Hi Babe!
Had trouble getting to sleep last night, and ended up waking up fairly early as well, so I got up to start a busy day. After my usual chores and breakfast, I got out the kayak and inflated it because I want to use it later. I timed it, it only took me 10 minutes to get it completely set up! Then I ran into town to post some mail and to pick up fuel in the truck so I won't have to worry about getting any on the road to the next stop. Just about the time I got back, the guys next door were leaving, so now I have the place all to myself. I saddled up Flash and we headed out on the trail. We were about a half a mile out of camp, and just crossing a nice creek, when I suddenly heard the sound of a very familiar whinny... Apollo somehow escaped the fence and followed us! Evidently I forgot to turn the power back on after I got Flash out, and he usually respects the fence anyway so I wasn't worried, but somehow the tape came off one post and dropped enough for him to get out. I didn't want to risk having him follow me the whole 9 miles, so I headed back to camp with him following and put him back inside the fence, strengthening the wire and putting the electric on, when we headed out again. It was a nice ride, nothing spectacular or special, just a nice 2 ½ hours on the trail. There was more mud than I expected, and some patches of gravel the guys had warned me about, so I had put boots on Flash before we left. Some areas had a few hills and some nice outcroppings in the forest, the rest was just going along next to fields and more in the open. Like I said, a nice ride, but nothing special. I was relieved to find Apollo safe and sound back in camp, I was afraid that he might try to escape, but he was fine. While I was taking off Flash's bridle, he started to move away before I got his halter on, and I grabbed his head to steer him back to the trailer, but I accidentally touched his eye and he flung his head up, hitting me right next to MY eye, and a great bump came up almost immediately. I got an ice pack on it right away, which helped the bump go down, but it's turning blue, looks like I'm going to have a shiner out of it! After I got him pushed away, I changed into some swim gear and headed over to the boat launch, then paddled around the lake for awhile. It's a small lake, very quiet, there was only a couple of small flat boats, mostly fishing, no other kayaks or paddle boats out at all. Lots of Canadian Geese at the beach, but hardly any people, just two women chattering away (well, one was doing most of the chattering, the other hardly got a word in edgewise). She was going on and on about how God thinks this and God does that, quite the expert in proselytizing, but I had to laugh, because a seagull started picking at a pile of her stuff and she yelled a blue streak of sailor talk at it. I was thinking, I hope God puts all the folks that swear that bad in a different section in the afterlife, I'd hate for anyone to have to listen to that for eternity! Anyway, got back, fed the horses, had a shower, and settled down for the evening. I'm going to bed early tonight, feeling quite tired after all that activity! So good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
A great night sleep last night, finally. The air did not seem to go down at all on the other side of the bed, so maybe I've solved that problem. But I must have done something to twist my back getting the mattress in and out, because when I started moving around I was in agony. Breakfast and three ibuprofen later I was starting to feel better. I finished sending links to the videos from yesterday, and was determined to get a ride on Apollo in today, so just after noon I saddled him up and started a circuitous route trying to hit almost every trail we missed on Tuesday. What a beautiful ride! Trail 7 goes through some lovely pine forests, Trail 6 goes along a cattail-strewn marsh, and most of the rest go through truly beautiful woods. Apollo had more get up and go in him than he's had in a LONG time! Whether it's the sandy footing, the alfalfa, or that whatever problem's he's been having has remedied itself, I don't know, but he was walking fast and trotting out fast, with no hesitation and hardly any urging on my part! I might have even been able to get him into a canter if I tried hard enough, but I decided not to push my luck. About 2/3 of the way around I temporarily lost my GPS, the back came off and the rest of it dropped, but I managed to find it after a few minutes. I tied Apollo up to walk on foot, and he whinnied like a mad horse after me. Does he really think that after almost twenty years together I'm just going to abandon him in the woods? Crazy horse! When we got back to camp, he