Hey Darlin’,
Had some trouble sleeping, most likely because my hair was wet, but still felt pretty good in the morning. Flash was perfect through the night, never heard a thing, though I did have my earplugs in so I didn’t hear the restless horses further away, even the mules this morning were great, surprisingly. Got up around 7:30, did chores and breakfast and promptly started setting up camp and finish packing. I headed out to the end point, the Silver Spurs Practice Arena in Kenansville just after 11:00, since I had heard the shuttles were starting at noon. I was about the first one out, and would have been on the first shuttle back, except stupid Google maps took me to the Silver Spurs arena in Kissimmee, not Kenansville, in the opposite direction! So 20+ miles going the wrong way, the 40+ miles back, and by the time I got there, two shuttles had already left, and the wait for the next one was 45 minutes. Finally got back to camp right at 3:00, when there was an historical program starting, but they were running late, so I went and saddled Flash. I wanted to walk him around a bit to see if anything spooked him, and he was quiet as a mouse. Got to the dining tent and they still hadn’t started. Finally they did about 3:30, and I listened to some great stories. Ninety-three year old Iris Wall from Indiantown talked about putting posts in at Dupuis back in the day, so afterward, I spoke to her and told her how many of her posts were now being re-purposed for trail markers and showed her a picture, and she seemed pleased. Got back to camp, got food for Flash from the feed trailer, then settled down. Did my Spanish lesson before going to dinner. Pretty organized at dinner, better than last time, can’t wait to see what breakfast is like! Had our riders meeting afterward, tomorrow is the longest day, just like last time. They want us packed up and ready to go by 7:45. I’ve set the alarm for 5:20, and turning out the lights now! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Got up right before my alarm went off, and promptly got to work after breakfast to get all the final things packed up. Stopped at the dump, then went over and got Flash and his water bucket, and then headed over to the shop. I needed to put air in my tires all around, and in particular on the trailer. When I arrived, I discovered that the combo lock that had been on there a few days ago was gone! Grrr! I made a few phone calls and discovered it was young James who had taken it off, he thought it was just for the water contractor, not realizing I was using it, just forgot I guess. Anyway, I had to wait for him to come and open up for me, and to put a combo lock back on for future use, so in the end, it only delayed me about half an hour. It was a very straightforward drive, and I ended up arriving around 12:30, and I was SO GLAD I came early, because by the time I finished registering, there was a line behind me. There wasn’t enough room between the fence and the road for me to back into, so I ended up just parking by the side, where I was able to put in a decent paddock for Flash. I had put him in the middle stall, and he didn’t have room to turn around, so he ended up backing out, first time EVER in this trailer. Unfortunately, he slipped and landed on his knee, but no damage, fortunately. He settled down nicely in the paddock, even laid down awhile to sleep. Hope he stays quiet tonight! When arrived, a woman at registration recognized me, gave me a hug, and got me hooked up into the Royal Blue Circle this time around. After I parked and got set up, I spent a couple of hours carefully packing, using both their suggested list and my own list, so I think I’ve got everything. I was going to the back of the trailer to get something when I looked around and found that my friend Linda and her horse Tonto, who we met a long time ago at Colt Creek and keep running into each other, the last time on the Cracker Ride, was backing up into a spot directly across from me, so I helped her for a few minutes. Eventually, after dinner, I took a walk around and found Luan, who I met at Dupuis before Thanksgiving, she’s also in the Royal Blue Circle, as is Linda! Guess I’ll be surround by folks I know. Linda lit a Duraflame log by the edge of her road (a really cool idea, actually!) and we sat around and chatted for awhile. Eventually we were joined by a group of three girls and a boy (the son of one of the girls) from Pennsylvania, who proceeded to cook Mountain Pies and s’mores over the flame. We had a nice chat, so it was a very nice evening. Turns out, THEY’RE in the Royal Blue Circle as well, which dashed my assumption that the circles were being determined by geography. Looks it will be a fun week! By 8:30, I came back to the trailer, now I’m ready to take my last shower for the week. Heading to bed shortly! I’ll be writing everything in longhand, with no way to post anything here until it’s over, but I’ll be putting things on my Facebook page via phone, as long as I have a signal. Oh, dear, I just heard a mule braying! Guess I won’t need my alarm clock in the morning! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Whew, what a day! Got up bright and early and started doing some last minute things I’d been meaning to do, like cleaning the last two stalls in Barn 2, which I hadn’t gotten around to yet, then James showed up, so we chatted for a bit, mostly about how certain folks in the hierarchy weren’t happy about getting complaints about me (though they didn’t seem interested in my side at all, and were only reacting to minimal information-welcome to bureaucracy!), but James we completely understanding, knew exactly what I was doing, and kept the wolves at bay long enough for my message to have maximum impact. Anyway, it was a good “meeting,” and after he left, I grabbed some breakfast and then started breaking down everything. The screen room, cleaning out the back of trailer and rearranging it, generally packing up as much as I could. After a few hours, I finally got an email that I had received my package at the post office. I had ordered a large, inexpensive duffel bag, since it became clear I didn’t have enough room in what I had. I hooked up the small trailer, loaded up Apollo and Lola, stopped at the post office for the package, and made my way to brother Jeff’s to drop off my critters. Had to take a quick run into Publix to pick some more cans of dog food and grapefruit juice. I was going to get eggs but the prices have done through the roof! Nine dollars for an 18 carton of eggs! Crazy! Dropped everything back at Jeff’s, then headed back to camp, though I stopped to top off my tank. I though it would only be a top off, because I had a nearly full tank, and it STILL cost my $45 dollars to do that! Got back to camp, got the truck hooked up to the trailer, checked in an equestrian group of three, then finally did some packing into my new bag. It’s big, and I’m trying not to overload it and make it too heavy, but this combined with the red duffel bag should be plenty of space, and hopefully not weigh too much. Getting ready for “fun” is exhausting! Finally settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for an early shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’!
Had a tough time getting to sleep last night for some reason, probably because I showered so late, and Flash kept nickering and getting antsy in the portable pen, so at 1:00 I decided he wasn’t going to settle down so I got up and took him back to the barn, where Apollo promptly chastised him like a parent with a kid coming home after curfew. So funny! Finally got to sleep after that, slept until 8:00, then got busy again. Put a lot of stuff away, like the skirting around the trailer, the barbecue grill, a bunch of stuff in the barn and the shed, and generally cleared some things up. I decided to mow brother Glenn’s lawn today rather than tomorrow, I already have enough to do tomorrow, so I drove over, found the pool looking great, put the new nuts and washers on the steering control, though I didn’t have the right tool to tighten them up, so before long I lost them both. Going to have to get some more before I mow again, it’s just not safe. Stopped at Tractor Supply to pick up some horse feed and eight more bales of hay for Apollo, he and Lola are getting taken over to Jeff’s tomorrow. Much cooler tonight, so I’m looking forward to a good night sleep. Settled down to a little TV and leftover ribs, won’t be long out of bed tonight! Love you babe! Good night!

Hiya Sweetie!
SO GLAD I took the day off yesterday, I, indeed, was ready to go this morning. Got started right after chores, with the first job of putting up the electric fence I’ll be taking, making sure it works and that I have all the bits I need, then setting up my old tent, plus a tent someone left behind to see if I liked it better. I didn’t. It had a few things I liked, but most importantly, it was half the size, and with all the stuff I have to bring along, including all my tack, I figured I needed the room. So once it was up, I cleaned it all up, then pulled out a can of Camp Dry spray (leftover from the LAST time we went on the cattle drive in 2016) and completely sprayed it, and even got a second spray on about half of it later in the day. Once that was done, I headed to town, got fuel (I prepaid $150 figuring I’d get money back, but instead, it didn’t even click off before it hit it! Grrrr!), picked up a package that had the final missing zero for the new number system, which I put on as soon as I got to back to camp, went to Glenn’s and happily found that all was well with the pool, just added a little acid, then stopped at Tractor Supply to pick up hay and feed. The hay was really nice coastal, but the only type of feed they had was Senior, they had no Perform and no Balance, so I guess I’ll have to take a ride up to Ranch Feed before I leave. I need to get more hay for Apollo while he’s at Jeff’s anyway. Going to be a busy day Friday! Once I got back, I put away the hay in the trailer, moving the last old bale to the barn to finish off this week, then took the tent I didn’t want down to store it, washed the two sleeping bags, though I’m only taking one and a blanket, cleaned the duffel bag I’m going to take, and pretty much kept busy the rest of the afternoon doing small prep work. I’m trying to pace it out so I don’t exhaust myself before I leave, so I quit around 3:00 and relaxed the rest of the day. Got lots more to do tomorrow, including actually taking Flash out for a conditioning ride! On track, though, which is all I can expect at this point. Heading for shower and bed early again, so we can get it all started tomorrow! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Had a pretty good night sleep, woke up tired from all the activity of the last week, so I laid in bed and read for several hours just to rest. Essentially did almost nothing today, I felt that was the fastest way to recharge my batteries so that I will be raring to go tomorrow and the rest of the week. Considering I have to get ready for the Cattle Drive, to which I’m planning to drive on Saturday, and don’t have a lot to time, I still felt it worthwhile to rest today, though I did spend some time researching for my health insurance for next year, and determined that another union contract was in order to achieve the best deal, so I put that together. So that’s essentially what I did! Had a nice turkey leftover dinner, watched a good movie, and now I’m heading to shower and bed, nice and early so I can be ready to go tomorrow! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
What a day! Though I did wake up once and hear a generator running, I was in no mood to get up and track it down, simply reminding myself that if it’s one of the horse folks, they’ll all be gone by the end of the day, and if it’s not, then not my job, so just chill. Did have a good night sleep otherwise. Started out running around on the tractor reminding people that both stalls and paddocks needed to be cleaned, and I am delighted to report that with only a few exceptions, ALL of the paddocks were clean (which historically is what hasn’t been cleaned before!), and most of the stalls were, too, though there were a few notable exceptions, mostly the folks that were booted out of here last night. Not surprising, they were the type of folks who don’t think the rules apply to them, and this was just another bit of evidence to that attitude, not taking responsibility for the messes they or their horses make. Carol made our group a lovely blueberry pancake breakfast, and after that, I mostly just kept an eye on things as folks left. Suddenly and blessedly very quiet out here now! Yay! Considering so much of my effort this summer was leading up to this weekend, the unofficial start of the riding season here in Florida, then I’d have to say it went magnificently well. Lots of compliments on the trail signage, even from folks that know the trails really well, which was very nice. Also managed to get a load of laundry in, so fresh sheets tonight. I’m ready to crash! Definitely going to lay in for a bit tomorrow, and try to keep my activity level down, though I had hoped to ride, but I may need to recover first. We’ll see in the morning. Chuckwagon Dennis let me have some leftovers so I don’t have to worry about cooking for a while, thank goodness! The last group left just after 4:30, so feeding was easy, and I was able to open up the back paddocks for my guys again, I’m sure they’ll be happy about that! I gave them hay anyway, since most of the grass will have been chewed down, but everything should be back to normal tomorrow. Settled down for the evening, in our usual routine, yay! Just need my shower and bed, hoping for a good night sleep, and back to normal tomorrow. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Awakened three times during the night listening to some kind of thrumming noise, until I finally couldn’t take it anymore, I had to find out what it was. At first, I thought it was a quiet generator behind me, but after throwing on my robe and rain boots and walking through camp at 4:30 in the morning, I discovered it was actually a generator AND a big diesel truck that was left running, obviously to power something. It was seriously loud, considering it was all the way on the other side of camp from me! I can’t tell you how much that pissed me off. I told every camper in here, many more than once, when quiet hours were. The FWC law enforcement guy said he did the same thing when he came through around 7:00, and the Sheriff’s department made a few swings by as well, so for these people to so flagrantly violate the most essential rule here, quiet hours from 11-7, infuriates me. I turned off their generator, and would have turned off their truck except I was afraid the horn alarm would go off and wake up anybody who wasn’t already awake. Plus I’m sure I would have gotten in trouble doing so. I texted the FWC guy and didn’t hear back from him for about two hours, then all he told me was to call dispatch, which I did. Two hours later, I still hadn’t seen anyone, so I called again, and was told the officer was doing something “off-duty” and would come once he was finished. I asked if that was likely to be closer to 30 minutes or four hours, and he said thirty minutes. Four and a half hours later, I called again, got a new dispatcher, had to re-exlain the whole thing again (don’t these people take notes?), and was told the exact same thing about having to wait until the off-duty job was done before being available! I’m sure glad I wasn’t in serious physical trouble, I’d be dead before I ever get help from these