Hey Sweetie,
Started slow this morning, and after chores and breakfast I tackled what turned out to be the only job I ended up doing today, finding the leak in the air mattress. It was right next to where the last leak was, along the seam, so I glued it all up with my old reliable Air Stop, two thick layers throughout the day. Once I got that done (you know what a pain it is to get down to the mattress with all the layers on top!), I realized I was in just a plain lazy mood. It was cloudy, and supposed to rain a couple of times during the day (it didn’t), so I just decided to make it a movie day. Watched a couple of movies, had some popcorn, and generally just took a day off. After dinner, I finally put the bed back together again, a hot and tiring exercise, but managed to get it done. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the baffling is going on my side of the bed at the feet end (it’s already done that on your side of the bed), so this mattress is truly on it’s way out. I did some research on it, and absolutely no one makes an air mattress that will fit in the space as it is now, and I’m not really interested in a memory foam mattress, too many bad reviews and not enough flexibility. I’m thinking I can get a twin air mattress, which I can fit in if I move the existing foam side frames around a bit. That may be my only alternative, unless things change by the time I need it. Anyway, that was the extent of my day! Good news, my next batch of books has been shipped and is arriving tomorrow, yay! Was worried they wouldn’t come in time, but they’ll be, unless Fedex screws up again, like they usually do. At least they’re being delivered to a house, so they better get it right! Also, my new motor for the awning should arrive at the post office tomorrow as well, so I’ll have my work cut out for me once I pick up my deliveries. Well, enough talk, I’m ready for my shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Got up early with the alarm, did chores quickly and went up to pavilion to help do a few preparations for the Poker Run. Once I finished that, I headed into the hardware store to get a screw on this awning motor tapped out, and Ernie did a great job in just a few minutes. He didn’t have a replacement screw, so I headed down to the Ace Hardware and managed to find some long threaded screws that fit. Got back and went to work. After numerous attempts throughout the afternoon to fix it, and after stripping out a few more screws, I decided the best thing was to just buy a new motor. Hate to do it, but hey, it’s 12 years old, so I can’t expect it to last forever, especially considering how often I use it! Anyway, at 2:00 I went back to the pavilion for the the final awards, seems they did pretty well this year! “Eagle Eyes” Sam from the Shore to Shore was here, nice to see her again! Spent some time down at Sheila’s fire, now I’m ready for bed and shower. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Baby,
Woke up to the sound of thunder around 7:30, rain came in quickly and stuck around for quite awhile. Good news, I took my truck down to Ken’s, who’s only about a mile down the road, and dropped it off, and by 2:00, it was done! New steering box, and he only charged me $100 in labor, and the parts were just over $300, so a far cry from what those ripoff artists at Quality wanted. Yay! I did more research on tires and finally decided on a brand called Falken, which is better known in motorsports circles, but is getting a good reputation with the average consumer now. They scored better than most other brands, and they’re a heckuva lot cheaper than the Michelins, which have aged out before they’ve worn out, so I didn’t figure I needed to spend that much again. I’m not really doing the miles that we used to do, basically just from Florida to up north and back once a year, not a lot in between, and these are supposed to be nice and quiet on the highway, but built tough enough for gravel roads as well. High marks for towing, too. We’ll see! Also did some research on the awning motor. I’ve decided to take it out and tear it apart to see if I can see what’s wrong with it, I’ve read it could be as simple as a stripped screw or gear, figured I’d check that first. I can get a whole motor assembly in just a couple of days, so it’s worth it to check it out. Hung out with Sheila and her growing gang at the campfire for a bit, but I have a busy day tomorrow so I came back early, having my Sleepytime tea, soon to take my shower and go to bed early! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Hon,
A good night sleep, a beautiful morning, then I got busy. Filled up the water tank in the truck, did some research on the internet, the went to work on the awning. I was using baling twine wrapped around the awning arm and a hook on the front of the truck to try to get the arm close enough together to put some zip ties on it, but wasn’t getting close enough. Then a guy drove by in a Jeep and stopped to asked if he could help. He was exactly what I needed at that moment! With his extra hands, it only took a minute to get the arms locked down, and then he ended up staying and helping through the whole process of rewiring the motor. My goal today was to verify that the problem is, in fact, the motor, and with the help of my new multi-meter, we determined that we had full voltage all the way to the motor connection, so now I at least know it’s not the switch or anything else in between, so I guess I’m getting a new motor for it. Found one on Amazon for just over $300. Between that, the truck repair, which