Archives for March 2024

Hey Sweetie,
Another exhausting day, doing the Blue trail, which I had to reroute several times because of trail complications, and the Red trail, which I had to also reroute to get it back to where I had originally planned it, which worked out perfectly. All told, Flash and I did 26.5 miles today! Poor thing is exhausted! I have a couple of signs I need to put up on the Blue trail in the morning, for which I think I'll take Apollo, since it's not very far out of camp and he needs the exercise (not to mention Flash needs a day off!), and to get the water out. I've determined I need four water stops, hope we have enough tubs for that. I was in the saddle for about 10.5 hours today, didn't get back to camp until 7:30, it took every ounce of energy I had left to feed the horses and get my self dinner. Thanks goodness for Taste of Goethe leftover pasta casserole! Finalized the routes and the water stops, it's already after 10:00, still have to take my shower, so I'm off. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya, Babe!
Another chilly morning, another exhausting day, but Flash and I managed to get the convoluted Pink trail done. Had to make several changes, once again because of trails on the map that were impassable, and not just because of last year's hurricane, These look like they haven't been touched in a decade or more! Too bad, too, because they were lovely trails. So that made some of the intersections even more convoluted, so I did my best to mark them clearly, but no doubt someone will get confused and lost, even with ample warning. Some beautiful trails, though, I tried to use as much of the Suwannee River trail as I could. Tomorrow's going to be even tougher in some ways, as I not only have to put in the 10 mile Blue Trail, which may or may not have some impassable trails that will have to be rerouted, plus I have to go back and fix the red trail, which means picking up the markers further north which will add even more mileage. Clearly more than 20 miles on tap for tomorrow, unless I wait until Friday, but it's supposed to rain, plus I have to put out water troughs, so that's going to be very busy as well. And since I only have Saturday and Sunday, and maybe Monday morning to pick up markers, it's going to be non-stop until Tuesday, unless I decide to stay another day here, which I may very well do. Whew! I can't write anymore, I have to get to bed. Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin'!
Had a good night sleep, but was very glad I put the fireplace on last night, as it got down into the 30's! Was barely 40 when I got up, and the wind made it feel even colder, but the trailer was toasty, thank goodness! Did my chores nevertheless, and kept procrastinating my departure because of the cold, but put on enough layers to make myself comfortable and carried on! Got delayed a bit because I had neighbors that wanted to chat, but finally got out around 11:30 or so. This white trail was supposed to be the most straight-forward, and, I hoped, the easiest, but then again, I'm trying to mark trails I've never been on, so it still turned into a challenge. I got sidetracked several times, and had to go back and straighten it out, so the 15 miles trail turned into a 20.5 mile ride to get it right. I have to admit, it was a bit easier being on my own, but even Flash was getting a bit antsy by our sixth hour on the trail (it was over seven by the time we finished!), so I had to deal with his unruliness, which just made it all the more challenging. I got a better feel for the area, though, which was helpful. I only had to clear a couple of spots, but there's one trail that is completely blocked, and as much as I tried to clear it, it just wasn't totally possible, though it is passable to some degree. I contacted the Water Management District, and I'm hoping they'll be able to come out and clear it, but regardless, the trail is going through there, one way or another! The guy did get back to me quickly, though I won't know if it will be resolved until I speak with him in the morning. But at least the trail is marked and as ready as it could be under the circumstances. Arrived back home exhausted, just managed to feed the horses and myself, and now I'm ready to crash, nice and early, because tomorrow is bound to be even more difficult, as I'm using a lot of smaller side trails that may not be in very good shape, and that's problematic! So I'm off to bed early. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Happy Birthday, my love!
Hard to believe you would have been 90 today, if you had only made it this far! Still celebrating our life together, you made me whole, and I miss you! But we never lived in the past, always the future, so today was another day of pressing forward for me! Woke up to a rainy day, and had to finish packing in the rain, unfortunately, but at least it quit about 20 minutes before I got to the Rest and Ride here in Suwannee. It's literally only a couple minutes away from Sheila's place, so in many way, it felt like a sort of homecoming. I guess whenever I spend any extended period of time anywhere it will feel like that! Arrived around 11:20 after an uneventful drive, but that didn't leave me much time to get ready, so I didn't even unhook the truck before I put Apollo in a paddock and saddled up Flash. Penny arrived on time, but after Linda, who I hadn't realized was the same Linda that stayed at Sheila's place with me, and even rode Apollo one day when her horse was not up to par! Small world! She's since sold her house and bought a new trailer, and has committed to being full-time on the road like me! Nice to see her again. So we headed off just after noon, and while it was productive, it was also a bit frustrating for many reasons. Penny isn't literate in GPS or Google Earth or any of the tools I sent her to use, so we were basically winging it most of the day. Trails I had opted to use (and were perfectly workable) she had never seen before, so they needed extra clearing, which kind of defeated the purpose of having her scout the trails for me. I also let her take me to the Suwannes Springs loop she kept insisting I use, but I really disliked it, as it went by and through a very junky area, not to mention under a bridge where apparently homeless people live, though they weren't there when we went through. Nevertheless, Linda's horse freaked out at the traffic barreling past her overhead on the bridge, and even Flash had trouble passing the dilapidated trailers past the junkyard, so I'm really adverse to using that last loop. I'm still trying to work out exactly the trail, and was a bit disheartened that we ran out of time to check out the last two trails I wanted. I also got turned around once and had to correct that mistake, so everything took longer than I expected. It was well after 5:30 when we got back, and then Penny wanted to show me where the best places to put out water troughs would be, so we spent another hour driving around the various trailheads that she thought might work. Of course, I can't decide that until I decide which trails we're going to take, and that's still entirely up in the air. This is really hard, to try to plan a ride when I have no idea what the trails are like, and no one to scout them out for me ahead of time. And it was all made worse by the fact that Flash was misbehaving, probably because of the other horses, but he was very jumpy all day, and I was getting rope burns from trying to hold him in all day. Just another reminder of why I prefer to ride along, especially when I'm marking trails. Anyway, it was after 7:00 by the time we got back, and by the time I fed and blanketed the horses (it was going to go into the 30's tonight!), it was quite late. I managed to soak Lola's foot a couple of times before I finally called it a night. Feel pretty tired, and a little frustrated, but, that's life! At least I'm still above ground, my love! Good night, babe!

