Hey Babe,
Took awhile to get to sleep last night, but woke up ready to do some more housekeeping, chores and miscellaneous odd jobs. Packed up a few more of Lola's things and put the big canvas bag in the back, though I haven't found the perfect place for it to live yet. Finally threw out that giant dog be we bought so many years ago from an airline catalogue, since it had gotten pretty torn up over the years. Always meant to fix it, but it was really beyond repair. Did some more housekeeping, I'm really liking this little wet/dry battery vacuum I bought awhile back, very convenient. I went to fix the rear light on my truck, I had noticed that I evidently got two of the bulbs backwards when I replaced it awhile back, only to discover that the cover had some cracks in it. Don't know how that got broken, but at least none of the glass has fallen out, so it will work for now. I also went to replace the little tailgate brake light that I bought in August, and it fit perfectly, except the electrical connector was totally incompatible, so I had to write to the company to see if they have any kind of adapter for it. Spent some time doing some planning for the upcoming months of ground travel, as well as started to look at the travel options to Sweden for my tentative trip in late March. Walked the horses around a bit, this time separately, just because they go at such dramatically different speeds it gets too complicated to take them together. Finally opened my package of mail, and was happy to see my absentee ballot had arrived, I'll be glad to get that in. Pretty much all of the rest of it was junk, though, so I had a burn. Finally settled down for a movie, then finished off the series I was bingeing, Leverage/Redemption. Not sure if they're making a new season of that, but I've watched all the episodes they've made. Started a new one, Touch, with Keifer Sutherland. Won't be long out of bed, but felt like it was a pretty productive day today, lots of little stuff added up. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a good night sleep, had a leisurely time getting up, then spent some time doing more housekeeping, mostly gathering and cleaning all of Lola's stuff. It's been really remarkable how much stuff of hers has taken up so much space in the camper. I unfortunately had just stocked up on a lot of stuff, so I have a lot of unopened packages I'm hoping to return, but all her toys and bowls and so much more stuff are going to be tough to store. I'm going to get rid of some of it, but I'm sure I'll have another dog someday, after I can't travel much anymore or finally move into assisted living or whatever my future holds, but in the meantime, I have one very large duffel bag I'm putting everything into for now, once everything dries after washing. It rained a good part of the day, so I couldn't do my usual laundry day, so I read and watched TV in addition to some housekeeping. I took the horses for a brief walk around the camp loop, but I really need to get Flash out for a run sometime soon. A pretty mundane day, though packing up Lola's stuff was heartbreaking, again. Headed to bed soon. Good night, sweetie. Love you.

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up at a reasonable hour, but then read for a bit until it started raining. I finally got up and put on my rain jacket to feed and clean up the horses. Because of the rain, and the fact that the nearest faucet to me has a broken diverter, I put up my portable rain barrel to collect the rain, which will stretch my water out a bit. Didn't take long to get it half full, as well as one of the muck buckets full as well. After breakfast I did some housekeeping, mostly washing up and collecting the dog stuff I won't need. I have a lot of unopened stuff I may try to return, or donate when the time comes. Once again, I had to adjust much of my day for Life After Lola. I don't need to put my garbage can up anymore, or my cargo net to keep her off the dining room bench seats. I don't have her to clean the plates before I wash them. So many little things I start to do out of habit and realize I don't have to do that anymore. I don't have to take the keys out of the truck for fear she might hit the lock button, which happened a few times. This adjustment is not going to be easy! I made a few inquiries into hay yesterday, since I'm still trying to save the eight bales I have in the front stall for as long as I can, and found someone that would let me pick up the bales I needed and leave money behind, since he wouldn't be there, so once the rain tapered off and the radar looked promising, I headed up to Etowah, about 18 minutes away, and managed to load myself up with 12 bales of hay. Quite a workout! But I got it done. Carefully covered it with a tarp in case we got caught in the rain again, got back to camp and unloaded, and put up my gooseneck skirting to keep it dry. This should be enough to get me through to Biltmore with a bale or two to spare. I settled down for the evening, though I had to go fill up my truck tank since I was low on water in the camper, which took a long time. Pressure is not too good here. Anyway, it was a step toward normalcy, but it's pretty hard when everything I do seems to be missing a step, the one that satisfies the needs of Lola, which I no longer have to do. Feeling a bit empty, but on the positive side, my grocery bill was a lot smaller yesterday, and I have less to worry about the next time I travel. Horses are easy, throw them in a pasture and they're good for the duration, dogs, not so much. Trying to make the best of a bad situation. Anyway, relaxed for the evening after having a pretty full day, trying to spread the housekeeping over a few days rather than all at once. Weird day, again! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