and Flash whinnied at each other the whole way across the campground! After I got him put away, another family of campers showed up at a site two down from me, and they had three horses in a LQ livestock-type trailer, and the one in back was absolutely refusing to come out. I watched for well over half an hour while they tried to coax this horse out. I eventually took pity on them and asked if they needed help, and they wholeheartedly agreed. Apparently this horse is a well-trained barrel horse, but he is usually at the front of the trailer, and just did NOT want to make the tiny turn to get his butt out the door from the last stall. I took my little crop over there and we had a firm discussion, but he was really reticent. Eventually I had one of the ladies pull his lead rope around his back legs to turn him while I grabbed his tail, and we pulled and pulled until he had no choice but to come out. Once he was out, he was fine, you'd never know he was making a fuss, but the young girl who owned him was very distraught, she thought she had done something wrong because the horse wouldn't listen to her. They were all very grateful, which I appreciated, and the rest of the horses came out with no trouble. I went back to my camp and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous afternoon and evening, had a nice dinner, watched TV, you know, the usual, and now it's time for shower and bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
Finally woke up feeling refreshed after a great night sleep! I could have slept longer but I had set my alarm because a bunch of folks I met down at Loretta Lynn's back in June decided to come ride with me, so I had to be ready by 9:30, which I was. I decided to leave Lola home when I knew there was such a large group, she doesn't always stick around when there's that many horses, but one of the gals had brought her dog along so we still had canine company. We did a couple of long loops in the morning, really nice trails! Mostly sand, so even with the rain over the weekend there really wasn't any mud, just a few soft spots. The trails are mostly fairly wide and well-groomed, albeit mostly flat, so it's very easy riding. I started out further back, but after awhile Flash was getting antsy because I was having to try to slow him down, and eventually we got out front where he immediately calmed down. A couple of times I had to take him for a long canter and back again, just to keep him happy, but everyone seemed fine with that. We came back and grabbed some lunch to take with us down to a new, short trail they had recently put in that led right down to the river, and by then, I had decided to bring Lola along for the rest of the day. I found her up in the bedroom again, so I expect to see dog hair and probably footprints when I go to bed tonight. Despite the fact that the entire park is centered on Tippecanoe River, there was no access for horses until last week. Evidently there's a small patch of land that's privately owned, but they reached an agreement to let the park manage it, and they turned it into a nice picnic area with about 100 feet of shoreline. There was only one hitching post, though, so some of us had to tie horses on to a small fence and a couple of trees. We all had a nice lunch, and Lola had a nice time fetching, including a few swims in the river before we mounted up and headed back out on the trail, doing another few loops. The morning ride was nearly 10 miles, the afternoon ride about half that. My phone died so I didn't get a GPS map of the whole thing, unfortunately. Anyway, it was a wonderful ride, a fabulous day, with lots of good company. I think it actually did Lola a lot of good, because even when she fell behind me she stayed with the pack until she caught up again, and she may have learned a bit from watching the other dog, too. Oh, I forgot to tell you that when we were in Michigan, my hosts had a Newfoundland named Angus (with a Mohawk haircut-really!) that Lola liked so much she actually tried to get him to play with her! It was so much fun to watch her jump around trying to coax him into play! So uncharacteristic for her. She didn't try that with Ellie, the dog that was with us today, but they did seem to get along all right. Got back to camp after 4:00, sat under the awning for a while (haven't bother to put the screen room up this time) before finally coming inside and settling down for the evening. A fabulous day, perfect weather, actually a bit cool, and it's supposed to get down to 49 degrees tonight! I had to close all the windows, and I suspect I'll be pulling my extra throw over me at bedtime. Speaking of, it's about that time anyway, so I'll say good night! Love you, babe!

Hi Sweetie!
