Hey Darlin’!
Woke up rested and mostly back to normal energy levels, with a hankering to get some housework done, so once I fed everyone and had breakfast, I got busy. First, I had epoxied the front panel back on the stove yesterday, so today I took all the tape and props out, looks good as new, especially considering the original plastic seal on it had never been taken off, but it had started peeling a while back, so I finished taking it off now, looks great. Then I got busy doing some dusting and burning a bunch of junk mail that had piled up, then did the floors, twice, just to make sure. After that I washed the truck, it was covered in dust and dried mud, then finally relaxed to read a bit in the afternoon. Took my shower and got dressed and headed for Jupiter to what was supposed to be a debrief of the OTL, but everyone else forgot or had something else to do, so it ended up with just Anita and I, as always! Did hash a few things out, but nothing we couldn’t really have just done on the phone. At least I picked up my pressure washer from Jeff, though he was saying he thought it wasn’t working right anymore, but I’ll have to check it. Evidently he turned the water off but not the machine, although it has an automatic shutoff, so it should be okay. I’ll check it tomorrow. Picked up a couple of things at Publix as well. Didn’t get back to camp until nearly after 9:30, and my trailer batteries are so dead the water pump is running on, so I had to put the generator on for a bit. Can’t remember if quiet time is 10:00 or 11:00, but it can’t be helped. I’ll turn it off as soon as I can. Anyway, bedtime for me soon! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Babe,
Slept late this morning, back to my usual schedule at last, and still laid in bed for a bit reading. Today was all about doing laundry, I must have done five or six loads today. It was a perfect day for it, not too hot, sunny, nice breeze, just perfect! George helped me figure out how much lumber we’ll need to build the three manure bins, just as James came by and gave me some Volunteer shirts. Shared cocktail hour with George and Margarita. and spent an hour around the campfire with Ted and Jiggs and Laura before finally coming back home and falling asleep in front of the TV, so I guess I’m ready for bed now! Short and sweet, best I can do today! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Had an excellent night sleep, woke up feeling almost back to normal after my day of rest yesterday. After chores and breakfast and a load of laundry to wash two sets of sheets, I headed into Okeechobee to do some shopping. I had three propane tanks to fill, and Tractor Supply ran out of propane in the middle of filling them, so I ended up having to go the Gerards Bait store up the road to finish getting them filled. A stop at Walmart, then back to camp. After I unloaded everything, I walked over to Steve’s trailer because James was there, and we chatted for awhile about what the priorities are here for this place. Then I had an early dinner, then headed over the Margarita and George’s new trailer. These were the folks I met at Lake Panasofkee and then had dinner with at their house near Goethe State Forest, and we had a great chat, like always. Back to camp, watched a little TV, had a phone conversation with Anita, now I’m headed to shower and bed, hoping for another great night’s sleep! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
I allowed myself the luxury of staying in bed late, reading for a bit after I woke up just to keep the resting phase going, and it felt positively decadent. I was feeling tired even after a good night sleep, not surprising all things considered. I pretty much did nothing today, just like I planned, binge-watching a bunch of Gilmore Girls episodes. With full sun on the solar panel, it even kept the batteries well-charged throughout the day, and I only had to put the generator on for less than an hour at dinnertime. I ate too much, had a couple of glasses of wine, and now I’m ready for a quick shower and bed. A perfectly boring, quiet day, and exactly what I needed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, the field got progressively more and more filled with trailers today, as expected. There was supposed to be an organized ride into the woods across the street but it was canceled at the last minute, so three of us, Lynda, Wendy and I, took a short ride around the field a few times just to stretch our horses’ legs, plus I wanted to try out the Flexbooks I got delivered yesterday. I don’t know if I was doing something wrong when I put them on, but they kept falling off, despite readjusting them multiple times, at every gait, so I won’t be wearing those during the ride! Flash was full of pep, guess maybe I shouldn’t have been giving him the high energy hay until we started the ride. I have a feeling I’m going to be fighting him a lot, at least on the first day, as he tries to get to the front. I foresee lots of little circles in my future! I just hope he doesn’t get so crazy that he gets impossible! Anyway, I got all the information they gave out when I checked in this morning, still left a lot of gaps of knowledge, had to ask some questions, didn’t always get full answers, so a lot of guesswork going on at the moment. All I know at the moment is that we are moving trailers just after 7:00 tomorrow, and have to be parked and ready to get on their shuttle by 8:00, but the drive is only about 20 minutes, and I have to tie Flash to a livestock trailer while I’m gone. I guess the rest we’ll just play by ear. Chatted with my neighbors a bit, skipped the dinner and ate back in my trailer, settled down early to have a relaxing evening, now I’m ready for a super quick shower and bed, so I’ll be up and at ’em first thing. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Had a great night sleep, and actually woke up ahead of the alarm feeling just about normal, at last! I got busy doing the final packing, though Flash was still whinnying for Apollo, though nowhere near as much as yesterday. I topped the water off in the RV from the truck tank, then topped off the truck tank, hoping I have enough now to last the whole week. Got the trailer hooked up, stopped at the dump, then a quick stop at the Post Office in Indiantown for a package. I’m going to do a demo of a new kind of horse boot called Flexboots, I’m a little concerned about the road riding and all the trash that is typically roadside, and I haven’t been happy with the last set of Cavallos because they keep rubbing Flash’s bulbs raw, and the package had the boots in them. Everything timed out perfectly, and I arrived at about 12:15, just after they opened the field, evidently. The email said there would be a sign, but I missed it, so I had to turn around and come back. The road leading into the field had a narrow opening, so I had to be careful to not go into the ditch or hit the gate post, but I just managed it. Then there were ditches on either side of the raised roadbed going in, so I had to find the lowest point I could and sidle in a little sideways to avoid scraping bottom. It’s essentially just a great big cow pasture. I hope none of the other overnight stops are any worse than this, it’s going to be dicey! Once I parked, I discovered I had parked almost right next to Lynda, who had been on the OTL ride last weekend, and her friend Wendy, whom I had met a long time ago at Colt Creek. We chatted for a bit, but I quickly put up a small paddock for Flash and settled down for the afternoon. I actually climbed into bed and read and napped a bit, and it got pretty hot today, hoping it’s not this hot all week! Nice breeze, though, that helped a lot! Had dinner, watched a little TV, now I’m off to bed nice and early, just to keep my sleep rhythm in sync with what I will likely have to be doing this week. So off I go, quick shower and bed! Gotta scrimp on water, hoping to make the whole week without having to fill up the truck tank, don’t want to have to unhook if I can help it. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Felt a bit tired again this morning, didn’t get to bed as early as I had hoped, then spent the day packing things for tomorrow’s departure. Got Apollo loaded up in the little trailer, as well as all the hay and feed he’ll need, and drove him off to Jeff’s in the afternoon. Stopped at the feed store for some electrolytes for Flash because it looks like a hot week next week, and Publix to pick up a few last minute items I forgot to get the other day. Flash spent the afternoon running frantically around the paddock and whinnying for Apollo, and is still whinnying even though it’s been hours. Not surprisingly, they haven’t been apart since I first got him nearly four years ago, I just hope he quiets down overnight. He’ll have plenty of company starting tomorrow, so he should settle down after awhile. My package with my flex boots still hasn’t arrived, so if it comes in the morning, I’m going to have to run into town early then come back and hook up the trailer, so it looks like a later start than I had hoped, since the post office doesn’t even open until 9:00. It’s only a two hour drive, and they’re not opening until noon, so as long as I get there at a reasonable hour, I guess I’ll be okay. Cleared out the paddocks and got the screen room down, rug rolled up, chairs and solar panel put away, basically everything is almost done except for the usual last minute items, so I’m hoping I’ll still be able to get out of here around 10:00 or so. I’m still feeling tired after all my exertion, I have a feeling I’m going to be pushing myself hard this week to keep up, but when I get back, I’m definitely going to take a couple of days off and DO NOTHING!! That’s going to be the only way I’ll be able to refresh my reserves! Anyway, I’m off to shower and bed early, so good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