I’m hoping will get done tomorrow, and new front tires, it’s going to be another expensive month! Oh, well, it’s an early birthday gift, I guess! My new friend’s name is Tim, and he’s the official sawyer/lumberjack for the trail club, he was out checking the trails today. We ended up chatting well into mid-afternoon after we finished our awning trials. Then, I saw my friend Sheila, whom I stayed with on my way out of Florida this past spring, walking down to the pay kiosk! She came over and we chatted for awhile longer. Tim finally left, I cleaned up, did some more research on the computer, then had dinner, fed the horses, and walked down to where Sheila and her two girlfriends were camped, and we chatted until dusk, finally came back to home. It was a beautiful day, but it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow, perfect for getting the truck done, then that’s all the rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future. Going to be a great weekend! Finishing off the evening with some Sleepytime tea, a Spanish lesson, shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Was in bed really early last night, because the rain made it get dark early, got lots of rest. Woke up early, did chores and breakfast, then took the truck over an hour early for my appointment at Quality Truck. Turned out that wasn’t the best decision. They charged me $50 for each thing I asked them to look at. One thing was my cigarette lighter, and they discovered it was a fuse. A simple fuse. I had already changed the one marked “cig lighter”, but apparently the second one was under some other obscure name, probably took them all of two minutes to find it, and they still charged me $50. They discovered it wasn’t the power steering pump that was leaking (which I was relieved to hear, since I’d replaced that once already a couple of years ago), but the steering box that was gone. Rather then order the part and repair it, they informed me they couldn’t do it until Thursday, which is not what I had bargained for. The other $50 was to get the passenger side mirror extended, apparently the motor isn’t working, but at least they left it extended like I asked. Then they presented me with a list of half a dozen other high ticket items they claimed needed fixing, practically my entire undercarriage. I decided to get a second opinion, and called a friend of Alayna’s, and he stopped by in the afternoon. He confirmed it was the steering box, called to get pricing on the parts (which was much more reasonable that Quality, more like what I could get it for online), and we arranged to do it later this week. And he’s just up the road, two minutes away! Should have gone there in the first place, I guess. Finally, Alayne brought Apollo back, yay! When I put him on the highline, he and Flash put their noses together for a long time, then Apollo squealed like a mare a couple of times! It was hilarious! Flash didn’t flinch anywhere near as much as he usually does when Apollo gets pushy, I think maybe absence has made their hearts grow fonder. I hope so, anyway, Apollo can be a bully when he wants. Once they settled down, he got real quiet. I guess it will take a few days to get back to normal, he’s been getting so spoiled by Alayna’s grandma! Not to mention being in a pasture rather than on a highline. He’ll be fine, I’m sure. Meanwhile, had dinner late, now I’m more than ready for shower and bed. Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie!
Woke up before the alarm and got moving fairly early because there was rain predicted. Finished packing up and was out of camp by 9:00, stopped at a state park to dump but they wouldn’t let me do it for free like the last place, so I skipped it. Didn’t really need it anyway, and I’ll be staying at a place with a dump in a couple of weeks anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Arrived at Hungerford just after 11:00, scouted it it for the best spot again, hoping that the site at the top of the hill was reopened, but it wasn’t. I ended up in that same spot where we came to 10 years ago, down by the water house. They’ve improved the cell phone signal here, so that was a factor. Didn’t really want to be that close to the road, but there were more pros than cons, so that’s where I am! Managed to get Flash up on the highline and was just starting to get the awning down when it started to rain. For once the weatherman was right! When I looked at the radar, it could hardly have been mis-forecast, it was a huge storm that ended up lasting all day and still raining at bedtime. I was supposed to have a mobile RV guy show up at 2:00, but when he still hadn’t arrived at 2:30, I called and cancelled it. I’m pretty sure I can solve the problem myself, even if I have to replace the motor. I got a new multi-meter the other day, I’m going to do some checking with that to see if I can track down the problem, and if nothing else, the new motor can be here in two days, so I have time. Figured I didn’t need to spend $150 on a service call for something I can do myself. I’m just going to wait for a nice day! it rained all afternoon, so I ended up just watching a movie with Meryl Streep and an all star cast, lots of fun, just had a nice bowl of NE clam chowder for dinner, now a shower and to bed early. I have an appointment to take the truck in tomorrow for the power steering problem. I managed to get the radio working yesterday, and one of the cigarette lighters, but I’m having them look at the other one, I really need two. Anyway, I’m off to shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’!
