Hi Darlin'!
Another busy day here at the ranch! While some folks pulled out today, there were still plenty of people left for the last day. I had decided to go on the half-day medium ride with Flash (Apollo's feet are still sore), and we headed out a little late after an incident with one of my neighbors, Lori, whose horse suddenly started shaking and his legs buckled while she was saddling him, and he fell on her. They had to rush her out in an ambulance to a life-flight pad and flew her to a nearby hospital. They thought she had broken bones, but it turned out that she didn't, just had bruises. An expensive transportation bill for that! Anyway, we finally got out of camp and headed around the edges of fields for a long time, very hot in the sun. Then we had some false starts of trying to through the woods where there was no trail. Bubba, who has been nothing but kind to me since I've been here, was leading the ride, and he has kind of a reputation for extreme riding. We have several forays into the woods where we had to turn back because there was no trail and it was impossible, so we ended up spending a lot more time riding around fields. As we came to the end of the ride, he started up the creek, and after about 100 yards, an older man next to me had his horse lost his footing and fall, and the rider ended up underneath him, and he couldn't swim, but I managed to get Flash close enough to him so he could grab his McCarty lead and pull himself up. Once we all recovered from that, we went a little farther, then Bubba couldn't find a place where horses couldn't cross without swimming (remember all the rain we've been having!), and some people we reluctant to carry on, so he turned around and started taking the group the other way. We were only about 50-75 yards from the beach at the camp, so several riders opted to carry on, and after seeing which way they went, I decided to give it a try. I had taken Flash out into the water earlier this week, but it had really scared him, but now he seemed okay, even eager to follow those horses, so I moved him out, and sure enough, he had so swim a few steps. I was so busy trying to keep my phone and camera out of the water I hardly noticed, but he did brilliantly! Got back into shallow water, still had his boots on, and climbed out at the beach! Good boy! I couldn't get him past Apollo, though, so I unsaddled him right there and carried everything back in my utility cart. I was a bit perturbed at some of the risks that we took, though, not knowing what the skill level was of that 20+ people that were on the ride. Got back with just a few minutes to spare before lunch would stop serving, managed to get to the cook shack just in time (though it seems they're used to Bubba's rides getting back late). After lunch I took Lola down to visit with Liz and her GSH pointer EmmyLou down at the creek, sat around with her group for awhile. Of course, Lola was more interested in fetching with humans than playing with Emmy, and Emmy was busy trying to chase fish anyway, so Lola eventually wandered down the beach and played with a group of kids for awhile. After an hour or so, I wandered up the beach to join another group, mostly from Indiana, that I had gotten to know, and stayed there until dinnertime. I had a chat with Lori by her trailer, they had already released her from the hospital, bruised but okay, and a few other folks as well. Finally settled down for the evening, even had time for a DS9, wifi service is much better now that so many people had left. Looking forward to a quiet remainder of the weekend, think I'll just leisurely do some housework tomorrow, and Sunday is for breakdown, of course, then travel on Monday to a place called Double J Stables next to the Mammoth Cave National Park. Heard some good things about it, though I've heard the trails are kind of boring, just a few long loops, but right now, boring sounds kind of good to me! I need a place to relax! Speaking of, I'm off the bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Another long and tiring day at the Ranch Ride. Up again at 6:30, fed the horses, off to breakfast, saddled up Flash, then off on our first "fast" ride. Mostly Tennessee Walkers and other large gaited horses, I think I had the only Paso, and in spite of moving out pretty quickly, I still had to expend energy holding him back, their gait was just a bit too slow for him. But it was a much faster ride overall, and would have been a really nice ride except for the number of trees that were down. We must have gone around fallen timber at least twenty plus times, and some we had to go quite a ways into the woods to get by. That slowed us down a lot, and often, so it wasn't quite as much fun as I had hoped it would be, but the trail did take us WAY off the property, so at least we got on some different trails. Plus there was only one climb up and down, the rest was