I ended up sleeping for nearly 9 hours today, and felt better than I had been for awhile, but I still felt like every exertion I made put me closer to exhaustion than it should have! After breakfast, I headed to Ranch Feed to finally pick up my two bags of feed as well as some hay for both Apollo, who will be staying at brother Jeff’s next week, and Flash as we make our way to the Cracker Trail Ride. We had to divert off the highway on to a working road just off the highway due to a really bad fatal accident that was blocking the road. After I got back from that, I did a few things in preparation, including filling the air in the tires of the little trailer, which were doing some bad vibrating last week, and when I check the tires, one was a little low and another was REALLY low, so I got my little air compressor on it, but unfortunately it crapped out before the job got done, but at least it’s a lot better than it was. Then I started to work on a problem with my generator, I think it has a bad ground, which is why it’s not starting even when I have a very well charged battery, but I discovered a bad connection with one of the cables, so I had to run into Indiantown (and thus past the closed road again) to get a part that I needed. I finished the repair and it seemed to help, but it wasn’t the best fix ever. Afterward, I had an early dinner and fed the horses before Kathleen and her two friends arrived, and we had a pleasant evening chatting. After they left, I finished a TV show, now I’m ready for shower and bed! I was really hoping for one day with nothing to do so I could relax, but that is not to be this week, so it’s going to be interesting riding 20 miles every day next week, without much rest in between. I’m hoping since I’m not involved with the planning, that I’m just a participant, that it will be more relaxing, but I’m not sure it will be, since I know Flash will want to be out front and I’m expecting I’ll have to be fighting with him along the way. Hoping maybe he’ll be too tired to worry about being first in line, but we’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, I’m off to shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Didn’t get to bed as early as I hoped, and even though I felt fairly rested in the morning, it didn’t last, the exhaustion is just too deep. Being tired sometimes makes me testy, as you know, and then so many ridiculous obstacles were thrown in my path, it just made me feel more tired. First, I did three loads of laundry in the morning, and that went okay, except it got so windy later in the morning it practically blew my clothes away, and I had to rearrange them on the line to make sure they didn’t. Last week I ordered two bags of Balance from the local feed store, and they were supposed to call me when it came in and they never did, so this morning I called just to check and they said, oh, yeah, they it came it, they meant to call me on Friday but didn’t. Okay, fine, so I drive to the feed store, and when he rings up the sale, it is WAY more expensive that I had expected, so I asked to see the bags and it turned out to be the wrong stuff! Grrr! So then they call their “sister store,” Ranch Feed, which I already know has a couple of bags because I had checked last week, but nixed going there because I had already ordered it from the Okeechobee store, and they still had two bags. When I called later, though, to tell them I didn’t have time to pick them up today and could they put them aside for me tomorrow, they refused! After already driving an hour round trip to pick them up, and now having to drive ANOTHER hour round trip in the other direction to pick them up, they weren’t even willing to save them for me??? Seriously?? All I got was, “well, there’s not a lot of demand for that,” but no response when I said, so what if someone comes in and buys them before I get there? Another 50 mile round trip for nothing, really? Grrrr! Very disappointing. Then I went to Tractor Supply to get three propane tanks filled, which went fine, then I went to Walmart to shop. Despite it being two days after the weekend, there was a lot of things that were missing on the shelves, so I had to make do without some stuff I needed, or replacement stuff that wasn’t my first choice. Then, something unheard of happened. I had picked up some treats for Lola, a nice big twisty treat that she really likes. I had just bought some for her about a week or two ago and she’s been enjoying them ever since. So I get to check out, and I’m told by a rather snippety youngster that she can’t sell them to me because they’ve been discontinued. Discontinued, really?? Usually that’s the excuse I hear when they’re OUT of something I usually buy, but I’ve never heard that before with something that’s still on the shelf, in my hand, in my basket! I WANTED to buy it, and they REFUSED!! Who’s ever heard of a thing like that?? Crazy!! Because it had been taken out of the computer, no one could sell it to me. How absurd is that?? So naturally, I left Walmart in an even fouler mood than previously, feeling like I was progressing down a dark path to nowhere, feeling more and more tired as I went. It wasn’t helped by the really poor attitude of the cashier, either, she was a total bitch. A really disappointing day. The only high point was a brief visit to my neighbors while I was feeding my horses, the guy, Eddy, is a big Snowy River fan, even just bought a whip from Australia, though he has a locally made whip he likes to crack on occasion. Anyway, I finally settle down for the evening, immersed myself in some TV and now I’m headed to shower and bed. Hoping for a good, long sleep tonight, because I have a long drive to the feed store to hopefully get there in time to get my feed! Trying to get caught up on my rest before the big Cracker Ride next week, not sure it’s going to be possible. But I need to try, so I’m heading for shower and bed. Good night, my love!

