Hey Darlin',
Had another lousy night sleep, tired of feeling tired, not sure what's causing it, except Lola being restless again. Sigh... Woke up not only to hot and humid weather, it was also very smoky. Apparently there are wildfires in Canada that are causing all kinds of smoke pollution, and it all drifting this way. It seems to be worse in Michigan, where I am planning to go on Monday, but hopefully the rain over the weekend will help clear it up. Anyway, had about a six mile ride which took several hours because I spent most of it doing trail clearing. Lots of raspberry brambles, and have the scratches to show for it, plus a lot of other bushes and trees that needed to be cut back as well. Flash was his usual patient self, letting me drop all kinds of limbs and branches on his head in the process. Got back around 2:00, read for some of the afternoon, then walked Lola up to Linda's trailer where I got a quick tutorial on how the ride will be done tomorrow. Sounds interesting, looking forward to it. It doesn't start until noon, and there's rain and heat in the forecast, so I hope we're not rained out. Had a quiet evening of House episodes, determined to get to be earlier tonight, hoping to reset my body clock, though my lack of sleep is mostly being caused by Lola being restless, so I'm not sure what I can do about that. Anyway, off to shower and bed. Good night, baby. Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had another crappy night sleep. Don't know what's going on, though this morning my sleeping issue was compounded by Lola getting very restless before daybreak, so that didn't help my already annoying sleep issue. Got up a bit after 8:00, did chores, printed off a change of address letter for the British pension, then saddled up Apollo for a short ride, about 1.6 miles, just for some exercise for him. After we got back, I headed out for a bunch of errands, stopping to finally talk to Linda, who's helping organize the ride this weekend, then headed down to Plymouth to Tractor Supply, topped off three tanks of propane and picked up some horse feed, then Walmart for what was supposed to be just a few things, and turned into $175, picked up fuel at a Speedway with the lowest price around, $4.60 with my member discount (glad to see prices have been dropping lately!), stopped at the post office to mail the aforementioned letter, and finally picked up a dozen bales of 2nd cutting hay at a local haymaker. Nice grass hay, the going price lately is $7 a bale. Can't say I blame them with the high cost of diesel, though I expect that will go down as the summer progresses. Got back to camp after 4:00, stored the hay and feed, and finally settled down for the afternoon. Had some visitors around 5:00, the family that came by the other day. They gave me a lovely thank you card, a key chain and some more peppermints for the horses, which we promptly started to feed my boys. We ended up putting both girls on both horses and walking them in a circle around the paddock a few times. Gotta do everything we can to make new cowgirls! They stayed about 45 minutes, then I went on to make my dinner and have a couple of drinks, hoping it might make me sleep a bit better. I'm determined to adjust my sleep cycle so that I can sleep better, but it all goes back to HATING DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!! It's crazy that it's still light at 9:30, and it's only going to get worse as I go farther north, but I guess it can't be helped. Took Lola for her last walk of the day, came upon Linda and her granddaughter and chatted a few minutes with them before finally getting back to the camper and finishing the night with another bourbon (hoping it will help me sleep). At least it was a productive day! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Not a very good night sleep for some reason, got chores and breakfast done, then saddled up Flash for a spin around the park. I had met up with two ladies yesterday who are involved with the ride this weekend, and they indicated that the trails were in pretty good shape, so I decided not to take my clearing tools and just have a pleasure ride. Turned out there is a lot of clearing that could be done, but I was kind of glad I didn't take my tools along, or it would definitely have been a work day and not a pleasure ride. We did about seven miles, which is practically every trail in here, not really a lot, but what's here is pretty nice, except for the brambles. Was only out for about an hour and a half. Flash was in a pretty good mood, doing a nice four+ mph walk the whole way. Got back to camp and spent some time working on the kitchen faucet, something inside of it slipped, but I only made a marginal improvement. Another thing on my list of trailer repairs the next time I take it in. Then I spent time finding hay and making an order at Tractor Supply, although the nearest TSC doesn't refill propane tanks, so I'm have to go quite a bit out of my way for that, but I also need horse feed, so I'll make that trip tomorrow. Pretty hot today, can't wait to be heading north so I can enjoy the summer weather without it being too hot to ride or do anything else outside! Settled down for the rest of the day and evening, cleaned up my saddle a bit, it was pretty muddy from the previous muddy days, tried to hook up with Linda, the gal ride organizer Marti suggested I get together with, but all three times I went by, either on horseback or walking Lola, she wasn't there. Hopefully we'll catch up tomorrow! Horses are good in a nice fenced in pen, and Lola's enjoying some freedom. I've been letting her out alone since there's no one else near us and she's not fit enough to get too far, though I've been walking her on her leash when we go farther. Anyway, an otherwise quiet day, and ready for bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, woke up before my alarm, got breakfast and chores done before heading out to check out some more trails. I had intended to do all of the remaining loops, about 10 miles, but Flash was showing signs of some gimpiness, so I cut it back to the two southern loops and two shortcut trails, about five miles in all. The trails are not difficult per se, but they are not pleasant inasmuch as there are long stretches of mud, some of it quite deep, and more long stretches of gravel. The combination is my least favorite, because I'd like to use boots for the gravel, but with deep mud, I'll be so concerned about losing a boot it won't be very enjoyable. I'm sure Flash will be happy to have the rest of the week off! When I got back, I ponied Apollo around the campground loop a couple of times just to get him some exercise. After putting them both away, I headed out to nearby Huntington to do some shopping. I was disappointed to learn that the Tractor Supply there doesn't do propane fillups (even though it says they do on the website), so I wasn't able to fill up my two empty tanks. No worries, though, I won't need any more for a couple of weeks, since I have electric here and at the next stop. Went to Ace Hardware to try to find a cap for the hub on my utility cart, I lost it back at Tippecanoe and my wheel has been falling off. They didn't have exactly the right thing, but in the end, with a little German ingenuity and a sledge hammer, I managed to make it work. Was very happy to see diesel prices coming down, found a Phillips that had diesel at $4.59, so I topped off. Guess the Iran war is getting more settled and the Hormuz strait is more open. I don't know, I never watch the news anymore, too depressing. Finished off at Walmart, as usual, and stocked up on all the usual stuff, plus a few extras just to solve a few issues and repairs. Settled down for the usual evening routine, off to shower and bed soon! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
A good night sleep, woke up to my alarm so that I could get an early start, got chores and breakfast done, saddled up Flash and was out on trail by 10:30, with perfect weather. Trails were pretty wet and muddy, plus there are lots of areas with heavy gravel, so it was a classic case of "to boot or not to boot." I took them with me but didn't put them on. I came across a couple of sections that were all but impassable with downed trees, and a couple of places that were just inconvenient to get around, sent the info all off to ride manager Noelle, as I'm sure she had someone with chainsaw skills available to help out. It was a lovely ride, reaching all the way up to the farthest north loops, though I didn't go around the big fields, figured that was surplus to requirement. Flash was his usual brilliant self, naturally. Got back right around 3:00, gave him a nice rinse, Lola for a walk, and settled down for the rest of the day. Perfect weather, a wonderful ride, couldn't ask for much else! Good day! Good night, baby! Love you!