I tried to get back to a more normal today, but it was tough. Everything I did reminded me of Lola. She wasn't around when I was feeding and cleaning around the horses, the typical time when she would keep me company. I went shopping, and there was no treat for her at Tractor Supply, no smiles from shoppers at Walmart as we walked through all the departments, no going to the pet section, and no saving bags afterward for poo duty. I took apart the raised cot that I just bought and packed it up and returned it at the UPS store. I had just stocked up on a lot of stuff and have some unopened packages which I think I'll try to return, including a brand new unopened bottle of Carprofen. I didn't have to make room for her around my groceries in the truck, or worry about the heat bothering her, or any of the multitude of things I typically think about during the course of any day. I stopped by Linda's mailbox to pick up a hose splitter and her harness, which I didn't remember to get when I left. I'm missing my brand new 100' Zero G hose, but I think that must have fallen out of the back of the truck somewhere along the way. And of course, no walking. This is tough. She kept me strong after you passed, my love, she kept me busy, and without her, I'm feeling a bit unhinged, with no anchor. It's going to take time to get used to this new "normal." I got back from shopping around 4:00, and once I put everything away, including horse feed and propane tanks, I just didn't have the energy to do anything else. Vegged out on brainless TV and bourbon for the rest of the evening. I miss you more than ever, I guess I'm feeling more along than I have been for awhile, but tomorrow I'm determined to give the horses a bath. They're covered with some sort of sap on their faces, dirt on their legs, and bot eggs. Then I'll start to tackle cleaning the trailer from top to bottom. Gotta try and keep busy for awhile. Heading to shower and bed soon. Love and miss you, my darlin'! Good night!

Hey Darlin',
I always knew the day would come when I wouldn't have Lola by my side, but I never imagined it would happen this early, and not of natural causes. It's disconcerting the number of decisions I've always subconsciously made because of her. I didn't roll out my runner carpet last night, because it was more for her to have traction on the floor rather than me. I didn't have to take out my keys from the ignition on my truck, because I was worried she's step on the power locks and lock me out, which she had done before. I didn't have her to lick my plates clean before I washed them. I didn't have to decide whether to leave the door open or closed based on whether it was safe for her to go in and out overnight. I didn't have to plan a walk for her, which is something I'm going to have to adjust so that I don't give up my walking schedule (maybe take Apollo?). So many decisions I've been making for so long, it's just difficult to comprehend that I don't have to make those any more. I've had dogs since 1990, usually two at a time, and for the first time, I'm dog-less. It's going to be a tough transition. When I got up this morning, I quickly packed and moved out to Lost Corral, the nearest horse camp I know. I just couldn't stay here, it's just too hard. Forty minutes later, I was working my way around the loop, trying to find one that would allow me to use my Starlink. I settled on site 17, but once I moved in, I found the area by the highlines to be utterly filthy, like nobody had cleaned up after numerous horses, for numerous nights. What is WRONG with people! How can anybody think that's acceptable? Disgusting! I spent more than half an hour cleaning, and only got it about half done, but enough to use one post and a tree to highline them. I had to cut a small stump off to clear it out. I'll get around to cleaning the rest later, though I'm disgusted that I have to do it. The horses are covered with some kind of sap and a bunch of bot eggs, so a bath and some TLC tomorrow, hopefully. I managed to get a load of laundry done, but was disappointed that the spigot next to me isn't working properly, the diverter isn't working, so unless they replace it (I called to complain), I'm going to have to find another spigot and refill my truck tank, which was not part of my plan. I can't find my brand new 100' Zero G hose, nor Lola's expensive new Help 'em Up Harness, so that's disappointing. It's been a pretty crummy day all around. I felt so tired and depressed I was nodding off this afternoon. Fixing my recliner is another chore, and I plan on doing a thorough clean of the whole camper while I'm here, if I can harness the energy. Feeling pretty low on energy right now, understandably. My new generator is smaller, only puts out 30W instead of 50W and is louder than my old generator. So a major step backward. Why make a generator that's louder? Doesn't make sense. Did I mention they shorted out my two golf cart batteries during their repair? Then they replaced my Trojans with NAPA Deep Cycle, and when I learned that, I had a fit. There's no comparison between the two, and I insisted they replace apples with apples, and eventually, they did. Trojans are far superior to NAPA, which with my kind of usage would only last a year or two, vs. Trojans that last 7-9 years, even though they're only slightly more expensive. So the only plus of the whole generator episode (which cost me over $8000, btw), was that I got a new set of Trojan batteries at no cost to me. More stuff happened that was frustrating, but that's enough complaining for one day. Not a good day. I have a long list of stuff to do, and I'm not very enthusiastic about any of it at the moment. Hoping to have a better night sleep and feel better in the morning. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetheart,
