Hi Darlin’,
I had a GREAT night sleep last night, woke up refreshed and raring to go! After chores and breakfast, I saddled up Flash and headed down to Buckskin Canyon, one of the few trails left I haven’t done. I put his boots on before leaving this time, since there are a lot less muddy patches on that side of the forest, but still a bit of gravel, and I knew that part of this trail was actually along a road, some of which had gravel. We got through the first part okay, but I missed the turn into the southern unit of the park (I forgot that my neighbor Opal had told me to look for a chain link fence. I got distracted because a nasty little dog was making a fuss the whole length of the yard!), but I had put it into my GPS so it didn’t take me long to find it. There were a bunch of cars blocking the entrance but I managed to get around them, and I met all the drivers hiking up the trail, they were apparently associated with the park somehow. We chatted a few minutes before we went our opposite ways. There is a red loop and a white loop, so I took the white loop as the first part of a figure eight I planned to do. It was obvious no one’s been on the trail for quite a while, lots of undergrowth and not much sign of horse traffic. When I got back to the red trail to do, I ended up at an intersection with arrows in three directions, but the map wasn’t very clear on where they went, especially since it was right on the fold I had made, but it looked like one went down the mountain and stopped and the other one looped around. I tried to take the loop but there were a lot of trees down, and it quickly began to look like it was going to be cross-country through the woods for a ways, and I wasn’t willing to do that, so I abandoned it and turned around and came back a slightly different way. We were about a mile out when we heard a thunderstorm coming our way, so we picked up the pace, coming up that long stretch on the white trail where it’s not too steep, but a long incline, and gaited most of the way up there until we had to dip back into the woods. We managed to get back in time, though, I was able to get him unsaddled and everything put away before the rain hit. I didn’t have time, nor did I feel I needed to bother rinsing him down, since the rain did a fine job of that. It didn’t last long, and soon the sun was back out, but it only made it steamier. It’s been getting hotter the last few days, but there’s rain coming in the next few days, and it will be cooler after that. Once it passed through, I headed out to get some hay from a woman I had messaged earlier, she had some grass hay for $5 a bale. The bales were a lot lighter than I’ve been used to, so they won’t last as long as the ones I have now, but they’ll get me halfway through my next camp, which will be plenty good enough. Fortunately, the rain had passed through there before I got the hay, so everything will stay dry. Headed out to Tractor Supply to pick up a little horse feed, then Walmart for some shopping, then back to camp, where I had dinner, a nice Angus burger on the grill. While I’ve had neighborly interaction with Opal and her friends, I hadn’t really chatted with them at length, so I went over and spent some time with them. They all wanted to see the inside of the trailer so I brought them up for the grand tour, then we went back to her trailer and I asked them if they would be one of my preview audiences for my Snowy River production, and they agreed, so I performed that for them, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. We chatted till well past dark, until the mosquitoes got to be too much, then said good night. They’re riding in the morning, but they all want to buy a book, so I’ll see them again in the morning. Settled down late, of course, but got in one Voyager and a shower, now I’m ready for bed. So good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
What a lovely, long ride today! After a so-so night sleep, I got up, did my chores, had breakfast, then saddled up Flash for our group ride today. I left, with Lola in her newly-refashioned safety vest, about 10:15 for our meetup at 11:00 at Orange and J. Just as I crossed the road on to the orange trail, a rather large and noisy group turned in just behind me, so I picked up my pace to get out ahead of them, all downhill of course, so I ended up reaching J by about 10:45. They ended up being a few minutes late, but I had a nice chat with four fellas who are camping up on top of the hill in the state horse camp. Eventually my group came along and we headed out. Instead of Table Rock, though, we headed out to Indian Head, which I don’t remember ever going to before, then around and down to the Artesian well for lunch, then back out on the challenging pink trail, where one of our group decided to head back to camp before the turn (and who ended up getting lost anyway, then found again by our group when they finished the pink trail), and another girl’s horse got so tired she stumbled a few times and almost went down the hill, and could scarcely carry her even on the flat. My phone died part way through so I didn’t get a GPS of the whole ride, but when I went back and reconstructed it, it looked like about 13 miles, but it seemed a lot longer. And it may have been, with steep climbs and descents, the GPS is very often misleading. Once we completed the pink trail, I peeled off to climb back up to camp, while they headed east, then north, back to 3 Reasons farm. It was close for me, and Flash, after all that exercise, still decided to gait up that long hill most