Archives for 2020

Hi Sweetheart!
Once again, weekends at the park turned into a noise fest, one of the worst I’ve experienced since the 4th of July in New York, when it was packed but we were the only ones with horses. Right across from me I have tenters with lots of kids, who keep coming over wanting to pet the horses (you know I’m a sucker for that!), but at least their not yelling at each other all day. I decided, though, to stick around camp today, just to keep an eye on things, it’s so busy and I have so much stuff laying around. All day, more and more people joined the group across the road, now there’s like four cars and half a dozen tents, despite a sign out front that says one vehicle per campsite and provides a parking lot for the rest. The worst was around 4:00 someone showed up and turned their truck radio on full blast, with awful modern “rock” I guess you’d call it. I had to go ask them to turn it down, it was making my teeth shake! They turned it down some, but it kept increasing gradually as the day went on. I truly don’t understand why people come out to a natural environment of peace and quiet and then want to get as noisy as they possibly can! Much less inflicting their choice of music on others! I’m looking forward to more primitive, horse-only camping, it’s always the non-horse people that make all the noise! So I spent the day updating the Facebook page with all the horse camps since Jefferson Lake in Ohio last year, where I left off. I got it up to date now. I hate to say it, but I even felt compelled to write a pretty scathing review on that awful Double J at Mammoth Cave, I just wouldn’t want anyone else to make plans there and have them turn out to be terrible because they didn’t know. Three days of wasted time and money, not to mention how it ruined my plans for our wedding anniversary. Anyway, water under the bridge, as you’d say! Flash’s ankle seems to be a little better, but he’s still really favoring it, so I think I’ll just let him rest some more. I put them on anchors so they could graze, fortunately the other campsites on my side of the road are mostly empty so they have room. Of course, within an hour or so of grazing, they ended up standing right by the highline anyway! Overall it was a pretty relaxing day, though. I resisted the urge to do some work on the trailer, convinced myself I could wait until either tomorrow or next week, nothing urgent, so all my work was on the computer, nothing physical. It’s almost 9:30 and it’s still light outside, which drives me crazy! I’ll be glad to get back in Central time! So even though it seems early, I’m ready for my shower and bed and another good night sleep with my earplugs! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Baby!
Got up a bit early this morning, and got on the road to do some shopping as soon as the chores and breakfast were done. I headed northwest to a town called Salem, which looked oddly familiar, I think we must have driven through there another time. Anyway, I went to the Walmart because it was the only one with a mosquito plant in stock. My old one died, again. I grabbed it first thing, did the rest of my shopping, then skipped over to the Tractor Supply because I was low on Flash’s food, and, of course, this is the only store in the area that DOESN’T carry the Nutrena Perform. They stock the hard-to-find Balancer (which I had already stocked up on), but not the Perform, so I had to run down to Sellersburg SOUTH of Deam Lake in order to get it. It wasn’t really that far so it was no big deal, it just took longer than I expected. I bought one of those ball launchers, the ones that look like an air gun but it works on a spring, since I don’t have the GoDogGo anymore, wherever that is, so I played with Lola for a bit. Once I wore her out with that, I got a hankering to get on the lake, so I inflated my kayak, put it in the back of the truck and headed to the boat launch. I didn’t want to drag it on the rough ground, so I managed to put it on my head African-style and take it down to the lake. It’s a pretty small lake, you can pretty much see the whole thing at once, and it was a nice time. I headed north against the wind until I reach a spot where the tops of the dead trees were still sticking out of the water, then turned around and just let myself drift slowly all the way back down, taking in some sun, saving a strange-looking bug from the water, which I put in the grass when I got back to the launch area, and generally relaxing, would you believe! It was so peaceful, as only electric motors are allowed so it was pretty quiet. There were a few fishermen, but mostly it was folks on all kinds of human-powered vessels, like paddle boards (where the paddler stands up like on a surfboard), paddle boats (where they pump their feet like on a bicycle), a lot of one and two-man kayaks, and even an inflatable or two like mine. As I was heading back to the boat ramp, though, it was getting busier, as was the campground by the time I got back. I’m glad I got to see what this place looks like during the week, because now it’s become utter chaos. It’s very busy, and evidently they use the horse camp area as overflow, because though every site is almost full, most don’t have horses, but they do have lots of kids. I mean, LOTS of kids! Lola will have a field day tomorrow if I don’t keep an eye on her! A lot of small campers and tenters, so I expect it won’t be a very quiet night (thank goodness I bought a new supply of earplugs!) I did a load of laundry this morning, so I have fresh sheets for the bed, so now I’m off to take my shower and get into bed early. Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hey Babe,
