After another long and excellent night of sleeping, we decided the best thing to do today was as little as possible, so we broke out the Kindles and settled into our recliners for most of the day. Some rain came in during the afternoon, and the temps dropped a bit, so it’s just the kind of weather where you want to stay inside anyway! Enjoyed watching the Kentucky Derby (though I wish I had the ingredients for a mint julep, but I forgot about it last time we were in the liquor store), and listening to all the fuss about the rain and how it would affect the race. I’ll give NBC their due, it was the best coverage of the race we’ve seen in a long time! Usually they don’t pay hardly any attention to the horses, they make it all about the owners and trainers, but it seems they finally figured out it’s the HORSES people tune in to see. I guess that’s one good thing about social media, you get instant feedback on what you’re doing wrong! At least they apparently listened, because it certainly was better this time around, usually we skip through most of it, but this year they actually got our attention. Anyway, more rain here as well as in Lexington, so another quiet evening for us.

It was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy today, but my mail had arrived at the Chester Post Office (after a brief interlude when it got lost because I switched a single zip code digit), so I ran into town to pick it up, as well as do a few more errands that had come up. It was raining by the time I got back around 5:00, and the forecast seems to indicate we’re going to be socked in for a few days. We would really like to ride here, but it’s more important for us the recharge our bodily batteries after such a long stretch with few real breaks, and frankly, a few rainy days will be just the thing. We went ahead a put a rain sheet on the Clio, as she had been shivering a tiny bit this morning from the damp cold, and later put one on Apollo as well, in anticipation of the forecast. I slept better last night than I have in a LONG time, and a few more nights like that are just what I need! Relaxed the rest of the evening, looking forward to another good night sleep.

Feeling renewed after a good night’s sleep, we packed up, got the horses in the trailer, and were headed out before 11:00. It’s only a 90 minute or so drive, so we weren’t in too much of a hurry, though we had a couple of stops to make. Fortunately, while I thought I would have to circle the town of York to get everything we needed, it turns out we had everything right along the main highway, so we were able to get everything in short order. We arrived at Woods Ferry just after 2:00, with Hubby a little confused. He had had a completely different image of the place in his mind, and I had to spend some time jogging his memory of our last time here, which was three years ago! Thank goodness I’m keeping a diary or I would never remember any of this stuff! It had been a horrendous trip down last time, suffering two flat tires on the same day, and several other things occurred that finally helped him remember. Anyway, although my diary says we got a satellite signal at the place we parked last time, Hubby wasn’t sure he could do it again (maybe there are more leaves on the trees this time or something), but in any event, we found a better spot higher up the loop anyway. I’m pretty sure these spots were all full last time we came here, because it was Easter weekend and we didn’t arrive until Friday. That was back when we first were horsecamping, and hadn’t yet learned to arrive on Thursdays to get the best spots : -). Anyway, we got the horses settled into their two open corrals, and got everything else set up in no time. Home again, home again, with a new backyard! LOVE being surrounded by the woods again, how I need this!

Although we had planned on leaving to go to Woods Ferry today, I was so exhausted I just couldn’t muster the energy. Much as I want to get out into the woods and relax, my attitude was just too crabby and I felt like I had the possible beginnings of a cold, so we decided it would be better if I just stayed in bed and got as much sleep as I could, so that’s what we did. It’s hard to sleep parked in someone’s back yard, though, especially a busy working farm like this one, where there’s always some activity going on, even if it’s just the roosters!

Didn’t have too great a night sleep, again. I had asked housekeeping to try to do something with the lumps in my bed, and they didn’t do anything, so when I crawled into bed and discovered all the lumps again, I got back up, stripped the bed, and found the offending lumps, and learned the reason was because the corners on the bed liner (which was covering an uncomfortable, non-breathing plastic mattress cover) had completely melted on one side, which accounted for the lumps. I had to call down and have housekeeping bring another one, which turned out to be even worse! Very disappointed in this hotel! In any event, fortunately, my flight was scheduled for late in the day, so I once again didn’t get much sleep overnight, but finally got into a deep sleep around dawn, so at least got a few hours before having to get up and pack. Had an uneventful but comfortable flight home, a tiring drive back to the farm, happy reunions with Hubby and animals, and brief evening before crashing to bed.

