Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, though it was chilly in the morning, but I had set the furnace at a less than stingy setting so it wasn't too bad when I got up, though the first thing I did was punch up the temp! Was about to have breakfast when I got a text saying that breakfast was at the mess tent, and since I knew the morning awards ceremony was going on, I opted to drive up there and save myself the hassle of making breakfast here. Had to take two Hardee's biscuits just to make one egg and sausage biscuit (I gave Lola the other biscuit later), then sat through the awards ceremony, where I was able to catch up with some of my ride friends from Florida. Afterwards I helped do some packing of stuff, including tents, until it was almost 11:00, at which point I came back to feed my critters. My neighbor Steve and I got caught up in a conversation, and since he's on his own (his wife Cam stayed home with an illness), he was taking his own sweet time to pack up, and we chatted off and on for a couple of hours. He finally finished packing and headed out about 2:00, then I got started with a little packing, then worked on the gpx files of the trails I checked this week so I could send them to Stagg, one of the managers, to add to their collection. I haven't been able to send it yet, though, because the signal here is so bad. I also rinsed my truck off, it's been so dusty here. Despite all the forecasts of rain, we never got ANY, and the gravel road throws up dust everytime a vehicle passes. I waited until late in the day, hoping there wouldn't be much traffic, before I took the truck over to the washrack and rinsed all the dust off, then wiped it down. I just discovered that there is a guest wifi signal here, though I don't think it's strong enough to do much, but I do know that my phone goes on roaming and jumps from one bar to four or five bars, which seems to work better for calls but not for data. Maybe with the password to the wifi it will do better, but I didn't get that. I'll have to remember to get it next time! Happy to learn that there will be a Fall ride, there was some question about it for awhile, but it's mostly set now. A bit later, late in October, so the colors should be gorgeous, but the weather at that time of year can range anywhere from 80 to a blizzard, so fingers crossed! Finally settled down for the evening after putting away most of my stuff and putting blankets on the horses, and even managed to get enough of an intermittent signal to watch an hour of TV (though it took a lot longer to watch since it kept buffering!) Ready for bed soon! No big hurry tomorrow, only 200 miles to go, and I filled up with fuel yesterday when I was in town, so it should be a straightforward drive, assuming I don't lose another tire! Even so, that only seems to slow me down for about 15-20 minutes, and I'm back on the road, now that I have all the tools! Anyway, heading to bed shortly, looking forward to my next couple of stops, places I've never been before! Whoo-hoo! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Slept a bit better, but still woke up too early, considering my alarm was already set for 6:30, but I got up with the alarm, had a quick breakfast, got all my chores done, then headed out to my first crossing guard job, at what is known as the Big Rock, a rather large abutment next to the road which creates a bit of a blind corner, so I helped cross a bunch of horses there for an hour. Then I had a couple of hours off, where I helped settle and walk a neighbor's poodle. The owner, Gayla, had to go to the hospital after falling from her horse at the mounting block yesterday, so everyone's been pitching in to look after her dog and her horse. My afternoon job was another crossing guard duty at the SE Lagoon crossing, that was for most of the afternoon, and I stayed an extra 15 minutes until the last riders went through. Got back to camp, Art came by and took Lola for a walk while Steve walked Enzo and I walked Lola, all in different places. I stayed around for Gayla's parents, who came to get her dog, then headed up to dinner at the main tent. They do it a little oddly here, where they do the awards ceremony before serving dinner, so it was a lot later than I would normally eat, and of course, it was heavy on the carbs (pasta, garlic rolls, cookies and salad), so now I'm pretty stuffed and it will likely affect my sleep pattern tonight, but oh, well! At least I didn't have to do any cooking and cleaning! Got back to camp after 8:20, fed Gayla's horse, let Lola out, where she promptly started grazing, which I know means she'll be throwing up later, hopefully before I let her back in. Settled down with my Sleepytime tea while the water for my shower gets heated, and in bed shortly thereafter, as my first job tomorrow starts at 7:15, which means a very early morning for me! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Woke up with my alarm, had breakfast and finished packing, managed to catch the horses without too much trouble, and was out the driveway by about 9:30. Had a relatively uneventful drive to Asheville, stopping once to top off my fuel tanks at Buc-cees, the first time I've ever stopped at one, but they had the cheapest fuel. I didn't go in, but I was impressed with the number of fuel islands they had! So many people have told me I needed to stop at one, so I was happy to do that, and managed to get in and out without too much trouble. Had to add some power steering fluid, I have a leak there, but am handling it. Made it to the Biltmore fine, but as I was coming in, I thought I noticed a problem with one of my tires. Once I reached my camping spot, which is a bit more north than usual, I looked at it, and saw that the sidewall had split on it. The worst thing was that it was my "newest" tire, the one I bought just seven months ago, but was four years old according to the date on it, and the one that I paid over $400 for, which I thought was a ripoff at the time, and now that it's lasted me less than six month, I'm sure of it! So disappointing. So in addition to my usual setup, I had to add putting my spare on, again, and making some calls to find another replacement. Thankfully, there's a Discount Tire in town, the same chain that replaced the last tire, and they were able to look up my last purchase with ease and will hopefully be able to get a replacement before I leave. I even told them that if they can get me three tires, I'd replace them all, so at least I have all the same type. Seems like a waste since all the ones I have are different ages, but it doesn't seem to matter, since the two latest failures were the two "newest" tires, though the one I took off today was over five years old when I first bought it, which, coincidentally, was the last time I came to the Biltmore! Crazy! Anyway, it took me almost three hours to get set up, including changing the tire, so I'm exhausted! A couple of bourbons and a burger later, I'm feeling a bit better, but I have a busy week ahead, which I am looking forward to! Nothing like being on the back of my own horse on the trails to make things right! Planning on an early night, can't wait to get back into the saddle tomorrow! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a very quiet day today, trying to conserve some energy for the busy week I'll have next week, and because there was supposed to be rain today, though we barely had a sprinkle first thing in the morning. Lola and I did take two walks around the pasture, one in the morning and another in the evening, but otherwise spent the day reading, on the computer or bingeing on Damages, which seems to have a great cliffhanger on just about every episode. Tomorrow will be busier getting ready to move out on Monday. Looking forward to getting back on the road again! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Finally had a good night sleep, seemed like I may have slept almost straight through, thank goodness! Woke up more refreshed than I have in awhile. Did my morning ritual here, feeding the horses and walking the perimeter of the pasture with Lola before breakfast for us. I asked Linda's husband Richard about using his floor jack to change out the spare tire for the new one, and he brought it out, but as soon as I saw it was only 3.5 tons, I doubted it would work, and I was correct. I ended up bringing out my little 12-ton bottle jack, and that managed to lift it enough, though it has a bit of a leak, so it kept slipping, but it got the job done. Then Linda helped me put the spare away, so that job is now complete! Glad I decided to do that today, I had thought to do it on Monday on my own by running up on the Jiffy jack, but I'm glad I did it today, because having help made it much easier. Started a load of laundry, had a nice chat with Linda for awhile, who then showed me how to feed her dogs and barn cat, as she's going away for the weekend and I'm helping her out with that. Then I spent some time in the afternoon working on my travel schedule, since I haven't planned anything after Biltmore except the Shake It Up ride in KY the following weekend, but I can't get in until Thursday, so I was looking at options for Monday thru Wednesday, plus where to go after that. After dinner, I decided to wash the truck, it's gotten dirty since my wash and wax at Michelle's earlier this month, and it's supposed to rain over the weekend, so I wanted to get that done. Cleaned off the dashboard a bit, and used Invisible Glass on the windows (BEST STUFF EVER FOR GLASS!), before settling down for the evening. A productive day in the end! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe!