guys! All this one promised was “by end of day.” This is not a problem I want to handle in the dark, but that’s exactly what ended up happening. I spent the rest of the day running around, checking in on people, a lot of day riders coming and going, slightly less chaotic than yesterday, but not by much. When the FWC LE guy finally showed up just before 6:00, it was already dark, of course, but he managed to make a lot of progress with the troublemakers. The permit they were using had expired yesterday, the guy whose name was on the permit had been cited for trespass two years ago and was apparently still under court order not to be on the property, and since there were six people under his permit, they’re all being told they have to leave. Lots of yelling going on for awhile, but fortunately, I was with my friends and not at all involved, since some of them were looking for me because they thought I could help them, though, of course, I couldn’t. LE guy said he’d come back through around 10:30 to make sure they had left, so hopefully it will be a quieter night, and I’ll be able to make up for lack of sleep last night. Seems three groups of non-equestrians left today because of the noise factor last night as well. No doubt there will be complaints, but they’re the ones who started it by violating so many rules, as far as I’m concerned. The best part of the day was when a bunch of us all put our dogs in a paddock as a temporary dog park, and the all raced around having a blast together! Everybody got along just fine! Wish people had that ability! Spent the evening chatting with friends until we were all too tired to do anything but go to bed, so off to the shower I got! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
What a day! From the moment I left my trailer this morning, I was on the go, jumping from one challenge to the next! Lots of people came in throughout the day, so I was constantly checking folks in, had a brief respite when we turned one of the paddocks into a dog park and had a play date with a bunch of the camp dogs, solved problem after problem today. I had just managed to feed Lola but decided to do one small job before breakfast, and one thing led to another to another to another, and breakfast finally happened at about 11:45. This kept going all afternoon! Finally, I was able to settle down for dinner, but that ended up being delayed for almost two hours, and then just as Dennis was serving up, Jim Walter was having problems with his generator, so I went over to give him a hand and managed to help him get it going, then headed back to the dinner table only to learn that the electric from the old well house had quit, so no electric and no water to the only shower house left with hot water, and no water for any of the spigots around camp, including the barns and paddocks, so I went on a hunt for that. The usual suspects of breakers were fine, but then I thought maybe the new wellhouse might have some kind of transfer, then Jim remembered that in the old, defunct wellhouse there used to be some power, so we pried the door open there, only to find nothing. Then as we were closing it back up again, Jim practically tripped over the guy wire of a pole, and we discovered another transformer and breaker box there, but it had a lock on it. I was thinking bolt cutters, but then we saw the hinge only had three little screws, so we managed to take out the screws and get the cover off, and sure enough, a circuit in there was broken, we flipped it, and viola! Power came back on! Thank goodness Jim was here, I never would have thought to look that far down the line. We had unfortunately already called James, who had called an emergency electrician, but I’m sure he didn’t get too far because we solve the problem pretty quick. So happy we could work that out! FINALLY got back to the dinner table, but by then everyone else had eaten, so I just ate a plate of delicious smoked ribs that Dennis cooked beautifully, and some nice side dishes. So exhausted now after this long day, heading for a shower and bed, happy that I have electric again! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe!
I can’t remember the last time I had a big Thanksgiving dinner, but I certainly made up for lost time today! After chores and breakfast, I finished off making the deviled eggs I promised, did my rounds for a bit, chatted with some folks, then rested for a good part of the afternoon, until I finally wandered over to where “my group” was fixing to have dinner. Dennis had put a 15 lb. turkey in this incredible home-built smoker that he expertly designed and installed into the back of an old horse trailer, and I could smell the fire burning when I fed the horses in the morning, though he didn’t put the turkey in until about noon. Between the five of us, we had enough fixings for a dozen people, but even so, we took a good chunk out of it once we started eating around 5:30. Didn’t even have room for the pumpkin pie I brought, but we’ll have that tomorrow, I’m sure. Started out foggy but turned into a beautiful and relatively relaxing day after all! A very memorable Thanksgiving, so glad to be out here at Dupuis! Won’t be long out of bed tonight! Love you, my sweet! Good night!