Can’t seem to help but get up before 7:00 or so, as it gets so light so early here in Central Time. Not to mention there’s a lot of traffic here, like at most State Parks. Anyway, got the horses fed by the time Hubby woke up, then walked the dogs as he started making coffee and getting ready for breakfast. Relaxed a bit in the morning, then got the horses saddles for our last ride here today. Yesterday was the first time I had tried out my new saddle-shaped bareback pad, and with the severe terrain here (pretty steep ascents and descents), it was a good test to try it out. I had to rework the stirrups, as they really don’t have a great buckle system, and were slipping like crazy yesterday, but we managed to find a way to lock them in. I added my lambskin cover, which was a tremendous help, I never noticed the rings at all today, and I started getting used to going for the mane instead of the horn (on my old saddle:-), though my balance seems to be improving dramatically, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing a lot less grabbing as I get more confident. Took a much longer ride today, but again there was a discrepancy between my GPS and Google Earth, with one saying the trip was 5.5 miles and the other saying over 8. We added a section by accident, but were glad we did when we found ourselves on the top of a cliff overlooking the lake for which the park was name (and which we hadn’t even seen yet!), with a spectacular view! There were several islands that, according to the map, were half in Kentucky and half in Tennessee, and since we were looking south, most of the view was the latter. Not as many boats on the lake as I would have thought for a Sunday, and no sailboats at all that I could see, just motor boats of varying sizes and shapes. Glad we went the extra .8 miles and back to see it, was a nice place to take a rest anyhow. In any event, it was a decent three hour ride, but I have to say, these are some of the worst maintained trails I ever seen, especially for a state park, and even more so for a state “resort” park! So many limbs have fallen across the trail that it’s almost impossible to ever get in a decent trot or canter, despite the fact there’s plenty of opportunities otherwise. All it would take would be a crew for a few days to get everything is ship-shape. I’ve seen national forests with better-maintained trails! At least today I wore long sleeves so I wouldn’t get scratched by all the brambles that have stretched themselves into the trail. Apollo and I did have several good canters today, and a couple of trots as well. He seems to be moving so much more easily with this new configuration, so I’m hoping that once I gain a bit more confidence, we’ll be able to manage anything! Got back right around 3, got everyone settled, gave the horses a quick rinse off, packed up all the items we could for our departure tomorrow, and settled in for a quiet and relaxing evening.

