Archives for October 2019

Monday, Oct. 21, 2019 – Travel Day to Crossties in Wartrace, TN

Set the alarm for an early start, and it was still pretty dark out when I got up, what with overcast skies and being on the western edge of the eastern time zone. Made good time finishing the packing, and managed to pull away from the campsite and subsequently the RV dump before 9:00. We had an uneventful drive with just one stop at a truck stop for fuel, and had almost decided to stop for lunch since we were early, when we were hit with a downpour of rain (so much for the forecast, again!) and decided the best course of action was to get there as soon as possible, since we didn’t know what kind of condition the area we were parking would be in, and we didn’t want to have to worry about getting stuck in mud. As it was, we arrived right around noon, were welcome by our hostess Rosie, who showed us around and helped us get moved in. We managed to park before the rain hit, but it burst down on us just as we were ready to get the horses out. We paused for a few minutes to let it pass, then got the horses out and put them in the pasture and got settled in. Then we ran out for a meal at a Mexican restaurant in Shelbyville (TN), the nearest large town (and home to the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration), before coming back, doing chores and settling down for the evening. It rained most of the afternoon and evening, but it was still pretty warm, so I didn’t bother blanketing the horses, something I’ve been doing as needed for the past week, because I’m trying to prevent the horses from growing too much winter coat. They won’t need all that hair once we get to Florida! It looks like it may get colder tomorrow, so blankets, or bringing them into the barn will become necessary. We’ll see how it goes!

Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019 – Prep for Departure

With plans to leave tomorrow, I spent most of the day putting stuff away, in between dialyzing Hubby, as we want to get an early start tomorrow. There’s some rain coming in, and even though I don’t have a load of hay in the back, I’d rather limit the amount of time in the rain as much as possible, and it seems an early start and arrival will help with that. According to the forecast (yeah, right), it’s not supposed to start raining in Wartrace, TN (our destination) until 4:00, and not supposed to start raining until about 10:00 here, so fingers crossed, we’ll be able to stay ahead of it. Kept a nice steady pace so as not to wear myself out, and managed to get everything done by the time we finished dialysis, and settled down for the evening.

Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019 -Double Ride Day

I was hoping Hubby would be feeling well enough to ride with me today, but unfortunately that wasn't the case, and since Apollo hadn't been ridden in so long, I knew I had to get him on the trail today, so I saddle him up and headed out to try out another couple of trails I hadn't explored yet that wouldn't take too long. We ended up going down another trail that had one name on the trail and a different name on the map, and a trail that I had tried to find coming the other way and never did, but took it backwards so I could find the trail end, which I did. Apollo was a bit spunky, whinnying quite a bit along the way (I guess he was missing Flash!), but he settled down nicely, and it was a very nice nearly 5 mile ride. When I got back and put Apollo away, I saddled up Flash and headed out to see if I could finally find the elusive trail out on the west peninsula. At last, I managed to find the south side trailhead of it, though for a while I thought I was going the other way around. When I crossed the road, I came across a section of trail that was quite nice, with some sections that had a steep dropoff to the lake, but also had quite a bit of growth blocking sections of it at well. It looked like it had been quite a while since it had been used, and when I reached the end of it, I discovered why. The trail marker pointing to that section of the trail was so buried in weeds and undergrowth it was just about impossible to see! I imagine most people just followed the road instead, which would still make a decent loop, but they're really missing out on a nice trail just a few yards away. Glad we finally found it!! Well, that just about wrapped up the trails, with one exception, Ye Old Hill Climb, which we did on the way back. Flash was really full of spirit all day today, I had to really rein him in most of the ride, the complete opposite of Apollo, who was calm as could be. Quite the contrast all in one day! Got back to camp the second time after a nice nearly 9 mile ride, so quite a day of riding today! I doubt I'll have much of a chance to ride again for a couple of weeks, as it's going to be quite busy for us, so I'm glad I was able to get everyone out for a bit of exercise, including me! Put everyone away, did my chores, and settled down for the evening.

Friday, Oct. 18, 2019 – Shopping

After a couple of days of just hanging around, getting caught up on my computer work and writing and dialyzing, of course, we finally reached the point where we needed to do some shopping, so we headed out again to Shelbyville (KY), this time remembering to take my propane tanks. Several stops, including one to get some plumbing items for a leaking water hose, took up most of the afternoon, then trying to do the necessary repair took a bit more time, so the day was shot. Naturally by the time we got back to camp it had filled up with folks, including several more that didn’t have horses. I guess the management here isn’t as picky about renting these spaces to horse people, they go to overflow from the main campground if there are any spaces left, they don’t save them for horse folks. Sigh… With only 12 sites, that’s really a bummer, and there were many of the horse sites that ganged together with larger families and friends, so there were lots of vehicles crowded in each site. Guess I can’t blame the park for not wanting to pack ’em in on a holiday weekend! They had special Halloween stuff going on, and there was a lot of traffic driving through all evening, and lots of people had their sites decorated with Halloween paraphernalia, I figure there must be some kind of contest going on or something. Anyway, we settled down for the evening, tired from the day of activity!