What a busy day today! After breakfast I took Apollo for a short, four mile ride, doing some of the trails backwards for a change, just because, as you know, every trail looks completely different going in the opposite direction! After we got back, I decided to run into town. I was getting low on horse feed and my Tractor Supply 10% discount expired today, so I ran out to stock up on everything, and they had every kind of feed I needed for a change! After that I was going to head to Walmart when I saw a Meiers right in front of me, so I decided to give them a try. I know we were always impressed with them, and it turned out to be very serendipitous, as they had a few things that I haven't been able to find lately, most importantly, JOINT JUICE! Walmart stopped carrying it and I haven't been able to find it anywhere, but there it was! I stocked up on it bigtime, I probably have a six-month supply now! I also got some new sunglasses, Walmart's selection was horrible, but this one had a sale going on so I bought two nice pairs. So I'll be going to Meiers whenever I can find one for awhile. When I got back, I started a load of laundry, then decided to take one last trip on the lake with the kayak, so I headed over to the boat launch and had a nice one hour paddle around. I crossed the lake over to the beach again and took a swim, then let the wind, which was a bit stronger today, help me drift back, though it wasn't exactly going in the right direction so I had to compensate occasionally. And I saw a bald eagle fish hunting! What a magnificent bird! The cormorants were still around, too, along with a bunch of others. Once I got back to camp, I deflated the kayak and put it away, and proceeded to start doing some packing. Evidently there's rain and cooler temps coming in overnight, and rain is forecast tomorrow. I considered taking down the screen room today, but it was so dang hot, in the 90's today, I decided I'd take a chance. It's scattered showers, not an all day rain, so hopefully I can get everything in before it gets too wet, if the forecast turns out to be right for a change :-). Then I filled up the water tank and the horses' water, then I pulled the truck around to the back of the trailer and topped off the tires. I had noticed when I put the spare on that it was about 10 pounds of pressure less than it should be, so I got out that Slime inflator and fixed that, then checked and found that the rest were down just a bit, so I did the rest. I checked all the fluids and everything on the truck, I must have a leak in the power steering unit (even though it's only about a year old) because it was low again. When I changed the oil a few weeks ago I noticed quite a bit of wetness down there, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from, now I think I know. I'll have to take a look at that sometime, see if I can fix it. Everything else was good, though. It was 8:00 by the time I got everything done, but I feel like I'm as ready as I need to be. It's going to be in the 70's tomorrow, so it will be much easier to work in the cooler weather, if it's not too rainy. Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print! I've had my shower, now I'm off to bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Had another great day today, slept so late Trish went on a ride without me, but that's fine! I knew she was an early riser, and I slept later than I expected, and then I joined her as soon as she got back from her short ride and did just under another five miles. This is such a small trail area that we keep having to repeat trails just to get some miles in. When we got back we took the kayak out on the lake again for a couple of hours in the beautiful sunny weather. Once we got back, she was packed up and ready to go in no time, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my travel schedule for August and September. I just remembered the horses will be due for a new Coggins and Extended Health Certificate pretty soon, so I had to start researching that as well. It seems to be coming together, but I'm having one problem at a place I'd like to go, but there are two nights in my planned two week-long stay that are already booked, so I'll either have to move from my site to another site for the last three days, or move on to the next campground, if they'll let me stay longer than the usual 14 days. A quandary I'll have to resolve somehow. Otherwise, I think I've got a plan to get me through to the Skymont Endurance Ride in October, all subject to change, of course! So a great day, beautiful weather, good company, couldn't ask for more! But it's late and it's time for shower and bed, so good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin'!
Life couldn't get much better with days like this. My new friend Trish arrived around 11:00 with her TW named Eli, and once she got settled in next door, we saddled up and went out for a lovely ride. The weather was perfect, not too hot, though hotter than it's been, but it's nice and cool in the deep woods and even the open areas weren't too bad. Of course, Lola came along and enjoyed herself, too, dropping her belly into mud puddles whenever she had the chance. After we got back, we changed into swimwear and took the kayak out to the lake where we paddled and drifted, watching the birds fish (I looked them up later, they were cormorants, sit on stumps like a wading bird, but fly like a duck when they're taking off) and generally just enjoying the sun and the breeze on the lake. We got back from that adventure hungry, and she had brought a bunch of stuff along, like leftover pizza, summer squash and cold pea salad, all of which was lovely, and after that, we headed back out for another ride on the other side of the park, basically going on all the trails we didn't go on earlier. Once we put the horses away, she went off to the bathhouse to shower while I did the same in my trailer, then she came over and we watched a recording of when you did the one-man show Clarence Darrow in Monteagle, which she thoroughly enjoyed. By then it was almost 10:30, so we obviously had to call it a night. She's an early riser, so we parted ways for the night. Looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow! Couldn't have asked for a better day! Fantastic! Off to bed now, good night, my love!

Hi Babe!
