Hiya Sweetie!
Woke up right at 7:00, the perfect time, just before the sun rises, but light enough to see by. Of course, when the clocks change in two weeks, that will screw it all up again! Anyway, it was a nice morning, and after breakfast I saddled up Apollo again. I was originally going to go riding with the mule folks, but decided I didn’t want to be restricted, and frankly, was concerned one of the mules might kick Lola, or that she would get confused with a big group and head back to camp, which I didn’t want her to do since we’re right on the side of a busy road, especially with a lake over on the other side where she might wander off to, so I left on my own about 10:00. I had two trails I wanted to get in, neither of which was on the map, the pink trail and the extension of the yellow trail. The pink trail was really nice, had a nice stretch where you could see the lake down below, and once you climbed the hill it was pretty level for a long time, a nice change over the other trails I took yesterday. There was also a nice overlook on a spur trail with a picnic area and highlines, which is where the mule folks caught up to me, as well as a couple of other gals on a horse rental ride. Then I headed out on the yellow extension, which I thought would be fairly straight forward. I knew it ended up on the blue trail, and thought it would be a parallel to the white trail, but NO!! It meandered around for miles into the wild. It’s so new it was almost raw, and the markings were few and far between most of the time, but then suddenly you’d get a spot where they’d have large yellow paint splotches, a fanfare of ribbons, and a sign with a horse on it with an arrow. Then you’d go half a mile without hardly anything again! It was kind of strange, but it did end up taking me to the blue trail, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would. It was over eleven miles by the time I got back to camp, but Apollo did great, though it took about five hours to do it. Lola had fun, too, and I’m sure she’ll sleep tonight! After rinsing Apollo off and putting him back on the highline, I rested a bit, then walked Lola over to the lake for a little swimming frisbee, then settled down for the night. I had a trailer move in right next door to me, one that had their awning on the opposite side, so they’re facing my porch directly, and they were gone all day, but left their generator running! I have no idea why people do that! I sat outside reading for a while, but I had to listen to that all the time. They finally got back just before sunset, and I asked him why he kept it running, and apparently he left it on to run the AC, which evidently wasn’t working anyway, so the whole exercise was pointless. Crazy! Nevermind, they seemed like nice people, and the woman thought running the generator when they weren’t there was just as crazy as I did. Anyway, I eventually wandered over to Bubba’ trailer, where many of the group had gathered, and after a lot of chitchat, I did my Snowy River for them just before dinner. I’d already eaten, so I left just after, came back to the trailer for a bit of ice cream and a movie before shower and bed. Heading there shortly, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning, which is what happens when I get to bed at a decent hour! I would have read in bed for awhile except I looked out the window and saw Flash laying down, and he was completely motionless. I kept looking for some movement, but he wasn’t even flicking his tail, so I was worried, and got up to check on him. Turns out he was fine, he got up as soon as I came out, but he’s still not putting any weight on one of his back feet, so I’m going to let him rest some more to see if it straightens itself out. I went ahead and fed them, and got my day started. Had breakfast, read for a bit, then started saddling up Apollo for our first ride here. I was all mounted and ready to go, then Lola rolled so hard the velcro on her vest tore off, so I had to dismount, get out my sewing kit, sew up the velcro, then finally hit the trail about 11:15. I had printed a map, but understand there have been a lot of additional trails made that aren’t on the map, so I was hoping I don’t get lost. I had been told by a neighbor here that it’s not too rocky here, so I didn’t put Apollo’s boots on, but I did take them with me. Turns out there was quite a bit of rocks along the White trail and I stopped once to put the boots on, but the new (used) boots that I had bought from E-bay were almost new, and nowhere near stretched out (which made me realize just how much my old boots HAD stretched out!), and there was no way I could get them to fit. Fortunately the trails improved, so we managed okay. We took the white trail to the blue trail, did that loop, discovered that the yellow trail had evidently been extended to meet the blue trail (which was not on the map), but passed it for now, got back to the white