I decided that I didn't want to leave here without getting at least one ride in, so I decided to saddle up Apollo early today and do a nice 7 miles loop, part of which is on the Sheltowee Trace Trail. Poor Apollo has been so neglected I decided he needed a change of pace, and he seemed absolutely delighted to get back on the trail again! He practically at the bit right out of my hand he was so eager to go! Even though the temps were already over 80 by the time we left, it dropped as soon as we hit the shade of the woods, and dropped some more as we headed up the long gradual climb to the top of the ridge. What a lovely ride! Some of the trail had a bit of gravel, mostly pea-size, but a lot was just dirt and a few areas of mud because of the afternoon thundershowers we've been having this week. Apollo behaved brilliantly! I had put his boots on, and he shook them off a couple of times, until I finally just took them off and hung them from my saddle, as they were surplus to requirement anyway. The Trace went right along the summit ridge line, which was about 10 yards wide most of the time, so the hillside dropped away from the trail on both sides, creating lovely views on both sides of the mountain. It was a long gradual climb and descent, nothing too dramatic, fortunately, and the whole ride was delightful. So glad I decided to take Apollo, he absolutely loved it! Out for a bit more than 2 hours, covering nearly 7 miles, so relaxing on him. I'd almost forgotten how relaxed I am when I ride him, no drama, just a loose rein and off he goes, following the trail without any guidance at all. With Flash, I still have to practically steer him around every turn. He just hasn't quite got the knack of trail riding yet, but I'm sure he will! Got back, got cooled off, had a quick breakfast, then got Hubby ready for another attempt at dialysis today. This one went much better, got better needle insertion and mostly better numbers, though he started feeling poorly toward the end, but managed to hang on until the appointed time. While we were dialyzing, though, I managed to get a good enough signal to watch an old classic on Amazon Prime, where we chose a movie about Daniel Boone, seeing that we're in his neck of the woods, and it was there we learned that Sheltowee was actually the Indian name that Daniel Boone had been given by the Shawnee Chief Blackfish, meaning Big Turtle. The whole trail actually runs 323 miles from Big South Fork in Tennessee up to Rowan County, KY. Well, at least I can say a did a few miles on it! We finally got settled down for the evening, sitting out in the screen room waiting for it to cool down, which it didn't until the middle of the night. Sorry to say that one of our neighbors had a big generator out last night, that they left on all night, and I'm guessing the same thing will happen tonight, darn it. Well, that's the beauty of living on the road, if you don't like what your neighbor is doing, you can either get up and leave or wait for them to do the same! I don't expect this group to stay much longer anyway, so I guess we'll wait them out. Hope it's a bit cooler tomorrow, but not counting on it!

