Hi Darlin’,
Got kind of a late start today, first working on some computer stuff for OTL, finalizing the GPS files and an outgoing email summarizing everything the riders need to know, then just as I was getting ready to leave to mark some more trails, I got a call from Dolly. You remember her, it was her house where we got married, we knew her through the theatre where we met. Anyway, I had written her a letter to let her know about what happened, and we had a long chat. Funny, she didn’t recognize the name on the letter at first, but she said when she touched the letter she got an image of Alex in her mind, which got me thinking about an afterlife, and if your two spirits are meeting somewhere. In any event, she can’t make it to your Celebration of Life, but we’re planning on getting together sometime soon to get caught up. She said she’d be interested in seeing some of the videos of your performances. She working a lot at Delray Beach Playhouse, and runs some kind of acting class. Kind of wish we had hooked up with her earlier, I know you would have liked to be involved in something like that, when you were up to it. Anyway, we finally hung up and I got on the trail with Flash, stopping by Anita’s to pick up some more trail markers, then down to Riverbend to finish off the few sections of trail that weren’t done yet. Hoping it doesn’t create a problem, but I ran into one of the neighbors who started to make a fuss about it being a private road, and what kind of damage a bunch of horses might make, etc., etc., etc. Hope that doesn’t force us to change routes, though it wouldn’t really be a big deal, we’d just need to go all the way to the canal and then south on the main road for about a block. I just would prefer to stay off the sidewalk. We’ll see. Flash got a bit agitated toward the end with all the stopping and starting, but we did something today we’d never done before, cross Indiantown Road right by the Publix, in order to get into Cypress Creek without going all the way around the east end of Riverbend. There was a lot of traffic, but I managed to hit the crosswalk button, and we got across okay. Then I let him go as fast as he wanted the rest of the way home, he cantered for awhile, then largoed for a long time after that, and finally came down to a walk about three miles later. We did almost 18 miles in total again today, because I haven’t had as much time to get him in shape like I did last year, so I’m kind of trying to make up for it now. With less than two weeks to go, I need to do everything I can to condition him before the big event. Gave him a quick rinse off, threw the frisbee for Lola for a bit, then settled down for the evening. Time now for my shower and bed. Good night, my love!
Archives for February 2020
Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020 – More Trail Marking
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 – ATV Day
Hey Babe,
Had a good night sleep, and woke up a bit before the alarm, had some breakfast, then headed out to meet Anita and some other OTL volunteers, then out to Dupuis to finish trail marking the section between the southeast end of Dupuis to the edge of Corbett, which we did on ATV’s rather than horses today, just for efficiency, though it still ended up taking most of the day. It was afer 4:00 by the time I got back home, and then I helped Jeff a bit as he was working on trying to get his van fixed before feeding the animals and settling in for the evening. A tiring but productive day. Time for bed in a bit, so I’ll say good night. Love you!
Friday, Feb. 7, 2020 – A More Quiet and Relaxed Day
Hiya Sweetie,
Slept a bit later this morning, after not getting to sleep until very late, and spent most of the day just working on paperwork for the OTL. I managed to send out the press release to a number of places, as well as the PSA, which took me a little while to convert to a usable format, but I managed it in the end. Just one quick trip out today, to Anita’s to pick up some clothespins and survey tape, and I spend a while this afternoon making markers, like you did for me for the Goethe Endurance Ride back in December. A pretty quiet day, which is just what I needed, and now I’m heading to bed, nice and early, since I have to get up early tomorrow, as we’re going out to Dupuis to finish marking the trails out there, only using an ATV rather than horseback. Good night, darlin’!
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020 – Long Trail Day
Hey Darlin’,
I made arrangements to record a PSA over at Tim’s in-house studio this morning, so I was up early enough to leave by about 10:00, riding Flash down to his house, which is a straight shot down the canal to the first crossover and just a few houses in. Flash stood quietly nuzzling Tim’s horses while I went in and knocked out the :30 PSA, which I now need to figure out how to distribute to local radio stations. After that, I headed toward Riverbend. I wanted to get accurate GPS readings on the incoming and outgoing trails so my final maps would be accurate. I’m going to send downloadable files to one of the OTL guys who is going to put it on the website so others can have them. I wasn’t going to mark the trails today, but I noticed they’d already done some marking, so I decided to finish it off anyway. We may lose a few markers over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll be able to replace them on the day of the ride anyway. Once Flash figured out we were heading home after we crossed under the Indiantown Rd. Bridge, of course, he decided to speed up, and we ended up gaiting fast for the next 5 or 6 miles! I slowed him down the last mile just to cool him off, but he would have been happy to keep going. Anyway, it was a long ride, almost 18.5 miles, so he was good and sweaty. I rinsed him down and let him loose. I made myself a meal and fell asleep watching TV right afterwards, I was so tired, plus I didn’t get a great night sleep last night for some reason. Did some computer work, but now I’m still hot and sweaty (it got to over 85 degrees today, but there’s a cold front moving in overnight), so I’m heading off the shower and bed. Love you, babe. Good night!