pretty flat, which made the going easier overall. The only bad thing was Flash's boots kept coming off. Not just one, but both at different times, and that's unusual when we're on the flat. That slowed us down a couple of times too. Unlike on the slow rides, when I could get the boot on and still be able to join the line of passing horses, this group was only fourteen, and with them moving out so fast, they had to stop and wait for me, which I felt bad about. Anyway, we got back to camp, I spent a few more minutes with Flash at the obstacle course before putting him away, grabbed lunch, then gathered together a group of ladies, plus Callie and her mom, to go tubing down the river. I drove my truck down to the pick up point at the end, and Callie's dad brought me back so we could launch from the camp. It was pretty nice, the water is very cool and refreshing in the nearly 90 degree heat, though there was one point where the creek was completely blocked by downed trees, and the only place to get out was practically impossible, with a steep muddy incline and not much to grab on to, made worse by being so deep at that point, when I jumped off my raft to help, I literally when completely under. I was NOT expecting it to be that deep just a few feet from shore, since most of the creek is quite shallow. Anyway, we all managed to get through there with some effort, and the rest of the trip was pretty tame comparatively, though there was another spot or two that requires some special maneuvering. It was fun though, and definitely relaxing, but it took a lot longer than we expected, not getting back until almost 5:00. I took a shower, then I realized I had no electricity and had to get help getting that problem fixed, which delayed me a bit going up dinner, only to see that waiting meant the line was hugely long. When I finally reached the porch to see the menu, I saw it was just tacos, so I abandoned it and came back to finish the leftovers from lunch I hadn't eaten because I was rushing around to go tubing. Anyway, after that, I fed the horses, then walked up to watch the "horseless rodeo" just to see what it was, and to walk Lola, but after a few minutes of watching the explanation and seeing that it was geared towards kids playing, I decided to abandon it and come back to the trailer. I am getting so tired from all this activity, I guess I'm out of practice of non-stop activity from dusk til dawn. I had a little dish of ice cream, read for awhile because I couldn't get Netflix to work (the camp wi-fi is intermittent and my hotspot on my phone is nonexistent), and now I'm starting to nod off. So, it's off to bed for me now! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
Another busy day here at Loretta Lynn's June Ride. Another long line at breakfast before saddling up Apollo. I was making good time, and just before they made last call for the panoramic picture of the group, as I was about the mount up, I suddenly remembered that I had readjusted the stirrups for Callie's short legs, so I had to make the quick decision to change saddles, but that meant I had to also swap out the saddle bags, fleece cover and cantle bag, but that was still easier than messing with the stirrups, so I raced to do that and made it just in time for the picture. I did the all day ride again, but since it was Apollo, I ended up more toward the back than the front, he was really being a slug today, worse than usual. He hates the gravel footing, and I don't blame him, but we struggled through. When we got back I tried him on the teeter-totter, thinking he would be easier than Flash, but he was terrible, I had to spend 20 minutes getting him over it two or three times. I may just enter Flash in the trail competition! From there, I actually took Apollo out into the creek bareback for a swim, it's actually deep enough in spots to do that. We only went a couple of steps, but we did it! When I put him back in the paddock, I pulled out Flash out and got him out there, too, though he was a a lot more reluctant, but eventually I got him out there. Once I put him away, I got my chair and joined the ever-increasing group that sits in the creek for happy hour, had some decent conversations, and played with Lola. She got everybody playing, and when I finally took away her frisbee to make her rest, she wandered off and found more kids to throw sticks for her. She's going to sleep tonight! Then I went to dinner, meeting up with some ladies who rather suddenly realized it was me who wrote the horse camping book, which they had a copy of. I've been doing a lot of networking, I'm hoping to have a whole bunch of folks I can ride with at places I'm planning to go, which would be nice. Eventually I got the horses fed, took Lola for her last walk, and even though it's early, I'm planning on an early shower and bedtime tonight, which is momentarily! Love you, darling! Good night!

