Hiya Sweetie,
Rough night. Lola just wouldn't settle down. I was up thrice during the night to let her out. Barking all the time. No idea what was going on with her, but she was inconsolable, even without storms. Finally managed to doze off in between, but not a very restful night. The morning was gray, cloudy, and we had a little rain, so I decided to get out the portable rain barrel that I had bought awhile back and had yet to use. It was for those rare times when water was an issue and there was rain in the forecast, and this week fits that to a T. It didn't take long to put that together, but then the rained stopped, the wind picked up, and the clouds moved out. I had to pull in the awning because of the strong gusts, but I'm grateful I parked with my tail end to the west, so at least the wind isn't hitting me broadside. Once the sun came out and it warmed up, I decided to take a ride. The ladies I spoke to yesterday said the trails were in pretty sad shape, quite overgrown, so I took my trimming equipment with me and headed out on the south loop. I confirmed with the ride manager that there are basically only three loops here, two six mile and on five mile loops, and I managed to do one of the six mile loops. It did need a lot of TLC, there was a lot of growth, so it took some doing, but I was glad to get it done. Flash was his usual brilliant self, patiently letting limbs drop on his head while I did clearing. Such a good horse! It's supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow, so I probably won't be able to get the northern loop done until Thursday, but at least I'll be here to collect rainwater! Took Lola for several long walks, including one all the way down the field and back, which I figure was nearly half a mile each way, and the more she moved, the faster she got, so evidently we're working on strengthening her bad leg. Finally settled down for the evening, and was delighted when I had no problem getting my Prime Video tonight! I think there must have been some updating going on or something, but I was able to enjoy several episodes of the last season of Drop Dead Diva, which I've really been enjoying. Totally a suspension of disbelief, but a very enjoyable one! Ready for a better night sleep, and I hope Lola is ready, too! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Well, today was full of surprises, both good and bad! The first surprise was climbing out of the bedroom and discovering that Lola had managed to get herself into my recliner! That's her favorit spot to sleep, and I was thrilled that she was able to accomplish it. It didn't take too long to get breakfast and finish packing up (and I slept late, thanks to a quiet Lola!), but there was no hurry, we only had to move 80 miles or so. Left the site shortly after 10:00, stopping at their marvelous RV dump just at the entrance, and was leaving there before 10:30. It took about 20 minutes to get to the freeway, but after that it was clear sailing. The next pleasant surprise was that I was looking for fuel, and a few placed had really come down on price. I remembered reading that some kind of truce or treaty was supposed to be signed with Iraq and the Hormuz Strait was to be reopened to all, so I imagine that has something to do with it. That made me look up my investment portfolio, and sure enough, we were at more record highs! I tried to stop at a Casey's before getting on the freeway, but it wasn't easy to get into, so I skipped it. As I was driving along, I still had enough fuel, but I didn't want to cut it too close (nothing worse than running out of diesel, so much trouble to fix that!), but then I noticed I was coming up on something that looked an awful lot like a Buc-cee's! Countless aisles of pumps and plenty of room to get around, so I quick pulled off to check it out. Price was $4.69, just about the cheapest I've seen, and I had no problem pulling straight into an aisle. It was called Wally's, and it barely showed up as a blip on GasBuddy, which rather annoyed me, but at least I saw it in time! The rest of the trip went fine, I came in the back way just because the freeway had suddenly gotten really bumpy and I figured the back roads would be better. They were fine, and I arrived at the camp where I got a few more surprises. The parking area was tiny, the gate into the camping area was tiny, there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to get into any of the gravel sites, or even make it around the loop! There were a couple of women there I chatted with, and they were just leaving, so I was able to use part of the space they occupied to turn around in a way that would let me back into an open space on the lawn, that looks like I won't have any trouble getting out again, as long as it doesn't rain too much! There were a couple of trees where I put up a nice long highline, though they have to stupid metal hitchrails here, which I'm no way, no how using. Then I had my next surprise, and not a very nice one. The water supply here comes from a hand pump, and according to the ladies, not a very good one! I was sure I had been told there was a spigot here, but then again, that was from someone in the office, which, as we know from long experience, is typical. They have no idea what's out here. So, since I was under the delusion there was a spigot here, I didn't fill up my water before I left, which I could have easily done had I known. Anyway, I had enough in my tank to half fill a couple of buckets for the horses, so I got them situated on the highline and mostly set up before I headed out to the nearest Walmart about 