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Hey Sweetie!
Another good night sleep, followed by a day of housekeeping and preparation for our departure tomorrow. I actually woke up in the mood to do housework, so you know what that means! I went through this place like a Tasmanian devil, cleaning almost everything in sight. I even did the deep clean on the leather recliners, something that’s needed to be done for quite some time. I repaired Lola’s big bed, installing the foam I bought the other day, she seem to like it, though I caught her starting to pull the stuffing out the her little bone-shaped pillow, so I took that away from her, I’ll have to mend that before I give it back to her. It took me most of the day, plus putting away everything outside, though I haven’t hooked up to the truck because it would have been too slope-y, I think. I checked all the vitals on the truck and the air pressure in all the tires, and noticed something weird. Even though it’s the same size tire, this Hanook I bought for a spare (though it’s on there until I replace with a Crosswind), it appears to be bigger! Just eyeballing it, it seems bigger, though I didn’t actually measure it. I’ll do that when I get to my next locations. Strange, though, and it’s a much different tread. I hope it runs okay, I’ll have over three hours driving tomorrow to check it out. Finally settled down for the evening, took my shower early, now I’m heading off to bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Honey,
Slept a bit late this morning, then spent the most of the day working on various things on my computer, some of the time researching whitewater raft rides in the Grand Canyon, to see if I could get one in on my schedule. They have several different types of rafts, some are motorized, some have a guide that does all the rowing, but the kind I want is where I actually get to paddle through the whitewater, and I think I may have found one, but it’s a two day trip, camping along the shoreline for a night, which sounds fabulous to me! Still have a few more logistics to work out on that, though. Meanwhile, I had made arrangements to meet a guy to get hay at 6:00 and decided to run up to nearby Richmond to do a little shopping beforehand, so I left around 3:30, went to a craft store to get some padding to stuff back into Lola’s bed, then to Tractor Supply for propane and horse feed, then Walmart for a just a few items, then arrived at the hay guy’s about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. I let him know I was early, but he didn’t answer. I waited half an hour, messaging him several times, never heard a thing, so I finally left. Went back up the road to a farm with a sign that said “hay for sale” and talked to the owner, but they only do big round bales, so that didn’t help. Got back to camp just in time to take a phone call from the rafting company, we spent some time going over the options, and it looks like I might be able to fit it in! Whoo-hoo! I did a little rearranging of my reservations, with still a few other things to work out, but it looks like it might all be falling together. The hotel I’ll need to stay at for the rafting trip (outside of Grand Canyon in Peach Springs on the famous Route 66) also has caverns, and a restaurant called the Grotto which is also at the bottom of the caves, so I think I’ll have plenty of options of things to do on my extra day. Finally, after 8:30, I FINALLY heard from the hay guy, very apologetic, just completely slipped his mind, but promised to deliver the hay to me tomorrow morning, no extra charge. I rubbed it in a little, but forgave him, so hopefully that will get done in the morning. So I finally settled down for the evening, a quick bite of dinner, and Voyager or two, now off to showers and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
What a day! Lola kept waking me up all night, it was a miracle I got any sleep at all, then when I got up with the alarm, it just started pouring with rain, which last half an hour, but then started clearing up nicely, so I waited it out, having breakfast and getting the inside of the trailer ready to travel. At 8:00 I started calling tire places, and finally on the fourth call I found someone who was only about 10 miles out of my way, a Firestone dealer that had a Hancook tire in my size. I figured since it was only a spare it didn’t need to be the same as the rest, I’ll order on of those online and have it fitted later. So I got everything packed up, and was leaving the dump by 9:30, a little ahead of schedule, which I needed to do. I arrived at the tire place (Pomps in Monticello), and they went to work almost immediately, and I was out of there in about an hour, thank goodness. The modified route actually took me on more interstates, so that was a plus. And my brakes are working MUCH better, though there was a time or two when a light changed suddenly that made me buck a little. There was a lot of construction, but it didn’t slow me down too much. I arrived in Richmond (I know, this all sounds like Virginia, but I’m in Indiana!), I stopped at the Meijer’s and did all my shopping. I found most of what I needed, and got a couple more bottles of Joint Juice (I’m determined to have a good supply since they’ve become so hard to find!), and I would have gotten more but that’s all they had. Finally, at around 4:00 I was heading to camp, arriving about 35 minutes later. All went well with my check-in, and then I headed back to the horse camp. The roads were very narrow, one way and lots of old trees, quite lovely but a little tricky. Then I found my spot and started to back in, but I had a big tree to go around, and I missed the gravel, of which there wasn’t much, by about a foot, and after several attempts to get it right, I ended up getting stuck. Right next to the gravel it was very muddy, and there was no way to turn that sharp (well, I was concerned about how hard it is on the tires, making 90 degree turns), and then because the trailer wheels sank into the mud on one side, then the bottom of the trailer started scraping along the asphalt, then my truck tires started slipping because I was off the asphalt trying to make that sharp turn… Well, long story short, I got stuck. I couldn’t move at all. So, I unhooked