trail, then picked up the yellow trail. I was really pleased with the way the trails are marked here, plenty of signage and paint on the trees, and a clever idea I hadn’t seen before, where they had put wood squares painted the color of the trail with numbers on them, increasing about every quarter mile, with the smallest numbers closest to camp, so that you could tell right away if you were going in the right direction. They also had a lot of arrows with “camp” written on them, so there wasn’t much chance on not finding your way back. I did have questions at one spot, though, when the yellow trail made a sudden right turn, which would have been away from camp, and I figured that must have been that new trail that led to the blue trail, so I turned left instead. Though there was a lot of horse sign and hoof prints, and was heading in the right direction, there were no markers at all for quite a ways, and just as I was thinking I was on the wrong track, I finally came upon a marker that indicated I was almost back to camp, yay! The trails are interesting, inasmuch as the lake is in a basin, so most of the trails are on the hillsides, but many are fairly easygoing switchbacks, which keeps it from being too steep. But they are mostly linear with small loops, so it won’t take too long to finish off what trails I didn’t take today, which is probably good, since I’m not loving living on this slope. When I got back into camp, I discovered a number of trailers had come in, including one with Bubba, the guide I met at Loretta Lynn’s back in June, along with several other folks who were there, including the older fella that was dumped in the creek on one ride, the one who I helped get back up when he had trouble standing. When he realized that it was me, he thanked me profusely for “saving his life.” I wouldn’t go that far, but I was happy Flash moved where I wanted him and stood still when I asked him, well enough for him to hang on to his lead line till he got himself back on his feet. Anyway, Bubba made a skillet of dinner and invited me over for some, and a few other folks joined us for a bit of chit-chat until it was mostly dark, then I came back and fed Lola, then settled down for the evening. I’m watching the final Presidential debate as I’m writing this, I haven’t watched the others, and I’m pretty much wondering why I’m watching this one, it’s so absurd. Don’t think I’m going to stay with it for long. Anyway, I still have to shower and I want to get to bed early, to keep my new habit going of early to bed, early to rise, so off I go! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Coldest night yet, it got into the 30’s last night! Maybe I’ve stayed too far north for too long… Though fortunately it’s warming up again in the next few days, so maybe not. I blanketed the horses last night, so they were good, but it was a frosty morning. At least yesterday’s cold wind had died down, so it warmed up quickly by the end of breakfast. I had asked about going on the long ride and was told it was leaving at 9:30, so when a group went by at 9:15 I thought I was going to miss it, so I quickly finished saddling Flash and ran after them, only to discover they were the “short” ride today, so I went back to camp and joined the long ride, which didn’t end up leaving until nearly 10:00 anyway. It was supposed to be 19 miles but ended up only being about 12.5, but it took nearly six hours, not counting a lunch stop. We started out with probably over 20-25 riders, most from a local barn coming in for the day to trail ride, and frankly, some just weren’t suited for it. One woman was in tears barely 100 yards onto the trail because her horse was acting up. We ended up splitting the group on occasion to take easier trails vs. harder trails, and poor Lola got so confused she ended up giving up and going back to camp. Fortunately there was a woman in camp that we met on the cattle drive that she went to, and she put her in the trailer, which I learned a while later when she texted me, thank goodness! Then some of the group turned around and went back at one point, then another bunch turned back a bit later, until we ended up with barely half a dozen riders plus the trail bosses, which was a much more manageable group anyway. They were sturdier riders, but they were drinking beer non-stop, and one woman was vaping away, which was fine when she was behind me, but at one point she took the lead and I had to keep pulling Flash back so I wouldn’t have to breathe her second-hand cloud of smoke, or vapor, or whatever it was, because it wasn’t agreeing with me. Of course, we had to stop every 15 minutes for people to relieve themselves, what with all the beer they were drinking (remember what time we left? Beer for breakfast, really?), so it was a very long, slow day. I mean, if it were just Flash and me, we’ be done with 12 miles in three hours, not the nearly six that it took us. The only advantage