Well, things here went from bad to worse. Several things I neglected to mention about the various conversations I’ve had with the owner here. The first conversation I had a few weeks ago, I asked him if he could fit in a large unit. I told him 47 feet. He immediately remarked that that made me illegal. I don’t know what he was thinking, but of course he was wrong, but his attitude kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I decided he must be having a bad day, so I let it go. Another conversation I had with him, I asked him about what kind of cell phone signal they had here, and he responded, “How could I know what kind of service you have on your phone?” Now, I’ve asked that question in many places, and I either get a simple “I don’t know” or much more explicit directions on which cell phone service works, and even what hill you need to go stand on, but never one with that kind of attitude. He also explained (twice) they don’t take credit cards or checks, it had to be cash, so when I came in (passing a big sign that said “Coggins required, you will be turned away,” which I thought was a little harsh wording), I said I had to get my slide out to get the cash and asked if I could set up first and take care of it in a bit. Well, they said yes, but then they sat there at the site waiting for me, which I wasn’t expecting, so I hurried up and plugged in and got the slide out so I could get their cash. Once that was done, I had to reset the trailer with boards on one side to compensate for it not being level, and didn’t realize when I did that that I ran over my electrical cord, putting a lot of strain on it. I had already disconnected the truck and put the hay under the gooseneck before I realized it, so my only solution was to get out my little 12 Ton jack and jack it up, which I did. Also, when I first came in, I asked if they would mind if I let Lola out of the truck, and again, in a sharp tone of voice, was told “Only if it’s on a leash.” I asked about a corner to play frisbee in, and the wife finally chimed in and pointed out a corner of the yard she said would work, but he quickly said that if she ended up at the house, I’d only get ONE warning, and after that they would essentially throw me out. I was also told no horses in the campground, or tied to the trailer for saddling, I would have to carry everything over to one of the hitching posts. All of this was piled on in the first few minutes, along with, Don’t bother us at the house, if you need us push this call button. Then I got handed a list of rules and a trail map, and was told one of the two major loops from camp was supposed to closed for renovations, and when I said, I hope they’re not putting down gravel, he said, they probably are, so that didn’t help. There’s more, but you get the idea. Well, I discovered that evening that one of the circuits wasn’t working, the one that powers the Non-GFI plugs and the microwave was out, so I went to bed last night thinking my first job this morning would be to check that circuit. But at about 5:00 this morning, all of the power went out. A few hours later, I got up to check on it, starting with all the usual suspects, breakers inside and out, etc. I couldn’t pinpoint it right away, so I figured I had better check to see the generator was working at least, in case I couldn’t fix the electric, and to see if that side of the system worked.. With 90 degree temps I wasn’t about to go without AC all day! I was happy that the generator kicked on, and it powered everything up, so I knew I had a different problem. That generator (and you know how quiet it is) wasn’t on for two minutes before this guy came railing down from the house, forcefully informing me that he didn’t allow generators on his property. No good morning, no what’s the problem, just, NO GENERATORS. And that wasn’t even in the entire page full of rules I got the day before. I tried to explain I was having an electrical problem and I was just diagnosing the system, but he didn’t seem much interested, at least not in my system. He went and got himself a bulb in a cord to see if the problem was from the outlet (it wasn’t) and once he determined it wasn’t his fault, that it was something in my unit, he just turned around and left. I mean, I wouldn’t have done that to a stranger, much less a paying customer! And I mentioned that if I couldn’t get it fixed, and couldn’t use my generator here, I’d have to move on, and he showed no interest. As he was walking away, I asked him if he knew of a mobile RV service and he barely stopped long enough to throw back, “I have no idea.” Very helpful. So I continued my diagnosis, and reckoned that maybe when I ran over the cord yesterday in a hurry to give them their money that maybe I had created a problem there, so I dismantled the plug on the cable and sure enough some of the wires had been pulled out, so I reconnected them all and everything worked fine after that. But by then, I was steaming, all of this attitude, the negative vibes just overwhelmed me, so I decided I can’t stay here any longer, there’s no way I could stand it for the rest of the week, much less another week after that. So in the afternoon, after a frustrating morning of trying to work on my website (which I’ve now decided I can’t do on my own, I’m going to have to hire someone), I began packing up everything, took down the screen room and everything else I could put away. It rained a little in the afternoon, but if I wasn’t expecting my mail and a package being delivered here, I would have left today. Eventually the wife came back with my mail packet, surprised to see the screen room down. I explained that I had decided to leave tomorrow, and that I expected I would be refunded for the nights not used and she agreed. When she asked why, I did briefly explain that her husband’s rude behavior was responsible for my decision. She said, “Well, I knew he came down to help you with your electrical problem,” and I