Hi Darlin’!
Was up by 8:00 this morning, took us no time at all to get packed and moving, were on the road by 9:00. A straightforward drive, mostly on I-75, with only one very short slowdown, the rest was easy. Was surprised when I looked back and saw it was way back in 2013 the last time we were here. I seem to remember it was a shakedown cruise for the new Open Range travel trailer we had just bought. Arrived well before 1:00, and was in the process of putting up my portable corral when the camphost came by and said we could use the paddocks at no extra charge, so we parked them in there instead! Didn’t take long to get set up, then we ran out to do some shopping, mostly down to Tractor Supply for propane, so now I’m full up on propane for awhile. Managed to park mostly in the shade but with enough room at the front to get a lot of really good solar energy, so I made sure that panel was out before we left. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Perform for Flash, and neither did the Rural King 30 miles in the opposite direction, so I’ll have to share some of Apollo’s feed with him until I can get some more. Weird, because Rural King usually carries the full line of Nutrena, but not this branch! Anyway, got back, fed the horses, made dinner which we shared at the picnic table again. We were a bit late to the mosquitoes were starting to eat us alive at the very end of our meal, so we weren’t long before saying good night! Had a bunch of money come in for the OTL today, which makes me very happy, looks like all my efforts are panning out! Stock market did well today, too, so I’m an all around happy camper! One thing I forgot to do, though, was to fulfill a book order, so I’m going to have to do that in the morning, or have Pistol mail it since she wants to take her truck in to fill it with fuel while she’s disconnected. Meanwhile, I’m full from dinner, planning on watching an episode of The Expanse, take my shower and head to bed! Feeling a bit tired, you know how traveling always does that. Anyway, good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep, then after chores I started working on trying to match up email addresses with real people on my OTL list. What a nightmare! I was very glad that I had sent a hard copy of the list to Anita last week, so after trying unsuccessfully to rearrange the names is some fashion that might realign them, I finally decided to do it manually, so I spent about four hours realigning them all manually. Just when I thought I was finished, I discovered that I had failed to print one of the pages, so I started to try to do that, and had a glitch which made me have to reboot my laptop, and when I tried to open up the database again, it said the entire file was corrupted and wouldn’t open! Talk about frustrating! I was nearly in tears, but once my mind cleared, I remembered that everything backs up on Carbonite, so I quickly stopped all backups and went into the Carbonite file and discovered that I still had yesterday’s copy, yay! At least I hadn’t lost anything, and I figured I would have to redo all the work I had just completed, but then, when I opened it up, all the addresses were back where they belonged! Sure wish I had thought of that sooner!! Would have saved me all that trouble doing it manually. It’s not 100 percent, but what little is left is nothing compared to what I would have had to do. Whew! A wasted day, but at least I’m back where I started, which is a huge improvement! Since that took most of the day, I then took some time to start putting stuff away since we’re moving on tomorrow, then we had a nice steak on the grill again, then settled down for the evening. It’s early yet, but I’m planning on getting to bed early after my shower, so I can read for awhile. Glad to see the back end of this day! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Was in bed around 9:30 last night, and slept almost to sunrise, then stayed in bed and read a few hours, nodding off and on for awhile, since that’s part of my plan to rest today. Did my morning chores, treated myself to French toast and ham for breakfast, then spent most of the day reading and binge-watching Expanse, exactly the kind of relaxing day I needed! It rained in the morning and I managed to catch enough water to mostly fill up the two big horse buckets, so that give me at least another day or so less water I need to take out of the truck camp. I should be okay through next Monday when we leave. I planned my ride for tomorrow, spoke to Pistol briefly about when she’s coming, and Anita about a few things on the OTL, but other than that, I did next to nothing today! Yay! Heading to bed early again tonight, want to stay in the habit for now. So I’m heading off to my short shower and long night in bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Well, my body has adjusted to early hours, I was awake by 6:30 this morning. Read for awhile, then finally got up and started packing up. Got delayed a bit because of a couple of conversations I got involved in, one with one of the rangers and another with the main office manager when I went it to pay for my camping. They took out the paybox now, everything is supposed to go through ReserveAmerica, but they were happy to take my check, sans booking fee. It was a cloudy but uneventful drive until my arrival. There is a parking area right off the main road, but then a narrow limestone road back to the campground. I called the office to make sure I was headed in the right direction, since it looked like the kind of road I didn’t want to get stuck in if there wasn’t anywhere to turn around. I made the unfortunate discovery that the water source is a hand pump, which I hadn’t seen before in Florida, dang it! That’s going to complicate things a bit, but I’m only here for a week, so no biggie. I slowly worked my way in, the road had potholes you could lose a VW bug in, and I was astonished that I didn’t drag going into a couple of ditches that will no doubt fill up with water when it rains tonight and tomorrow. To my surprise, instead of finding the campground empty like I usually do on a Monday, there were more than half a dozen tents out here with some young adults hanging around. Maybe a Christmas vacation? I don’t know, but they were quiet and seemingly well-behaved, so we’ll see how that goes. Instead of backing up into an area, I decided to pull in so I was facing the woods, and