was I didn’t have to worry about getting lost, and frankly, that’s a big concern for me out here. The trails are only marked so-so, and the map is terrible. It has all the contour lines on it, which just makes it hard to read, the trails are dotted lines, not solid, which also makes it hard to read, and they absolutely do not match what’s out there. I’ve tried to line up the actual rides with the trail map overlay on Google Earth, and it’s not even close! It would be nearly impossible for someone NOT to get lost out here with the situation as it is right now. I couldn’t plan a ride with this map without some serious reservations. That said, they have some beautiful scenery, but so many of the trails are so rocky, it makes it very challenging. Fortunately, Flash’s feet have hardened up pretty nicely, and he didn’t seem to have much problem even though he didn’t even have boots on, no injuries at all that I could see, so I’m happy. Anyway, it was a good day’s ride, followed by a nice dinner, then a heartwarming movie called the Peanut Butter Falcon, now it’s off for my shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
Busy, busy today! When I went to bed last night and set my alarm, it said 9:14 until my alarm would go off. Ridiculous, right? I tried to read for a bit but fell completely asleep in moments, then woke up once or twice when Lola was really restless (which surprised me, I thought she would be tired from the ride yesterday!), had some weird dreams, but didn’t wake up until the alarm went off! Obviously, I needed it! Had a bit of a scare first thing, though, when I went out to feed the horses, the gate on the electric fence was on the ground and the horses were gone! I called but got no answer, so I jumped into my truck and started heading to the back of the campground, and there they were, just meandering up from the trailhead! I thought they’d be on the grass eating, but they evidently decided to explore the woods, too! I led them home and gave them breakfast, and tightened the handle on the gate. It was really windy last night, so I though maybe the handle had swung loose, so I tightened that up. After breakfast, I saddled up Flash, and I was going to meet my new friends from Alabama and ride with them, but I missed them, so I ended up with the group ride, catching them just as they were heading out, I only just had enough time to get Lola in her orange vest and catch up with them. It was another lovely ride, a lot of variety of trail surfaces, but this was a group that really wanted to move out, so Flash got a good workout whenever we were on roads where they could stretch out. There was another dog with us, Waylon, and they got along fine, but at one point, one horse kicked at Lola because she got too close (she’s gotten over her fear of being in a pack of horses, too much so), so it was a good lesson. She didn’t get hurt, but she spent the rest of the ride paralleling us in the woods rather than being on the trail with us, so lesson learned! When we got back to camp, I called out Apollo’s name, and when he whinnied back, it came from the barn rather than the pen! Lo and behold, the gate handle was on the ground again, and upon further examination I found the ground clamp had come undone, so there was no current going through the fence, so that explained part of it. I fetched Apollo out of the barn (my neighbor put him away for me, thank you very much!), and I rinsed down Flash and put him away, then saddled up Apollo for the second ride of the day. After all, I came to ride, so I’m going to ride! I had mentioned to one of the guides that I kept seeing this sign for the waterfall and cave but hadn’t been there yet, so it was decided the afternoon ride would take us there. Another lovely ride, and the cave and the waterfall were beautiful, and Apollo had to work hard at keeping up with all the gaited horses, which was a good workout for him. Got back with him, rinsed him down and put him away, gave them some hay, put my tack away, emptied the back of the truck with the feed I bought yesterday, got that put away, cleaned up the manure in the paddock area for the first time in a couple of days, I’ve been so busy! Headed off to the dining hall for dinner, met up with my Alabama friends and got their contact info, something I should have done this morning, though from what I heard they had quite a rough ride, so I’m guessing I was better off on the group ride anyway. Tried my hand at a game of poker (the poker run kept getting postponed so we had it tonight), lost with a pair of twos, then headed back to camp to feed everyone and put the horses’ blankets on. Rain is coming in, and colder weather, highs only in the mid-50’s tomorrow, quite a plunge from the upper 70’s we’ve been having, going to have to wear my long underwear tomorrow! Anyway, even though it’s not even 8:00 yet, I’m going to take my shower, maybe watch an hour of TV while I have some