After another decent night sleep and a good breakfast, I saddled up Apollo today, he certainly needs some exercise! I planned about a 5-6 mile trip around the park, finishing off a couple of trails I missed the other day of Flash. Another nice ride, absolutely perfect weather, very easy, mostly flat, good footing. I also found the trailhead for a trail that leads to the lake, but it looks like it's supposed to be just for hikers, not sure if horses are allowed on it. Maybe I'll ask about it, or maybe I'll just try it out and see what happens :-). I was hoping that with the change in diet to alfalfa that Apollo might show a bit more energy, but not so much. Sigh... I love him to death but he's gotten so slow, especially compared to Flash, it's so boring to ride him. Oh, well, he's still my go-to horse! As long as where I'm going to isn't far or fast! It was a nice ride though. Gave him a bath, then I expanded the fence a bit, no one seems to mind the fence so I spread it out a bit to let them get to some more clover. After a quick snack, I got out the inflatable kayak and proceeded to inflate it, changed into my bathing suit, got everything I needed together and drove down to the boat launch where I had an easy launch. The wind was coming from the perfect direction, so I paddled upwind all the way across the lake, stopped briefly near the beach to swim, just to get wet, then paddled a little bit parallel to the shore, then finally stopped paddling and let the gentle breeze push me all the way back to the boat ramp while I luxuriated in the beautiful sun and surf. I should probably feel guilty for enjoying myself so much, but alas, I don't! A perfect summer day! Was out on the water for almost two hours, then headed back to ramp, then back to camp. What a beautiful day! I read for awhile, had some dinner, watched a little TV, now I've just got to shower and get to bed. It's a lot cooler tonight, so I'm hoping for a really good night sleep. And my friend Trish is coming tomorrow, she's rented the site next to me and bringing her Tennessee Walker, so we should get a good ride in tomorrow, and maybe a kayak trip as well. Just having too much fun! I don't know how I stand it! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Slept a bit late this morning, after being woke up in the middle of the night by Lola charging out the door after some critter. I guess I didn't close it all the way. She had a nice little walkabout while I waited for her to return and she finally did. She definitely needs some exercise, so after breakfast and some chores, I saddled up Flash and we hit the trails. I planned a route that would let us do almost a full perimeter, except one trail that went right by the road which I decided to avoid for Lola's sake. We had to do one section twice just to get over six miles! I don't know if it was because of all the riding Flash and I have been doing, or if it's because he had a day of rest, or because it was a little cooler (though the humidity is still pretty high), or if it's the fact that I've been transitioning them over to alfalfa, but he was full of P&V today! We walked a little bit at first, but then he asked for permission to go faster (granted) and proceed to start gaiting at quite a nice pace, and he kept at it almost non-stop the rest of the trip. My GPS was recording some of his splits upwards of 7+ miles an hour! Under those conditions, of course, it didn't take us long to cover practically the whole park in no time! Sweetie, this would have been the perfect place for you to ride, mostly level, lots of woods, very easy going, and just the right length of trails for you. Definitely missed you today! Anyway, we got back in short order, sprayed everyone down again (the horseflies are really bad here right now), then started my third load of laundry since I got here, changed clothes, and headed out to do some shopping. South Bend is only about 15 minutes away, so it's very convenient. I went to Kohls to get some new undershorts to replace the old girdles I've pretty much worn out (not surprising, I've had them since the 1970's!), but they're perfect for long distance riding (I discovered the padded bicycle shorts don't work, too much rubbing in all the wrong places! Yeah, I know, TMI!) Then I went to Joann's Fabrics and bought three yards of tan velcro. I've decided rather than trash this mostly good screen room, I'd go ahead and put velcro on the door for now, so I can get a few more seasons out of it. Seems like such a waste to junk it when I can fix it with $12 of velcro and an hour or less of sewing. When it does wear out, I can bring out my other, brand spanking new one in a couple of years as a replacement. That's one of tomorrow's jobs, along with repairing a hose and a few other things. Then I went to Walmart for a little regular shopping, got my hair cut (long overdue!), filled up with diesel at $2.08/gallon and was back in camp in no time. Some potato soup for dinner (in honor of Potato Creek, of course!), and now I'm settling down for the evening. Love you, darling! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
