Archives for 2026

Finally had the proper amount of sleep, and at the right time, too! Was asleep just after 11:00 and woke up before my alarm around 7:00. Had a leisurely breakfast, took a lovely walk around the grounds again going a couple of extra loops just to get my steps in, then did some hand wash to get my clothes all clean before we head out on the safari tomorrow, then settled down to read for a while. I made an appointment for a lovely 90-minute Swedish massage at the spa, which was fabulous! Then I sat out at the pool for another couple of hours before another fabulous dinner, where the management even gave me have a big glass of red wine in celebration of the fact that I have stayed here for 3 days. Well more like 3 1/2 but who's counting! They have truly been spoiling me while I've been here. They make sure my room gets cleaned when I'm out and about, and when I go to dinner at night they come in and do a fabulous turn down service, which includes redistributing the gorgeous mosquito netting, and closing all the drapes, etc. Tonight when I got back I found a lovely bar of chocolate on the bed as well! Wish I'd had that when I was drinking my red wine! But it has been a lovely stay here at the Planet Lodge airport in Kilimanjaro, I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling here. Glad I will be coming back here at the end of my Safari, but for right now, I am very excited about leaving on the real adventure tomorrow! Stay tuned! Good night my darling, love you!

Just when I thought that I was getting on Tanzania time, I found myself frustrated by not being able to fall asleep last night no matter what I tried. Two cups of sleepy time tea and a melatonin didn't help. I don't know what time it was when I finally did fall asleep but it was very very late. Then I apparently fell asleep so soundly that I slept right through my alarm. I ended up being woken by a phone call from reception asking if I would be coming down for breakfast. When I looked at my watch I saw it was 9:15! And breakfast ended at 9:30. So I very quickly got dressed and went down and got my breakfast, embarrassed that I slept in so late, then afterward headed back to my room and changed into my bathing suit, and ended up spending pretty much the entire day sitting out by the pool. I was careful to use sunscreen and to stay out of the sun, since we are equatorial here, and I remember the last time I got in the sun in an equatorial region when we were in Malaysia, and I had the crap burn out of me, and I didn't want to do that again! It was a lovely day of reading and relaxing. At around 4:00 I came back to the room, took my shower, and watched a little TV, then headed out to dinner just after 6:00 and had another lovely local disc called Tanzanian chicken. It was remarkably similar to the beef stew I had last night but it was delicious! I made an appointment for a massage for tomorrow and came back to the room with high hopes that I'll be able to sleep a little bit better tonight and get to breakfast much earlier in the morning. And absolutely gorgeous day weatherwise, about 80° and partly cloudy with low humidity. Absolutely gorgeous! Very nice to be relaxed, but starting to feel a little lazy. No doubt I will be fully rested in time for the horse safari. I cracked open my little bit of bourbon that I brought with me, and had bought a little bottle of ginger ale at dinner, so I'm having a perfect evening! I love you darling! Good night!