said, “No, he came down to inform me that I couldn’t run my generator in a rather brusque way, even though I was using it to diagnose my problem.” I mentioned a couple of the other things, too, though I tried to be somewhat diplomatic about it. Anyway, she said she was sorry to see me go, I said I was sorry because I had been so looking forward to riding the trails (and I may still in the morning if I have time), and that was that. I’m still expecting a UPS package tomorrow, but of course, no one can tell me what time to expect it except “end of day,” but to change the delivery address is another big chunk of change (I’m already paying more in delivery than the price of one of the two items I purchased!), and I don’t want to add to that. Of course, she couldn’t tell me what time their delivery usually was either, so no help at all. It’s also supposed to rain in the morning but clear up in the afternoon, so I guess I’ll be leaving here late. Fortunately, I’ve decided to go to Deam Lake, that place north of Louisville where we stayed once, and I stayed a second time when I took a trailer to Elkhart for some repairs of some kind, but I’ve never stayed long enough to ride the trails. It’s only about two hours away, so as long as I get there well before dark I’ll be fine. Of course, that’s unless these people want to charge me more for not leaving early enough in the day! The worst part is, tomorrow is our anniversary, and the first one in thirty years I’ve had without you, and I was hoping to spend a peaceful day in the woods on my horse commiserating and remembering, but Flash is still lame and I’m not sure about Apollo, and I don’t know if I’ll have the time, and I’ll have to finish packing, then driving and then setting back up… Not exactly what I was hoping for this special day! Grrrr! Sometimes, I hate people! They can really spoil things, can’t they? Well, that’s enough of a rant, at least they haven’t bothered me the rest of the day, not even to try to make things right. Off for my shower and bed, I hope things improve in the morning! (but I’m not counting on it…) Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Baby,
Woke up before the alarm, got up early and started to finish packing. It was just after 10 when I got to the dump, but we made good time and arrived at about 1:30. Their long driveway is only a single lane, so I had to call ahead so they could make sure it was clear for me to come in. Had the pleasure of have a pull-through site for a change, no backing. I only paid for a week, though, since I wasn’t sure about a cell phone signal (though it seems pretty good, actually), and I’m a little concerned about whether there are enough trails for me to keep busy for two weeks. To make matters worse, after I unloaded the horses and put them in a paddock for a few minutes, I noticed Flash limping bad on one of his back feet. He wasn’t limping when I took him out of the trailer, so now I’m worried there’s a hole in the pasture somewhere that he might have stepped in, though I looked around and didn’t see one. He came out of the trailer in a rush, so maybe he did something there, but I didn’t think so when we were walking over. Anyway, we’ll see how it looks tomorrow. Meanwhile, Apollo’s feet seem to be a lot better, he was walking fine the last couple of days. No rocks in the paddock here, and I’ve heard the same about the trails, though I haven’t confirmed that yet. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow anyway, so they’ll get another day’s rest, and I’ll have time to do a little more work on my website. The place is empty, so it should be nice and quiet, but there are a lot of rules and not a lot of flexibility, so we’ll see how it goes. Now it’s time for a shower and an early night, so off I go! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
Today was mostly about putting things away in anticipation of my departure tomorrow, but pacing myself to beat the heat. It’s in the 90’s already, we went from one extreme to the other in the last few weeks! So first thing after feeding the horses this morning, I took down the screen room, rolled up the carpet and put most of the horse stuff away. Later in the day I moved bales out from under the gooseneck into the first stall, I want to make sure it stays dry, though it’s not supposed to rain (yeah, like I believe the forecasts these days!) I’ll still have four in the back of the truck, but another four are in the trailer. I cleaned up the paddock, was very disappointed to see the area where Bubba’s mules were didn’t get cleaned up one bit, either today or yesterday, don’t know what that deal is about. So hot, I spent all the rest of the time inside in the AC! Did some work on my website, trying to upgrade and refresh it a bit, since my old webdesign program is out of business and I can’t reach anyone to get my access number. Hoping it’s a bit cooler further north, but not holding my breath, though a cold front is supposed to come through in a few days. Anyway, off to a shower and bed! Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hey Babe,
A bunch of trailers left last night, and most of the rest left today, not surprisingly, so it was much quieter today. All I did today was sleep late, do some housework, washed the horses with Callie’s help, sat in the creek playing with Lola, then watching Lola playing with all the other families that were playing in the creek, did a load of laundry and generally had a quiet day, with a short visit from Callie’s parents before dinner. Checked the tires on everything, looking good, but it seems my brake fluid is low, so I’m hoping this new master cylinder Jeff put in a few months ago bad, though it does seem to be leaking, maybe. I’ll put some fluid in and check it again. Watched a little TV, now I’m off to bed! Good night, my love!