Today was my last chance to finish up all the trails here, and now that Flash was fit, we headed out right after breakfast. There's essentially two main trails here, but they often merge, have connectors, and occasionally have another loop go off them, and I've already covered pretty much all of them except the ones in the very northern part of the park, so that's where we headed. If you like trails that are a combination of woods and fields, you'd like this place. It was a bit too open for my taste, with many trails essentially just skirting fields, and in the case of one loop, around an entire cornfield, and it was quite hot today, so it was a lot of sun. There are a few scenic loops, but we've done all those already, so this was more like just a ride around a farm with an occasional lake view. Flash was good, though, we had a lot of nice canters and fast gaiting, and Lola just loved running along side and behind. We only ran into one large group, and Lola still managed to go way off into the woods to pass them and catch up. She really is a brilliant dog. I also stopped at Bozarth's Camp Store, which is apparently an iconic destination here, just to see what it looked like. They had a lot of fishing and camp supplies and a grill serving classic junk food, so I passed on food. I was saving myself for some incredible cantaloupe I had bought the other day, with some cottage cheese and a few black cherries one of the Rosebud ladies brought me last week, delicious! I also had bought some lovely smoked salmon and noshed on that a bit later. Not surprisingly, the loud generator was going full blast when I got back, and I don't think there was even anyone in their camp! I gave Flash and Lola both a bath, took my shower early, and had to put the generator on for a lot longer today to run the AC, it's a very hot day, and not going to drop much tonight. OMG, they just turned their generator off, and it's only 10:18! Must have had a busy day and they're going to be early. They've had their radio blasting country music for hours, so I haven't been able to spend much time in the screen room, just too noisy. I swear, I hate weekends in parks, give me a nice quiet weekday any day! But I got all the trails GPS'd except one connector trail I just couldn't fit in easily enough at the far north end. It was a nice 4-plus hour ride though, very enjoyable. Hope I can sleep in this heat! At least the next place, Potato Creek, has electric, so I'll be able to run my AC a bit more. I'm holding out on doing any more laundry until I get there, too. Well, I'm going to bed and leaving the little fan on tonight, at least until the batteries give out or it finally cools down enough. Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Another good night sleep, thank goodness! I spent most of the morning working on the computer, submitted my Equity Proposal, though they emailed back that I would have to develop a Covid 19 safety plan before it would be considered. This is getting truly nuts. I'm hoping I can convince them of my plan, but we'll see. I took a short ride on Apollo just to map out a couple of short sections of trail near camp that I'd missed before, but he got gimpy in a hurry, so we came back before we even did three miles, though that did cover all the trails I wanted to cover. Great, now I have two limpy horses! I looked at his feed, but it seems his left hind ankle is a bit swollen, not sure what caused it, but I'll have to let it rest and keep an eye on it. Flash is better, his burn is healing, not sure when he'll be fit enough to ride, but it shouldn't be too long. When we got back from the ride, I fixed the screen door, Miss Lola had scratched a good hole in the last one. I got a different type this time, we'll see if that holds up any better. Grilled a nice little pork chop outside along with some more of that nice summer squash and some apple sauce, and later tried a new flavor if ice cream, pistachio almond. For some reason this Walmart doesn't have any of the nutty flavors I usually like, so the last one was banana pudding, which was okay but not my favorite, and now this new one, which was pretty good. At least it had nuts! Settled down for the evening, but it's hot and humid tonight, there's a front coming through overnight and I guess this is being pushed in front of it. Expecting a lot of rain! Also, a few of the ladies I met down at Loretta Lynn's in June are coming in for the weekend, and I'm hoping we can trailer up to the State Forest on the north side of the lake, I'm pretty bored with the trails down on the south end. Besides, I want to see if the camp is suitable for this rig, because I'm thinking I might stay there on the way back south. Since I had to pay for an annual Indiana State Horse Pass, I figured I might as well get my money's worth and stay at every Indiana camp I can! Once my job is done in Michigan in a few weeks, I still have no idea where I'm headed, I'm thinking I'll let the weather dictate that, but we'll see. Anyway, shower and bed time! Goodnight, babe! Love you!