Hiya Darlin',
Let myself sleep in a bit this morning, having had to put in earplugs because of the hard rain that came down all night long, woke up a bit before 8:30 and was luxuriating for a couple of minutes until Ride Manager Mya knocked on the door. I got up to show her around, then got my day started. I'm sure Flash was relieved I didn't come looking for him after breakfast! I had filled my water tank on the truck yesterday, so I went over to Mya's trailer and picked up enough troughs to cover the first water stop down on the White trail and headed out, even before Jo got here. I've wisely made all the water stops so that I can reach them in about 10-12 minutes from camp, so it didn't take me long to get the first troughs done. Back to camp, grabbed a few more troughs, filled my tank again and headed up the stop on the Red trail, then back to camp, finally picked up Jo's extra 40 gallon tank, filled them both up, grabbed some more troughs and buckets, and managed to do the last two stops in one run, as they're only about a quarter mile apart on the same road. All told, it took until about 3:00 to get all that done, just about when registration began. Unfortunately, I had noticed that a bunch of my signs had been torn down, especially the ones getting the riders into the trailhead at Mattair that is hard to find without markings, and not for the first time. In fact, on one tree, I had put a sign up one day, then two signs (to replace the first sign) the next day, then put three signs to replace the first two and to add the last sign, only to see that they had all been deliberately torn down, as well as all my carefully placed in and out signs on the posts leading into Mattair. No clue why anyone would do that, or why they didn't get the hint after the signs kept getting replaced, but there's no fixing stupid, I guess. Jo had made some signs saying "Horse Event, don't remove temporary markers," which I didn't think I would need, but evidently, I did, so I put those up as well. Christine, the owner of the facility, arranged for one of her Canadian renters to take me out in a UTV to fix a couple of signs on the Blue trail, and we fixed the entry signs as well, so hopefully they'll be there in the morning. It rained off and on all day, so I'm hoping most of the signs on the trails will still be relatively intact. Got back from that around 5:00, finally relaxed for a few minutes, tried to fix my staple gun, which has been nearly worthless this whole week. I need to replace it, for sure. I was given a hammer type stapler, but I can't for the life of me find it, so I'll just have to get a new one, seeing as this is becoming an essential tool for my lifestyle at the moment. Finally made it to dinner, which was a fabulous smoked brisket that melted in your mouth, and smoked chicken, with green beans and potato salad and dessert (I picked chocolate chip cookies), and was grateful for such a fabulous meal that I didn't have to cook or clean up after. 🙂 Then we held the ride meeting, where I got to describe all the trails, and saw an awful lot of familiar faces. I'm certainly getting to be known in this community! After that, I went out in my truck again, to do a last minute check on the markers on the way to the trailhead, replaced the ribbons that had gone missing, figuring they should last until morning, hopefully, then got back to camp and finally met owner Christine, who I had only spoken to on the phone. She was very gracious and was telling me all about her new 1600 acre property in Vermont which she said she would love for me to visit, even spend the summer there! My plan for summer so far has been NY, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend it in all the same places I've been before, so this could be just the alternative I was looking for. She says there are miles of old logging roads from the 60's, so I imagine it would be quite a fascinating place to explore. Looks like my summer plans are shaping up! Finally headed home around 9:00, settling down to wine, then tea, then Spanish, then shower, then bed! Good night, my sweet! Love you!
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