of the way! Lola was so tuckered she practically dropped onto her cushion in the screen room while I unsaddled Flash and gave him a wash and rubbed him down with some liniment. One of the older guys that I met this morning came by and chatted for a bit, then I got everyone put away, changed my clothes, then took the truck out to 3 Reasons for steak dinner with the gang. There was a thunderstorm in the vicinity and I didn’t want to leave Lola alone, you know how she panics when there’s a storm, so I helped her into the truck (she was so tired she couldn’t climb in on her own), and traveled the 10 minutes to the farm. A nice group, a great dinner, and, of course, I sang for my supper by doing Snowy River for them, with only one little bobble, but it was the largest group I’ve done so far, ten people, so I thought it went pretty well. As it started to get dark, I drove back to camp and settled down for the night. No TV, I barely have enough energy to type this blog! And tomorrow is likely going to be even longer for me, since Table Rock is on the other side of the park, plus they want to go down into the state park, with is another few miles south, so it’s going to be another long day for me, but I don’t mind, it was a beautiful and fun day! I just hope Flash is up for it, because this group is all gaited and Apollo would never keep up, plus it would be too long for him. But if Flash is gimpy, I may have no choice! I think he’ll be all right, though, he certainly seemed fine gaiting up the hill at the end of the day! Well, I’ve had my shower, and tonight, I’m going to be early, long day tomorrow! Good night, my love!

Hey Darlin’,
After getting to bed late, I slept well, gave Lola some satin balls with breakfast, planned a route to ride some trails that I missed when we were here last year, then saddled up Flash and headed out about noon. I’d forgotten how pretty this forest is, lots of escarpments and caves and creeks and waterfalls, though most weren’t flowing with water at this time of the year. I took one trail, the pink trail (though the markers looked more purple) which was marked challenging. I remember I took the easier part of it last year, but today I took the truly challenging section, which they mark by adding a black strip to the pink mark. There were a few dicey spots, not the worst I’ve seen (the North Dakota Badlands come to mind!), but still it was a good trial for Flash, and he did wonderfully! There was less mud than last year, but still plenty, and because of that I decided not to put his boots on, but, of course, that meant he was more tentative on the gravel sections, but it couldn’t be helped. I did NOT want to waste time searching for boots today, and with some of the sharp dropoffs so many of the trails have here, they were liable to go over the side, never to be seen again. But he handled it well, and there really wasn’t that much. I went out to Parachute Rock, past White Falls (no water that I could see), around Red Rock, and out to Crystal Falls (again, no water). All told it was just 10 miles when we got back to camp, just about 3 hours. It was a beautiful day, gorgeous weather with not a cloud in the sky, and cooler than it’s been. Supposed to get down in the low to mid-50′ tonight! Anyway, got back rinsed off Flash and Lola, who was equally muddy from flattening herself into every muddy puddle she came across, then settled down in the screen room for awhile. I decided to do a long overdue job, and spent some time refashioning one of the human safety vests into a Lola-sized vest. She’s been dragging the other one around, I thought I would custom fit one for her, and it seems to have worked, but I’ll know better after the next trail ride if it doesn’t fall off! That took some time. When I finished, I fed the horses, gave Lola dinner and a couple of satin balls (I gave her one as soon as we got back from the ride, and it encouraged her to finish her breakfast, which she had left from this morning), grilled a nice Angus burger for myself, and settled down to a couple more ST Voyagers. By now, as usual, it’s time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Another beautiful day here today! After doing some more planning, and making reservations at the hotel in Peach Springs, AZ for the rafting trip, I saddled up Flash for a ride. The one trail is pretty boring, so I decided to make today all about conditioning, and gaited him for almost the entire ride. We did the whole 8.5 miles in about 95 minutes, and that was stopping a couple of times to put boots back on! Not a bad pace, and he seemed quite capable of it, no complaints! I just wish they didn't have gravel in between the muddy spots here, during the last half mile his boots came off twice, I ended up taking them both off for the rest of the way back to camp. Gave him a nice rinse down before putting him away, did a little bit more work on the computer, then took the kayak down to the boat launch and spent a couple of hours on the lake. I paddle almost all the way to the north end, which was a nice marsh with lots of wildlife, lots of birds. Since the beach was busier, all the geese had moved up here, plus some herons and cormorants, too. I watched them for awhile. Naturally, the wind was against me when I paddled up, then died down to almost glasslike conditions for the last half of the paddle back. It was nice, though, nice to get some sun and pretty quiet, too. Got back to camp, fed the horses, took my shower and settled down for the evening. About time for bed now, so I'll say good night. Love you, babe!

