Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 – Travel Day to Black Prong and Truck Diagnosis

Hey Babe!
I don’t know why it is, but the night’s before I travel, I always have trouble sleeping! Don’t know why. I did a lot of activity, including a ride, yesterday, thought that would be enough, but no, I tossed and turned for awhile. No matter, I slept past 8:00, then got up and finished packing, got the horses loaded up and was out of camp by just after 10:00. Then I arrived at Black Prong just before 11:00, which gives you an idea of how close these two camps are, not even 30 miles! I got just about everything unpacked and the horses highlined before I headed back into town for my appointment at the truck repair place. I’ve been experiencing a judder at certain speeds, and it’s been getting a little worse as time goes by, so I figured I better get it looked at before I end up dead on the side of the road. Oddly, the woman at the repair shop, though she seemed quite knowledgeable, had never heard the word “judder” before! Really, is it that odd a word? I even looked it up for her, and sure enough, it’s defined exactly the way I was using it, so I guess she learned a new vocabulary word today (and maybe you did, too!) Anyway, after lots of careful analysis and test driving, they seem to think the problem is somewhere in the drive train, so they’re going to have to take it apart and then send sections of it to another shop to check for proper balance, as well as everything else in the rest of that system, so I’ll be truckless for a couple of days. Going to have to make sure I’ve got enough supplies to last if I’m camp bound, pretty sure I do! After I left there I went to Tractor Supply to fill up one propane tank, then dropped off a return package at a UPS store. The wireless pet fence, while a great idea, didn’t work so well in action. Worst part of it was that if the collar was dormant for 30 seconds, it would go on standby to save the battery (good idea!), but when it woke up again because it moved, it would reset itself by vibrating and shocking (bad idea!), so if a poor dog just lays down for a few minutes, when it gets up it gets shocked for no reason! Not sure it’s supposed to work like that, but this is the second one I’ve gotten and I couldn’t get either one to be consistent enough to use, so I sent it back. A quick stop at Walmart for a couple of things, plus fuel ($80 to fill up my tank, and it was just under half when I pulled into the station! Holy moley!) Then back to camp, fed the horses, then had two visitors, Kelsey and Valerie, who have some great ideas for changing the route for the benefit endurance ride, on a lot of “unmapped” trails, which would be great! Finally settled down for dinner and TV, spent a little time looking at the OTL website now that I’ve been made an admin on it, lots of work to do there, now I’m heading off to shower and bed. Long day, but pretty productive. Good night, darlin’! Love you!