20 minutes away. I stopped at a couple of places hoping I could find some rope to replace the fraying ones on the anchors, but Ace didn't have any 1/2" cotton, and Tractor Supply wanted $2.29 a foot! That's crazy, over $200 for 100 feet of rope! I asked at the counter if it was by foot or by yard, and he said foot, but I could hardly believe that. I looked it up on Amazon and found 50 feet of the same stuff for less than $20! So I'll wait until I have an address, probably next week, and have it sent. BTW, my package that was sent to Joyce is still stuck at the Indy distribution center, even after it was sidelined to Fort Wayne. I have no idea what the problem is! After Tractor Supply, I finally got to the Walmart, found their outdoor spigot (next to the fire hydrant), and filled up my water tank. I forgot to bring a hose, so I had to unhook the one from the tank, and getting it back on was not easy, but I finally managed it. Picked up a few things at Walmart and got back to camp before 3:30, transferred water to the camper and to the horses' buckets, and still have about 60 gallons left, which should be enough. I seem to recall the ride manager here telling me that the forest guys will be bringing out a tanker, so if I can get them to water the horses (or fill up my tank again), I shouldn't need to make a second trip into town. Anyway, finally settled down to a light dinner (I better lose some weight tomorrow!!), but even though I have two bars of signal here, I couldn't get any streaming services on any of my devices. Not happy about that! Seriously looking into Starlink again, I'm getting tired of having slow or nonexistent service, even if I have to pay more for it. Grrr! I was really looking forward to some new TV after a week of nothing! Nevermind, I'm still living the dream! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had another excellent night sleep, again with only a little bit of a disruption from Lola early, but she settled down again. She is doing so much better! Today she not only walked when I had a leash on her, but when I was packing up and doing yard cleanup, she wandered around on her own, sometimes following me, other times just exploring on her own. Definitely getting stronger! Spent the day doing laundry and packing, with a little research and planning thrown in, finally ending with first a rather depressing Australian movie called Animal Kingdom, about a criminal family with no real plot, but I followed that with an old Hopalong Cassidy film just to end on a lighter note. Heading to bed shortly, hoping my next location will have a better cell signal so I can actually upload my pix! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Had another full night sleep, with just a little barking early, but I had my earplugs in so I was able to ignore it, and happy when I discovered there was no accident as a result, which was my fear after doing all the cleaning yesterday! Woke up to a lovely morning, did my usual chores, than after breakfast, I saddled up Flash and we took a nice ride. I had marked off the trail I wanted to take according to their map, since I ended up on a snowmobile trail last time (those are mostly shared anyway), but wanted to try to stay on track a bit better. That didn't exactly work out. Where the map said to go in a few places was more like a barely visible deer trail, so I stayed on the main trails as best I could. Followed some trails that weren't even on the map, and some of it was what I did earlier this week only backward. Came across a couple of major tree falls, but nothing I couldn't get around. When I hit about mile 5 or 6, I started hearing thunder and seeing thick clouds come in, despite the weather forecast saying it wasn't going to rain here until nearly midnight. Worried that I would get caught in it (and I had left some windows open in the camper), I tried to find the shortest route back to camp, which took me along the road, but with a good grass swale on the side, so Flash and I were able to canter and gallop most of the way home, so it didn't take long. Of course, the storms missed us anyway, which I didn't think was possible when I looked at the radar, but they just fell apart before they arrived. No matter, it was a lovely ride. I forgot to mention that on my other ride earlier this week, at one point I heard a mewling sound, and saw some fur babies along the trail. I thought they were kittens at first, but then they crossed the trail behind me and it turns out there were three adorable baby raccoons! They were darling! They all started climbing a tree, very brave for such a young age. So glad I saw them! There are a lot of deer in the park as well, I even saw some in the campground munching. I let the horses graze on their anchors again, and was once again amazed that no one else arrived today. I get that there's not a huge amount of trails, and they are pretty poorly mapped (though the markings aren't too bad), but it would be good for a weekend, at least! So reasonably priced, and the facility is nice, so it is surprising to me. Not that I mind having the place to myself! Everyone knows I'm perfectly comfortable being on my own. once I got back to camp, since it seemed like the rain was holding off, I ponied Apollo around the camp at a trot, which he seemed to enjoy immensely! Afterward, we all settled down for the rest of the day, doing a couple more walks with Lola, and for once, she didn't just bark at me endlessly after dinner. Maybe because I finally put her bed back up where it belongs instead of on the ground. I hope she doesn't try to get down during the night, but she does seem strong enough to handle it. Here's hoping she stays that way through the night! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