Had a fairly morning finalizing my packing, feeling pretty confident that I have everything I need. I weighed my bags and was surprised my big bag was still under 30 pounds and my small one about twelve, so I made the last minute decision to add a long sleeved T-shirt and to wear my New Balance sneakers, putting my sandals in the big bag. Art arrived just after 1030 and we got to the airport at noon. One nice thing about Gainesville is that security waits are negligible, I was through in five minutes. I had my fingers crossed that all would go well with Delta. Every time I ever fly Delta, something goes wrong, and I always promise myself never again. But of course, I didn't have much of a choice this time. Naturally, right on cue, we had a problem. There was a 20 minute on the tarmac, which the pilot said wouldn't hurt us because it was built in, then they had an hydraulic problem which forced us back to the gate, and by the time they fixed it, we had wasted nearly two hours, which was exactly the two hours I had to connect with my next flight. By the time we landed in Atlanta, I had 18 minutes before my flight left, and I might have even made it if the bitch flight attendant had made a request for passengers to allow those of us with tight connections to get off first. I had asked her nicely and she said she would, then didn't, so it took way too long to get off the plane. So I missed my flight to Amsterdam. Grrr! At customer service, after awhile, they managed to book me on the same Turkish Air flight I had cancelled earlier this week! They gave me some vouchers for a meal, I had a small Cobb salad with shrimp and a single bourbon and it was over $50! Finally went to gate to get my seat assignment and they couldn't find my ticket. I had to walk back to customer service twice more to finally get it straightened out. I think the last supervisor took pity on me and assigned me an aisle seat fairly close to the front, and with no one in the middle seat. The other end held a large woman who didn't speak English, but we shared the middle seat very well. Got two meals and several good naps, so wasn't in bad shape when we arrived in Istanbul. It was rainy, and there was no jetway, so we went the old fashioned way, climbing down stairs and getting on buses to the terminal. I spent a few minutes trying to get on wifi with no luck, then made it to the gate as the boarding lines were opening. Still had to stand there for awhile, but was happy that my seat was a window seat in the first row after first class, so lots of legroom. Yay! Most of the rest of that row was taken by a nice family from DC. Enjoyed dinner, but ready to wrap it up and try to get a nap in. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Baby,
Had several occasions during the night when I had to wake up enough to add items to my list of things to do today, woke up feeling very pressed for time, so I got up early and started in as soon as I could. Managed to get a whole lot of packing done, thanks goodness! That includes the list of items recommended by the safari company. I was even able to borrow a pair of half chaps from Chelle! Art came and walked Lola, so that gave me some more time, then by mid-afternoon, I was feeling confident enough to invite Helen to dinner at Willards, with Art joining us. Feeling much more prepared than I thought I could be by the end of the day. Still haven't heard about the visa, but the safari company wrote that it could be obtained on entry at the airport, though I've heard that's a lengthy process, and I'll likely have to pay a second time if my online visa doesn't come through in time. Oh, well, in for a penny, in for a pound! Managed to get a hot tub in, showered and ready for another early night. I'm even feeling prepared enough to go to one more chiropractic session in the morning. Hope I don't wake up during the night thinking of another whole list of things to do! Though I'd rather have a list than try to remember in the morning! You know me and my lists! Other than the visa, my only other real concern is the weight of my bags, though I checked them on the scale today, and it looks like I might just squeak by, or be no more than a few pounds over, which astonishes me, actually. I thought they would be heavier. But then again, I'm not quite done packing yet! But with the list of things I'm supposed to bring, I honestly don't know how anyone could carry anything less. Ok, headed to bed. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Woke up feeling tired, despite getting a full eight hours. All this activity is just getting bone deep exhaustion. Lola and I went for our walk this morning, I did a few minor extra chores, then because it was a cloudy day, I abandoned my list of things to do and went out to finish the waxing on the south side of the trailer. I got most of it done, then during a break I went online to finish by Tanzanian Visa Application, and what should have been a 10 minute job turned into an hour of frustration, as I kept getting almost to the end and then having it come back with an error code, and I'd have to start over. Very frustrating! I finally got what seems to be a positive response, so I went back out to finish the last of the waxing (except for the rear doors, which I ran out of time to do, and I'm not sure I have enough was to complete either), just managing to finish just after 3:00, which left me barely enough time to get to the airport to pick up Art. Then his flight landed half an hour early! I thought I was going to be really late, but they didn't have a gate open, so they ended up sitting on the tarmac until the usual arrival time anyway, so I arrived just before him, picked him up on my second loop. We went to a nice Indian restaurant on the way home, so I'll have leftovers (one less day of having to cook!), and dropped him off before 7:00. Got home, fed the horses, settled down after putting all the meat from yesterday's shopping in the freezer, did my Spanish lesson, watched one hour of TV, and am so tired, I'm going to bed really early, once again skipping the hot tub, which I'm missing! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Woke up early to sound of horse squealing, evidently Flash was picking on Apollo again, until I yelled out the window at him, and he quit, thank goodness. It was the first time the overnight temps were nice enough to open the windows, so there's that. Worked on my shoulder and did some PT exercises before getting out of bed, which has become my habit of late. Got my chores and breakfast done, then headed up to Williston for my chiropractic appointment. Once again, a fabulous job on my shoulder, hoping we're finally making significant progress. Decided I had time to pick up a bundle of hay, which Chelle will need to feed my guys while I'm on my Africa trip, so a quick stop at Triple J farms, another quick stop at home, and very thankful for Chelle's husband Eric's help to offload my 21 bales quickly (nice to have a man around for burly jobs!), and still managed to make it to my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon's office who did my knee last year. All good on that account! Very impressed I could bend my knee all the way up to my neck, which is actually one of the exercises my chiropractic instructed me to do, as it would be good for my lower back! A quick stop to put some fuel in my tank (Aaargh! $5.59, and $100 only brought me up to 3/4 of a tank!), but at least the stock market went up today, I'm sure we're on the road to recovery pretty quick, now that a bunch of other countries have decided to send their navies in to help open up the Hormuz Strait. Next stop was Smart Style, where my usual stylist, Jan, gave me the very short cut I requested. She's having a mastectomy done tomorrow, and will be out for 4-6 weeks, so I was lucky to have made this appointment on her last day! Did a bunch of shopping at Walmart so Lola would be fully taken care of while I'm gone, then a quick stop at Tractor Supply for horse feed as well, and I think I'm all set now for my trip. I went ahead and cancelled both other airline tickets, having finally made the decision to go with the KLM flight, and made the reservation for the extra days at the start of my journey. Still have to reserve for my return, but figure I can do that when I'm there. Was glad to hear from the safari outfitter that no one was deterred by the prediction of wet weather, so it looks like a full house, though I don't know how many folks that is. Finally settled down to a couple of episodes of Continuum and the rest of my evening. A busy day, but quite productive. They'll all have to be this week in order for me to be ready to leave on Friday now! Ready for bed soon! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Had another long day of working on the exterior of the trailer. Started the day with a walk with Lola and Eric (Chelle was off at a yoga class), then got busy starting to wax the trailer. It was wet due to fog before the walk, but by the time I got out to start waxing the south side was already too hot to wax, so I started on the southwest and then the north side, which took me most of the day. Hard work, all this waxing and polishing! But I have to admit, it does look better. Kept hearing Mr. Miyagi muttering "wax on, wax off" all day! At one point, after Eric finished working on something on his roof, I asked for his help straightening out my awning. The wind here has been tremendous, and has fluffed my awning to such a degree that the arms were twisted and the vinyl was totally uncentered, so he helped me straighten that out, thank goodness! Once that was done, I closed it up, figuring I'll just keep it that was until I leave, or I know there's no wind coming in. It just sneaks up on us here! I managed to finish the south side of the trailer by a bit after 3:30, and I just had to quit for the day, I was so exhausted. Finished some laundry, checked the chemicals and cleaned the filter in the hot tub, and did some housekeeping before settling down for the evening, managed to get a well-deserved hot tub by skipping a party (I've been to more parties this year than I have in the last ten years!), before taking my shower and am now ready for bed. Another busy day tomorrow, though not physically, not working on the trailer. I need a cloudy day to finish off the south side of the trailer now. Hopefully, we'll have one of those this week, I don't want to leave anything for when I get back, I'll be busy enough as it is! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Had a good night again, woke up to a message from Chelle that the horses had defeated the new fence I had put up and were up to mischief. The fence was down, but I believe the culprit was her horse Levi, who was happily munching away in the "new" pasture, while my two guys were heading down the driveway. Fortunately, everything here is well fenced. She managed to corral them back into the old pasture until we fixed our respective fences, and soon all was right with the world again. After the usual chores and breakfast, Lola and I went for our walk, then around noon, I started the long overdue task of washing the trailer. I started on the roof doing it by hand, but when I saw the level of mess, I pulled out the pressure washing, which made the job much easier. It still took me until 5:00, with only one very quick beverage break, and I was pretty well whipped by the time I finished. Looks much better, but that's only half the job. The other half is waxing, which I intend to tackle tomorrow. Had a lovely hot tub and shower, and won't be long out of bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!