What a terrible night! This turned out to be the worst night I’ve had in a long time, if that’s possible. There were creases in the layers below the sheets that formed welts on my body, the sheets were flat and wouldn’t stay in place, so they were constantly bunching up and creating lumps, which woke me up practically every hour. I kept trying to smooth them out, but it was impossible, and the sheets were really rough, too. Then the alarm clock went off at 3:30, and I punched every button I could feel in the dark, hoping I had shut it off permanently, but worrying that it would come on again. Just managed to drift off to sleep when all of a sudden, the TV came on at 4:12 am! I had to scramble to find the remote, and because I hadn’t even turned it on the night before, I didn’t know which was the power button, so I had to struggle with that for a minute. I was still worried about the alarm clock, so I decided to turn the light on and straighten that out, then went back to bed, waiting a long time to get back to sleep, but finally did, and fell into a very deep sleep until 9:00. Good thing my event wasn’t until the afternoon!!! If I had had to get up to do a training session at my usual time, I would have been a real mess! I took my time getting out of bed and getting ready, but before noon I headed downstairs to join my group for lunch. I sat through a couple of presentations before they split into plenary sessions, so I went up to my room again for a little while. Finally, it was time. Came downstairs, made a few lighting changes on the stage, and performed my 90 minute keynote speech/training to a quiet crowd of 150 engineers, but they received me well and seemed to enjoy themselves. Afterward, several came up to me to speak with me, then we headed out to a cocktail party with heavy hors d’oeuvres that substituted for dinner (which was fine with me!), before we headed to the company’s entertainment section (called the Mike & Mike Show), which was a series of team exercises that were very entertaining, and in some cases, quite a workout! Very fun, and a great break fro the stress I’ve been dealing with for many weeks now. Headed up to the room, looking forward to a better night sleep.

Spent the morning packing and getting my outline for my speech in order, then headed out to the airport around noon. We had decided since it was for such a short time it didn’t make sense for Hubby to drive all the way to the airport and back, so I just took the van. Because it was raining cats and dogs (my favorite weather for flying… NOT!) I decided to valet the van, since it was only for two days. Even so, the valet wasn’t completely under cover, so I had to run through the rain to the curb anyway. Checked in my carryon so I wouldn’t have to bother with it, and before I knew it, I was once again sitting in first class on another flight. Seems like that’s been a constant this year, being on a plane! Anyway, it’s a very short flight, so a snack and a cup of hot tea was about all I had time for. Caught the hotel shuttle to the Westin BWI, missing Hubby all the way, arriving in time to get my pick of rooms. I ended up in a corner room at the end of a quiet hall, which boded well, and after settling in, headed downstairs to the restaurant for a lovely bowl of crab soup, though I had to wait for bread and butter to go with it, as the soup was getting colder all the while. Spent the evening working on my speech and reading. Didn’t even bother to turn on the TV, just wanted to appreciate the quiet I had in the room, yeah! I miss Hubby being with me, though, we’re not apart often, and we never like it when we are. At least I had my old phone turned on for him, and we spoke throughout the day anyway. Looking forward to getting this job finished and back to him!

Had to run out and do some shopping, then tried to relax at least rest of the day, since I have to fly out again tomorrow. Worked on my script a bit, as I only have 90 minutes to speak, and figuring out what to cut out is the hardest thing to do! Managed to pare it down to a manageable script that should do just fine.

With a quick turnaround for me, I spent the day catching up on laundry and trying my best to rest, though computer work, as always, was the priority. It was great to be on my own bed, but I had a lousy night for some reason, just kept waking up every couple of hours, though I did manage to get back to sleep eventually. So much anxiety these days, with so much still to do!

Had to get up fairly early, enjoying the hotel’s free breakfast before heading out to SFO, first to drop off our cute Jeep by 8:30, then catching our flight, which, fortunately, was pretty much on time. Thank goodness we decided to fly first class this time, it’s just something we’ve decided we need to do from now on, or certainly whenever possible, especially for these long jaunts. We’ve just reached a point in our lives where we just want to enjoy ourselves a bit, and flying is so dang hard these days, especially cross-country, so it’s a nice way to treat ourselves a little, even when it’s on our dime, like this time. Anyway, it was a nice flight, the lunch was okay but not great (some kind of barbecued chicken with corn and other flavors of the southwest, not my favorite), and we arrived on time, having made up for a late start. I grabbed the shuttle out to the parking lot and picked up the van, then picked up Hubby and headed back to the farm, arriving about 8:00, just as it was getting dark. We are SO ready to sleep in our own bed!!!