After another good night sleep and a leisurely morning, I finally saddled up Flash around 11:00 and headed out on the trail to do a long loop I had originally planned earlier in our stay here at Honey Creek. Heading out on the trail to St. Helen, we enjoyed a lovely trail most of the way, except that one little rocky section going down to Gun Rock, and went several miles on single and double track trails until we got to the #3 intersection, when we turned right and headed down to Groom's Branch. That's when we started heading down hill, and the trail got more and more rocky. It wasn't terribly steep, but it did seem to last a long, long time, and at one point Flash planted his feet and wouldn't go any further for a while. I let him rest, as I'm sure it's just as tough for him to go downhill on that kind of terrain as it is uphill, and eventually we got going again. Before long we reached the bottom, and the ford across the river. I thought Flash might give me a hard time, but he walked right in, took a drink, and when he started to turn around, I managed to easily divert him into the stream and we crossed with no problem! Thankful for that, he was quite willing. On the other side, we went down a long, wide dirt road that followed the river, that went on for quite some time, until we reached Coyle's Branch, where things got a little confusing. The only signs were for Cumberland Trailhead, which I couldn't even find on my map, one trail said 10 miles to it, and the one we just came in on said 5.8 miles to it, and nothing else that corresponded to anything on my map. After a couple of false starts, I finally figured out which way to go (thank goodness it was clear skies today, it was purely astronomical reckoning that put me on the right track) and we followed that section of the river for a while, until we came to the turnoff that would take us up to the Panther Creek loop, which we took the other day. Well, it turned out that the trail was really a creekbed, large rocks and practically straight up! Not a happy camper with that trail! We started up, and Flash started trying to go faster, as horses do when they're climbing, and after a bit, I was thinking to myself, now this is a good reason to have a martingale. Of course, I didn't have one, and just a moment later, my saddle slipped so far back toward his rump that when he leapt over a rock, the saddle turned sideways, and there was no stopping it. Grrrr! He was antsy, so I had to tie him to a tree on this steep slope with rocky footing, undo his saddle and resaddle him. Not an easy task under the circumstances! When I finally got that done, and struggled to mount because he wouldn't stand still, we finally started back up the "trail." We didn't get far when the saddle slid again. It was so steep and his saddle pad was now soaking wet with sweat, and it didn't seem to matter how tight I made his girth, it simply slipped again. I got down and moved it and tightened it again, climbed back up, and still only managed to get a short ways before the saddle was back on his rump. I must have saddled him half a dozen times going up that hill, until we finally reached the top. There I tied him up again, loosened his saddle so he could breathe, and rested for a bit while we both recovered. Eventually, we got on our way again, this time the trail was more moderate as we were now on top of the plateau. I followed Panther Creek around to the overlook and decided to take a run out there. I'm still trying to find a trail I think Hubby can handle in his weakened state, but so far, even the best trail has some sections that I would worry about with him, so it's looking like he may not get a ride in here. Anyway, we arrived at the overlook, but I had to tie Flash up about 20 or 30 yards away and go on foot the rest of the way. It's a nice overlook, but for someone who has a spectacular view right off their own bluff, I wasn't overly impressed. I managed to climb back on Flash without too much trouble, and we headed off again. We eventually came to an area where they had clearcut the forest, so it was very hot in the sun, and we came around to the trail that led directly back to camp, which was the one I had avoided the other day because I thought it would be too hard on Flash, but after the rough stuff he tackled coming up the mountain today, it seemed a lot easier. The only other choice was to climb up the logging road another quarter mile to the "new" trail, which would have been a lot longer, but by this time, we had been out over four hours, so I figured shorter was better. We made it back to camp about 3:30, and all I had the energy for was to take off Flash's saddle and bridle and tie him to the trailer while I crashed in my lounger with a beer. Once I rested a bit, I was able to put Flash and all the gear away, but I was quite exhausted by then. I made burritos for dinner and we crashed watching a couple of old classic movies, which did much to rejuvenate me. I love happy endings! Tomorrow will be busy, I need to start packing, Hubby needs to be dialyzed, and I would really like to take Apollo out for a short loop, he's been missing out on all the fun. Then, it's all hands on deck to get ready to leave on Monday, heading for our next stop, White Sulphur Horse Camp in the Daniel Boone National Forest! Off to bed, I need plenty of rest for tomorrow!

Had another great night sleep, we're really starting to get in the groove of life on the road again! Did a few chores before finally saddling up Flash and heading off into the woods. I had originally planned on going to one of the overlooks, then took another trail instead, the one marked to Mt. Helen, and once I saw how that correlated on the map, I decided to head to White Oak Overlook, just past the Park Rd. Parking area. Just as I arrived there, two horse trailers came in, and one of them stopped and asked how the trails were. Much better, I was happy to say, only a few areas of mud, but most of it had dried out pretty well. I was very happy that trail was mostly dirt, too, with only one stretch of rocks about 15 yards or so leading down into and out of a place called Gun Rock, an overhang over a creek we had to cross. I carried on to the overlook, which I quickly realized was a place where you had to park and walk over to, no room for horses and no place to turn around at the actual overlook, thank goodness I noticed in time! I tied up Flash and walked down, it was a nice vista. Of course, Flash was a pain when I tried to remount, his blood was up and he was ready to go, with or without me, but I finally managed to get him still long enough to mount. Heading back, of course, he doubled his speed, and he was cordo-ing a big part of the way, hopping over branches and rocks just for the fun of it. By the time we got back to the parking lot, the other riders had all saddled up and gone, though I didn't know which direction they took. It wasn't long before we caught up with them, though, and we heard them a long time before we reached them, they were a rather noisy bunch of men, women, and a girl who liked to scream a lot. The last horse was slower than Clio used to be, and was a good 30 or 40 feet behind the pack anyway. We chatted for a few minutes, but the trail was so narrow there was no place to pass until we got back to Gun Rock. I wasn't sure if Flash had wanted to catch up to them or just wanted to get back to camp, but once we passed, he had no qualms about speeding away from that pack! He raced up the hill to the main road, and with a quick canter and largo, we were back in camp lickety-split! A much more enjoyable ride that Sunday, the fact that the trails were much drier made me a happier camper, and other than the mounting problem, Flash was more in control and more relaxed than before as well. Again, not surprising considering all his time off. I'm glad we took this trail, though, because it confirmed for me the big loop I'm hoping to take another day, one that will cross the river at the bottom of the scenic view I was overlooking and carry on across the other side for a while. Got back and put up Flash, had a few more irritating phone conversations about out supply delivery tomorrow, and finally got Hubby on his dialysis machine, late again, I'm sorry to say. Didn't finish up till about 8:00! Got food, finished a movie we had started (why can't filmmakers make a movie that doesn't end with someone dying in order to resolve it?), and finally headed to bed.