Hey Sweetie,
Another busy day here at Loretta Lynn's Wrangler Camp. More trailers came in throughout the day, but I managed to dissuade everyone coming in from parking in the spot next to me, because the handle on the water spigot was missing, and true to form, it didn't get fixed today, so hopefully, my front yard will continue to be an opening in the row, which many people are starting to use as a pathway from row to row. I slept a bit later because I couldn't get to sleep very well last night, but Callie and I were back on the trail before 11:00. I had planned a shorter route today, one that took us out to the Western Town, but we got turned around a couple of times, again, despite following my GPS, because the intersections are so poorly marked it's pitiful. On one wrong trail we met a couple of women who were also trying to find a way to town, so they ended up following us as we backtracked up a hill to get back to the right trail. We eventually came out behind the old town church, but instead of following the trail out on the loop I had planned, they wanted to go into town, so we followed the road into the town, only to be met with a "No horses beyond this point" sign. But friends of these two women were already in the town, they apparently didn't see the sign, but I found a way around the back and we met up with them just as they were leaving. I wanted to get back to the trail loop, but the women followed the part of the group that went back by road, while three of their riders, two men and a woman, decided to join us on the trail back. I managed to get us back with only one missed turn, but that just was a shortcut across a loop anyway, and by that time, we were already much longer than I had expected, so that was fine. We got back to camp and Callie helped me tremendously getting the horses put away. After her parents came to get her, I took Lola back down to the creek to play fetch for awhile, then as I was walking back, Bubba, the trail boss with the mules who let me put the paddock up for the horses behind his trailer, told me I should take a walk along the creek and join "the party" that was back there. Members of the Lynn family were gathered back there, along with some other friends, and there was a karioke setup and a number of folks were singing, and a lot of people had obviously been drinking and more most of the afternoon, so many were very merry. I met a woman who went gaga over Lola, she had a German short-hair named EmmyLou that she took out of her cage to introduce her. They seemed to get along okay. While we were chatting, we heard some live a cappella singing, and her eyes got big and she said, "That's him!" And I asked, "Who?", and she said "Kid Rock!" Evidently he's a friend of the family and came out for the day (maybe more, I don't know), and he ended up getting roped into singing several songs with some help from other friends and family. Quite the party! I probably stayed for close to an hour, though some of that was keeping an eye on some kids (and some adults, too) who were playing with Lola. After that I fed the horses and headed up to the riders meeting where I learned a bit more about what the plan is for the week (I literally couldn't find hardly any information on the internet!), then I headed up to where Callie and her family were camped up on the hill and they fed me an incredible steak dinner, a HUGE piece of meat I could only eat half of, but her mom Tracy gave me a bag to bring the rest home, very nice! We sat by the campfire and chatted, got to see the space station fly over (they had no idea you could do that, and they loved it!), and chatted some more before I finally had to come home. Breakfast is only from 6:30 to 8:00, so it's going to be an early morning! Took my shower as soon as I got home, now it's off the bed for me. Good night, my love!

Hi Baby,
Another good night sleep, though there's a lot more street lights here, but with the blackout drapes it doesn't matter! Had a leisurely morning before saddling up the horses and having Callie come down for our ride together. I created a map on Google Earth and downloaded it on to my GPS because I have memories of getting lost here last time. I put the boots on the horses, too, because I remember it was rocky in spots. Actually, it was mostly rocky on the trails we took, and despite my diligence with the GPS we STILL managed to get lost a couple of time. The trails aren't very well marked, especially the intersections, and there are so many renegade trails out there you can hardly tell which way you're going half the time. Lots of really steep hills, too, though Callie did great. She didn't mind the uphills so much, but the downhills made her understandably nervous, she was afraid of going over Apollo's head, but she managed very well. We went over 7 miles, which was longer than I had planned, almost three hours, but everyone did really well, and it was a gorgeous dry day for a change, so we were all happy campers by the time we got back! Callie's parents came down to get her, and we sat and chatted again for awhile before they left, they're taking her out to dinner for her birthday tonight. I inflated the river tube I had bought at Walmart yesterday, and took Lola down to the water where we played with the frisbee while I sat in shallow water in my ring. I actually had her towing me upstream occasionally to keep me from drifting