Hi Darlin’!
Had another good night sleep, did my chores and breakfast, did some computer work and some French lessons (just for fun, and maybe taking a trip next year), then saddled up Apollo for a short ride around the east side loop, some trails I didn’t get to yesterday. This ride just about wraps up all the horse trails in here, so I may have to get adventurous and accidentally take a couple of cross-country skiing trails. Got back in the afternoon and struggled again trying to get hay. I had several haymakers tell me they’d have some yesterday, then it got delayed until today, but very late, and finally, I just couldn’t take a chance because I’ve been looking since Monday, and I was almost out, so I had to go to the nearby feed store and get some, at a 30 percent markup, darn it! Well, two of the haymakers are actually a lot closer to the next camp I’m going to in ten days, so I got enough to last me until then, and I hopefully will be able to pick some up then, if they’re not all sold out. It’s selling like crazy right now, but then again, everyone’s baling right now, too, so I expect a surplus for the next few weeks, hopefully. It was a lovely ride. I put some new cushioning pads in Apollo’s boots and had him wear them, even though there’s only a few places that are rocky, but he’s been behaving so tender-footed, I’m going to put them on every time we ride for awhile, at least until we get back to soft sand. He seemed okay today, though he was still trying a bit to stay off the trail, but that may just be habit with him by now. Saw several deer, and some other big fat round thing that I only saw from the backside, not sure what it was. Very quiet out on the trails today, didn’t run into anyone else. Didn’t take Lola, either, still wasn’t sure what kind of roads we might cross, but I think I’ve sorted that all out now. Probably won’t take her over the weekend, either, since this is a pretty populated and civilized park, but maybe next week when it’s quieter again. It’s been very sunny here, so it’s been a bit warmer in the trailer since there is not shade in this campground, but the good side of that is that Apollo’s rain rot seems to be just about gone, partly because of the treatments I gave it a few weeks back, and partly because he’s been standing out in the sun and it’s been doing a good job of drying it up. Once I got him put away, I took the truck over and filled the tank with water, got their tubs and the trailer refilled. I learned something last night, too. The inverter cuts off at about 11.2, that’s my low battery point, so now I know. I ran the generator for about 10 minutes last night because it got so low I was afraid the low voltage would damage the water pump while I was taking my showers, but that brought the volts up to 12.2 in just ten minutes! I was amazed. Even more amazing, the generator actually started on it’s own this morning, which really surprised me after running the batteries so low last night. Live and learn! Finally gave up on my haymakers and went to the feed store, then settled down for the evening. Already had my shower, heading to bed shortly! Love you, babe! Good night!

Hi Babe!
Had a good night sleep, beautiful sleeping weather here right now! Got up and did my chores and breakfast, spread out the tarp to dry since I had been planning on getting hay today (which didn’t happen, won’t be baled until tomorrow! Getting low!). Meanwhile, a man named Dan rode by on his bike, he had stopped by yesterday and we chatted for a bit, turns out he used to be a rider, so I invited him to come ride with me if he wants. Always helps to get both horses exercised at once! He stopped by again today and we chatted a bit more, made arrangements to ride on Friday morning. After he left, I saddled up Flash. Yesterday, I had got his boots out, because it looks like some of the trails here are graveled, and put several layers of Lexol conditioner on them and rubbed it in. The Cavallo people told me that I might have to break them in, though I’ve never had to do that before, but since I knew it rubbed Flash’s bulbs last time, I thought I’d make the effort. I had put them on for a few hours yesterday as well, hoping that it would help. I also got out the pastern wraps Cavallo sent me (they actually sent me two pair, didn’t realize that) and put those on, hoping to avoid any rubbing. It seemed to help, because he didn’t spend nearly as much time avoiding the trail as he has been lately, didn’t seem to mind many of the rocky sections. There really weren’t that many, but still, it was an improvement. I did forget to put his breast collar on today, that’s been helping a lot, but the park on the east side is so flat I didn’t think it would be an issue, but the park on the WEST side is quite hilly, so I wish I had remembered it. Anyway, it was a lovely ride, just under ten miles, including a tunnel under a busy road. I didn’t take Lola because I was worried about crossing that road, wish I had known about the tunnel. The only time I met other horses on the trail was at that tunnel, a couple was just coming out as I was just getting ready to go in. Flash is