Sleepytime tea, then head to bed again nice and early. I took Lola on the morning ride, not the afternoon ride, but I’m hoping it’s enough to keep her sleeping through the night. Heading off now, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a great night sleep, but still doesn’t seem like I’m entirely catching up. Maybe at my next stop I can actually take a whole day off! Had a nice breakfast, then saddled up Flash because I wanted to go on the longer morning ride today, and arrived at the meet point on time at 9:00. No one else showed up until almost 9:45, apparently everyone was talking at breakfast and got delayed. Most folks here all know each other, I’m the odd woman out, but that’s okay, I’m making friends. Once woman on the ride today has a winter home near Vero, and we had met her on the cattle drive. I remember getting her information, but never got around to calling her to ride. Maybe this year since I’m not so busy. Anyway, it was a fabulous ride, about eight and a half miles. Some of it was on gravel, but most was better footing, though there were a few stretches with a lot of rock. The round natural rocks don’t seem to bother Flash too much, it’s the rough-edged cut gravel that he hates, so he was mostly in good shape today. He got so beat up by the herd at the boarding place, he’s got cuts and scabs all over him, but they seem to be healing. Though it was only 8+ miles, we were out nearly four hours, these groups tend to do a lot of stopping and chatting, plus a stop for a munchie. I hadn’t brought anything, but one of the wranglers had plenty, so I got fed. We went through some very nice areas, typical Tennessee with lots of cliffs and crags and Indian caves and the occasional waterfall, and lots of fall wildflowers. Some of the trees are changing, but not too much yet. As soon as we got back I started calling around all the Tractor Supplies for horse feed, and practically no one carries the Perform or the Balancer anymore, but I did manage to find some in Tullahoma. I headed up there and bought enough to stock up, but hadn’t gotten my coupon for a discount until I got home. I knew I should have checked my email on my phone, I would have had it then! Anyway, now I’m set for awhile. Went to the Walmart in Winchester, filled up with fuel and shopped for some essentials. I didn’t bring Lola with me because the people that board her forgot to give me her leash, harness and vest back, they’re supposed to be sending it to me today but it hadn’t gotten there before I left. The package was sitting on my chair when I got back, and when I opened it, I discovered they had only sent the vest and the harness, not the leash! I have no idea why they would do that. Anyway, before dinner I did a few quick chores, then headed over to the dining hall for another nice meal. There was enough of a crowd over there (though still pretty small) that I decided to do my Snowy River for them, and most of them were very attentive, especially two little kids that sat right down front. After that they were doing karioke, so I headed back to camp to feed the horses. I’m feeling tired and am hoping to get to bed earlier tonight, so I’m getting this done early, and hope to get everything else done early, too. So good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Had a good night sleep, but still feeling a bit tired, got up with the alarm for breakfast, then did some housework, put everything away from the suitcases and other bags that had stuff in them and were just lying around. Tidying, basically, with some cleaning mixed in. Did a bit more computer work, then saddled up Apollo for what was supposed to be a Poker Run, but since there was only two of us, we decided to skip it and just take a little ride, save the PR for tomorrow when more people would be here. Had quite a nice ride, though it is quite rocky here, and I don’t really have a pair of boots for Apollo, though I did find an old Cavallo Simple boot, I decided to just carry them and see if I needed them. There were a few gravel roads, but not too bad, so we managed okay. A few beautiful spots around in the woods here, and it was me and a woman named Donna and the trail boss Shane and his daughter Bella, so it was a nice ride. Got back in plenty of time for dinner, and Donna and her group came over to check out the trailer. They’re staying in cabins with their eye on getting a trailer big enough to spend some serious time in, which is why they were interested in seeing mine. Anyway, after that we went to dinner, busiest night yet with more people coming in. It was Bingo night, but I elected to come back and try to get some more rest, so one movie, then shower, and soon to bed! Going to do the morning ride tomorrow, though it’s supposed to be pretty cold, so much so that I put the blankets on the horses tonight. Don’t want them growing too much of a winter coat before we get to Florida! So good night, my love! Love, you!