too far away. The water was quite cool, since we haven't really had any terribly hot weather, at least not enough to warm up the creek, and the nights have been cool as well, but that's supposed to change later in the week, going up into the 90's. Trailers kept coming in all day and now it's getting really crowded. You would hate it! I'm just glad I came early so I could claim a good, big spot to fence in the horses, people coming in today are picketing them everywhere, every tree is taken. After I fed the horses I stopped at a couple of my neighbors to chat, met some folks who live in West Georgia, and some others that live near Coldwater in Milton, FL. I'm sure I'll meet even more in the coming days, it would be good to create a personal network of fellow horsecampers, in addition to the ones from my Facebook group. After dark and dinner, I took Lola for a walk, and ended up following the sound of music to a campfire a few trailers up, where some of my other neighbors had joined in, and I listened for a bit. You would have hated it, too. Apparently they're here to do a concert at some point, don't know when, with some other musicians that are supposed to be joining them. It was only vocal and guitar right now. In between songs that frankly got lamer and lamer as time wore on, half-finished, questionable lyrics, the two guys and some of their followers started telling stories that devolved into bathroom humor, humiliation of their friends in public places and sex jokes, so I didn't stay around very long. Sorry, I just don't find that kind of immature humor very funny. I was kind of hoping for the opportunity of a preview audience for my Snowy River bit, but most of that crowd wouldn't have appreciated it, and besides, it was more their "show," so I didn't want to intrude. I'd rather find a more receptive audience for that. Anyway, back in the trailer, finished off one DS9, now I'm off to shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetheart,
Well, it never rained last night, at least not noticeably, and the partiers didn't bother me again because I had my earplugs in, so I got a good night sleep. Once again, the forecasters were all over the map, from 20 to 60+ percent chance of rain. I decided after breakfast I was going out anyway, though Carol decided not to go, so I saddled up Flash, put the orange vest on Lola, a precaution I've been doing lately so I can see here when she dodges off into the woods, and headed back up Bucksnort. My plan today was to try to knock off as many of the main trails as possible, just so I would have a complete GPS map, so I headed on to Oak trail, but only got about 2/3 of a mile before I hit a marsh. If we were having a drought, I might have tried to go around it, but with all the rain, I didn't want to take any chances, so I turned around and went back to Bucksnort. I followed that clear up to I-40 before turning around, then took Clem, going in the opposite direction from where we took it the other way, just to see how far I could get. At one point, I made a wrong turn and ended up at a house with a sign that said "Trails End" which had a watering trough, but it wasn't on the map. I figured out from my mapping program where I went wrong and headed back south again, and was able to find an easy passage over a couple of small streams to the rest of Clem, so I was able to make a complete circuit. Not quite sure why we turned back on it last time, it looked pretty easy coming from this way, I think maybe we just tried to cross in the wrong place. Anyway, from there I went on a couple of sections of trail I had been on before, and just before I was deciding whether to take the slow route or the fast route back to camp, a great crash of thunder boomed overhead, so we opted for the fast route, back to Bucksnort, where we cantered and largoed most of the way back to camp. I managed to get Flash unsaddled and even washed with the citronella shampoo as the skies darkend and the thunder kept booming, but in the end, it never did rain here, though Carol said it rained at her house, which was right by the freeway, apparently I almost rode to it today. Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading, playing a few computer games, and nodding of in a nap every once in a while. I fed the horses early trying to beat another rainstorm that seemed to be building up on radar, but that never came in either! Very strange weather, but I'm glad I've avoided getting rained on the last few days! There's a higher chance tomorrow, but supposedly not until late in the afternoon, but we'll see. I don't believe any of it anymore! I took my shower early and settled down early, too, planning on going to bed early as well. Trying to move my body clock a little, been staying up too late. So I'm posting this early in the hopes that I will, in fact, get to bed earlier! So good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Well, you can tell it's a holiday weekend, there were a few campsites that partied well into the night! Thank goodness I've gotten into the habit of wearing earplugs to bed, which I usually do to drown out the sound of the rain and early morning birds, but last night it was the partiers, I guess. I didn't hear them much, but when I went around to visit the woman who stopped by yesterday, she said they were still going strong and loud at 3:30 in the morning when she got up to look after her