Hi Darlin’,
I guess my sleep clock is out of sync now, I couldn’t get to sleep until nearly 2:00 this morning, and was up by 8:00, so hopefully I can get back into rhythm tonight. I thought about riding today, but I’m still not sure about my knee, so I decided to give it another day. It was pretty chilly this morning, and even though it warmed up a lot, there was still a cool breeze, which galvanized my decision. Mostly I read again, then at dinner, Connie and Mike had invited me over to join them and some friends for hamburgers, and we had a nice chat for a few hours. Watched on segment of a limited series on Netflix, a rather depressing story about Orthodox Jews, now I’m ready to try to get to bed early enough to get a good night sleep. Fingers crossed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart,
I can’t believe I slept until after 10:00 this morning! Crazy! It seems that I’ve been so wound up to get to Florida, that now that I’m here, my body is in crash mode or something. I considered riding again today, since it was a beautiful day, but decided my knee could use another day of rest, though it was much better today considering the workout it got yesterday. I literally spent almost the entire day just reading, did a little stretching, then a couple of hours of TV, finishing off my binge-watching of the Hallmark program I was watching. I thought the program was off the air so I could watch the whole series like I like to do, but after watching the last, very unsatisfactory ending, I looked it up and found it was still going on, there have been two more seasons that I can’t get unless I pay for it, with another season apparently on the way, so now I’ll have to wait who know how long to see any more of it, darn it! Oh well, that’s the way it goes! I’ll have to be more thorough when I research a show from now on. Anyway, it was a very quiet and lazy day, as it seems my body is craving rest. Hopefully I’ll take a ride tomorrow, but we’ll see. That’s it, babe! Love you! Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
A good night sleep, a lazy morning, then I headed off the Williston to a big feed store up there where I picked up 10 bales of pretty nice coastal hay for $7.99/bale. More than I’ve been paying, but not bad for Florida prices. They also carried Nutrena so I was able to get Senior and Perform as well. I didn’t need the Balancer, I’d already stocked up on that, so I’m good for awhile. I went shopping for essentials at the Winn-Dixie, then got back to the ranch before 2:00. I’m staying at a place about 1.5 miles south of the trailhead where we stayed last year, with a couple that I met last year who are good friends with the organizer of the endurance ride that I’m here to help with. It’s a good example of making a lot of good use out of a small amount of space, and would be exactly the kind of thing brother Jeff could do on his place if he ever gets it cleared out enough. I’m tucked away in a nice quiet corner with the horses in a paddock right next to me, and their dump, which isn’t set up to drive to, only to haul with a portable sewer cart, is close enough to me where I think I might even have enough hose to reach it, which would be a great convenience. I put the hay under the gooseneck with the skirting around it, stashed all the feed in the back of the trailer, and then relaxed for the rest of the day. I’m starting to feel better, recharging my batteries a bit, and I’m hoping to get a ride in tomorrow, as it’s going to be in the low 70’s. I think I’ll take Apollo, just because I need a nice relaxing ride to see how my knee is doing, hopefully it won’t be a setback. Binge-watched some more of my Hallmark series, now I’m ready to call it a night. Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
Though I ended up getting to sleep rather late last night because I was reading, I slept straight through till after 9:00 this morning, which is pretty late even for me! Then, after feeding everyone and myself breakfast, I sat down in my recliner to finish off the book I was reading, and ended up falling asleep again for almost two hours! I don’t know what’s up with that, but I did have a sore throat the last couple of days, which was mostly gone this morning, so maybe my body is just exerting itself fighting germs and I needed the sleep. I had planned to do a lot of housework, but I ended up only doing a little, just enough to say I did some, and one load of laundry, then went back to resting, since it seems that’s what my body wants. So mostly a lazy day. My knee was a little better, but it’s still pretty bad, not sure what to do about it at this point. That’s another reason more rest today was a good idea. Anyway, I expect another good night sleep, and tomorrow I have to do some shopping, once it warms up. It’s supposed to be below freezing here tonight, but warming up nicely the rest of the week. I’m hoping to ride Thursday when it’s going up to the 70’s. So I’m off to shower and bed here shortly, after I find some new books to download. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Up early with the alarm after having it rain all evening and most of the night. I was fortunate that there was a break yesterday to feed the horses, there was so much rain in the last twelve hours! It quit a couple of hours before I had to get up, though, and I got busy packing right away. I decided just to have some bread and butter to take with me to eat later, made some coffee and started loading up. It all went pretty smoothly, Flash doesn’t hesitate at all any more getting into the trailer, which is a big help. We managed to be on the road by 8:30! It was a pleasant trip, though we were fighting a little crosswind, but I’m so heavy I hardly noticed, and the weather improved as we went along, getting less cloudy and much warmer, into the upper 60’s by the time I arrived. I stopped for fuel at a Shell in Hahira to top off at cheap Georgia fuel prices before hitting Florida, knowing that I didn’t have enough to get me all the way anyway. Next stop was the ag station, and this time a guy came out rather than me going in, he barely looked at the paperwork and didn’t even ask me for my drivers’ license, which is really unusual. Suffice to say, it didn’t take long to get through the inspection station! I arrived just before 2:30, earlier than I originally planned, but was happy for the extra time to relax later. I had no trouble at all getting backed into the spot they chose for me, a nice little corner, and water and electric were close by, and setup was really easy. The paddock is really big, almost a small pasture, so the horses immediately rolled as soon as they got in there. This is going to be perfect for