Let ourselves sleep a little later today, as we were all tuckered out from our long ride yesterday, but still got going around 8:00. I had made arrangements to top off my load of hay, so I ran out to the north side of Dunnellon to pick up about 10 bales, while Hubby started putting things away. By the time I got back, we finished loading, and we flushed our tanks at the dump station, is was after 11:00. Since we detest paying huge tolls for so many axles on the Turnpike, and we like driving off the beaten track anyway, we took a back route my GPS showed us, which was very scenic, taking us through lots of orange groves that were just bursting with fruit (the urge to go “scrumping” was very high!), and we enjoyed it tremendously, until I took a foolish risk to make it to Okeechobee on my tank of gas, and fell short by 5 miles. I was sure I could make it, but apparently the headwind was lowering my mileage even worse than I thought, but we paid the price for it. Hubby had to run into town and buy a small gas can, but it was only one gallon, and for a diesel (which is a much more complicated animal when it comes to running out of fuel), we needed at least two, so he had to make two trips. Fortunately, this had happened once before and we knew how to loosen the nut and pump the fuel under the hood to get it going, but it was nearly sunset by the time we got back on the road, stopped to pick up a quick meal, and pitch dark by the time we got to my brother’s house. He wanted to put us in a new place in back by the stables, but we didn’t want to navigate it in the dark, so we just parked in front and opened up for the night. Got the horses settled in, chatted a bit with my brother before we just had to get inside and relax a bit. Much more stress on this whole trip than usual, but I guess that’s part of the price we pay for staying home for so many months!

Today is the anniversary of when we first left home to travel with our horses, yeah! Granted we stayed home this summer, but it’s good to be back on the road again, visiting new horse camps that we’ve been wanting to get to for some time. We were both exhausted from the challenges of the last two days, not to mention all the energy expended in the run up to our departure, so today, we were both too tired to do much of anything today but rest.

What a day! After spending the last few days gradually getting everything ready to go, then getting up early, loading in the horses and taking down the electric fence, we were set to go, and went in to take one last walk-through the house, discovering we’d left behind my computer bag (with passports), Hubby’s wallet (which had fallen out of his pocket) and the satellite receiver, which we both forgot! Good thing we did that final walk-thru! Had to stop at the county courthouse on the way out to renew the registration on one of the vehicles, then hit the road with gusto, figuring we would arrive at our designated campsite in Perry, GA around 3:30 local time, having lost an hour because of the time change. That turned out to be wishful thinking! We ran into really slow traffic several times during the drive, both north and south of Atlanta. The city was actually about normal for that time of day, but large sections on either side, particularly along a new, soon to be opened “Peach Pass” section south of Atlanta REALLY slowed us down. Eventually we made it though, but it was after 5:00 by the time we reached Fair Harbor Campground. Very glad we had built in some extra time on our first day! We were greeted warmly at the desk and was soon directed to a wonderful new barn, where our two guys shared a stall with a good sized 24 X 24 run. Fortunately they charge by the stall here, not by the horse, which really helps make it affordable. By the time we got the horses settled and the RV set up in an electric site, it was getting dark, just in time to take the dogs for a walk before settling down for the evening.

What an incredible summer and fall! Having made the decision to stay home this summer and work on restoring the house after our seven year horse camping absence, we can proudly look around and see the results of our efforts and smile at the progress we’ve made. We’ve been busy doing a lot of non-horsey things as well, including a performance that Hubby did of his 90 minute version of his Galileo production as a fundraiser for the local Rotary Club, providing one of our Two-Day Workshops to the community, and picking up computers for a charitable cause in a town all the way over by Knoxville, just to name a few. Nevertheless, we’re looking forward to getting back on the road again, and have spent the last week slowly packing up and preparing for our journey to Florida and beyond. If it hadn’t been for that, we would most certainly have taken a ride today, as it was partly sunny skies and over 70 degrees here today in Middle Tennessee!! Gorgeous! (Though we had snow last week, so we know this nice weather won’t last!) We enjoyed doing some chores outside and loading more stuff into the vehicles in preparation, as well as having a fabulous dinner of leg of lamb, Yorkshire pudding and peas, all of which came out brilliantly! We love Yorkshire pudding, but usually it sticks to the pan, but after doing some research on the internet, I learned why, and this time it came out perfect! Spent the evening with movies (Crocodile Dundee and It’s a Wonderful Life) and the (disappointing) football game before heading off to bed. More loading out tomorrow!

Had another busy day in the morning, though it slowed down more in the afternoon since we didn’t have any more new riders come in. Last riders came in at early dusk, before heading over to the dining hall for a repeat of the awards ceremony. It was a great weekend, made lots of friends, laughed more than I had in a long time, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Made friends with the new ranger of the Boy Scout Camp and his wife, Dave and Ellen, and offered to help him GPS the trails so we can make an even better map than the ride had provided, which was pretty detailed. He was open to Hubby and I coming over to ride any time we wanted, which I plan on doing in the very near future, as the weather is just cooling off nicely. Can’t wait to get back in the saddle!

Got up before the sun came up this morning, made a breakfast burrito and headed out the door, arriving at Skymont just before 8:00 a.m. I was promptly put to work in the vet check area, where I was quickly trained up in how to be a scribe, writing down the results of the vet’s check of each horse as they came in. The first group, doing the 50 mile course, had already left by 7:00, and the 8:00 group was the 25 milers. It wasn’t long before some of the 50 milers completed the first 12+ mile loop and had to “trot through” the vet check. The 25 milers started arriving a while later for a complete check, followed by the 50 milers after they completed their second loop. It was a busy day, as in the afternoon, more riders arrived for tomorrow’s race, and came in for the pre-check, so it was pretty non-stop all day. Ate more junk food than I’ve eaten in the last 10 years, sorry to say :-). Had dinner at the dining hall, and was asked to play “Vanna” as they handed out the awards, which I gladly did. Didn’t get home until 9:30, but had a very enjoyable day.

Every year, our local Boy Scout Camp has hosted the Southeast Endurance Riders Association Ride, and for the first time in a long time, we were home and had time to help, so I wrote to the organizers, headed up by Ike, to volunteer to help in any way I could. Hubby has been busy putting down some new tile in the house, so I went on my own, and spent the afternoon helping out with registering the riders as they came in for the weekend. I stayed through the volunteer dinner, and attended the ride meeting at the dining hall and learned quite a bit about how the whole endurance race community works. Hubby managed to feed himself and I got home about 8:30, tired from the day, but happy to be of help!

Having decided that we were likely to stay home this summer, Hubby and I made a few comfort decisions, to buy a new theatre-style reclining love seat, and last week getting a new 60″ Sony HDTV. Can’t believe how prices have dropped, the last 60-inch we bought was a projection TV in the early 90’s for $3000, this new one was barely $700, and of course, the quality is unbelievable. Two guys came to deliver the couch, and I had arranged for them to take the old TV away (thank goodness the furniture store owner agreed!), it had quit working last Spring, and we had been bringing the TV from the RV in to the house in meantime, during our short stays at home. So now we had a pretty good setup, with our new TV and our new couch. Fortunately, there’s so much work to be done on the house and property, it will keep us busy and not sitting around all day! But it will let us relax in the evenings, as is our habit.

A whopping gully-washer of a rain storm hit early this morning, and even though it started clearing up by late morning, most folks had already decided to head home, and we decided to do the same. Packed up and were heading home about noon, with a quick stop at Walmart to pick up a few things, got home by mid-afternoon, and settled back down for a relaxing evening.