horses. One of the highline poles apparently broke during the night, so she was out taking care of that. Anyway, I never heard a thing so I had a great night sleep! I'm really getting peeved at the weather forecasters, though. I had one forecast say there's a 20% chance of rain today, and another say there's an 80% chance of rain! Well, both said it would be after noon, so I decided to get out on the trail early, mostly just to avoid the inevitable crowd that was going to be out there. I managed to get out with Apollo just after 9:00, heading out on a route I had planned, but which, of course, I didn't follow. My GPS had trouble acquiring satellites for a while, and by the time it finally found me, I was already off course. Trouble is, some of the renegade trails don't look much different than the trails on the map, none of them are maintained properly. There are so many trees down, and obviously many have been down for months if not years, and no one clears it out, so the main trails look just as difficult to pass as the renegade trails. Anyway, I've got a better handle on how the park is laid out now, so I wasn't worried, I knew about where I'd end up no matter what happened. I brought Lola along, though I put her on a leash until we got out of the campground, it's so crowded with people and kids and dogs, but we managed okay. The trails were slippery after all the rain yesterday and overnight, but Apollo was his usual sure-footed self, and did just fine. We only ran into two riders on the way back, and I think I've seen one of them before at the Skymont Endurance race, but frankly, I only say that because it's rare to see a black guy riding a gaited horse out on the trails, and I know I've seen that once or twice before, but I can't guarantee it's the same guy, I seldom look at faces anyway, I'm usually looking at the horses. It was a nice ride, and it went from cloudy to full sunshine by the time I got back to camp. It never did rain! Grrrr! That's okay, if it's nice tomorrow, I'll take a long ride with Carol on Flash. Meanwhile, when I got back to the trailer and went into the kitchen to make breakfast, I discovered water on the floor. Yet another flood, dang it! I'm getting tired of finding floods on the floor! Fortunately, it was only small one, and I found about where it's coming from, but not exactly. I'll have to take a couple of panels and some components off to find it, from the looks of it. But it was related to the ice-maker again, so I just turned off the valve for that, and it stopped pretty quick. Sigh... Another job! I was hoping after I got my taxes done I'd have a few days without anything pressing to do, but no, there always has to be something to add to the list as soon as one thing is checked off! Not complaining, though, I'm still living my dream life, and these little challenges are just there to keep my on my toes! Otherwise I might get bored, now that I don't have you around keeping me occupied! I was back so early, though, I had the whole day to myself, waiting for the non-existent rain to come in, so I sat in the screen room and finished the book I was reading, played a few games on my computer, nodded off in my chair despite all the noise around me, and generally just relaxed, just like you're supposed to on a holiday weekend. Lola sat in the other chair watching all the activity, people and cars and horses and dogs going by. She was fine except she felt compelled to bark everytime a dog went by, nothing else bothered her after a few hours, which is a good thing! Anyway, that's been my day. Heading off to shower and bed! Good night, baby. Love you!

Hi Babe!
Took another ride with Carol today, this time following a route I had programmed into my GPS. I only missed a few points here and there, but ended up going everywhere I wanted to go. Flash was in a mood to go fast today, so I ended up trying to stay in front as much as I could to keep him settled. Lola came with us, she really enjoyed being out in the woods again. It was a beautiful day, at least until the evening when more rain came in (even though there wasn't supposed to be any rain today, ha ha,) I ended up doing exactly 10 miles. It was a bit slippery on some of the climbs, Flash lost his footing a time or two, but I managed to say on without any trouble. He has such a beautiful canter, and we had a chance to run a couple of times on the main trail, it was very enjoyable all around. When we got back, I gave both horses a bath with the new citronella shampoo I ordered from Tractor Supply, it does have a nice smell, but not sure how well it will work keeping flies away, we'll just have to wait and see. Since the Tractor Supply in Lexington didn't have anything else I needed, I made a few calls and managed to find two bags of Balancer and a gallon of Bronco fly spray at another Tractor Supply that was only about 30 minutes away, so I took a trip up there to get that and a bag of senior feed, so I should be set for a few weeks for feed and hay. It started to rain just before I was going to feed the horses, so I waited until it stopped, then fed them, then a WHOLE lot more rain came in, just in this area. Beginning to think I should be heading for the desert, all this rain is depressing! Anyway, Lola and I finally settled down for the evening, listening to the rain before heading for shower and bed, which will be shortly. Good night, my love!

