We had a busy travel day scheduled today, and got off to a slow start when we discovered a flat tire on the RV. Hubby pumped it with air, but then discovered it was out of round, really bulging on one side. Since we didn’t want another blowout, especially after just finally getting the last damage from a blowout on the RV fixed a few weeks ago, we decided the safest thing was to put the spare on, which we did, making us more than a half hour later leaving camp than we expected. I found a tire place in Ithaca that had the right size in stock, so our first stop was there. Unfortunately, they were so backed up, the only service they could do fast was to mount the new tire on the wheel. Anything more, like mounting it on the trailer, couldn’t be done before 3:00, so we skipped it, tucked the new tire in the spare tire rack underneath, and vowed to change it out the first chance we got. Another half hour plus behind, now, we carried on, then discovered both a Tractor Supply, where we stopped for propane, and a Walmart, where we stopped for groceries, and finally stopped at a misnamed Liquor “warehouse” which was a tiny store in a strip center with almost no choice of brandy, not a single VSOP, much less an XO! Undeterred, we finally heading up the highway towards Camden, where my old high school buddy Steve had a cabin. He just happened to be there this week, so we decided to visit on our way to Otter Creek. Arrived just after 5:00, he was waiting for us at the end of his driveway to shuffle us in, and we were soon settled in, with the horses on a highline and us parked in a rather narrow loop in his driveway that proved challenging to maneuver, but we managed, as always. Enjoyed a lovely evening with him and his girlfriend, her two daughters, and another friend of Steve’s, including smores over a campfire, just before it got washed out with a sudden rainstorm! We sat on the covered porch the rest of the evening,getting caught up on all the latest. Too many mosquitos, though! We all got bit like crazy!

Spent the day finishing off laundry and cleaning house, as we prepared to leave tomorrow.

Had another quiet day, Hubby not feeling up to taking another ride, and it rained again, a lot during the night and more this morning. Rested most of the day, did some work around the RV, then sat down to make some setups for my fishing pole. One of the neighbors told me she liked to fish, too, and invited me to a private lake she had acquired permission to fish in, so after digging up some worms at the head of the stalls, we arranged to leave about 7 that evening, with a promise to be back by 9 or so for the fireworks. At 6:55, there was a deluge of rain, but fortunately it was over 15 minutes later, when my neighbor showed up and we headed out. The pond was very close, about the same distance as the state pond only in the opposite direction, and we settled down to fish. She ended up catching 3 bass, I got one bass and one sunfish, but she gave them all to me, so I’ve got dinner for tomorrow night. We got back at dusk, said our goodbyes, and then I got Hubby bundled up and we climbed up the fire tower. I had asked Creighton, the new young intern ranger, if it were possible to open the very top of the fire tower, which is usually locked, and we usually would just sit on the stairs, but when we reached the top, it was wide open. Because it was glassed in, it was much warmer than we expected, which was great, and a few minutes later, Creighton joined us. Surprisingly, no one else came up, and we enjoyed the spectacle by ourselves. A pretty good showing, particularly the Ring of Fire around the lake to the west. With thanks to Creighton, we descended and returned to our routine for the rest of the night.

With some rain this morning and clearing later in the day, I decided to try my luck at a fishing pond that’s around the corner from the horse camp, so I packed up the dogs and headed out. At first I wasn’t able to pull into the small parking area because a ranger vehicle had parked at the entrance, blocking it, so I took a slow drive around the block to give him time to move, and then parked up the road and waited until he left. Eventually he moved out, and I drove down and pulled in. There was a family there that was just leaving, so after they cleared out, the dogs and I had the place to ourselves, for about two minutes, when another group of friends came in to scout out a campsite they had heard about. In between chucking the ball into the lake for Lola, and setting up my fishing line, I didn’t actually get much fishing done. Unfortunately, all my worms but one had escaped, and that one was stolen off the hook in the first cast. I tried rubber worms and several lures, and got a few strikes, but couldn’t bring anything in. Eventually I packed up, then walked down with the dogs to the campsite the chat with the group for a few minutes. One of the girls had an 18 month old yellow lab named Abby that hadn’t been very well socialized, so I thought it would help her to have my dogs meet her. I advised her to just let Abby go, knowing the dogs would sort themselves out, and they so did in just a few minutes. Abby was a bundle of energy, running around crazily for a few minutes, then flopping down under my feet. Lola played with her a bit, Billy barked at her frenzy whenever she got too close, and she took the hint and moved off. A good experience for all! I had a nice chat with the young folks before finally heading back to camp, fishless, but having had a good time. Settled down for the rest of the evening, chatting occasionally with some other neighbors who had moved in across from us. This place is filling up fast, no doubt will be packed by the end of the day and into tomorrow. At about 9:30 I decided to go up the fire tower to see what kind of fireworks were going on, and met the camping group, (sorry, they were glamping, i.e. Glamour camping!) who had already climbed up. We chatted some more and watched a few fireworks, though unfortunately, Watkins Glen’s was just over the hill so we didn’t see too much of it, though it was the only one really going tonight. The big event will be tomorrow for most of the towns around. Made plans to climb the tower again tomorrow, this time I intend to get Hubby to climb up with me. Good for his cardio!