Hi Sweetheart,
Whew! No surprise, it’s been way to busy over this past weekend to even write one word that wasn’t absolutely essential to the ride! Early mornings, late nights, tons of problem-solving along the way, hard to even recap everything we had to do! Thursday worked out very well, camp host Steve did an excellent job of parking all the trailers, seemed like there was plenty of room for everyone, and of course, Dupuis is such a fabulous facility with its 30 paddocks and 36 stalls, so no problems there. The ride meeting went well, but I forgot to give James of the SFWMD a chance to talk, so now he’s going to tease me about that forever! Once we got everyone out on the shuttles and moving trailers (convoy got off just 12 minutes late, which I thought was pretty good for our first morning,) and Jeff arrived at 8:15 as requested, and we quickly loaded up Flash and headed out to the halfway point so I could get in front of the pack. Only had to put up a couple extra markers, the trail looked really good. Everyone made it to camp just fine and in reasonable time, and they did a pretty good job parking the trailers with only a couple in the wrong place, but it’s a good lesson learned, and we even discovered we have enough room for quite a few more! No one got too lost (except for Augie’s group, again, he took them off the trail by a mile and a half, through water so deep the horses were swimming, exactly why I marked the trail as I did, to avoid that!). Nevertheless they were back in camp in plenty of time, and I headed back to Dupuis, where I did a bunch of paperwork in preparation for tomorrow’s ride. When I arrived back in Corbett on Saturday, the first crisis of many crises during the day was that four horses got loose in the night, and were nowhere to be found. Not sure why they would wander away from a grassy area filled with other horses and lots of hay laying around to go on a walkabout out in the swamp, but that’s what they did! They called the sheriff, who showed up a bit later, and they ended up getting some air support (helicopters) to come look for them. While that was going on, the rest of the trailer convoy got out at about the same time as yesterday, when one got stuck (a girl had a small trailer whose back bumper got caught in a bit of a dip, and instead of gunning it to get out, slowed down which made it get more stuck.) Several people had already come out to her rescue, and one of the Evergladies whose horse was missing brought her bigger truck over and got it out quickly enough for her to rejoin the convoy. I finally headed out on the trail, but only 15 minutes before 8:00, so it wasn’t long before two speedy endurance girls caught up to me and passed, which, of course, made Flash think we were in a race, so I had to fight with him for the rest of the way. I put up a few markings, but the FTA trail is really well marked, so there wasn’t much to do, thank goodness. I kept getting texts and calls about sightings of the missing horses, so they were getting tracked down, fortunately. Apparently there was an incident of horses escaping during another event some years back, and they were never found, so it was a relief to hear they had been spotted. Then I got a call from one of the folks in the Miami group, one of their horses was colicking, laying down and evidently in serious trouble. They were only three miles in, but despite instructions from Anita to turn around and go back to camp so we could pick them up, they didn’t want to go back through that section of Cypress swamp and insisted on keeping going, even though it was another 11 miles! Crazy! When I finally reached the Beeline (with Flash still trying to catch the two horses in front of us), we arranged to get my trailer, which was the emergency trailer) back out into Corbett to recover two of the four lost horses (the girls they belonged to had another two-horse trailer for the other two), so Jeff headed over there to pick them up and take them to Riverbend. Then I called James so we could unlock a gate at the Beeline so we could take another trailer driven by Scott into the park as far back into the woods and as close to the trail as possible. He was at another event, but he drove up and joined us in getting the trailer back as far as we could. Of course, it took hours for the group to reach them. They finally managed to reach the trailer and get them out. Meanwhile, the rest