I still can't seem to get on a good sleeping schedule. I woke up again in the middle of the night and had a hard time falling asleep again, then it was almost 8:30 by the time I finally woke up. Fed the horses and took my walk, Lola and I had breakfast, then I did a little housekeeping. Then I sat down in my chair for a minute and ended up dozing off again! Weird! Worked on the Google Earth map of my Tanzania trip, did some other computer work, then did a bit more housework just to top off the day, including putting the screen from the drop down window back up. I never heard back from the screen-making company, and now I've run out of time anyway, so I took the screen from the third window where the toolbox is and put it up front, so at least the horses are protected now. Dinner was leftovers from our lovely lunch the other day, and an evening of Damages. Linda's arranged to go riding tomorrow, so it will be an early morning, relatively-speaking. Hoping to get to bed early! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
Today was a day of running around mostly dealing with issues. I loaded up the blown tire into the back of the truck and headed into town (Cleveland, TN), and dropped it off at the tire place where I had ordered a new tire, which they said should be in today. After dropping that off, I decided it was a good time to get the front end of the truck aligned, as it's been pulling to the right and the tires are wearing unevenly, though there is still pretty good tread on them. It took me a couple of tries to find someplace that could do it, since not everyone can do fit a dually on their rack, and not everyone could do it right away. I ended up at a place that Discount Tire had recommended called Top Tech, though they couldn't get me in until about 1:00, so I stopped to get fuel, then went shopping at Walmart, got everything except a few perishables, particularly things they didn't have that I usually like, like my grapefruit juice and the Silk milk, which I picked up later at Food City on the way home. After the alignment, which they appear to have done a good job with, though a bit more expensive than I figured, I headed back to the tire shop. Unsurprisingly, FedEx still hadn't delivered the tire, so I waited around for nearly an hour until it finally arrived, nearly a half hour after the published "delivery window." They mounted it so quickly after it arrived that I was out the driveway at the same time the FedEx truck was! After the grocery stop, I was finally back to the camper around 4:00, where I settled in for the rest of the day, munching on some of the leftovers from the great lunch yesterday and starting the second season of Damages, my current binge-watch. Won't be long out of bed, I was dozing during the last episode! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
Spent a wonderful day with our old friend Michelle, the only person I know that knew you before I did! We met in Chattanooga at a restaurant called Pucketts, where I thought we would be having brunch, but they stopped serving at 11:00, so we ended up ordering an enormous sampler platter that had every kind of smoked meat they served, then truly indulged on a dessert so decadent I'm embarrassed to admit it! Ready? Deep-fried chocolate fudge brownie with ice cream, whip cream, chocolate syrup, candied pecans and, get this, caramelized bacon! OMG! We eventually waddled out of there over to the Tennessee Aquarium, where we spent the afternoon wandering between their many exhibits, with never a pause in our conversation, which is always the way it is when the two of us get together. What a great time! We finally went our separate ways at 4:00, just in time to beat rush hour out of town (though I still had several areas of slowed traffic, which is apparently the norm these days), and managed to get home right at 5:00. Ten minutes later, Linda picked me up and we drove up to Athens to a BackCountry Horsemen's meeting of their local chapter, where I discovered I was on the agenda to talk a little about my trip to Africa. Wasn't expecting that, but was happy to oblige! I was well received despite my lack of time to prepare, but you know me! I managed to tell a pretty good short story, and had some fun in the process. All finished by a bit after 8:00, and managed to get home just as the sun was going down. Watched the Season 1 finale of Damages, and now I'm calling it a night! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Got to bed later than I had hoped, then woke up in the middle of the night, had some issues getting back to sleep. Finally got up late, had breakfast, then took a walk out to the pasture to feed the horses and found a convoy of tree trimmers driving through the pasture, apparently here to clear the brush and trees under the electrical wires. My horses paid no mind, of course. Fed them and took a walk around the pasture to get my steps in, then packed up Lola and headed to the vet, who was only 10 minutes away. Got there by 10:20, but ended up waiting until nearly 11:00 before they could see us. Busy morning! Unfortunately, Lola was not on her best behavior, she growled at almost every dog that came near her. I think she was just feeling vulnerable after having first Chelle's dog and then Linda's dog come after her. She has a little chunk of skin missing where the latter got to her. Lola got her annual vaccination, and the doc checked out all her various fat lumps, but didn't think any of them would harm her, at least until they grew so big they interfered with the actual mechanical movement of her shoulder. Still, she's in good shape for her age, which is now 13 1/2. She's been walking with me fine, though she's not putting much weight on her right hind leg anymore, I think the arthritis is really throwing her off-balance. Anyway, once we got back from the vet, I spent the rest of the day talking to Linda, then mostly reading, then decided on popcorn and a movie just for something different. Took another walk around the pasture after dinner, feeding the horses lots of peppermints. Trying to get them used to coming to me for mints so they'll be easier to catch when the time comes. Absolutely gorgeous weather today once it warmed up a bit. Crazy, AC one day, the fireplace the next! No matter, I'm ready for anything. The rest of the week looks perfect, 70's during the day, 50's or less at night, just the stuff I seek out! Considering taking a short ride just to see how I do physically, but I am definitely feeling a lot better, though I need to get in the saddle to make sure before I commit to a longer ride. Maybe Wednesday. I have plans for tomorrow down in Chattanooga, so I'm just taking things one day at a time! Heading to bed shortly! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!