a couple of nice trees for a highline. I had been hoping to let the horses graze out here for awhile, but can’t with all these other folks around. Had some trouble with the jack, saw some sparks flying when I was trying to lower it, not sure what that’s about but I’m going to have to take a look at it. I thought maybe the battery was just too low so I put on the generator, and eventually got it moving, though I don’t know it that was, in fact, the cause. Didn’t need THAT problem right now! Once I get everything set up, I drove up to the Tractor Supply at Zephry Hills to fill up two propane tanks. It’s supposed to be getting quite chilly the next couple of nights and I didn’t want to be caught short. Made a quick stop at Walmart for fuel and a couple of groceries, then another at Publix for their eggnog ice cream, which I discovered is absolutely delicious as an a la mode to pumpkin pie, one of which I bought for the holidays. Stopped once more at a Home Depot because I forgot to fill up my water tank in the truck at Walmart, and they let me fill it up there. I had emptied into the trailer, and put every bucket that will hold water around at all the places where water will collect, like the gutters and the awning. I’m hoping to catch enough water to last the horses for a couple of days. With a little luck and careful planning, I should have all the water I need for the week. It was dusk by the time I got back, just managed to get the horses fed before dark, made some soup and settled down for a couple of episodes of Expanse before calling it a night, very early. I’m crashing now, after all of the energy I’ve been using for the past two weeks, non-stop, so I’m glad it’s going to rain, so no guilt for taking the day off! Heading off for my quick shower and hopefully LONG night! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Up before dawn AGAIN this morning, I won’t be sorry to see this early morning schedule change back to normal soon! Got chores and breakfast done, then hit the trails as soon as DeDe arrived in her side by side, moving along at a very good pace. We managed to get all the trails done before 1:00, then headed over to Willards for lunch, joined by Helen, Jo and Barb, where once again my order of a medium rare burger was disappointingly well-done, and that was even after I mentioned to them that the last one I ordered was overdone. This one was actually worse! Oh, well, that’s why I cook my burgers on my own grill, so I can get it the way I want it! My original plan was to rest tomorrow and travel on Tuesday, but the weather forecast is really bad, almost a sure bet for rain all day, so I decided to go ahead and leave tomorrow. It sprinkled a bit this morning but mostly cleared up in the afternoon, so I was able to get everything packed up, even getting the truck hooked up, so it won’t take me long to get out in the morning. Rain is supposed to move in during the afternoon, so hopefully I’ll be settled in to my new back yard before that happens. Tuesday will be a great day to just veg out, which is something I really need right now, after so much non-stop activity for so long! I can feel a crash coming on, I just have to hold off until I get there! Anyway, I managed to watch a little TV and relax a bit, though I have to put new sheets on the bed. Lola has been so crazed lately, she’s managed to break into the bedroom and “fluff” all my bedclothes, getting all the sand on her feet all inside my sheets. She’s done this practically every day for the last week, no doubt because she’s bored and mad that I keep leaving her behind (even though I did bring her out with us one day), hopefully things will get back to normal starting tomorrow! Heading to bed soon, on my way to my shower, so good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Only for the love of this event would I get up 90 minutes before dawn! Got the road signs put out first, then fed the horses and Lola. With a start time of 7:30, I was out by the road by then helping stop traffic so horses could cross at the trailhead, then again at 8:00 on the crossing north of the Equestrian Center. Then I put out some of the gorgeous alfalfa, then headed over for a quick breakfast at Helen’s house, which was the start of the ride, put a few more road signs out on the way. Got back to the trailer and actually was able to sit down and rest for awhile, imagine that! Feels like the first time I rested in ages! Silly Apollo is so bored, he kept grabbing the big water bucket with his teeth and tipping it over, FIVE TIMES today! I finally put one of the buckets over on Flash’s side so at least he had water, and left Apollo’s empty for awhile. I was assigned the job of marking in the finishers in the 50 mile race, with the finish line right here where I’m camped, so that kept me captive all afternoon. Not busy, just captive, which was fine, I actually got to read for several hours, what a change! All the horses finally got through just as it was getting dark. I ran over to turn in my login sheet, but there wasn’t anything else to do so I came back, picked up the last couple of signs, watched an hour of TV and now I’m super ready for my shower and bed, even though it’s barely 8:00. Tomorrow we have to go out and retrieve all the markers, so another busy day! That’s it, I’m done, good night! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Another busy day here at Goethe! I did my chores, then cleaned out the water trough first thing, which is a tougher job than you might think because it’s screwed into posts so you can’t tip it up, and the screws are stripped so you can’t take them out, so it was a matter of siphoning off as much algae-infested water as you can, then scooping the rest out with a strainer, then sponging the rest out, a yucky job, but at least it’s done. Had a quick breakfast, then DeDe arrived and it wasn’t long before we were off. We ran all of the trails today, adding a few markers and some signs in a few spots to make things even MORE clear, and had a chance to see the work that Kelsey and Alex had done, which was very good, with just a couple of additions on a couple of their left turns. Got back to camp at around 4:00, took down my laundry at last, then relaxed for half an hour before doing my evening chores, then driving over to Helen’s for dinner and the ride meeting. Not surprisingly, I’m exhausted again, but it’s going to be an early night to