three weeks! I got my rug and lawn chairs out, but not the screen room yet, because it’s going to be too cold for the next day or two, but I should put that out, and my barbecue as well, later in the week. It’s going down into the mid-30’s here tonight, so I put the blankets on the horses at dinnertime, but it was forecast to be 26 degrees at Mingo Trails, so I’m happy to be here! And the highs will be in the 70’s by Thursday, so I’m a happy camper. It was worth the long drive, and since so much of it was on the freeway, it was very straightforward. Lola has plenty of room to wander, and she got along fine with my host’s two dogs, so I think it’s going to be pleasant for all of us. The only fly in the ointment today is my knee, which really feels like I’ve blown it out completely, I could barely walk for the first few steps every time I tried, though it would feel better the more I walked. I hope it straightens itself out, or I will surely be looking for an orthopedist when I get down to Jupiter. I settled down for the rest of the day and the evening, luxuriating in the free time, though I’ll be off to bed soon after my tea and shower. Good night, darlin’! Love you

Hi Darln’,
Since they had music playing again last night, I put in my earplugs and slept well again, yay! I got up early and immediately started putting things away while I was feeding the horses, because the forecast is calling for rain to start around 2:00 and I need to get out early tomorrow so I didn’t want to leave anything to be done that wasn’t necessary. I also adjusted the brakes again, I realized that I misunderstood something I read and didn’t do it right, so I had to go back and do it again, with much better results. Of course, that meant hooking the trailer up, so when I was finished I just raised the trailer up to make it level, and in the morning all I’ll have to do is drop it and put the safety chains and electric on, easy peasy. I’ve left the jiffy jack in front of the left hand wheel so that I can run up on it and get the slide in a lot easier that way. Then all I have to do is get the horses in and do my last minute cleanup and put horse stuff away and I’ll be on my way! I’m hoping to be out by 9:00 so I can get to my destination between 3:00-4:00, and of course, I have to get through the ag station, which takes a little time. Plus since it’s nearly 300 miles, I’m going to have to stop for fuel at least once as well, so I’m working that into the schedule, too. It’s going to be a long day! But then I’ll be at the same place for nearly three weeks, so I can rest, put my screen room up, and do all the longer-term things I haven’t been able to do lately since I’ve taken so many short hops lately. Then I spent the afternoon doing laundry while binge-watching the Hallmark series I’ve been enjoying, so at least the afternoon was restful. I also retrieved my macaroni salad, which I’m sorry to say didn’t get eaten too much, so I had to bag that up and freeze some, and put the rest in the refrigerator, so Lola and I will be eating a lot of macaroni salad in the coming days! I’m just about done for the day, enjoying my cup of tea now, and will be heading to the shower and bed soon! Love you sweetie! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
Between the loud music they were playing in the clubhouse and the storm that was due to come in overnight, I put in my earplugs and ended up having a great night sleep. It was still raining when I got up, and it was cloudy and damp all day, so I decided not to ride today. In fact, I decided not to do much of anything today. Since I’ve decided to drive straight through to my central Florida stop on Monday, nearly 300 miles, I decided to catch up on some rest today so I can do everything I need to do to get ready tomorrow. Other than binge-watching a series on Netflix that I’ve been watching, and pulling out the breadmaker, I did little else but basic chores today. I had bought some bread last week, but when I went to toast some this morning, it had already starting to mold a little bit. I cut off the mold for my toast, but I had half a loaf going bad, and since I don’t plan on shopping until at least the middle of next week, I really needed some bread, so I dragged out my breadmaker and threw a loaf in. I had forgotten what a great butter-delivery device fresh, warm bread is! I made of loaf of French bread with garlic and herbs, and it came out delicious! I had one slice in the afternoon, then another with some chicken noodle soup later on, and it completely stuffed me. So good! At least now I’ll have bread for a few days. I may just decide to make my own bread for awhile anyway, since I’ll have electric for the next couple of months, and it just tastes so much better. Anyway, after an otherwise lazy but restful day, I’m ready for shower and bed, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Happy Thanksgiving! I spent most of the morning in the kitchen cooking, making macaroni salad and deviled eggs for the gathering this afternoon, then relaxed a bit in the afternoon, chatted with two of my three brothers, then went over to the pavilion with my offerings, and met some folks and talked with them before and during dinner. Spent most of the time with Jeff and Beth, a couple that lives north of here but are originally from New England. There was plenty of food, and I’m afraid I may be eating leftover macaroni salad for the next week, though they kept it there so that they could put it on a lunch buffet for tomorrow. We split up after dinner to feed horses, then reconvened around their campfire for a few hours with their camp neighbor before coming back for tea and a short program. A nice way to spend Thanksgiving. I’m hoping to get a long ride in tomorrow, though I’m having some problems with my knee today. I’m hoping it’s related to my shoulder, which I’ve been working on a lot the last few days, maybe one of these days it will all straighten itself out. Anyway, I’m hoping Lola won’t be too restless tonight, she’s gotten so little exercise this week. I’ve had to keep her cooped up since there are so many other dogs around. One woman who came in yesterday with a whole bunch of little yippers actually packed up and left early today, I think because she felt guilty her crew would never shut up. I heard they were the last few of a bunch of rescues that came from a puppy mill or something, I don’t know if she’s fostering or she adopted them all, there were at least five of them. Doesn’t matter, there are still a few more yippers left in camp, though they seem to be a bit more quiet most of the time. Anyway, time for shower and bed and read and probably ibuprofen for my knee! Good night, sweetie! Love you!