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 – Euchre and OTL Meeting
Hey Babe,
Another day keeping busy, doing some OTL paperwork this morning, writing a press release and a script for a 30 second PSA I’m going to try to distribute, and creating a certificate for a bunch of awards I thought up. Put the rest of the camping gear away, too, though I haven’t put it in the attic/hay loft yet. Went to euchre, of course, being that it’s Wednesday, then played with Lola for a bit and had dinner before going to the OTL meeting at 7:00, which was a long one because it’s probably the last one before the actual event, and there was a lot of things to iron out. It seems to be coming together. Most of the trails that are left to be marked can’t be marked until the week of the event so as not to interfere with other weekend events beforehand, primarily Riverbend and Jonathan Dickinson, but neither of those will take very long. Didn’t get back till 9:30, so I just watched a little TV to wind down before my shower and bed. So I’m off to do that now. Good night, babe, love you!
Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 – OTL Reconnoiter and Trail Marking Day
Hey Sweetie,
Had another good night sleep, then did a bunch of stuff online before feeding the horses, then getting Flash in the trailer and heading down to the Cypress Creek parking lot across from the Publix. I had a bag of markers I got from Anita, and headed due north up the OTL from there. I thought Anita had told me that another group had marked that part of the trail, but all I ever saw was a couple of markers WAY down near the Hobe Ditch, and they were way apart from each other on the linear trail, nothing at the intersections. Amazing. Anyway, Flash did a great job as we headed all the way through the cow pasture (and the herd was there, with lots of young ones kicking around), under the freeways, and finally through the Ditch. I kept going, too, because there had been reports that a certain section of the trail was going to be hard for horses to get through, where they put a bunch of concrete bags across it for drainage, but frankly, I don’t see why, it looks the same as it did last year. Plenty of room to get around if someone wants. Once we hit that spot we turned around, and that’s when Flash really wanted to kick it up a notch. We cantered and largoed all the way back to the Ditch, and in quite a few other places as well, until we reached the parking lot. Of course, the thought we were done, but not yet! I headed him east toward Riverbend, and marked all of that section, right to the south side of the critter crossing under Indiantown Rd. I must say, it will be hard to get lost this year! Hopefully, no one will mess with the markers, but even if they do, I’ll be out there on the day of to add more if necessary. It took us about 3 hours or so before we drove back. Flash was really dirty so I started giving him a bath, and a few minute later, Jeff came home, with his white van up on a tow truck. He thinks he might have thrown a rod, so you know that’s a major project. I was hoping his only major project for the next few weeks was going to be to move his junky camper over to the fence and out of the front yard, not sure if that’s going to happen now. Sigh… Finished bathing Flash, and hosing down Apollo who was standing there asking for it, then went in to fix some other problems. You know I bought a replacement GPS, but I haven’t been able to get it to work yet. It wouldn’t lock on to any satellites. I was afraid it was broken, but I finally trying reloading the updated software again, and that solved the problem. I think I might have turned it off while it was uploading before and that’s why it didn’t work. So now I do have a satellite-based GPS again, so hopefully that will help decrease my chances of getting lost, and allow me to map my routes beforehand so I can just follow the GPS. Settled down to a mini pizza and some more episodes of Suits for the evening. Took my shower earlier, so now I’m heading to bed. Love you, babe, good night!
Monday, Feb. 3, 2020 – Busy Day
Hiya Darlin’,
Slept like a log most of the night, not surprisingly! Spent the day cleaning out and putting away camp gear, doing laundry, catching up on email, designing awards for the OTL, finishing off the maps for Day One and Two and other business matters, and generally getting things back where they belonged. I took a quick trip over to Anita’s to pick up some more trail markers, as there are still some sections that need doing, and I thought I would take the day tomorrow and do as much of it as I can. It poured with rain here over the weekend, so I imagine Corbett is swamped again, I hope it’s not too bad on the other sections. I’m going to check Cypress Creek and the section that leads out to the old cow pastures and the critter crossing under the freeways, there’s been a report of some new gates with barbed wire, that needs to be checked out in case something has to be done about it. So it should be busy again tomorrow. There’s still some question about what route we’ll be taking once we get across the Ditch into Jonathan Dickinson State Park, hopefully that will be resolved by the time we have our next meeting on Wednesday evening. Finally relaxed with a glass of wine or two, some TV, and now off to bed. Good night, babe, I love you!