really getting into good shape now, he was quite happy to go quickly most of the way, especially the way back. Saw a few hikers, but other than that, we were on our own. Enjoyed it a lot, just wish they had more trails out here! This ten mile loop pretty much covers most of them, there is just a couple more short loops around camp to do. Of course, we’ll go backwards at least once here, just for variety, but we’ll have to do the same trails most of the time while we’re here. Got back to camp, and was planning on getting hay, but the guy contacted me after I texted him and said it wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow, darn it! Oh well, that’s the way it goes. I got out the pads I had bought for the Cavallo boots and cut those according to size and put them in both pairs of boots, will try them out next time I ride either horse. It did seem like the pastern wraps did a good job, there didn’t seem to be any rubbing. Then when I put the pads in Apollo’s boots, I decided to replace the velcro straps, they were pretty beat up, and I had spare, and wouldn’t you know, when I opened the draw to get the new straps, there was a pair of Cavallo pastern wraps in there! I have no idea where they came from, don’t remember seeing them, but evidently they had sent me some, maybe as a freebie with my last set of boots (or more likely the set before, since I had no memory of it) so now I have THREE sets of pastern wraps! Guess I’ll be trying those out on Apollo, too, though his boots are already broken in. I also decided to raise my stirrups a notch, just because there are times when I feel at certain speeds I don’t have enough leg control, we’ll see how that works. Grilled a nice little steak for dinner, now I’m sitting outside waiting for it to cool down, not sure if I’ll have enough battery power to watch a movie tonight, I didn’t run the generator at all today, and there were a few clouds so I didn’t get quite as much charge today as I hoped, but we’ll see! That’s why we’re testing the system! Won’t be long out of bed, though, so I’ll say good night, my sweetie! Love you

Hi Sweetie!
Well, once again, the weatherman threw us a curveball. While it was a beautiful day yesterday, there was a forty percent chance of rain overnight at 4:00 a.m., which turned into 100 percent rain at about 1:30. It was so loud, I heard it even with my earplugs in. I had to get up and close my windows, and unfortunately, there was still some wet spots on the bedroom window in the morning, so I still haven’t completely solved my leak problem. I felt bad for Alayna in her tent, but she got through it all right, even with the thunder and lightning. Anyway, by daylight it was all gone, and it was a beautiful morning. We didn’t exactly get an early start (like me, Alayna’s not an early morning person!), but we did get out on the trail just after 10:30, after I did a load of laundry and got it hung up so it would dry while we were gone. We did another 9 ½ miles today, and Sundance wasn’t any worse for the wear despite how little he’s been ridden this year. Flash was perfectly fine as well, despite it being his third day in a row. We went through the obstacle course again just for fun, and got back into camp around 1:30. I really enjoyed Alayna’s company this weekend, she’s easy to have a conversation with, and easy to be quiet with as well, a good combination in my book! She got packed up and left not too long after that, then I got busy starting to put stuff away for our departure tomorrow. I paced myself through the afternoon, but it really didn’t take very long, even taking the screen room down is getting to be fairly easy, despite the fact I haven’t used it in quite awhile. I suspect I may be using it the rest of the month, though, since my plan is to stay two weeks at the next three places, and I’d almost forgotten how pleasant it is to sit outside without getting eaten by bugs! I think Lola appreciated that too, even though it keeps her locked in a bit more. She knows she’s not supposed to leave the screen room, and did pretty well this weekend considering the number of dogs running loose, she only insisted on escaping a few times :-). I had a conversation with the last remaining camper from the group next door, turns out she’s into mounted orienteering, a sport I’d like to look into (and keep missing by a weekend whenever I find out about it), so we exchanged contact numbers and she said she’s keep me apprised. I need to get on their mailing list and check their schedule more regularly, I’d really like to give that a try one day. Anyway, I had dinner early, between chores, and finally settled down for the evening, with just about everything put away and the truck hooked up and ready to go. The next stop is less than 100 miles, so I should be able to get there fairly early, but according to their website, they have NO sites big enough for me, even though they say the site lengths are ofter 70-80 feet! Still trying to figure that out. Anyway, we’ll figure that out tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ve had my shower, and I just need to finish up before heading to bed! Good night, my darling! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Wow, what a party the neighbors were having last night! I went to bed around 11:15, and it was still a raucous bunch, with some laughing really loud, and another singing at the top of their lungs, and the loud generator going strong. Thank goodness for earplugs! I put mine in and the world faded away, so it didn’t take me long to get to sleep. Woke up at a reasonable hour, got my chores and breakfast done, fixed one of the fans in the horse compartment, it had fallen off and pulled it’s wires out, so that was a chore waiting to be done. Alayna was supposed to be here around noon, but she had a lot of things not go right, so she was late and showed up with Sundance instead of Glory, which was fine, probably better, since Glory tends to make a fuss with the geldings, it was much calmer with two geldings. Anyway, she finally got here around 1:30, so we were on the trail by just after 2:00, and had a very nice 10.5 mile ride around most of the perimeter. Sundance is mostly blind, so he was having a little trouble navigating some of the steeper hills, but he managed pretty well. When we got back to camp, we decided to do the obstacle course, which has quite a number of interesting things to do. Steps, gates, logs to step over, and Flash managed most of them. Got back to camp, put everyone away, made a nice grilled salmon dinner that we ate at the picnic table, then settled down for the night. What a beautiful day! Because we had a cooler night last night, the bugs were a lot less today, and the weather, with a nice little breeze, was just perfect! And it’s supposed to be a great day again tomorrow, exactly the kind of weather I love to chase, seventies in the day, mid-50’s to low-60’s at night. Couldn’t ask for more beautiful weather! Hope it stays this good throughout August! Alayna has put up her tent, and we’ll be sitting around chatting for a bit before I hit the showers and head off to bed! So I’ll say good night early, my love! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a good night sleep, managed to get up before 8:00, got more chores done, had another one of Alayna’s grandma’s cinnamon rolls (mmm, mmm, good!), did a few essentials on my computer, then saddled up Flash and headed out for a ride. What a beautiful day it was! Perfect temps in the low 70’s, sunny skies, just fabulous! This is a fairly small park so it’s not too easy to get lost, but I did manage to get off-track from the route I had planned for myself. Part of the problem is that, whereas there are numbered intersections on the trails, those numbers aren’t on the map, so it’s impossible to plan accordingly. Also, the map is hand-drawn and bears no resemblance to where the actual trails are, my GPS is so far off it’s ridiculous. That said, I still managed to get all the trails I wanted done in, just not necessarily in the order or direction that I had planned, but no worries, it was still a nice ride. It got a lot cooler last night, so the bug levels were way down today, especially the mosquitoes, so that made it a lot more pleasant. That didn’t necessarily make Flash go any slower, though, he’s getting in very good condition, and he’s quite happy to go as fast as I will let him, which is as fast as he wants to go! Lola had quite a run for her money, too, she’s sleeping soundly in her bed. They have quite an extensive obstacle course just next to the camp, so I took Flash through most of it, and he did quite well, even with the ones he hasn’t seen before. One was this crazy spidery looking thing with a barrel on it’s side in the middle, and the point was to get over the barrel, but it was pretty big for Flash to step over, so he pop-jumped over it instead, which threw me a little off balance but I managed to stay on nevertheless. There’s one obstacle I just haven’t been able to get him to do, and they have the same one at Loretta Lynn’s, it’s a big wide tire on it’s side. This one is nice because they’ve even put a rubber stall mat on the top instead of concrete, but I still haven’t been able to get him up on it. I’ll keep trying, though! Got back to camp, got him settled in, then I went and filled up the water tank and redistributed it to the horses tubs and the trailer, with some leftover, which I may need for laundry on Sunday, or not. Settled in for the evening, watched a nice Reese Witherspoon movie and another Broadchurch (not sure why I’m watching those, it’s so depressing!), now it’s time for shower and bed. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a terrible night sleep last night. Read until 2:00, and still didn’t get to sleep for a long time afterward. Lola woke me up with barking a couple of times after that, so not surprisingly, it was nearly 10:00 by the time I got out of bed. I hate it when I start the day so late! Thank goodness I have patient horses, they didn’t make any fuss until they saw me come out of the trailer. Got more chores done, then ran down to the office to pick up a pair of replacement Ariat boots that I had delivered here, then came back and saddled up Apollo for a short ride today. Despite reasonably good footing with only a few spots of rock, he kept trying to stay off the trail, which meant I was constantly being pushed into the overgrowth, which unfortunately here has a lot of vines covered with pricklys and thorns, so I wasn’t too happy about that. Not sure what his problem is, his feet seem fine, but I’m going to just put boots on him for awhile, or better yet, not ride him at all for awhile to see if whatever it is gets better. Just worried more about him getting stiff from standing around all the time! We went about 5 ½ miles, including a small loop south of camp that goes through the day parking area, so I’ve pretty much covered most of the trails, just a few crossovers that I haven’t done yet. It was actually a bit more interesting today, less around fields and more in the woods, but still, not the most exciting trails I’ve ever done. The bugs were bad again, but when I went shopping yesterday, I pretty much emptied the shelves of what remaining insecticides they had there, so I sprayed myself and Apollo pretty good. Lola decided to stay home today, guess we wore her out doing our fast pace on Flash for ten miles yesterday! After we got back and I put Apollo up, I decided to take a quick dip in the lake, it had gotten pretty hot today. Blew up my River tube rather than my kayak, put together an oar and headed down to Picnic Point. The mosquitoes were terrible on land, but once I got out onto the water it wasn’t bad. Wasn’t exactly refreshing, though, the water was practically bathtub warm, like a pool in summer in Florida. Glad I did it though, made for a change. Got back, did a few more chores, put some stuff away since we’re expecting rain overnight, and hopefully cooler temps! Settled down for the evening, grilled a nice burger, now I’m headed for shower and bed, hopefully I’ll bet to sleep a bit earlier, I’m yawning already! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Well, I probably should have driven around camp a bit yesterday to look for another site, since the group next to me is very large, fairly loud, has countless dogs that bark for no apparent reason, and have several generators that they run a LOT, one in particular that’s really loud. That said, I put my earplugs in last night and slept like a baby. One generator finally went off around 11:15, but there was another one still going when I put my earplugs in, so who knows when that got turned off. Too much trouble to move, though, so I’ll just have to live with it. Got up a little after 8:00, did my chores, had breakfast, and saddled up Flash since I wanted to get out before it got too hot. I took heed of the advice I got about how bad the bugs were and really put on a good layer of fly spray on Flash and doused myself with a lot of Deep Woods Off. I found the trailhead and headed out of camp, and within moments were were covered with flies and mosquitoes, though they were repelled a bit by all the insecticide. The first couple of hundreds yards were through woods, and though there were a lot of trees down, it wasn’t bad. Then we spent the next several miles doing little more that go around fallow fields full of wildflowers, very boring. We finally came into some more woods as we reached the west side of the park. I took a turn that went by a big pond, which was the most interesting part of the trail up to that point, then realized it was a wrong turn and had to go back anyway. I also took what looked like a more interesting trail, the first single-track I’d come across, but that turned out to be wrong, too, it had a bunch of trees and limbs down on it, obviously not maintained, and eventually I came to a big tree across the trail with no way around it, at least not one I would take Flash over, so we had to backtrack again back to the main trail. Essentially, there aren’t any single track trails here, it’s all wide roads, with just a few places with stones so not too bad, didn’t need boots. Other than a few crossovers between trails, there’s not much else to see here, so one week is going to be more than enough here. I did see a couple of deer, one nice big buck in one of the fields, but this place is designed more for hunting than horseback riding, pretty boring by my standards, even without comparing it to Hungerford where I just left. The flies and mosquitoes were really bad, too, and Flash’s answer was to try to outrun them, so we were flying along most of the way, averaging about 5-6 mph with spurts up to 7+. We did 10.23 miles in under two hours, so he was definitely booking it. Not sure what’s going to happen when I ride Apollo tomorrow, but I’m definitely taking my horsehair flyswatter with me! Got back, put Flash up and gave them both more hay, then changed and headed into town, which is only about 10 minutes away. Refilled two of my propane tanks and went shopping at Walmart for some essentials, then got back to camp around 4:00. Settled down early for the evening, grilled a nice Italian sausage, with leftover mac and cheese and a nice salad, and relaxed the rest of the evening. Now, as always, it’s time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!