So grateful I had a full night sleep! Lola was spectacularly quiet until morning, so I managed to get some decent sleep. Of course, that meant I had a lot more energy today, so I decided to put it to good use! Not a cloud in the sky, much drier today, so I took out the runner carpet and washed it. Lola had had a few accidents on it earlier in her convalescence, so the camper was getting a kennel smell to it, so my goal today was to try to get rid of that, now that she seems to have more control over herself. I also washed her bed, vacuumed and mopped the floor, took her for four walks (I measured them, one loop is about 1/3 of a mile), and even gave Apollo a bath with fly shampoo, just for good measure. They wandered around the property on their anchors today, as there was no one else around, but of course, they eventually ended up right outside the screen door looking in! I am actually pretty astonished that not a single new camper arrived today! This is a pretty nice horse camp, and the weather was perfect today, and will be again tomorrow, so I'm amazed that I'll apparently have this place all to myself, even over the weekend. Spent the rest of the day as usual, and am ready to settle down for the night! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Had a rough night last night. A very long, serious thunderstorm came through, beginning about 10:00, and even though I had given her what I thought was plenty of the sedative gabapentin, Lola was inconsolable. She fretted and fretted, turning circles, whining, even tried to climb the dreaded stairs a couple of times. I tried everything. Petting her, hugging her, draping my body practically on top of her, she just kept fighting me and fighting me for more than an hour. Nothing I did helped in the least. We were both miserable, and there were moments when I felt murderous. It was a long time before she settled down, but she finally did. We took a bunch of walks again during the day, and she's definitely improving, so there's that. But after our midday walk, she came and and started barking and barking and barking for no reason that I could discern, and it got pretty annoying. I finally got her quiet by whining louder back at her! But that's not an ideal solution. It's been such a long time since I did any decent housekeeping, so I decided to do a deep clean on the bathroom and the kitchen, which kept me busy for awhile. Filled the gaps with reading, and finished the night with another Dragonslayer movie (#3). Oddly, toward the end of the movie, another thunderstorm came in, and Lola slept through most of it! I had given her three gapapentins about 20 minutes before it arrived, so I thought that helped but then, after the storm had almost passed, and I took her for her last walk of the day, she came back in all crazed again. Wish I could figure out exactly what causes this behavior so I can hopefully discover a way to help her. Sigh. I did have the camphost come by with an envelope to pay, evidently there's a pay station in the middle of camp, which I've missed up to now, so I finally learned what I owe. Amazingly, it's only $15 a night M-Th and $20 for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, pretty cheap for having electric and nearby water. Once again, I let the horses wander on their anchors, still nobody here yet. A ranger finally came by to tell me that the trails would be closed today, and possibly tomorrow if tonight's rain is as heavy as the last two nights have been. Anyway, Lola and I took our evening walk, and now she's back to barking at me for no reason. Grrr! Hope she settles down before I go to bed! I don't need another night of disruptive sleep. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetheart!
Yup, it would have been 37 years happily married if you were still with us, my love! And about 40 years together! Wow! Still miss you, still feel you in the forest with us when we go riding, which, of course, I did on Flash today. Not a very long ride, just over 6.5 miles, but the woods were lovely, and so much cooler. It's been hitting 90 degrees, so I'm VERY glad I have electricity here. I had put on both the breast collar and his boots, but it turned out we didn't really need either one, they were both surplus to requirement. Just all that much easier on our next ride! It wasn't the best night, though, Lola woke me up around 3:00, and she was so restless, whining and barking, and the only time I could keep her quiet was when I came down and sat next to her and petted her. I finally managed to get into my recliner, at least, but fell asleep in an awkward position, so I didn't get a lot of rest. Other than the excessive whining and barking, she does seem to be getting better. She doesn't fall and start screaming, and we did a great walk around the entire campground by the end of the day, with a couple of shorter walks earlier. She still twists both her back legs into very squirrelly positions, and occasionally hops off her right leg, but most of the time she's working it, so I think it's getting stronger. We had another afternoon thunderstorm around 4:00, and that did cool things down a bit, but with the humidity, I'm still running the AC! Did some more research and planning for where I'm going later this summer, but still flexible. Watched the second Dragonslayer movie off the DVR, so another quiet, early evening! Good night, baby! Happy Anniversary!

Pix to come!

Hi Babe!