Slept a bit late today (probably had something to do with the bourbon I indulged in last nigh!), but got busy doing a load of laundry and packing throughout the day. It wasn’t supposed to rain, but we did have a little sprinkle, so I had to leave my laundry out on the line longer than usual. Managed to get pretty much everything put away so I should be able to get out plenty early tomorrow. I have an appointment with an RV repair guy at 2:00, so I want to be settled in by then, but it’s less than 100 miles so it won’t take long. Not much else to report, just a typical “day before moving” day! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
A lot of folks left this morning, almost everybody except a few folks down at the other end, and host Gale right next to me. I spent the morning working on my computer, taking the GPS files that I made during the Shore to Shore and updating them so I can give the files to the MTRA to post on the website. It’s a tool that would have helped me a lot, so I volunteered to get it done. I had to make some corrections for when I went a little wayward, and I remembered at the last minute to add Hopkins Creek to Schecks, but, of course, I don’t have the bandwidth to send it, so I’m going to have to wait until next week when I can get on a good ground-based wifi. Gale had the generator all packed up before I realized it, so we had to run an electric cord to it while it was sitting on the back of his motor home and fill my tank that way. The rest of the day was just computer work until dinner, then settling down for the evening. A quick shower and off to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Today was a day off for Flash, I wanted him to get a good rest before our twenty mile ride from Hopkins Creek to here tomorrow, so the only activity today was a load of laundry and some housekeeping. We took another float down the Boardman River with the kids (which was much faster without the big duck, which had too much of a draft for this shallow creek, I think), and that was a lot of fun. I’m very happy my inflatable kayak is hold up despite the bumps and scratches of submerged logs and trailing limbs in the water, it seems to be pretty tough! Clint, whom I met with his wife Nance down at Hopkins Creek, delivered eight nice bales of hay, with a lot of alfalfa content, which I find hard to resist at $7 a bale, but I figure it will be okay for Flash for a few days, then I’ll get some grass hay down at Big Rapids and mix it in with it, especially once I get Apollo back, and it will be fine. It’ll be good before the ride tomorrow as well, give him some extra energy tonight. They had an ice cream social for everyone at 7:00 which was fun, though we got into some lively discussions about how the MTRA needs to do more outreach to attract more riders, though some members of the old board just want to keep it the way it is, an unfortunate but typical attitude of most organizations. Anyway, I’m going to bed early, so I can get up early, we’re leaving at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I already had my shower, and even washed my hair which was so refreshing with almost no hair left! At least it felt that way! So heading to bed here very shortly. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
Woke up around 4:30 this morning, then couldn’t get back to sleep until dawn, ended up sleeping past 10:00! Finally got up and moving, and after chores and breakfast, headed into the nearby town of Williamsburg, first to Tractor Supply to get propane (and fortunately, this one was willing to fill my tanks full, rather than stop at 4.2 gallons, yay!), then to Meijer for groceries. While in their parking lot, I had a great signal, so I loaded up my book to the printer. Did my shopping out to some rain (forecast was clear for the next four days, go figure!), went by the post office to see if my packages had arrived, but it seems UPS doesn’t get the specific delivery instructions I gave to Amazon, the ones that explained the building didn’t open until 12:45. UPS arrived at 11:24, so obviously they couldn’t deliver it, darn it! Hoping they’ll try a bit later tomorrow. Got back to camp, put all the groceries away, saw that another horse camper had arrived so I walked down to say hello, found them down by the creek and we ended up chatting for quite some time. I’m hoping to tag along with them tomorrow on a ride, since once again, there is not map of any of the trails at this place. Got an email from the printer, they discovered there was a font error in my book, weird because I’d never knowingly change fonts, but somehow it did on a chart I added. Anyway, I changed that and resent it this evening, so hopefully it’s correct now. Had a nice dinner, watched a couple of Big Valleys, now I’m just about ready for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!