Woke up after about seven hours of sleep, though that was about 3:30 a.m. considering how early I went to bed, but I was refreshed and ready to get busy. I read for a bit, then got on my computer and finished my last video, and once it hit 7:30, I started calling the Cummins dealer to get word on my trailer. They said they would have the appropriate person call me right back, but that didn't happen. I went down to breakfast, very happy about my decision to stay here at the LaQuinta in Cleveland, which was very clean and comfortable, and the breakfast was quite good. Did more work after breakfast, still hadn't heard from Cummins, called a couple more times until it was time to check out, and finally reached someone who said my rig would be ready to go today. Armed with that information, I checked out and headed to their location, figuring I could unload my stuff and do some cleaning while I waited until they were ready. Turns out when I got there, they said it WAS ready to go, so I hooked up, then pulled it up to the office and went in to pay the bill, where I discovered that they had grounded out and destroyed my batteries in the process of doing something, and had replaced them with NAPA batteries. I'm sorry, but NAPA batteries are nowhere near the equivalent of my Trojans, so I was compelled to raise a stink about that, until finally they located a pair of Trojans nearby. After a couple of hours of arrangements, they managed to get them delivered and installed, so now, at least, I have brand new Trojan batteries, a small consolation to the fact that the replacement generator is smaller and only provides me with 30 watts of power rather than 50 watts, and is louder and noisier than my previous generator. Seriously, guys, if you're doing new and improved, you really should IMPROVE a model, rather than make it inferior. I feel like I've taken two steps forward and one step back. Anyway, by the time they were finished, it was too late to get to Linda's and pack up and move, which was my original plan (I'm sorry, it's just too painful to be here), so I arrived at Linda's around 5:00 and settled down. I didn't bother with electric, since her circuits only have 15 amps, which were constantly breaking before, and I didn't have any inclination to fixing them like I did before, so I just ran my generator to charge up the new batteries and prepare for the evening. I got my stuff out of her refrigerator and freezer, made myself some eggs for dinner, and watched some TV until I passed out from bourbon overload, which I'm sorry to say was my mostly liquid dinner tonight, besides the eggs. That's another reason I have to get out of here. I did walk out and give the horses an apple, they had actually come right over when they saw the trailer pull in, I think they're quite ready to get on the road again, as am I. Woke up from napping about 10:00, so I'm just finishing off this post before I shower and go to bed. It will be good to be back in my own bed, but I have to say, all of the hotels I've stayed in during the last two weeks have been pretty comfortable. Again, very happy with the LaQuinta in Cleveland, TN, they did an excellent job. Meanwhile, good night, baby, love you!

Hey Darlin',
Was up bright and early, had breakfast, and was heading out at 9:00, with a stop at another ruins, then to the Cusco airport. Dropped off at noon, flight went off on-time, arrived in Lima with a six hour wait for my next connection. During that time, I worked to find a tracker, someone who could bring in a dog and drone and learn where Lola went. After being on the phone nearly an hour, I found someone, she was very expensive, and had to drive down from the Tri-cities, but she could be there in the morning. No sooner were those arrangements made than I got a call from Linda with the worst news ever. Her neighbor found Lola dead by the road, obviously hit by a car. I don't know what to say. I had instructed her in the need for Lola's confinement, but she didn't do anything I asked, and this was the result. I am heart-broken and devastated. This trip had gone so well. It was the first trip where I wasn't sick, in extreme pain or been injured by falling off a horse. It was a wonderful trip, and should have had a wonderful reunion, but now Lola's gone and I can't stop crying. What a miserable way to finish. At least I know what happened to her, it beats not knowing, but she had years left in her life, and now she's gone. The rest of my trip was on schedule. I barely slept on the Lima-Miami leg, had no problems with customs or immigration control, didn't have too much of a layover, and was surprised that the Miami-Charlotte flight was on a 777, and first class had the individual pods with the lie flat bed, which I wish I had had on the Lima flight. Was kind of sorry it was such a short flight, but I did stretch out and got a good hour or so of sleep, which helped a lot. About the only hour in the past 31+ hours I've been going since yesterday morning. Arrived on schedule, with Linda picking me up at the aiport. I couldn't talk to her, I was so angry and grief-stricken. It was so unnecessary, so avoidable, if she had only followed my instructions Lola would be greeting me excitedly. Instead, I found her wrapped in a garbage bag on a skid. I couldn't stop crying. Richard eventually came by and asked to bury her, so I had to go. I decided I just couldn't stay there, compounded with the fact the electric on her motor home where I was supposed to stay quit, and I was in no mood to deal with that, so I moved to a hotel for the night, and glad I did. Was pleased to see a bathtub (so few hotels have one these days!), so I took a long hot bath, and was in bed shortly thereafter, though I did some computer work, reading and grieving before I finally slept. I'm so heartbroken, so sorry that our lovin' Lola is no longer here, she was always a constant reminder of you and how much you loved her, too. I hope, if there is an afterlife, that you and her are together again some way or another, that your spirits are together, and that we'll all be together again, our energies eternally mixed forever. Love you, love her, good night.

