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!

Hey Sweetheart!
FINALLY had a great night sleep, obviously the cooler weather makes a big difference! Got up around 7:30 because Trish wanted to come up and ride with me today, (which meant I couldn't volunteer, oh well!) so I set the alarm, had breakfast, and was just getting ready to saddle both guys when she arrived. We were out by shortly after 9:00 and had a lovely 12 ½ mile ride. The only problem with this place is there are really only two trails, with a couple of connectors, and part of the time they merge together, so there's not a lot of variation, but they do have some great views of the lake along the way! I have to say, they are really laid-back here, everyone's got up electric fences, and not ONE PERSON has their horses tied to these silly hitching posts. I REST MY CASE!! The campground is just about full, but by the time I got up the rides had already started, so it was pretty empty. Some horses were already finished with their first leg by the time we got on the trail. The first time a couple of riders passed us, Flash went crazy! He was so quiet and subdued until that happened, then he turned into a different horse, prancing and jumping, wanting to go after them. Trish saw a real Jekyll and Hyde episode right there! I decided then and there that I would do the 25 mile ride tomorrow, just because Flash seems so keen on doing it. Gotta keep my horses happy, right? Anyway, we got back to camp at about 1:30, had some lunch, chatted for awhile, and then she left for home. She might decide to come up to Potato Creek to meet me when I'm there as well. You'd like her, she's a nice lady with some brains and education, just like all the rest of the great gals she introduced me to yesterday. Anyway, after she left, I went and registered, got Flash's vet check done, and he even ran along beside me, thank goodness, it was something I thought I was going to have to train him better to do, but he seems to have managed it okay. I only hope he does that after our 15 mile leg tomorrow at the vet check! Fingers crossed! Anyway, I'm settling down early tonight, not really hungry after lunch, I've already fed the horses and put together their breakfast as well so I don't have to worry about doing that in the morning. I talked to one of my neighbors to get advice on the pit stop, since that was my weak link last time, and I think I've got a better handle on it this time, we'll see. So I'm having an early night, won't be long out of bed, so I'll just, I love you! And good night!

Hey Sweetie!
Flash and I finally got our first ride in today here, a bit more than 12 miles, and we only got lost two or three times. In fairness, I somehow lost my trail map, so I was only going by the GPS trail I had set for myself, which of course, doesn't show me the alternatives, but we made it back. The trails here aren't terribly interesting, with some that go through woods, others that skirt around the edges of fields, very few hills, and most are marked "steep" which must be for the benefit of the snowmobilers that share the trails in winter, because they certainly weren't all that steep for a horse. Flash had a lot more energy today than he's had in awhile, I guess a few days off have made a difference, or maybe he was just glad to be on trails that only had a few patches of gravel. We had a couple of lovely long canters, and our average speed was better than it has been. After we got back to camp and I rinsed him down and put him and Apollo on their anchors, I did a load of laundry and hung it out to dry. A few trailers came in, and from a girl across the way, I learned there's an endurance ride here this weekend, would you believe! I'm wondering if that's a sign that I should participate. It certainly explains why there were only four sites to choose from when I was booking my reservation last month! I'd never seen a horse camp that busy, glad to know there is a reason. The start time is 6:30 in the morning, so that alone my deter me! We'll see how I feel. Anyway, settled down for the evening, very hot today, still waiting for it to cool down inside the trailer, though outside is getting better. It's like this every night here, because I get the last rays of the sun, it takes longer to cool down inside. I ran the AC for awhile, but unless I run it for a long time, it doesn't help that much. I almost bought a filter for the AC the other day, but I hadn't measured for it, so I didn't bother. Today I took down that wood box, which I thought was where the filter would go, and made a fascinating discovery: underneath it was an ordinary AC vent just like in our previous Rvs! And to make matters worse, the vent was actually closed! I took it all apart, cleaned out the little washable filter, put it all back together again and left the vent open before putting the wooden box back on, and it blew out great! I still didn't leave it on long enough to blow out the hot air (well, maybe I did but it was still hot out when I turned it off), so I spent the evening with a small fan blowing on me, which helps a lot. Anyway, time for a cold shower and off to bed. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart!