Hi darlin’,
Woke up with the alarm this morning, since I had arranged to go riding the Bob and Ginny and I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be late. We left right on schedule at 9:30, but I couldn’t put Apollo’s boots on because one of them had a blowout, so we just had to deal with whatever rough ground we came across. Fortunately, most of the trails were actual trails, dirt and mostly single track, just like I like them! We went over 12 miles, and it was a terrific ride. We covered a lot of ground, and ended up at a picnic table sitting on the edge of a bluff for lunch. A long ride for Apollo, but he did brilliantly! They both ride quarter horses, so they were all perfectly matched speed-wise, though Apollo was slow starting out, but warmed up quickly. This was truly the nicest ride I’ve experienced since I’ve been here, and I’m glad of it, though I never would have found some of these trails on my own, since a few aren’t on the map. We went cross country a couple of times, and crossed the Blue River coming and going, as we made out way to a section of the forest known as Little Italy, then Loudon’s Ridge. We were out nearly six hours, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. Got back, gave Apollo a bath, then spent a few minutes clearing out the horse wash area. I had a nice concrete pad, but it was so covered in mud you would hardly know it, so I cleared away the mud and used the hose to clear out a drain area, which improved it a lot. Then I headed up to my hotspot to check my email and solve a few more problems, and had to wait a long time for my two rides, yesterday and today, to upload from my phone to the cloud, then pull it back onto Google Earth. I wanted to see the GPS tracks from those two days of riding, but it took a lot of time. I finally finished and headed back to camp, but when I got here and opened up my computer, the darn thing had decided to shut itself down and reboot (probably because of an upgrade), so all the work I did on Google Earth disappeared, and so did a weeks worth of my diary! I have no idea why it did that, it usually asks me to close those programs before it restarts, but it did it all on it’s own today, and it ticked me off, since it’s made a lot more work for me, grrrrr! Anyway, got back to camp, made some dinner, went and chatted with Bob and Ginny for a bit, then came back to settle in for the night. Evidently there’s a big event here this weekend, so the place has been filling up all day, and it’s likely to be even busier tomorrow. No more riding for me, though, I have to start packing, plus sorting out all the stuff I need for my trip to Arizona next week. It’s going to be a busy weekend, what with driving to Tennessee on Saturday, then figuring out what to do with the trailer (still working on the logistics of that!), packing, shopping, getting a hair cut etc., and being ready to fly out on Monday. Whew! I’m going to be exhausted in a few days! Anyway, enough, time for shower and bed. Love you, babe! Good night!

Hey Sweetie!
After my usual chores and hotspot drive, I saddled up Flash and headed out to knock out some more of the trails here. Well, a lot of it wasn’t exactly trails, it was more like gravel road, probably 80 percent of them. I wish they wouldn’t call a gravel road a trail, but what are you going to do? I had his boots on, but he still wasn’t happy about it, but he did great anyway. There was maybe a mile of the kind of single track dirt trail that I liked during the whole 10+ miles, but at least I was on the back of my horse! Got back to camp, gave him a bath, then settled down for the evening. Such beautiful weather, though it’s been cool the last few evenings and I’ve been putting their light blankets on to prevent them from growing a winter coat, though it’s warming up this week so I shouldn’t have to keep doing that. Anyway, it was a lovely day despite the gravel, and I made some progress on a few things logistically for my upcoming trip. Time for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Had a wonderful night sleep last night, I’m so glad I brought the quilt down, it kept me nice and warm and cozy all night! The problem with the throw is that it’s too small and when I moved I get uncovered, then wake up cold. Didn’t have that problem last night! Woke up refreshed and raring to go! After chores and breakfast I ran up to a spot near the regular campground where I discovered I can get 3 bars of 4G, and made relatively short work of a whole list of things I needed to do, phone calls I needed to make, questions I needed to have answered, pictures and diary entries I needed to upload, all of which happened pretty quick. I was back down to camp by about 1:00, so I saddled up Apollo as planned and headed out on a route I had figured was a little over six miles. Not a terribly enjoyable ride today. The footing here is just so inconsistent! One minute you’re on big creek-like rock, the next you’re sinking in mud, the next you’re on a gravel