Sunday, September 26, 2026 - Day Twelve-Final Full Day
Hiya Sweetie,
Still no word on Lola, I'm heartbroken, but still hopeful. But there's nothing I can do but try to enjoy what's rest of my vacation and deal with it when I get back. Obviously, Linda's still looking, hopefully something will shake loose. Meanwhile, after breakfast today, we headed out for a day of being tourists, first to a magnificent hummingbird sanctuary, then to one of the many amazing archaeological sites here in Peru. This was in Ollantaytambo, a massive complex built on a mountain, as always, and had stairs that just seems to go on forever. I managed to make it all the way to the top, to 9800 ft., which was over a 600 ft. climb from the base. Magnificent views from up there, naturally. Then we went to lunch on the square, which was nice until a polical parade came through in a very noise fashion. They have an election coming up, and we've seen signs everywhere, and these parades are par for the course, though it seems most of the participants are simply paid to march with a flag. After this late lunch, we took a walk to up some narrow alleys until we came to a little guinea pig place. They apparently raise them here for consumption, as it seems guinea pig used to be a stable, but now is a delicacy. I haven't tried it, now do I really want to, but Jane said she had it somewhere, and it wasn't too bad. By the time we were finished with that, it was too late to see another archaelogical site that was on the schedule, so we came back to the hotel for a couple of hours before going to Marchella's for dinner. A wonderful eggplant parmesan, and again, enough food for a small army. Jane recited a couple of poems, and I did Snowy River, as I had promised Claudio I would do something. Back to the hotel, where I packed most of my stuff, showered, and off the bed. Long day of travel tomorrow! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Sorry to say the day didn't start out to well, at least for me. I got a call from Linda, who told me Lola went on walkabout last night and never came back, so naturally I spent the day worrying about her. The ride itself was memorable, inasmuch as I thought yesterday was about descending, but in truth, today was the amazing descent. We switch-backed down a mountain from about 12,000 ft. to our final destination at about 9600 ft., in just over 13 miles. Quite the descent! We had lunch at the bottom of the steepest descent, and it was extremely windy. I'm glad I've been wearing my neck gaiter, it really came in handy to keep the dust out of my mouth and nose. We've been so grateful that we haven't had any rain, and the few days that we came close, it missed us, but the wind was really nasty today, but I can live with that. We reached out destination, said good-bye to our good horses and were driven back to the hotel for an evening on our own. Alicia was determined to go back to one of the restaurants we went to, so Francesca went with her to keep her company, but the rest of us opted to stay at the hotel, though I ate on my own because I just felt that I wouldn't be very good company, worrying about Lola. Still no word, even after searching all day. Someone has her, I'm sure of it, I just have to figure out who! I hate that I'm not there to look for her, but there's nothing I can do at this point but send out good thoughts, keep posting on Lost and Found sites, and hope someone will do the right thing and turn her in. Came back to the room after a Caesar salad, will read and call it a night very soon. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
Was exceptionally glad I spent the night in my room, managed to get a lot done, and the rest did me a world of good. Woke up early again, finished off some more work on my computer, went down to breakfast, and was picked up by Francesca at 9:30. We drove to where the horses were waiting for us, and headed out on the trail. We once again began by skirting the lake, retracing our steps from the second day of riding, as we begin to head home over the next two days. We spent most of the day descending, got a little gaiting in, saw lots of livestock along the way, passed through a couple of small towns, got a little song, dance and horn-blowing from one of the locals in the street, and generally had another excellent ride. Our lunch stop was by an old abandoned church, which we explored for a bit. I can't believe our last day of riding will be tomorrow! It's been a fabulous time, great food and companionship with everyone, and of course, wonderful horses (though still not as smooth as my Flash!). So many memories have been made! We had dinner down at the little restaurant in the hotel, where I only ate a little, but it was still too much after a big lunch, but I'm ready for my shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!