Woke up to the sound of mule bellowing from the campground loop next door, only about 6:00, but I lay in bed for a while longer, until I finally just had to get up, about 7:30 or so. Took care of the animals, feeding and walking, finding Hubby getting up by the time I finished. We had our bacon and egg breakfast, then spent some time trimming the horses’ feet (Clio’s wouldn’t fit in her boots properly, and Apollo’s hooves grow so fast I can’t let them go any longer). I also tried out my new saddle-shaped bareback pad that was waiting for us when we got home, so I had to switch out the girth and adjust the stirrups, which had a rather strange plastic setup that didn’t do a very good job of keeping them in place. Every time I put weight on them they slipped, so I had to mess with that a bit until they eventually stayed pretty well. Finally, we headed off down the nearest trail, called Rangers’ Loop. Oddly, on the map it says the trail is 3.5 miles long, but on the trailhead sign it says 7.1 miles long, so not knowing added a bit of mystery. Shortly after the start, however, Apollo gave me a fright. Something caught his eye and he wheeled around suddenly, and not having a horn (although there’s a little loop to grab, reports on the internet said it would rip easily), so I didn’t feel real confident in that, I eventually managed to grab a handful of mane, just in time to keep me from losing my balance, as the girth had already loosened up dramatically (which it always does, just not usually this early in the ride) so my saddle pad slid a bit, plus by stirrups moved a bit, and my feet couldn’t stay in the stirrups. I dismounted, raised the stirrups and tried to lock them in better before heading back down the trail, past the scary stump that had so tortured Apollo… Anyway, we followed the arrows, up and down some nice hills through mostly forest. I was quite surprised at how unused the trail seemed to be, with lots of broken limbs blocking the trail, and areas where the undergrowth was brushing us as we passed. I was only wearing a tank top, I would have worn sleeves if I had known the trail would be so narrow in places! Anyway, about a half hour into the trip, we went down a pretty steep and narrow part of the trail, then through a little muck at the bottom, which Apollo took as a personal affront, and to show his displeasure (and because he was tired of just walking), he decided to gallop away from it, uphill, winding around trees, sometimes on the trail, sometimes not, all the while I’ve grabbed his mane and am hanging on for dear life, hoping he doesn’t rub me off on one the trees he was skimming by! With one hand in the mane, the other hand just didn’t seem to know what to do with the reins except let him go, so that’s what we did. Eventually he galloped off the trail and had to stop as the woods became too thick for him to go any further. Hubby was just behind me at a somewhat more controlled canter, but we had to backtrack about 5 yards to get back on the trail. Rather exciting, and a good test of my near stirrup-less bareback skills, which turned out to be better than I thought. I really like the feel of this “saddle” though, Apollo is a really wide and flat horse, so his back is actually more comfortable than my old saddle, and I can get a real feel for his gait this way. I also think he seems more comfortable without any kind of tree or hard structure against him. Once I gain a little more experience and confidence in the equipment, in particular, solve the stirrup problem, this should be a really good way to ride. I had also read on the internet (and also turned out to be true) about the fact that because there are no fenders, the stirrup rings rub badly again your calves and that you needed chaps to solve the problem, but Hubby suggested I move my lambskin saddle pad from the old saddle, which covers all the way down to the top of the actual stirrups, and should cover up the problem, which I thought was a great idea, since I think will be my saddle of choice for awhile. We finished making our way around the loop, and arrived back at the campground with no further incidents, though we did get a little jog in (the trot was just too bouncy without stirrups steady enough to post in). I’ll be ready to canter next time we ride, assuming there’s a section of the trail that allows for it. According to my GPS, the whole ride was only 2.49 miles, so I don’t know where these other measurements came from! Looking forward to transferring it over to Google Earth and seeing how it matches the actual map, to see if we went wrong, or if the map is just poorly made. Gave the horses a rinse off, tied them on their anchors and tied them to the hitching post so they can enjoy some of this manicured grass, while I refit my new saddle with the lambskin cover and tried to secure the stirrups a bit better. Then a lovely afternoon sitting on my lounger under the awning getting caught up on my blog, while Hubby switched between golf and soccer on the telly. Just about time for our evening routine, cocktail hour is fast approaching!

Summary of the last few weeks. Rather than bore anyone with the mundane of our ordinary lives at home, here it is in a nutshell: Non-stop Doctor’s appointments, shopping, yardwork, chores, sewing, and loading up the RV. We finally got started back on the road today. We had planned on getting up just before 7:00, but I accidentally set the alarm for just before 6:00, which we didn’t actually mind, because we had gone to bed so early, and we wanted to get out so much, we jumped out of bed and started getting ready to go. We were headed up the driveway just after 8:00. We had one stop in McMinnville at the Farmer’s Coop to pick up some heavy duty wormer (Hubby’s worried his horse is getting too thin, and thinks it might be worms), and considering how many horses they were around in Charlotte last month, better safe than sorry. We usually worm them twice a year (per our vet), but Hubby’s been reading up on worming and wants to increase the schedule, which is fine by me. Next we grabbed gas at the new Kroger station and breakfast at Burger King, before heading out to Dale Hollow State Park, just over the TN/KY border. This is one of those manmade lakes that TVA built to provide electricity to everyone living in the sticks (including us!), and there’s a lot of very nice parks around the edges of the lake. We arrived right around noon, checked in, and headed out to the horse camp. There are three loops that are all campgrounds that allow horses, but the only accommodation they provide are several hitching rails in each loop. There really aren’t even enough trees within the campground to use for a highline. Fortunately the loop is surrounded by woods, so we found a couple of trees in there to set them up. The only problem is it’s on a hill, so the bobos will just have to stand at a slant while we’re here! The site we reserved had a really short driveway, so we really couldn’t fit in without seriously blocking the driveway, but the site next door (#7) had a longer driveway, plus we could angle the truck a bit so that it would just about be clear of the road. We called the office (cellphone service is fair, but seems to be on an extended and even roaming service) and confirmed we could move to #7, so gradually we got everything set up. It’s a typical state park, though, with highly manicured lawns and groomed camping areas, with a bathhouse that doubled as a tornado shelter. Pretty quiet though, there were a couple of campers (sans horses) in the loop, but they left before the end of the day, and just one other camper came in, a long livestock trailer that was also sans horses. We did see a couple of riders go by, though, so we know there are other campers with horses here in the next loop over. Had to park the horse trailer in the middle of the loop, next to our neighbor’s boat, because the sites themselves are too small, and not very level. Hubby missed the mark a little setting up the RV, we were balanced left to right, but we have a pretty serious list to the front. We were too tired to worry about it, though, we just wanted to relax as much as we could. We had replaced most of our hoses with those new little Pocket Hoses “As seen on TV” while we were home, and I wanted to put the automatic waterer on the horses water tub so we would have to drag it up the hill all the time, and to keep it full and heavy enough to prevent the horses from kicking it down the hill, but of course the old hose that was left on there had become all corroded, so it took some effort and a little heat to finally break that loose. Eventually, though, we got the system worked out and set up. We even brought out the lounges and sat under the awning for a while. The weather is simply perfect, not a cloud in the sky and only in the low eighties, with lows in the low 60’s, couldn’t ask for better. Plus these sites all have 50 amp service, so we should have everything we need here, including air conditioning when the temps heat up over the next few days. Of course, being a state park, it’s a bit more expensive than we usually like to pay (including an extra one time, $2 charge per horse), but it does have all the mod cons, and we’ve had such a busy winter and spring, we’re not going to worry about a few extra bucks here and there. I’m sure we’ll make up for it by spending time in a national forest somewhere, where we can get the Golden Passport rate of about $2.50 a night : -) Anyway, we finally got everything settled in, then crashed for the rest of the day, determined to be rested enough to ride tomorrow. A cocktail, a shower, dinner, a movie, a brandy, and off to bed, our usual evening routine, SO glad to have a new back yard to look at!