Hi Sweetie!
Had a lovely, busy day today! A good night sleep, followed by my usual morning routine, then I hitched up the little trailer and loaded up Flash and headed over to Shangrila, which was surprisingly a lot closer than I thought, only about 50 minutes. Allyson arrived before me, but then Bettina and Amber go slowed down with an accident on the turnpike, so it was after 1:30 by the time we got on the trail. I managed to download a map onto Avenza, but that didn't prevent me from getting lost several times, so it was an adventure! A nice ride, though, glad to be in the shade with temps in the mid 80's already. Got back to the trailhead and went our separate ways, (though they're coming over for the Taste of Goethe on Saturday), I ran into Dunnellon, stopping first to top off fuel (got a ten cent discount at Murphy, so it was only $3.79, which is a bargain these days!), a quick run into Walmart for a few things, then to Tractor Supply to pick up an order I made yesterday, which they couldn't find, and then when they finally did find it, it was only two bags of Senior, and the other three bags I ordered they didn't have. When they finally found the Senior, it wasn't where it was supposed to be, and it had stuff piled on it, so instead of the five minutes I was expecting it to take, it was more like 15 and I didn't get what I needed. Not a happy camper after that! Another quick stop at Publix for nectar, then finally got back to camp. Running late, so I raced through feeding the horses, nuked a shepherd's pie I bought just because I wanted something different and fast, and scarped that down too fast. I just managed to make it to the 7:00 meeting on time, and that went for nearly two hours, and now I have a long list of things I need to collect tomorrow, so any chance of riding with the gals again is gone. It's going to be a very busy couple of weeks, if not longer! With Taste of Goethe Saturday, followed by the cleanup, packing on Sunday to get ready to leave on Monday, then all week marking trails for the Suwannee ride next weekend, then back here for two weeks before heading up to South Carolina for the Ride in the Pines... Whew!! I'm getting tired just thinking about it! But I'm glad, though, I feel like I've been too stagnant for awhile, looking forward to moving on to the next projects. Collected a few things I'll need for Saturday this evening, with a long list to gather tomorrow, so I won't be long out of bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
Had an even better night sleep, guess I'm finally getting back in the DST groove. The big event today was going down to Tidewater and putting up the ribbons for the Taste of Goethe hiking trail. Well, two trails, actually, one that was 1.5 miles long, the other was another section that made it 3.8 miles long. Ran into Rick at Tidewater, he was just coming in to check on things, we had a short chat about inconsequential things, I didn't feel like getting into a long discussion about the trail until I had confirmed a few things. Then I got busy on the trail marking. It was really nice because quite a few of the trails are ones I've never been on, so it was very enjoyable. Once I finished marking and clearing those, I headed down to the alt-Purple trail to try to figure out where Rick had mowed. I took the one I had put ribbons on, just to once and for all confirm it was a workable trail, plus to look for my reading glasses, which I lost when I was out here the other day. Yes to the first question, No to the second. Then a found the opening where Rick had mowed on the far end and followed it, until it simply petered out and ended without ever finishing. It was an awful trail, he had mowed down so many of those squash palms that the trail will never stick, and was only made worse by it suddenly stopping, I carefully took Flash cross-country, and discovered it was only about 30 yards from the trail, but when I looked at my map trail, it was WAY off in terms of cutting a huge chunk of the regular trail out. I guess he must have realized that and that was why he didn't take it all the way to the trail. Just to double check, I went south again to where he did cut a trail straight through, and confirmed that it was just a short loop that did nothing to cut the trail by the road. Sigh... Guess I'll need to have a talk with him about it at some point, not sure we'll have time to fix it before I leave for the season. Anyway, got back to camp, got Flash settled in, then spent some time working on trails for both the Taste of Goethe and the upcoming Suwannee ride, which actually continued on until this evening. Busy day! Productive, too, and beautiful weather for a ride, so it was all good! Good night, baby! Love you!