With Hubby’s horse Clio still losing weight and not eating hardly any hay, we finally decided we had to do something, so I got the name of a local large animal vet (Lakeside) and called them about bringing her in to have her teeth examined, since I’m pretty sure that’s what the problem is. Unfortunately, they didn’t really do dentistry, so they gave me the name of a woman in PA, who unfortunately had just been near here a few days ago, so unless we wanted to meet her Friday at 7:30 am, 60 miles away, she couldn’t help, but she did give us the name of a couple other people, one who was even further away, and one that was right in the neighborhood, so I called him, a man named Jeff Horton, and left a message, as well as a couple of texts. By noon I still hadn’t heard back, so we decided to use the day to get more horse feed and a few odds and ends, so we drove down to Painted Post, where at the Tractor Supply we got several bags of Senior feed, plus a bag of alfalfa pellets that we could soak and make it easier for Clio to eat. A quick stop at Home Depot and Walmart, and we were on our way back to camp. Just as I was starting to get dinner ready, I got a text from Jeff, asking if we were in camp, because he had just arrived! I turned off my burners and headed to to his cool little car with a great paint job, met him and took him down to the horses. It didn’t take long for him to impress me, he had a very subdued style, but was very informative once you got him going. He examined Clio and confirmed her teeth were aging, but the 11th tooth in the back was hard to see without really getting into it, so we let him go ahead, and once he got into it (including sedating Clio), he found the trouble, a tooth that was irritating her cheek on the inside on her left side, and another tooth on the right side that was blocking the hay from going down her throat. Using power tools powered by our second generator, he carefully ground down what needed to be ground down, giving her a complete treatment, but being very careful to only take off what was necessary. Meanwhile, several other campers came by, and ended up hiring him to do their horses as well, so he got several hours more work out of it (though he said he’d been going since 5:30 this morning, so I imagine he was pretty tired by the end of the day). I thanked him for coming out, and by the time he left, Clio not only ate her alfalfa pellets and senior feed, she was actually starting to munch on hay!! Hesitant, of course, because she had to convince herself she could eat without it hurting, but within 15 minutes she seemed to be pretty convinced. We’ll know for sure in the morning, if the bag is empty and not covering the ground! What a relief, though, knowing we caught it in time, before it really became ulcerated. Apparently it was raw and irritated, but not critically. Whew! Played with Lola, training her in a few new things the last few days, before heading back to finish dinner, relaxing for the evening, and looking forward to a few rain-free days, at last! Hoping to ride for the next few days, yeah!!

Spent most of the day trying to learn the best computer to replace my current one, and it seems Lenovo still is the only one with the features I like, i.e. A matte screen that doesn’t reflect strong light (inside or out), and a keyboard that has concave keys rather than flat keys (for a touch typist, the curved keys are a must!) After spending a lot of time trying to get through the Lenovo site, I still ended up with virtually the same machine I have now, just a later model. Guess I got it right the last time! Only problem to solve now is where to have it shipped, since it will take about 2 weeks to get, and getting things delivered to a horse camp is not usually very easy, by UPS. But I’m looking into alternative. Rained in the morning but cleared up later in the day, but too late to get a ride in.

After two days of pretty much solid, cold rain, it finally started to clear up today, and as much as we’d like to take a ride, we had some running around to do, most particularly to try to find hay for this increasingly finicky mare of ours. I’m beginning to think a trip to the vet might be the only option. She has no trouble eating horse feed or grass, but she just turns her nose up at hay, no matter what kind it is. Today didn’t help. We drove over 30 miles round trip to pick up a couple of bales of hay at a farm south in Cayuta, but she ended up turning her nose up at that, too. Even the nearly pure alfalfa is being stomped on by her. In addition, when I went to turn on my computer this morning, it refused to boot up! Perfect! I found a computer repair shop in town and dropped it off there before heading out to the farm, then we went to Walmart to shop, and Tops for gas, plus I ran Lola into a vet next door that happened to conveniently have a scale in the lobby, and she weighed in at 59 pounds, the same as a few weeks ago. Guess I need to pump up her feed again! Got some puppy food at Walmart, maybe that will help. Got a call from the computer repair guy, it seems the ram slot went bad, but they moved it to a second slot and all is well (thank goodness!), with a warning that it’s an indication the motherboard might be on it’s way out. Well, it’s been since Spring 2011 since I bought my last computer, so I guess I’m due. Time to research what’s available again! Didn’t get back to camp until after 5, did the unsuccessful hay test, did some training with Lola before having a late dinner and watching a movie before bed!

Getting up early again, we headed first to the office to pay for the night, but after expressing our disappointment, they waived the fee in lieu of me writing a commentary on how they could improve the horse camp, which I did. From there, we headed toward Watkins Glen, stopping once for fuel and again for liquor, before making our way out to Sugar Hill. One of the reasons we headed here early is because we were concerned that with July 4th falling on a Saturday, that some folks might arrive this weekend and stay for the week, and we wanted to be sure to get our “usual” spot, which was a well graveled spot with a water spigot at one end, and an angle which would allow Hubby to get his satellite signal. In addition, there was zero cell signal at Alleghany, and we knew we had one here, and were thrilled to discover the signal had even improved since the last time we were here, so all is good, all around!! It didn’t take long to get the horses on anchors, water in the tank (which was confirmed!), and completely settled into this free campground. There were some new horse stalls built as well, so we decided that rather than high line, we would put them in the covered stalls at night and let them graze on their anchors during the day. We met up with maintenance man Ron, the same one who was here the last time we were here, and a new assistant ranger named Creighton, who issued a camping permit through July 6. We soon settled down for the day, while numerous campers came into the camp, making us even more glad we came early, though time will tell if they’re just here for the weekend or for the entire week. Having got all that we wanted here, we’re happy campers today!