Time to get a move on! We got up good and early, because we were quite concerned about meeting traffic coming up that narrow road (especially since it’s Friday), and were on the road by just after 8:00. Fortunately, we met no traffic, and the road didn’t seem quite so terrifying on the way back down the mountain, probably because we knew what we were in for, and because we were much more rested and therefore ready for any problems that might arise. It’s hard to think straight when you’re tired. Anyway, having gotten out so early, and since we would be gaining an hour by going into Central Time, we decided we had time to stop for a sit down breakfast, which we did at a Waffle place in the first town we came to (which happened to be conveniently located next to a liquor store, so Hubby ran in and replenished his brandy supply), before heading straight home, with just one quick stop at the Walmart in S. Pittsburg, TN, just an hour from home. Arrived by noon, thank goodness, and were pleasantly surprised that the place looked in pretty good shape. We had hired a guy to come in and mow the lawn periodically, and I had asked him to make sure the driveway was clear enough for the RV to get through, so we had no problems. Got the house opened up, threw all the dust covers in the washer, dragged the laundry and other essentials into the house, and relaxed as much as we could for the rest of the day. We had decided to give ourselves the 3-day weekend to fully recover (or as much as possibly could) before really going at it next week, when we’re wall to wall with Dr.’s appointments and chores. There are still some redecorating things I want to do on the new RV, and there’s lots of old stuff to transfer out, so we’ve got our work cut our for us while we’re home. Fortunately, we didn’t hear any shooting, so it was nice and quiet all evening. Discovered a leftover bottle of vodka, so cocktail hour started a little early today : -).

After our long and strenuous ride yesterday, everyone got the day off today. One thing for sure, we’ve been sleeping really well here, it’s so quiet and dark, just the way we like it!

Late yesterday afternoon, several vehicles came in and settled down on the other side of the campground. Eventually I wandered over to say hello, and to pick their brains on what the trails are like here, as the only map seems to indicate there’s only one very long trail, no real loops, so I’m hoping there’s a few more trails that aren’t on the map. It was a woman and her daughter, and we chatted awhile, and she gave me a bit of advice about the trails that seemed would be a little helpful. I’m always wary of asking locals, though, because what seems obvious to them isn’t always so obvious (correction, is NEVER as obvious) to someone not familiar with the area. I got the impression they came early in the hopes of securing the spot we had already secured, but I told her we were leaving Friday anyway, and they were welcome to it. They headed back to home after they set up, and Hubby and I saddled the horses and headed out. The beginning of the trail was just the end of the road that brought us to the campground, then, per our neighbor’s instructions, turn right, over the bridge, and started climbing up the mountain, and climbing, and climbing. The trail became more and more narrow, and eventually was little more than a stoney creekbed, and we STILL hadn’t reached the “Rim” trail! The neighbor had told me the whole trip would be only about 90 minutes, but we had already been going that long, and hadn’t even started on the back side of the loop. The trail got so bad, I became convinced we went wrong somewhere, and finally turned around and headed back. Once I compared my GPS with the trail map, we actually were going in the right direction, we just hadn’t gone far enough to reach the perimeter trail, which was actually fine with us! We’d going far enough. I remembered seeing a walking horse sign on the side of the neighbors trailer, and figured maybe it was 90 minutes with a gaited horse, but not with our old quarter/apps! It was so steep going up, and we were so grateful to be going down, we got home a lot faster, naturally. Cleaned everybody up and settled in for the evening.

