Archives for 2020

Hi Darlin'!
Once again the campground is crowded, though thankfully my nearest neighbors are all horse people, no big families of screaming children or loud music, yay! I took Flash for a ride today, thought I'd take the Lake Loop backwards to see where I thought I might have gone wrong before. Turns out, I didn't go wrong, the map is wrong, at least it is when it's overlaid on Google with the actual trails. A nice ride, though, he seemed to have more energy today, though we lost a boot for a few minutes after taking a nice canter. I hope I can find some places where I won't have to put boots on the horses because of gravel, I guess I'm just spoiled after Florida where it's all sand, though there have been some placed that don't feel compelled to put gravel on the trails. At one point we had to cross the road just before the park entrance, and there was a line of cars waiting to come. Seems like a popular place in the summer! Anyway, it was a nice ride, I gave Flash a bath when we got back, then after a brief rest, I did some housework, doing some things I'd been meaning to do for a long time, like stick down the power strip in the bedroom and vacuuming around the bed. I also put up a hook I hope will work for closing the slide. It's the one job I haven't been able to do easily on my own, but I managed to do it with a temporary measure before, hopefully the hook will make it a permanent one, at least until I can get the slide adjusted so it closes properly. After doing all the housework I was in the mood for, I drove down to the boat landing with the kayak and spent some time in the "kayak lounge." Only problem was, I thought the beach was noisy and crowded yesterday with what looked like about a hundred people, but today there must have been three times that! One girl at the boat launch said they had to wait 20 minutes just to get through the park gate, which I can believe from the line I saw earlier. Spent about an hour out on the water, though it wasn't too relaxing with all the noise. Got back to camp, then I deflated the kayak and bagged it. I'm thinking of keeping it in the first stall rather than trying to haul it up and down to the attic. After all, in a couple of weeks I'm going to be on another lake, where hopefully I'll get to take it out again. Maybe I'll even try my hand at fishing, who knows? After resting a bit from that, I walked Lola down to the lake and we played for 45 minutes there while I had chicken in the oven, then got back, filled up the tank with water since I have some laundry to do tomorrow, took my shower, had my dinner, watched a little TV, and now I'm just about ready for bed! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Babe!
A good night sleep, a late breakfast, a lovely ride on Apollo! I found a really nice and easy trail today, the orange trail. Though I usually don't like linear trails, I didn't want anything too strenuous today, and this trail fit the bill perfectly! After the initial climb, which is long but not too steep and is mandatory for every trail except the Lake Loop, we turned south along a ridge line that had some really nice views. We saw several gorgeous butterflies, the kind that look like it's flying backward to throw off it's predators, beautiful! The footing was mostly dirt, and it was mostly level as well, so Apollo had a fairly easy day of it, though he's getting to be as slow as Clio used to be in her later years! I don't know if it's an age thing, or that his feet still hurt a little, but his average pace now is barely over two miles an hour. I have to keep pushing him into a jog just to get anywhere! Maybe it's the heat, it warmed up a lot today. I gave him a nice bath when we got back, then a little while later I walked Lola down to the lake and we played fetch for a while until she was pretty worn out. Then back to camp, a hot shower, a nice filet mignon dinner, and evening of quiet TV. That's it! Another day in the life, living the dream! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hey Sweetie!