Hi Sweetie!
Another busy day, but this time I didn’t go riding. I let myself sleep in a little, got up at 7:30, made it to breakfast, and fed the horses afterwards. I’m a bit worried about Apollo, he seems to be limping a bit. I noticed he has some kind of damage to one of his back hooves, looks like when a pebble gets caught in his hoof then grows all the way up into the hoof and comes out months later at the top, which sounds weird because you would think it would grow down. Anyway, I’m keeping an eye on it, I may have the vet here take a look if it doesn’t improve. I managed to find some fresh hay, at last, about 25 miles away. The haymaker was about to sell his whole load to someone, but pulled 8 bales off for me when I called, for which I was so grateful. Not even the coop has any square bales yet! There’s been a lot of haying going on because we’ve finally had nice enough weather, but not many are baling square, so I was very lucky. Even a girl at Tractor Supply, which was my next stop, asked me where I got the hay, because people had been asking them! Got stocked up on feed there, they even had a bag of Balancer, which is hard to find, so I snatched that up. Walmart next, topped off with fuel so I would be ready to go on Monday, did a little shopping, though I didn’t need too much, and mostly for Lola, including a new leash since her last one broke in the creek. Got back in time for lunch, then had to go looking for a missing package. I had picked up two on my way out this morning but didn’t open them. I know one was a new XL Jiffy Jack (Valley Vet replaced the one that got smooshed the first time I used it, and didn’t even charge me extra, yoo hoo!), the other I thought was my toilet valve kit, but the box seemed kind of big for that. When I opened it, it was the replacement wand for the pressure washer, which I had just about forgotten I had ordered! No toilet valve, though, which is what I needed most. When I checked online, it said it had been delivered two days ago, so I went on a hunt for that. Turns out the address I used was really the country store across the street, and it was still in the mailbox, no one had checked it in two days! Once I got back from picking it up, I headed down to the Trail Competition obstacle course to watch for awhile. I actually had entered it, but scratched as soon as I got there, I hadn’t had any time to work with either horse beyond the seesaw, and I had too much to do to hang around long. I watched a couple of horses go through the course, and was glad I didn’t enter, I would have been pretty embarrassed by my guys, I’m afraid! Something to work on, though. I headed back to the trailer to do the work I needed to do. I went out to turn off the water so I could do the valve repair, and lo and behold, one of my hoses had burst (even though I had turned the water pressure way down, I guess it just wore out!), so I had to run BACK to the country store and get a water hose for that! I did both of those repairs (and I realize now why the toilet valve broke so quickly, entirely due to my last installation being incomplete), then I also decided to fix the outside spigot, which kept coming loose because one of the screws didn’t have any place to set into any more, it had rusted away, so I tried a tiny bolt with a lock nut, I hope that works better. Anyway, all of that running around and repairs, and it was just about dinner time. I drove up to the cook shack today, I’m getting so tired from all this activity, I just didn’t feel like walking! I finished quickly, though, as there was a bad storm on it’s way and I needed to feed the horses. Then the concert started, which I could hear from the trailer, then the awards ceremony, which I walked over for, then when the music started again I came back to camp. The storm blew itself out before it got here passing us to the north, so all that running around putting awnings up was a waste of everyone’s time (I’ve got the screen room up, so I didn’t bother anyway.) So bedtime, it’s already much later than I planned. Good night, baby! Love you!