the truck and straightened it out and tried to move it in a straight line, and that didn’t work. Then I unhooked again and drove up to the gatehouse to see if they had any equipment, like a tractor or something, that could help move me. They said they weren’t allowed because of the liability. Then I remembered that my insurance policy on the trailer included road service, so I called them, and within 5 minutes they had a wrecker on the way! They arrived about 45 minutes later (about 30 minutes ahead of a huge storm that was moving in), and after a couple of tries, we managed to get the trailer back on the road, me hooked up to the trailer, and then I managed to back it up into the spot perfectly. Too bad I couldn’t do that the first time! Oh, and meanwhile, I was arranging to sell the little trailer during that whole mess! Busy, crazy day! I have a couple of guys and an older woman camping next to me, and they had a lot of fun sitting on a picnic table watching what was going on. They weren’t expecting so much entertainment! They seem nice, I had chatted with them before, they were our riding when I first arrived and came back to see the road blocked with my trailer. They offered to help, but I had already arranged for the wrecker, which was safer anyway. By now it was starting to get dark, both because the storm was getting close, and because it was after 9:00, but I managed to do most of my chores while I was waiting for the wrecker. Got a fence up, fed the horses, cleared out the back of the trailer, filled up with water, all the usual mundane stuff, then once the trailer was in position, I did my indoor stuff, which isn’t much. So late now, and I’m pretty tired (and my back is still giving me an occasional twinge when I move wrong), so I’m off to shower and bed pretty quick here. Good night, my darling! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
I had a wonderful night sleep last night, which I needed so bad after yesterday! Spent the day mostly relaxing and putting stuff away at a leisurely pace. Not as much as usual, since I didn’t do a full setup here, didn’t do the screen room, so that made it easier. But then, while I was just about to get ready to hook up the truck, I noticed something that I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed the whole time I’ve been here. One of the tires, the one that was the spare that I just changed a few weeks ago because I was worried about a chunk out of the sidewall, had lost a huge chunk of tread! It stretched halfway across the width and at least a foot along the tread, right down to having the steel belts sticking out. I’m surprised it hadn’t gone flat just sitting there! I don’t know how long it’s been like that, but I’m sure glad I saw it before I pulled out tomorrow morning, it certainly would have gone before long! So unfortunately, I had to put the tire with the chunk out of the sidewall back on, not happy about that, but I’m going to have to do some research in the morning to see if there’s a tire shop anywhere along the way that has this brand of tires in the right size. Of course, it made more work for me, but I hopefully dodged a bullet there. I only hope the sidewall on this new tire doesn’t blow, with no spare, that would be bad! I’ll be sweating bullets all the way, or until I get to a tire shop. Worst comes to worse, I’ll get where I’m going, order the tires online and have them delivered to a nearby shop and take the rims in to get them mounted. Thank goodness for my new XL JiffyJack! I’m certainly getting a lot of use out of it these days! Well, that exhausted me, and unfortunately, heat and humidity came back today, so I’m hot and sweaty, too. Finally settled down, got just about everything ready to go, had a nice dinner, now I’m heading for the shower and bed. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, despite my best intentions to ride today, it just didn’t happen. I woke up in with so much back pain, it was making spasms when I moved. I could hardly reach down to put my socks on just getting out of bed. I promptly took three ibuprofen, and headed out to take care of the horses. Moving helped, except when I twisted in a certain directions, then for a moment I could hardly walk. I’m not sure what set this off, but there was no way, even after the drug kicked in, that I was going to be in any shape to ride today. As it turned out, it took me most of the day to finish writing my analysis to each of the individuals in last week’s workshop, something I promised our client I would do, and I didn’t get that wrapped up until nearly 6:00, so at least the day wasn’t wasted. I also finally got an email from our other client in Las Vegas, they’re ready to start looking at the calendar to reschedule the postponed workshop from last Spring, so another job is on the way, yay! I also got an email from Equity about my submission for a contract for myself, they seem open to the idea of the contract except for the crazy Covid restrictions they’re trying to impose. Apparently following the local and federal guidelines aren’t enough, they want to research every county I’ll be “performing” in for some reason. I swear, if I can through this process, I can get through anything! Anyway, by the time I was feeding the horses at dinnertime, my back seemed to be improving a bit, though I still get a massive twinge if I turn the wrong way. I’ve got some friends coming out to ride here with me tomorrow, I’m just going to load up on painkillers and hopefully that will be enough. I tried an experiment today, I didn’t start the generator this morning, and I let the solar panel charge the batteries all day. Typically by morning, I’ve have to use the jump starter to get the generator going, but with a sunny day like today, my voltage went up from 11.8 to 12.3, even with me drawing power to charge up my electronics all day, and when I went to start it at dinnertime, it actually had enough of a charge to start! That’s a breakthrough bit of knowledge for me, I thought I would always have to run it both morning and evening, but it looks like half an hour once in the evening might be enough, at least when it’s sunny. That will certainly save on propane! Well, that’s all the news, time for shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!