Had a busy morning before getting on the road! First up was going to the post office to see if my overdue package was there, before it was put on the delivery route. Figured if I didn't have to wait until a late afternoon delivery, I might be able to get out today. As much as I've enjoyed staying at my friend Joyce's, it's high time to be back on the road, and parked at an actual trailhead! Well, once I got to the post office, I soon learned that the package STILL hadn't reached Danville! Since there was no chance of it arriving today, I went to Plan B, which was to call my vet in TN and have them put in the Rx to the Walmart. I had already checked with them to see if they had Carprofen, and the website said they did, but the gal at the vet's office didn't think they did, but she willingly called the Walmart and confirmed they could, in fact, fill that Rx, and put in the order. They were so quick about it, that by the time I finished doing some very light shopping, it was ready! I was back at the camper in short order, and managed to get packed and ready to go fairly quickly. Said my good-byes to Joyce, and was on my way before 11:30. A very straightforward drive, mostly I-74, but I changed time zones, so I arrived before 1:30 local time, or 2:30 ET. This is a pretty nice horse camp, actually! About 30 sites, all with 30 amp electric, but there's only a few spigots scattered around. I walked around, and ended up at site 14, which was the farthest west site, because it was fairly level (I'm hoping to not have to unhook), close to a water spigot, nice and shady, and easy to back into. Only downside is the cellphone signal is pretty weak, so that will be a challenge. I may have to unhook just to go find a signal! It's pretty wide open here, with lots of nice grass and clover, so I put the horses on anchors and let them have at it while I put up the highline, filled the water tank (though I should have let a lot of water run through first, it was pretty brown when I saw it in the horses' buckets), and otherwise finished getting set up. I was done by 3:00 local time, so I settled down after that. Worked up a real sweat, if was very humid and hot, but just as I finished, I took Lola for a short walk, and it started to rain! Perfect timing! It did cool things down a little bit, and the horses didn't mind getting wet at all, and afterward, it cleared up nicely. I so prefer Central time, because now it get dark at the reasonable hour of 8:30 instead of 9:30. I like a couple of hours of darkness before going to bed, otherwise I feel like a kid! Not that that's a bad thing, just not my preference. Glad to have AC though, it's going to be hot I think. My only concern is that when I came in, I saw a sign that said the horse trails were closed! I'm going to have to check that out, or at worst, apologize afterward (they gotta catch me first!) Even if I don't ride, it's a nice quiet place to chill for a week or so, except for the cell signal problem. No matter, I watched an old movie from the Dish DVR, Dragonslayer, the original, though I also have several sequels I can follow up on as the week goes on. Hopefully, I can get just enough signal to post my blog and check my emails! Will try it now! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Heya Darlin',
Managed to get a better night sleep, Lola was a little quieter, though I had to take her for a walk at 11:00, and 12:00, and 1:00 before she finally settled down for the night. At least it was 7:00 before she woke me in the morning. She did seem to do better today, though, we must have gone on a dozen walks or more during the day. She'd come in, settle down for about 10 minutes, then start barking at me again, so I'd take her out again, and again, and again. She does seem to be moving better, though, so I can't complain too much. She's certainly making me walk more, which is a good thing! Especially since I'm doing so much sitting around. Got the disappointing news that now my package isn't expected until TOMORROW! I'm still not convinced of that either, as they're still showing the same information about it reaching Indy last Thursday, with no other updates, so I'm worried that it's just window dressing and wishful thinking on the Post Office's part. If it doesn't show as Out for Delivery tomorrow morning, I'm making other arrangements for the medications, I can't just sit around here for another week! My hostess Joyce has been so generous to let me stay here, and I finally spoke to her today, they arrived around 1:00 last night after flying back from a week in Utah, had a great mule trip out there. We chatted several times during the day, and in the evening, my other Indiana buddy Trish came by, and we had a chance for a brief visit. She had also gone on the Utah trip. Other than that, I did pretty much nothing but read, play computer games and watch TV. My life is really mundane at the moment, I'm just going to have to make up for it once I get back on the road! Very glad I have electric here, though, since it's been pretty hot and humid. More rain scheduled for tonight, I just hope Lola has enough sense not to try to climb any stairs! I'm going to give her an extra pill to keep her quiet, so hopefully, she'll be calm through the night. Not much else going on! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Lola was restless again, waking me up around 5:30. I had to get up and take her for a quick walk, then went back to bed and read and dozed for a bit longer. I did most of her PT again, and took several walks, and she bounced between being okay with it and fighting it. Can't really tell if she's improving or not, though at times she seems better. Spent the day reading, playing computer games and bingeing on TV, plus occasionally checking for updates on my overdue package, which never came. It still says it arrived in Indy on Thursday, but nothing since then. I did many loads of laundry and little research on future camping sites over the next few weeks, but otherwise, it was a pretty quiet and boring day. It definitely looks like I won't be leaving as planned tomorrow, but it the package doesn't come, I'm going to have to make other arrangements, I can't just sit around here waiting for it, not knowing when it will ever arrive. Very frustrating and disappointing. Anyway, heading for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!