of the group decided it was too late to ride the rest of the way and they all wanted to get out at the Beeline, so we had Jeff and Scott and another trailer mustered at the Beeline by the time they got there, and they were all taken out at that point, which was probably good because it would have been dark by the time they got to camp if they had tried to ride it. Phew, what a day! I finally headed back to camp with a near empty fuel tank, so I stopped in Indiantown for diesel as the sun was going down, then got back to camp and did all the paperwork for tomorrow’s ride. Then I started getting calls from Anita about the guy with the sick horse, who at first didn’t want a vet, then the horse went down in camp again so they brought out the vet, then they apparently didn’t do what the vet told them, including taking him to the PBG animal hospital, and it got worse, and then apparently a lot of heated words were exchanged, and in the end, Anita called to cops to force him to leave and take his sick horse with him, she didn’t want it dying there, and when they tried to get him up the owner was all, “don’t touch my horse”, but finally, they got him in the trailer. One of the other riders offered to drive him there because apparently when he got back to camp he had three beers and a shot of whisky, so not in any shape to drive, and off they went. Unfortunately, despite Anita’s insistence they not come back to camp, the rider brought them back, but Anita was home by then, probably a good thing. But the horse was doing better, which was the most important thing. So naturally with all the phone calls, it was another late night for me! Then Sunday rolled around pretty quick but without the drive down into Corbett, it seemed like a breeze of a day, from a riding perspective, but then we had lots of rain in the forecast, and we did get some rain, though it cleared up in the afternoon. But that’s why I hav a slicker! The guy with the sick horse avoided Anita, and somehow they managed to slip into the convoy and do the ride, despite being thrown out the night before. Later in the day at the end event, though, he apparently came over and apologized profusely to Anita, and I guess that meant something, but he’s still banned from future rides for disobeying a Ride Manager’s orders, so we won’t be seeing him again. Pretty soon it was all over, Awards Certificates and raffle prizes given away, everybody packed up and leaving. I took my volunteer Kathleen back to her car and drove around Riverbend, the only manure not scattered was where the Miami folks had been parked, which seems to be the case with a lot of them. Anyway, I got back to camp, and found a bunch of the OTL riders had come back here as suggested, so I spent a little time with them, and checked all the stalls for cleanliness, found two in the big barn dirty, though not the one I had expected, surprisingly. Finally made it back home, too tired to do much of anything, so I made a bowl of popcorn and watched a little TV, which I fell asleep through, and was in bed by a little after 9:00. So overall, it went well despite all the challenges. We had nearly triple the riders on Friday and Saturday from previous rides, put a lot more money in the coffers because we charged more, and almost everyone was saying they had a great time and would do it again next year. So it looks like a success, and that next year it will be growing, so we’ll have to fix some of the issues we had this year so that it runs more smoothly next year. We certainly learned a lot! Went to be with a sore throat and the beginning of a cold sore, so I made it a point to stay in bed as much as possible today. I did have a Flex-boot fitting this morning with Lindy, I’m trying to find an alternative to the Cavallos on Flash since the last ones rubbed his bulbs too much, and Lindy said I could have a trail pair for the Cracker Ride, which I thought was very generous. That took nearly an hour, and afterward I got back into bed and was reading, then napping, until well into the afternoon, when I got up and stayed in my recliner watching TV most of the afternoon. Did a little social media, but really, mostly just tried to rest today. I have a busy week getting ready for the Cracker Ride, so it’s good that I have a recovery day. Been a long time coming, glad it all worked out, but ready to get another good night’s sleep tonight! Good night, my dear! Love you!