Though the morning started out cool, the bright sun quickly warmed things up a lot, and I was looking forward to my last ride on Flash here at this beautiful park. I had planned a long ride on a lot of the sections of blue trail that I had missed the other day, and wouldn't you know, I got turned around again somehow. Nevertheless, I managed to get in most of my plan, even though it wasn't exactly in the same direction or the same order that I had planned it! What's the difference, it was a beautiful ride! I was glad to see this section of blue trail was quite a bit wider, or at least the trees weren't so close on the trail that it was a knee-knocker. Still mostly single-track, and one part took me to an overlook that was just spectacular. You could see the lake and the regular campground on it's shore, maybe a half mile or more away, beautiful. After standing around in the cold and rain (though I had put their rain sheets on Friday night), Flash was quite ready for the ride, no hesitation and willing all the way. He's taken to hopping over downed logs, and even did a full-on jump over one. I've never actually done any jumping, but when I realized what he intended, I just grabbed a handful of main, leaned forward like I always see the Olympians do, and did my best to stay balance, and it ended perfectly! So proud of him, and myself for surviving it! Just glad he didn't go sideways at the last minute or anything, that would have been trouble... Anyway, it was a great ride, 9.39 miles according to MapMyRide, at just about 3 hours. This is SO how I want to spend as much of my time as I can! Spectacular! After we got back and I put up Flash (and, of course, the campground was mostly empty by now), I got busy dialyzing Hubby and packing up what I could for our departure tomorrow. What a great week! We will come back here!

For the last two days I've been riding on the north side of the park, as there are plenty of trails here, but today, I decided to explore the south side of the park. I planned a route straight west until the crossover to the black trail, where there was a large loop around the perimeter of that section of the park. Flash saddled up fine, but it took a few minutes to get him to leave camp. I guess three days in a row was unexpected for him, but since there's a storm front coming in tomorrow, I figured this was our last chance for a few days to ride, and he'll get plenty of rest then, so I pushed him up the trail until he stopped fussing. Once we headed out on a new trail he settled down a bit. The shortest route to the beginning of the black trail (other than the orange trail, which I was planning on coming back on) was a dirt road with some gravel on it, and I wish I had put his boots on, because it was getting a lot harder to avoid in some spots. Once we crossed the road to the black trail, though, the footing was lovely, no problem and very little stone. This is my favorite trail so far. It actually doesn't look as if it gets used as much, but it was a bit wider overall, but a bit more overgrown, if that makes sense. No knee-knocking trees, thank goodness! Several creek crossings (one which Flash didn't want to go over, so I did what I always do, make him go over it backwards, which, for some reason, he's less reluctant to do. Go figure,) lots of hills to climb, some beautiful lake views, simply perfect! These last three rides have been so exhilarating, so relaxing, so spot on for soothing my soul after a year and a half of anxiety, stress, tension and dealing with just too much stuff in too little time, it's really hard to describe the wave of pure joy that's washing over me right now. I think it comes from living your life the way you want, on your own terms, and being simply joyful at the heart of it. In Costa Rica some years back, we learned the expression Pura Vida, pure life, which I think just about captures it. I'd forgotten how much I missed this feeling, having been distracted by all the uncontrollable events that had found their way to us, but now we're back, for a while at least, and it just plain feels GREAT! After we finished the black trail, we crossed back to the orange trail for a nice finish to the ride, completing nearly 8.25 miles in just under two hours. Gave Flash some extra food, then got Hubby started on dialysis, and settled in to the rest of the day in no time, feeling happy, contented, satisfied, joyful and grateful for the Pura Vida!

