get my laundry done faster. What a pain, though, having to spend the day solving problems rather than riding or relaxing. The description of the place on their website made it seem really nice, with words like “resort” and “spa” and “guest cabin.” We spent the rest of the day transferring the hay to the pickup, which we had to cover carefully as they’re calling for rain tonight, and putting away everything we could in preparation for leaving tomorrow. Had a nice chat with some folks who moved into the overflow tenting area, who came here to work the festival (musicians), and who rescued my Apollo when he managed somehow to get loose from his anchor and was heading down to the river. Nice folks, we had several chats before we left James River, and were sorry they’d be gone by the time we got back. Off to bed, to get ready for the unexpectedly busy day tomorrow was going to be!

Woke up during the night and had a hard time getting back to sleep, finally did, then slept through past 9:30. After breakfast, Hubby went out and worked on the van to find the problem, and concluded it was the alternator. I was a bit concerned that it might be too late to find a shop that could do the job so late, but we were planning on leaving tomorrow so we didn’t really have much of a choice. I jumped in the van and headed down to Shippensburg, the nearest town, about 10 miles away. Once I got there, and had a great signal, I googled auto repair and got a long list. The first review was for a Gulf station, and the reviews were excellent, so I headed there, less than a mile away. Pulled in, asked if they had a mechanic on duty, rec’d the response YES, and I headed in to talk with him. What a fantastic place! Really clean, very nice, and they had an open bay so in it went! I headed into the waiting room and started taking care of business, and before I knew it, the van was parked outside the window in front of me! It took barely an hour to get the job done, and was very reasonably priced as well. Had a nice chat with the other woman in the waiting room, then I ended up hanging around another 30-45 minutes just to get more work done. Finally headed back to the camp, arriving about 3:30, much earlier than either of us had expected, but thrilled that we could leave on schedule tomorrow. Started putting stuff away, cleaned up the yard where the horses have been grazing, and generally tidied up in preparation for our departure. Need to get out early early tomorrow, a long day with several stops along the way, including a place to get our propane tanks recertified. Though the guy at Agway had said it would take two weeks for a fee (so why don’t you buy a new tank from us…?), the woman at Augusta Petroleum in Staunton said they could do it immediately and for free! Looking forward to finding out if that’s true! Relaxed for the evening, ready to get up early.

Bad weather prevented us from riding today, so we took the opportunity to rest a little, particularly since I can’t get much work done with a cell signal. Did some writing on the blog, to be uploaded at our first opportunity.

With no cell phone signal, and lots of work piling up, I set out to find a cell phone signal good enough to connect with the internet using my aircard. My first attempt was to go down to another camping area that one of the rangers had mentioned might have a signal and was another option to where we could camp with the horses. Unfortunately, it was another 10 miles north, and through many windy, twisty roads, and lower in elevation than we were, and, unfortunately, there was no more of a cell signal there either. Then I headed back toward camp, bypassing it to go a little higher, thinking higher altitude might help, once I crested the mountain. That didn’t help, and then the road back downhill kept going further and further into the valley, with no place to turn around, so I went miles MORE out of the way in vain. Finally found a place to turn around, headed back to camp to drop off the horse trailer so I didn’t get caught not being able to turn around again, then headed off AGAIN, this time south to the main highway, finally getting a signal just before reaching Route 30. I ducked into the state park parking lot and spent more than an hour working, emailing, etc. before finally heading back to camp, feeling like most of the day was wasted driving around. At least I got done what needed to be done!