Had another good night sleep, another hot day coming up, so I had decided to make it a long ride day so I could spend most of it out in the woods where it's a bit cooler. Got Flash saddled up and left camp right around 11:00, with the intent of finishing off nearly all of the trails I haven't done yet, since tomorrow will be housekeeping and breakdown before our departure on Monday. So we headed out the main B trail until we hit 16, which was a pretty nice single track trail that doesn't get too much use, then straight up a section of B trail I hadn't done before, until we hit the C trail, which quickly became one of my favorites here. It follows a long a ridge line, and has the most gradual descent off it than any other trail I can remember seeing here, was wide and grassy like a nice bridle path, with no gravel hardly at all. Flash really liked it, too, he sped up a lot once we got there. Then we got a little lost trying to find the entrance to trail 15, missed it, went back and finally found it, then was kinda sorry when we did, because it's the worst trail I remember ever being on. Trees down everywhere, saplings crowding long stretches, it even went straight through a bunch of blackberry bushes, absolutely terrible! Not sure why they don't maintain it, or close it until they give it a little TLC, but it was horrible. When it got to the B trail, we didn't even try to find the continuation of 15, though it was supposed to be around there somewhere, we just started heading back to camp on the B trail. Now that should have been easy, but somehow I got turned around again, and we ended up on trail 14, which is a couple mile loop that goes north from the B trail. I don't know how we ended up on it, honestly, we were on the B trail and suddenly we were on 14! I backtracked for more than a quarter mile and never found a marker, and naturally my GPS couldn't find me because it was in a valley full of trees, so I didn't know how far along 14 we had gone. I knew 14 looped so we ended up following it the entire length, which added another 2 or 3 miles to a trip that was already way beyond what I had planned. I thought it would be about 17-18, which was plenty long enough, it ended up being nearly 25! Poor Flash, he was sweating up a storm. I made him stop at several creeks and got him in deeper water just to cool him off. Lola's tongue was hanging out, of course, but she jumped into every body of water we came across, so she was fine. We didn't get back until 6:20! As I was unsaddling him, I saw tons of ticks on him. I can't remember ever seeing more than one or two ticks on any horse after a ride, but his legs were covered, likely from that jungle on 15 that we traversed. After I rinsed him down, I took some tweezers and spent 20 minutes pulling as many ticks off as I could find, but I'll check again later. Then I got out my tube and put it in my little watering hole and had a beer, all of which cooled me down nicely. Just had a sandwich for dinner to keep things simple, and settled down just after 8:00 with my nightly dish of ice cream. Right now it's about 10:00, and I can hear lots of fireworks off in the distance (it is the 4th of July, after all!) But I can's see anything. For a moment I thought I could see something, then I realized it was the full moon coming up behind the trees, but it was so red I thought it was fireworks! Apparently there's a lunar eclipse tonight starting just after 11:00, so I'll probably stay up and watch it for a while, I'm not sure if it's a total eclipse or not, since I have no internet I can't check on things like that. But the way I'm facing, I could see it from my bedroom window if I want. Anyway, it was a terrific ride today, and since Flash needs to be ready for an endurance race at any time, it won't hurt him to do 25 miles. Of course, he'll need to do better than 7 hours at one of those! The one endurance ride we've run so far, he did 25 miles in 3:51, so next time he'll have to improve on that! Of course 25 miles on flat sand is a lot different than 25 miles on hilly, forested terrain like this, but I think this is good for him, he's getting his mountain stamina. Anyway, I've already showered so I'm just waiting for the eclipse and for it to be cool enough to go to bed. Oh, and I learned a valuable lesson this morning. I forgot to turn my solar panel east last night, and as a result, I had no power in the batteries this morning, so I had to use the BeatIt jumper, undoubtedly one of the best $100 investments we ever made! No problem starting the generator with that, and it took no time at all to charge the batteries. I'm getting the hang of the more primitive camping! I just have to balance the benefit of being more in the shade against being close enough to an open area to catch enough sunlight. It's been good here because the trees are to my west and so I get shade early in the evening, and get lots of sun in the morning so the batteries are pretty well-charged by the time I get out of bed in the morning. Anyway, this is getting way too long-winded, so I'll say good night, darlin'! Love you!