The sore throat I started getting over the weekend is working it’s way through my system in the regular pattern of a cold, the first time that’s happened in a long time. I’ve been taking Alka-Seltzer Cold Plus fizzy tablets every night, so I’ve been sleeping well, and last night was particularly good. So quiet here, no lights, and the quiet whooshing of the nearby creek provides just a little bit of white noise, like a small fan in the next room, and has provided both Hubby and I with just what we need, a lot of sleep. I spent most of the day in bed, reading and sleeping, which did a lot to improve my cold (and my humor, which has been pretty grumpy lately, undoubtedly because we’re so run-down from our busy schedule), and another relaxing evening will likely go a long way as well. Hoping we feel up to taking a short ride tomorrow.

Having left several messages with the National Forest Service, who has yet to return my calls, we packed up early and headed out to the Nantahala NF. We grabbed some breakfast at a Dunkin Donuts at lunchtime, stopped off to get fuel and at a Wal-mart to shop, before finally reaching someone at the NF who said that there was no longer water spigots at the horse camp. Not that they weren’t there, but that they had been shut off because of some new, ridiculous state law about how watered needed to be treated in order to avoid litigation. Unbelievable, they couldn’t just put up a sign say “non-potable” and leave it at that? We are getting so sick of the stupid laws designed for the sole purpose of litigation avoidance, meanwhile whole-heartedly infringing on our constitutional rights to the pursuit of happiness. Anyway, we had to stop twice more just to find someplace to pick up water, then had to drag 800 more pounds of weight up a mountain, which certainly burned more fuel, thus causing more carbon pollution, which the same stupid government keeps claiming it wants to reduce. Speaking of dragging up the mountain, as we got closer, there were numerous signs that the road was closed, and we were afraid we were going to get stuck someplace we couldn’t turned around, but then we finally reached where a bridge was out, and our turn off was just before the bridge. We then traveled six miles of the most harrowing, cliff-hugging, hair-raising, white knuckle dirt road driving we’ve ever done. With very few turnouts, we were delighted we didn’t run into any traffic on the way up, but are already concerned about the drive out, which could pose some serious problems, and certainly some scary moments. We finally arrived at the clearing that is the Bristol Fields Horse Camp. With six sites, it had tall posts with hooks for putting up a highline. With the several spigots turned off, we looked for a spot nearest the creek, which fortunately runs the length of the campground, albeit on the opposite side of where the campsites were, we finally decided on site 6, which was the furthest west site, and the only one on the right side of the driveway in. It’s a double site, and provided a good opportunity for us to “circle the wagons” and provide some privacy from the rest of the campground. There was one tent in another field beyond the horse camp area, which frankly surprised us, this place is so remote we didn’t think many other people would trek all this way, but not so. We didn’t see any people, just a tent. Having arrived much later than we had hoped, nearly 5:00, we hurried to get set up, led the horses down to the creek for a drink before putting them on the highline, got the satellite dish set up (another plus for site 6, though we had to stretch the cable quite a ways), and settled in for the evening. No cell service here, that’s for sure! Actually, it’s a beautiful spot, I hope the trails turn out to be pretty good, in order to make all the aggravation associated with getting here, and getting water, worth the trip.

Our original plan had been to move on today, but it’s raining, and looks like it will continue to rain for the better part of the day, so we decided to wait until tomorrow when the weather would clear. We can certainly use the extra day anyway, trying to recoup. Another relatively relaxing day, thank goodness!

We had scheduled today as a rest day, so we did little but unpack, do laundry, watch TV and nap (well, Hubby go to nap while I did laundry), but we did get to bed early, really crashing hard after all our exertions of late.