road (really big sharp chunks), then you’re on gravel covered with green growth, and occasionally you end up on a stretch of nice dirt single track, but nowhere near often enough. Apollo had a tough time. I started out without boots, but when we hit our first gravel road I stopped and put them on, then we started hitting bogs, and when we were climbing a hill he lost one, so I decided to take them off again, because once they get that muddy they don’t stay on very well, and we didn’t hit any water where I could wash them off, then shortly after that we hit another gravel road, and he wouldn’t stand still long enough for me to put them back on again, so he minced his way up the road in obvious discomfort, then on the last mile home we finally had a nice stretch of dirt for a bit, before going back to rocky creek bed. So, it was as enjoyable as it could be (always being on my horse is enjoyable!), but the trail detracted from that enjoyment. We got back to camp about 4:30, I put him on the highline and gave him a flake of hay, then I took some pictures of the damage on the trailer so I could email them to the repair place I found, changed my clothes and headed up the my hot spot again, sent the pix off, then headed down to pick up some hay. I had found a woman selling hay that’s only about 13 minutes from here! I think that’s the shortest trip for hay I’ve ever taken! She was advertising 1st cut, but they were bringing in 3rd cut, so she let me have that for the same price. There’s no alfalfa in this, just orchard, clover and fescue, but it’s so fresh I think the horses won’t have a problem with it. I’ve got to get them off the alfalfa, though the last batch, with 70% alfalfa didn’t seem to bother them as much as the 100% did, but I’d rather get them back to regular hay as we move out of alfalfa country. Got back in no time, fed the horses, had dinner, and settled down for the evening, feeling like I had a really productive day! Time for shower and bed now, so good night, my love!

Hey Babe,
Got quite a bit colder last night than I thought it would, SO glad I decided to put the blankets on the horses last night! Just 47 degrees when I got up this morning, good thing I remembered to bring my heavy robe up to bed, happy I did that, too! First thing I did this morning was start a load of laundry, something I wouldn’t normally do on a Saturday because it’s usually the busiest day for the horse camp, but there’s still almost no one in the primitive camp, and I really needed to do some wash. By the time I fed the horses and did my few chores and got a line up, it was done, so I put it out to dry, even though the sun had barely topped the trees by 9:00. Got Flash saddled up and was just about ready to go when Trish and Janet arrived, so we took off shortly thereafter, heading out on the Idlewild Trail, out Fox Hollow, then out to Coles loop and back, A very nice ride, though sections of it were rocky. I started out with boots on Flash, but took them off since the rocks were mostly big enough not to cause him a problem, and there were quite a few bogs, and I didn’t want to worry about losing boots. We were out for over 3 hours, I did eleven miles, and got back to camp just after 1:30. Grabbed a quick sandwich, then drove into town again to try to solve my manure rake problem. Went to Tractor Supply again, looking for a different handle, even took the old handle and tines in to make sure, and also bought an assortment of jigsaw blades since I wore the other one out. Topped off with diesel and got back to camp around 4:30, and promptly discovered that the new handle didn’t fit either! It looked like it would in the store, but it had a lip on it that prevented it from going in, darn it! So Plan B was to get out my jigsaw again, and with the new metal blade I was able to quickly remove the metal shroud that was on the handle I bought yesterday, and it was still too big! A quick change of blade and I whittled down that handle until it FINALLY fit, drilled a hole through it and bolted it up, and AT LAST I have a working manure rake! At least I was finally able to get it right, and I can take back the latest handle. By now it was almost 5:00, so I headed up to the ladies’ camp for dinner again, and learned that they had decided to leave tonight. Trish’s horse Breezy was getting some bad chafing from her girth and she didn’t want to ride again tomorrow, and Janet agreed, so they headed out right after dinner. I got back to camp, finished putting away all my tools and stuff, then settled down for the evening. Just downloaded a new book, a courtroom drama, that I’m looking forward to getting into, after watching an old Mae West-WC Fields movie that we had on DVR for a long time. Probably going to take the day off tomorrow, could use a break. Anyway, it was a lovely day, perfect weather once it warmed up a bit, but it’s supposed to be even colder tonight, so blankets are back on the horses! Headed off for shower and bed now, so good night, my darlin’! Love you!