Hiya Sweetie,
Loving the quiet nights here, had another good night sleep. After chores and breakfast, I headed out to the nearby little town of Patrick, thinking that the package Jo sent me on Saturday would surely have arrived by now, but it still hadn't gotten here. Even the postmaster was surprised it was taking so long. After that I drove down to Hartsfield, the nearest town with both a Tractor Supply and a Walmart. I filled up three propane tanks, obviously I've been using a lot of energy running the furnace on these cold nights, though it's been warming up the last few days, so not so much now. Was happy to pay only $2.99/gallon! Picked up some horse feed, plus a couple of bales of hay just so I wouldn't have to crack open the stuff in my stud stall yet, and they wanted almost $13 for bales that were significantly smaller and lighter than the ones I bought from the haymaker last week. I would have bought more if it had been cheaper or heavier, but this will help. Then I spent some time running around trying to find a brake controller harness. My brake controller has been on the fritz again, and it's been killing my truck battery, showing a power loss when I hit my brakes. I've had the problem before and been able to fix it, but I think this time it's given up the ghost. I finally managed to find the right harness, and they were kind enough to let me try it out before charging me for it, but as it turned out, it didn't solve the problem. I'm thinking the brake controller itself has a short or something in it, and the guy at the auto parts store concurred. I had found another brake controller in a box during my deep cleaning the other day, so I may try wiring that in, just to see if it fixes it, though I don't particularly like that model, or I may just get a new one if I can find one I like. I think as long as it's not plugged in when I'm not using it, my truck will be fine, and I think the lights still work when it's plugged in, but I'll have to check on that. Anyway, once I came to that conclusion, I ran down to Walmart for a few things, then back to camp. I sat in my lawn chair in the screen room and actually dozed off! Don't know why I felt so tired, I wasn't that busy today! Tried to repair the broken leg on my solar panel again (the first time didn't take, not sure the second time will either, but it's worth a try!), then settled down for the evening. Patsy came by after she put most of her signs out and we chatted for a few minutes, then I watched a silly rom-com, now I'm ready for shower and bed. USPS Tracking says my package should arrive tomorrow (the postmaster said he would call me when it came in), so I'll go in and pick it up in the morning, as well as stop by and fill up my truck tank at the Forest HQ. Anyway, that's tomorrow, right now I need to finish off today! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
A good night sleep, morning chores, then a couple of loads of laundry hung out to dry on a perfect, cloudless, warmer, slightly breezy day. Drove down to HQ to refill my tank, and did a little housekeeping when the generator was on doing laundry. Otherwise, a fairly mundane day! Just my usual evening of dinner and a movie, and soon off to bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a better night sleep, managed to make it until morning without waking up, yay! Unfortunately, when I got into bed last night, I realized that Lola, who has been relentless in finding ways into my bedroom when I leave her behind when I'm riding, not only managed to get past all my defenses, but when she roughed up the bed to her liking, she managed to make a nice long tear in my flannel sheets, right at chest level, darn it. So this morning, I was online trying to find a replacement, but trying to get queen short sheets delivered within the next week has proven to be impossible, so I'm just going to have to live with it until I get to Florida. This is the second pair of sheets she's done this to, but at least I was able to patch the last one and put it at the foot of the bed. This one is too big, I think, though I haven't tried. Besides, I feel like I'm overdue for a couple of nice new sets of properly fitting sheets. The last ones I bought were regular queen and they don't really fit that well, so I think I'll get one of each, flannel and regular. Anyway, after spending time doing that, I finally started to tackle the last cupboard in the bathroom above the laundry on my deep cleaning sweep. Glad to have that done! Now I guess I'll start at the front and work my way back again! I haven't done the storage areas in the bedroom for a while, so I'll be starting there, I think. Other than that, a pretty quiet day in camp, until this evening, when I started hearing loud engines, sounds like someone doing drag racing nearby or something. Peaceful here until that happened! Well, to each his own, I'm sure they won't be going all night. Watched a fun romance with Colin Firth, and calling it a night! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart,
Woke up to quite a chilly morning, but I had the thermostat set so the furnace came on just a couple of times, and that helped take the chill off before I crawled out of bed. Spent the day doing some more deep cleaning, a perfect chore when it's this cold outside! Didn't warm up until late afternoon when the north wind finally calmed down, but even then, I left the blanket on the horses all day. Not much else going on today! Ride day tomorrow! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