I swear, life is starting to feel like my golden years of summer vacations spent at the cottage, with the added advantage of horses and air-conditioning. As promised, after breakfast I saddled up Flash and we went on a nice eight mile ride. His ankle seemed fine, though there was more gravel on the trails we took today than I liked, but we didn't have a lot of strenuous grades, either. It was a little strange, though, the "trail" turned into a paved road that ran by a couple of farmhouses! I thought maybe I missed a turn, but sure enough, there was a blue marker. Can't remember seeing THAT before! It was a good ride, though, even though most of it was a pretty slow walk (relatively speaking), but we did find a nice spot to do a great run, first at a gallop, then he eventually slowed down to a nice canter when he realized I was going to let him run. Got back to camp in mid-afternoon, quite a few more campers had come in. After resting a bit, I put on my bathing suit, loaded up the kayak and headed down to the boat launch, spending another hour or so floating and paddling. A couple of other inflatable kayaks just like mine went by me, and one of the women commented that it was a "lounging kayak," which is a great description! My kayak lounge! Great for happy hour, which is about what time it was anyway. Once I got back to camp, I rested a bit, then walked Lola down to the lake and we fetched for awhile. There was a family down there with another dog, and they were eventually persuaded to let him go so he could play with Lola, though you know her, she ignored him and kept her eye on the ball. He kept trying to mount her, and she kept telling him off and running away. Kept here busy, though, and hopefully wore her out so she'll have a good night sleep. Once we got back to camp, I had a stream of teenager girls come by wanting to pet the horses, which, of course, I let them do, plus gave them some peppermints so they could treat the horses. After they all cleared out, the girl from at the lake came by, and she helped me feed the horses, clean up, and refill all my water tanks. After she left, I puttered around doing a couple of odd jobs, then took my shower early and settled in for the evening. But just like summer vacations at the cottage, I spent most of my day in my bathing suit, doing one fun thing, then resting, then going off to do another fun thing. Lazy, hazy, days! I feel like I should feel guilty, but I don't! I'm just enjoying it as much as I can, knowing you're with me, every step of the way, like it used to be years ago. I miss you, darling! Good night, my love!

Hey Darlin'!
Well, when I got up this morning, there was some rain going on, just a little sprinkle, it didn't wake me (I LOVE my earplugs!), but when I took those out I heard the sounds of people starting to pack up, YAY! (Sorry...NOT!) I did my usual chores and was having a pretty quiet day. First I took some pictures of the aluminum panel that's starting to bulge and sent it to Harmar for advice (I had emailed him late yesterday and surprisingly, he responded immediately). After that, I trimmed Apollo's front hooves, I figured maybe the boots wouldn't come off so much if they fit a little better. Then I decided to use your saddle for Apollo, since I was having trouble taking off that stirrup accessory, you know the one that turns it 180 degrees so it's facing forward? The bolt on that thing keeps rubbing my ankle and annoying me, so I decided to change to your saddle, which, even though it has the same thing, doesn't seem to rub me, go figure. Anyway, once I did that, then I spent a few minutes trying harder to get the stirrup thing of MY saddle, and finally managed. It doesn't matter, it will make a good guest saddle. I hadn't really thought about going to ride today, but the clouds went away and it turned into a beautiful day, and Apollo seemed bored standing around, so I saddled him up and headed out. I had to make a few adjustments to the stirrups to get the right length, but finally managed it. What a gorgeous day! Mid-70's, a few puffy clouds, just perfect! I decided to take about a 5-mile loop and we headed out. Fortunately, this trail had hardly any gravel once we got away from camp, so he was a lot more comfortable. We took the Blue trail toward a place called Tree Lane, which was all road-width, then hung a right onto the Three Hills trail, which was a perfect single track, very little mud except one spot right at the bottom of a creek where he lost a shoe, but it fell into the creek and washed itself off. It was a wonderful ridge line trail, and indeed, there were three hills you had to go up and down, but in between there were beautiful vistas, and most of it wasn't too steep, or had great switch-backs to help. A few trees were down, but nothing impassable. Of course, Apollo's getting to be so slow the five miles took us a lot longer than usual. Down to just over 2 mph these days, old slowpoke! I concede part of it might be his feet still hurt a little, but we only had about a quarter of a mile of gravel near the end, so I really think he's just out of shape, though he's starting to get back into shape now! Flash is still favoring his left hind leg, and it's only been a week tomorrow since he started limping, so I'm just going to keep resting it until it's completely healed, I don't want to re-injure it by riding him too soon. Anyway, got back to camp, which was considerably quieter than when I left, gave Apollo a bath, then put them both on anchors so they could graze awhile. They're right outside the screen room so I can keep a close watch, the nicest setup since I've been on the road this season. Finally settled down for the evening, won't be long till I'm off to shower and bed! Good night, Sweetie! Love you!