Today I planned a longer ride on the blue trail, and was out in plenty of time to do that, but that plan changed a bit as we got a few miles out. Much of the blue trail in this section is narrow, single-track, more like a hiking trail than a riding trail, and as such, many trees were very close to the trail. I found myself constantly having to push on the trees at the last moment in order to prevent my knees from crashing into the tree, which would have been very unpleasant! After a few miles I kind of got tired of that, so I reconfigured the route to actually go along an old road for awhile. Eventually I got back on the blue trail, but it was more of the same so I backtracked (something I hate to do!), and eventually got back on the orange trail and headed for home, with a little side trip onto part of the yellow trail which branches off toward the lake. It ended up nearly 7 miles and about 2 hours, and it was mostly enjoyable, with lots of woods and hilly terrain to keep it interesting, and again, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Another morning of riding, followed by another afternoon of dialysis, more updating my online diary, followed by another quiet evening of relaxation. Who could ask for anything more?

Perfect weather for a ride today! In the 70's and sunny, I planned a fairly short ride today, just to get Flash used to the terrain. After all, we've only been riding on flat Florida canal trails for the entire winter season, so the hills around here should prove challenging! We saddled up and headed out, leaving a whinnying Apollo behind, as we started out from camp on the orange trail, which made a nice 5+ mile loop around the woods. We definitely had some grades to climb, but the trails were nice, a lot of them two-track wide, but many single track as well. There were a few more rocky areas than I had expected, but not too bad, and Flash seemed fine with them, though he did try to stay off the worst of it. What a beautiful park, and a beautiful day to enjoy it! Now THIS is what I'm talking about! Picture perfect! We both thoroughly enjoyed our ride today, and were back in camp in about an hour and twenty minutes, just right for a first day out. Once I got Flash settled back on the high-line and had lunch with Hubby, we got him set up for dialysis, which went brilliantly again. I'm so glad we had his fistula cleared out, it's making his buttonholes work perfectly every time, making the whole process simple. I just hope we can get hooked up with an i-pad at our next "home" clinic, it will make it easier, and I won't have to be hopping up and down every half hour to get the numbers off his machine. Fingers crossed we'll figure a way around that! The trouble is, currently each i-pad is assigned to a clinic, not a machine or a patient, so every time we change clinics, theoretically, we need to change i-pads. That's problematic because we'd have to ship back an i-pad every time we get a new one at the next clinic. Hopefully, though, we can devise a system where we can just re-program the i-pad as we switch clinics, but that will take some logistics which I'm not sure they're ready for. But we'll see! Settled in for a nice evening, the perfect end to a perfect day! I even had time to start updating my long overdue online diary! Whoo-hoo!

As we start gathering everything together to head home in the next couple of weeks, brother Jeff and I went on what is likely to be our last ride together this season. He wanted to see the 5 mile loop I found out back in Hungryland, so we headed out that way in the early afternoon. It's been a good stay, though not as relaxing as we had hoped because of all the in-center dialysis we had to do, but I'm hoping that next year will be better, with more time in other horse camps around Florida, dialyzing "at home" rather than "in-center," which will give us a lot more time for other, more fun things. Jeff's long-time girlfriend is flying in later this week, so we'll be staying here long enough to look after his critters while they take a short jaunt to a beach hotel along the coast, but we're hoping to be out of here shortly after that. A lot depends on what kind of weather they're expecting at home! But the plan is to spend some time getting up there anyway, to try to relax and get caught up on our sleep and rest time.