Hey Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, yay, but got off to a slow start this morning handling a bunch of computer work, mostly trying to plan for the next couple of months of travel, trying to figure out where to go and when. Got some preliminary decisions made, found a stable for when I have to fly out to Vegas (finally got the dates settled for that!), so I'm well on my way on my planning. I finally got Apollo saddled and we headed out with Lola, going in the opposite direction on the trail today. Once, on a hill, I even managed to get Apollo into a canter! I can't remember how long it's been since I've been able to get him to do that, the fat slug! Of course, as soon as we got to the top, I realized he'd lost one of his boots (typical, right?), and I spent 20 minutes trying to find it. Oddly, though he lost his right boot, so naturally I was looking all along the right side of the road, and finally found it, on the LEFT side of the road! Weird, but I remember that time when he lost a boot once when you were riding him in Pennsylvania, and it did the same thing, ended up on the opposite side of the trail, which is why I decided to look there, and viola! Found it! I had a group of three women pass me while I was looking, but they didn't see it either. Then I passed a woman, leading a mule, evidently her farrier had trimmed her mule's hoofs to short and the gravel was bothering him, he was limping a bit. She still had a long way to go back to the day parking area, but fortunately I had an extra bottle of water that I gave her, but there's wasn't much else I could do, so I carried on. Then I passed the three ladies again when they stopped at a picnic area, stopping for a brief chat, then Apollo lost his boot again, but his time I saw it before it even quit rolling. We finally got back to camp around 4:30, and I was debating whether I wanted to go for a kayak ride so late, but then the three ladies arrived in camp, and they came over to socialize for awhile, and one of them even bought a copy of my book! After they left, I started thinking about my schedule again, and also about whether I wanted to try to take a vacation this winter, when it suddenly occurred to me. One thing on our bucket list that we never did was to take the mule train down the Grand Canyon to the bottom. Yes, we rode our own horses down the Bright Angel trail a ways, but never to the bottom, so I decided, since I was going to be in Vegas in early October, I'd check to see if they had any openings. Well, it seemed according to the website, that they were booked solid until summer next year, but then I called and spoke to Adrian, who informed me that yes, indeed, I might be able to accomplish it! So we went back and forth on the phone for quite some time before figuring out how to do it. It means I will miss the Skymont ride this year, because that was the only thing that worked in the schedule, but I'll be riding down just one week before the 10th anniversary of when we rode down on our own two horses! We had gorgeous weather then, I hope for the same this year! So I'm still working out the logistics, and I'm trying to figure out a way to also do a whitewater rafting trip while I'm there, too, but that's complicating things as well, but you know me, I'll find a way! I knew there was a reason I kept putting off the last camping reservation I needed to make in Indiana, because now all those plans for that week will change! Anyway, when I finally got off the phone it was after 8:00, so I took my shower, made dinner, settled in for a mere hour of television, and now I'm off to bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

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!