A bit cooler this morning, but still nice and sunny so it warms up nicely. After breakfast and chores, I finished my shopping list and headed out to the truck with Lola in tow. As soon as I started it up, I noticed my fuel gauge, which was at full last night, was down almost a quarter of a tank! I got out and looked under, and sure enough, I had a big leak dripping down under my truck bed. When I got down to see it's origin, I discovered there were a couple of filters down there, apparently from the AirDog system I had put in a few years ago. One of them was a water separator which had a little knobby head on it, and that was bent, so obviously I damaged it somewhere on these rough roads coming in yesterday. Since it's diesel and not gas, I figured it was safe enough to drive, though I was losing fuel the whole way. On my way into town, I called several shops, and naturally, everyone was too busy to see me today. Then I started calling parts stores, thinking maybe I would have to order it, which meant I'd be losing fuel until I got it. I finally spoke to a guy named Dave at O'Reilly's in Cheraw, and he knew what I was talking about but needed the part number. Since I was just about in town, I headed over to him, and he was ready for me, got the part number and started searching. Turns out he didn't have it, but then I called Advanced Auto, and she had one at a store in Chesterfield, just ten miles up the road, so I drove up there and picked it up. I still hadn't found a mechanic in Cheraw, but I found on in Chesterfield a half mile up from the Advanced, called Hunters, so I drove up there, walked in, told them all I needed was a quick filter change so I wouldn't keep losing fuel, and handed them my filter. Thank goodness they had room for me! I was pleasantly surprised they had a lift big enough for my dually (rarer than you'd think, though this is rural South Carolina), and a older mechanic named Jeremiah had it replaced in no time! Really nice folks there, and would you believe, they only charged me $15!! Couldn't believe I was getting change back from my $20 bill! What a find! Well, that improved my day considerably, so I headed back to Cheraw, topped of my fuel tank again (took my over $40 to replace the fuel I lost and/or used after I filled up yesterday), did my big grocery shopping and headed back to camp, with a stop at Forest HQ to fill up my water tank. After putting all my groceries away and refilling the horses' water, I was finally ready to settle down for the evening. Another busy day! I put the blankets on the horses because the temps are supposed to get down into the high 30's tonight, with a slight chance of rain! They don't have enough winter coat to combat that yet! Anyway, time to finish my evening. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep, another chilly morning, but it warmed up to over 80 today, another cloudless day. I had planned on working on a cupboard today, but just couldn't get myself in gear for some reason. When I was refilling the trailer tank and the horse buckets from the truck's water tank, I was having problems because of a real kink in the hose, so I decided to fix it. Unfortunately, it turned out the adapter I had was too small, so it ended up leaking really bad, so I spent some time online finding and ordering another one, and having it delivered to Patsy's house so she can bring it to me when she comes to ride on Wednesday. It was taking forever to do anything on the internet, the signal was really iffy today and it was all going really slowly, so I spent way too much time on that and doing a few other things, so the afternoon slipped away from me before I could start my cleaning. Never mind, it will still be there when I get back in the mood! Eventually decided just to watch a movie with some popcorn, then just had a salad for dinner. Every once in a while, a day of nothing does a body good! I definitely had that today. Time for tea, Spanish, shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Slept intermittently during the night, and I got the impression the problem was mostly that my airbed was too soft. Not surprising with all the altitude I've lost recently, plus the fact that the nights suddenly got pretty chilly, down in the 40's, to the air molecules are contracting. I made sure to put some air in it when I turned the generator on in the afternoon. Once I got more chores done and let the horses out, I got busy with the lower bathroom cupboard, and it took me nearly four hours to get that completely done. Amazing how much work it takes to clean everything and put it back, though I did have the added situation of putting in adhesive shelf line, which is a lot trickier than the rough rubber stuff, but it does look nice. Managed to toss a few things, too, so now it seems like I have a little bit more room. At this rate, I should have all my interior deep cleaning done by the time I get to Florida! I want to do the exterior, too, but I'll probably wait until I have electric and water so I can use my pressure washer. I had promised myself a few years ago that I was going to try to keep my trailer in "sellable" condition, not that I want to sell it, just that that's when it always get cleanest. I haven't kept that promise, but I'm going to try from now on. I just need to make the time, and I've had more of that lately. Took Lola for a walk down to the lake and played some fetch with her, and when we got back she went nuts playing with your Kong Wubba toy. She's definitely feeling a lot better these days! I just have to work her up to building her muscles again, she has atrophied over the past months of not doing anything. The horses enjoyed themselves grazing around today, then ended up standing right outside my door. I had noticed at Linda's that Apollo was covered in bot eggs, so I got out my bot knife and had a go at them. Flash doesn't seem to attract them for some reason. A beautiful day once it warmed up, another cool night tonight, and hopefully I'll sleep better now that I have a firmer bed. Really enjoying the peace and quiet out here! Seems like it's been awhile since I've been at a place on my own. Loving it! Anyway, settled down for the evening, as usual, closing up the place to keep the warmth in! Good night, baby! Love you!