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019 – Ride Day on Flash

Well, after a rather confusing start on my last trail ride, which I managed to decipher a bit once I downloaded it and overlaid it on Google Earth, I realized I had covered much of the southern side of the park, so today I decided to do the eastern and northern parts of the park as much as possible. Saddled up Flash and headed out on the trailhead at the north end of the park, which took me toward the day parking area. From there I went down what the map called the Lazy Creek Crossing Trail, and showed as a loop, but once I got to what I guess what the Lazy Creek, the trail entered Snyder Hollow and disappeared. Some trees were down, but it still didn't look like there was any trail beyond that, so we turned around and circled around until I finally ran out of places to go, so I headed back to Possum Ridge where it runs along the south side of the park road and took that due west, hoping to find the part of Lake View trail that went out into the farthest west peninsula. Unfortunately, that eluded me again, but I did find where it crossed the road to the northern side of the park. On the map it shows several different trails of various names, but the only obvious trail I found had "Big Beech Trail" signs all along it. Near as I could figure once I got home and download our route was the Big Beech is known as Piney Woods on the map. Go figure. There have been so many times where the map and what's on the ground aren't very close, and this was a classic example. So not only is the map hand-drawn and inaccurate as to where the trails are, the names have been changed in many cases. Oh, well, it was a pretty nice trail, a bit in need of maintenance but overall not bad, single track through most of it. It eventually wound around back to the same trailhead where I started, completing another 8.5+ mile ride on Flash. Did some chores and other various and sundry things before settling down for the evening. Another great day on the road.

Monday, Oct. 14, 2019 – Late Sleeping Dialysis Day

Couldn’t believe I slept until after 10:00 this morning!! Guess I was more tired than I realized! I had hoped to take a short ride on Apollo, though I was hoping more that Hubby would feel well enough to ride today, but he slept until after 11:00! Guess we should be getting to bed earlier! I finished off the downloading of my pix from my website back on to my computer, then pretty much just dialyzed and watched movies the rest of the day. Guess I needed a rest day!

Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019 – Another (sort of) Rest Day

Hubby had a bad night, spent most of it in his recliner in the living room, and for some reason (maybe the weather? Or just simpatico with my honey) I felt really tired today, too. It might have had a little to do with the fact that I spent several hours working on a leak in the toilet water line, and it got so bad I had to jury-rig a whole new connection using a bit of garden hose and some clamps until I can get the parts I need. Whew! By then it was too late to ride, even if I wanted to in this cooler weather (yes, I’m a fair weather rider!!), so we decided to spend the rest of the day between finishing my downloading and watching movies. It is Sunday, after all, and a holiday weekend, so a complete day off (other than horse chores, of course), was most welcome!

Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019 – Rainy Rest Day

As promised, a cold front came in last night, with lots of wind and a huge drop in temperature, not surprising for this time of year, just hope it doesn’t last! Bright sunshine by the time I got up, though, but it was down in the upper 30’s, so brisk to say the least! Got my chores done, then spent the bulk of the day still downloading the pix and diary entries back to my computer after it’s recent crash. Of course, today was dialysis day as well, so that pretty well covers it! Glad we have electric, so we’ve been running the electric fireplace for heat, and it’s SO COZY!! A perfectly nice way to spend a cold day!

Friday, Oct. 11, 2019 – First Ride at Taylorsville on Flash

Feeling much more rested today, so I decided to take Flash out and explore the trails. The map shows quite a few loops, including a nice perimeter around the park, so I planned on doing that. Unfortunately, it seems the map is hand-drawn, because I can't get it to line up properly on Google Earth as an overlay, so I'm only guessing as to how long the trails are and where they go. It's not a huge park, though, and there's a main road running through the middle of it, so getting lost will be hard to do. Got him saddled up, then headed south out of the camp through the woods and across a couple of roads to the main Possum Ridge trail. This is what I call a "trail by bulldozer" type trail, but eventually I took a single track trail that led me to a much nicer trail called Lake View. There are some good markings at the intersections, which helps a lot. I turn another turn out to Lake Vista trail, which was a bit more challenging and not as well maintained, but did take us right down to the lake, even crossing the edge of it a time or two. Then I got a bit confused by the sign that said Loop 2, which wasn't indicated on the map, unless it was another name for Horseshoe Loop. That was the least maintained trail I had been on yet, still passable, but a bit more challenging. That brought me back to Lake View, but it didn't seem to go in the direction the map indicated, so I got turned around a bit. By then we had been gone longer than I anticipated, so rather than complete the perimeter, I tried to find a shorter way back to camp, and the map was of little assistance there. I had wanted to loop around and come back to camp on the north trailhead, but couldn't find the right trail to take, so I ended up on Possum Ridge again, and came in from the south where I had left. Still, a nice ride, and I let Flash make most of the decisions, so he was more engaged than ever. He's really starting to come along, learning the follow the trail and pick his own footing, something he never used to do. Much improved! Got back to camp, had a quick lunch, then headed up to Shelbyville (KY) to do some shopping at Tractor Supply (darn it, forgot to bring my propane tanks!) and Walmart. SO GLAD we're back in Blue Bell Ice Cream territory again!! It's that time of year for my favorite limited edition ice cream of all time, Blue Bell's Spiced Pumpkin Pecan! If you haven't tried it, you MUST!! It's the best!! Got back to camp by 4:00 or so, and it was getting crowded again with the usual Friday night crowd coming in, but then, there's also a rain storm and a cold front making it's way in overnight, too, so likely to be much cooler tomorrow!

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019 – Recovery Day

After such a long day yesterday, we did a bare minimum today. Disconnected the truck, got out the lawn chairs, did my regular chores and doing dialysis was about all the energy I had today. We drove nearly twice as far as we usually do since we started this trip in June, so we’ve been a bit spoiled with short drive days, until today. But it was worth it to spend a full month at Pleasant Hill Horse Camp, that was truly a magical place! So much so that this place seemed so subpar when we first got here, I actually spent some time looking for alternatives yesterday, but after a good night’s sleep, we realized this place is pretty typical of horse camps, so we settled back into our original plan, which is to stay until a week from Monday before heading down to a stable in Tennessee where we will stay until we get whatever business, house and medical stuff we need to do done. That includes one side business trip out to California, which is why we’re staying at a stable instead of a horse camp. Enough said, I’m relaxing today!