Hey Baby,
After another night of waking up early and reading for an hour plus before getting out of bed, I grabbed some quick breakfast and saddled up the horses for my scheduled 9:30 ride with Lynn from Shelbyville, who arrived right on time (well, 10 minutes ahead, which is what I consider on time!). We headed out on a 3-mile ride I had figured out using the map she had kindly brought me yesterday, which stayed on trails that were actually on the map, rather than the cross-country ones I was taken to on Saturday. Even so, they weren't as widely used as I would have expected, and there was one section that was almost as narrow, but was still passable and didn't last long, fortunately. Both horses behaved very well, though when I was saddling them, I got the impression Flash wasn't thrilled about going out again until he realized Apollo was coming with us, that made him much happier. Apollo seems positively elated to be off the highline and back on the trail again! Anyway, it was a good ride, lasting exactly an hour, which is all we had time for since Lynn and her husband had to "check out" by noon, and since an hour is about all an unaccustomed physique can usually take riding a horse, no matter what kind of athletic condition you might be in! So many muscles that don't get used doing anything else. Anyway, it was a very nice ride and we enjoyed it, and she was very grateful for the chance. Once they left, I gave the horses a quick rinse and put them back on their highline with their remaining breakfast hay, returned a call from my friend Donna and chatted with her for awhile, then decided to pretty much just spend the day reading and relaxing and just recharging my personal batteries, as it were. They were calling for rain later in the day (it ended coming in MUCH later than predicted), lost electricity for a short time (thank goodness my batteries were charged up), but it was back on before too long. It rained off and on throughout the evening, and looks like it might continue to do so throughout the night, but that's fine, it's cooled it down a bit. I've actually had to run the AC a few times since I've been here, so I'm hoping for a little cooler temps in coming days. Oh, and I also trimmed Lola's toenails and my bangs, so I got a little accomplished today. But now it's time for shower and bed, so good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hello my love!
Woke up a bit early and finished reading a kindle book, had a quick breakfast before saddling up Flash, rode a little around the campground, spoke a few minutes to the couple I met from Shelbyville yesterday, then got a text from Carol that she had arrived, so I met her by my campsite and we headed out on a side trail that took us past the barn. I soon discovered that many of the trails are once again unmarked and unmapped, lots of renegade trails, which are all very nice if you have a clue as to the general layout of the place, but was pretty confusing to a newby like me, so I just literally went along for the ride. I had put boots on Flash but probably didn't really need them, since most of the trails were cross country and we hardly went on the roads at all. I ended up going just under 12 miles, which was a good ride for Flash considering there were quite a few hills. On the final stretch home on Bucksnort trail, one of the actual mapped trails here, we opened up for a bit and got a nice canter and largos for quite a ways. It was definitely a good workout. I gave him a nice bath when we got back, long overdue considering how much mud he's been rolling in over at Chickasaw earlier this week, but now he's all nice and clean and white again, for the moment. Carol came back to camp later for happy hour and we chatted some more, nice to have some weather good enough to sit comfortably in the screen room. After she left and I fed the horses, I walked back over to the other couple's campsite and invited the wife to ride tomorrow, just a short ride to give Apollo a little stretch. There's rain in the forecast (what else is new? It didn't rain one drop today!), but we'll see what it looks like in the morning. I've mapped out just a 3 mile ride, as they're leaving tomorrow, and besides, an hour is enough for someone who hasn't ridden in a long time! Was after 8:00 by the time I got settled in with dinner and TV, shower's done, and now I'm off to bed early to make up for my short night last night. Good night, baby! Love you!