Pix to come!

Hiya Babe,
Woke up way too early, then managed to doze a bit before getting up before the alarm. Didn't take too long to finish packing, since I hadn't unpacked a whole lot, and was out of the horse campground by 9:30, then I had to work my way back to the regular campground to use the dump. One of the challenges here at AH Stephens is that, despite how groomed this state park is, the roads are almost all just one lane, and they weaver around trees and tight corners, so a rig my size can barely make it through. The same was true through the regular campground and the dump. I managed it, but I had to be very careful, and more than once I had tires off the pavement, though thankfully, not into any ditches or scraping any trees. By the time I dumped and was leaving the park, it was just after 10:00, which was right on schedule. It was a great, uneventful drive, for most of the way, I didn't even have to stop for fuel like I thought I would, and we arrived at the recreation area at about 1:45. The last stretch on dirt and sand roads was pretty rough, lots of little ditches where rain had formed it's own runoff, and a couple of sections with some pretty soft sand, but we made it through. Could really use some grading, though! The campsite that I reserved, which Patsy had recommended, was good, closest to the lake and on the highest point in the campground, so I have a halfway decent cell signal. There's only one corral, but just large enough for my two guys, maybe. Lots of trees if I decide to put up a highline. Surprisingly, there was another horse trailer here, though no truck and no horse. I had heard this place was almost always empty unless there's an event, though the tag said he was leaving tomorrow. I put Apollo on his anchor and let Flash free, and they spent the rest of their day grazing on the long grass here. Doesn't look like they've mowed in a LONG time, and there are lots of gnats, so I'll probably put the screen room up tomorrow, since I'll be here 2 1/2 weeks. I ran down to the HQ to buy my annual park pass (good for a year from today), and to fill up the truck tank with water. They're only about five miles away, so it will be fairly easy to refill. I had already filled up the horses buckets, so when I got back, I just topped off the trailer, then settled down for my usual evening! At least here, Lola can wander again! While the horses were having their dinner, we took a walk down to the lake, she was pretty excited about that, I suspect she'll be coming home wet in the future. Anyway, time for tea, Spanish, shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Got up with the alarm at 8:00 after a night of intermittent sleep and heavy fog, finished packing and loading up, out at about 10:00, shortly after the fog lifted and I said my good-byes to Linda. So grateful to be able to stay with her during this unbelievable tragedy! Considering that two major interstates in the region are closed down, and a lot of traffic is necessarily being diverted to I-75, it wasn't too terrible on the highway, though there were numerous slowdowns and more traffic than usual, but still manageable. I stopped once for fuel, and that turned out to be the most time consuming effort of the day. I pulled into a Pilot, only to discover 1) there was someone parked on the diesel pump who had disappeared, and 2) there was very little room to turn around after the pump. After waiting for too long, I finally just backed out and left. I had seen another station that had diesel for $.35 less per gallon, and if I didn't have the convenience of an easy in and out, I wasn't about to pay that much extra. I pulled into the other station, and there wasn't much room in there, either, but eventually, after multiple tries and having to get people to move their cars, I finally managed to pull around, though I had to jump a curb to do it. I got to the park 35 minutes later, just around 3:00, about an hour later than I had figured when I left, but understandable with the traffic. Going through Atlanta is never fun! Got checked in, and the nice ranger gave me a refund based on a discount for seniors, plus something else, so I got a little money back. I told him I was here to help clean up the trails, but they don't have a work-camper program here, so that was the best he could do. Got the horses settled and the trailer set by about 4:00, and went into my usual evening routine. Looking forward to seeing just what kind of shape the trails are in tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!