complement the very early morning tomorrow, so I’m off for my shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Once again, up before daybreak, a quick round of chores and breakfast, and then DeDe arrived in her Mule and we shortly headed off onto the trails to mark the south trail. Margarita had some business to take care of but joined us at about 10:00, and we worked through the long day, but got it done! We took Lola with us, and at first she just ran beside us, but then she started stealing my seat every time we stopped and I got out, silly girl. In the end she earned her keep, though, because there were a few places where we weren’t sure how deep the water was and whether the Mule would get through it, so I threw a stick out into the puddle, and of course, Lola went chasing after it, and then we could judge how deep it was! So she became our official “Depth Finder!” Jo came by and met us for a few minutes once we got back to camp, then Margarita went home and DeDe and I finished off the last quarter mile before being completely done. The two girls Alex and Kelsey confirmed they had completed the final loop for the fifty, so all trail markings should be done! DeDe and I will be taking one final check on Friday. I feel utterly exhausted, having not getting to bed until after 11:00, but tonight I’m heading to bed extra early, plus I’ll get to sleep a little later in the morning, so hopefully I’ll be fully recovered by then! That’s all she wrote today, so good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Another long and very busy day! Pre-dawn alarm followed by chores and breakfast, DeDe arrived right at 8:00 with Margarita moments behind. We packed up everything into her side by side (she calls it her Mule, though it’s not really), and headed off for trail clearing and marking. What a team! We all worked great together, everyone doing whatever needed doing, and it was a very productive and fun day. We managed to get all the way up to about a mile from camp where there is a deep water crossing where a creek comes in, then we doubled back and went to lunch at Willards, though it was past 2:00 by the time we headed that way. A great little eatery, but the service can be extremely slow when it’s busy, which it was today. Nevertheless, we left around 4:00, Margarita headed home since we were almost done anyway, and DeDe and I went back to finish the last mile starting at the other side of the creek crossing, got it done before 5:00. She headed out and I promptly started organizing for tomorrow. Everything was all mixed up and we had trouble finding some things when we needed them, and I figured I would have to make more orange markers for tomorrow since we’ll last time we used two different colors where this time we’re only using one. Then Alex came by, she and Kelsey are marking the third loop tomorrow, so I gave them the stuff they needed to make markers for that loop, so that was a good job delegated! Now I’ll have plenty for tomorrow for my loop! It took me until after 9:00 to get everything organized, but now we should be able to find whatever we need immediately, and not take along anything we don’t need, which we did this morning. So by end of tomorrow, everything should be marked, leaving Thursday to do what needs to be done, like water buckets and any last minute stuff. On Friday, DeDe and I plan to run all the trails again in her Mule just to confirm it’s all okay, then job done! Well, at least until we have to take everything down again after the ride! Long, tiring but productive and fun day, but now I won’t be long out of bed, heading for the shower momentarily! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hello my love!
A wonderful night sleep, not too surprising since I took ibuprofen before going to bed. Woke up and was reading a bit before the horse alarm went off just before 8:30, so in answer to Apollo’s whinny, I got up to start feeding, chores and breakfast. Then I sat down at my computer with my new map that ranger Scott had emailed me and figured out what I hope will be a great new route for one of the loops for the endurance ride. Then I called Jo to see if we could meet at the Goethe Forest Open House later this afternoon so I could show it to her, and she said she had some hay chores to do, and since she’s still hurting from a fall she took last week, I offered to help. She has a fascinating system with hoists and chains where she can offload one of these huge 300+ lb bales and drop it into place, something her husband designed and built for her. Always interesting to see how other people solve problems! That and a nice glass of lemonade while we looked at my proposed trails took us up to the time for us to leave for the open house. Discovered that Jo and I share the same birthday, would you believe! While I was there, I put in the address for George and Margarita, the folks I met at Lake Panasoffkee a few weeks ago, since I had been invited over to dinner and wanted to see where I would be going after the open house, and shockingly, they lived literally two houses away from Jo! Amazing! Such a small world! I headed out to the Apex trailhead just before Jo, and I got there before her, then I learned a lot of interesting things about the management of the forest, and met all the players involved. I also checked with ranger Scott about some of my newly selected trails to see if there were any issues with any of them, and he seemed to think they would all be good. I’ll ride the new loop tomorrow just to make sure, and to measure it to make sure it’s the right fit. Once that meeting was over, I headed back over to George and Margarita’s, arriving just after our scheduled time, and had a wonderful evening together. George is quite the cook, he rotisseried a huge chicken on his grill and had enough food for an army. I did my best to make a dent in it, but there was just too much!. Then Margarita’s brother arrived, we all chatted some more, very enjoyable stories and company, a very pleasant evening. I got back to camp just before 8:00, got the horses fed and watered (I left them with two full big buckets, both of which they managed to knock over, something they’ve never done before so I figured they were just mad at me for leaving them so long!), then settled down for a quick episode of Expanse. A cup of Sleepytime tea and I’ll be ready for shower and bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!