Hiya Sweetie',
No big hurry getting out of bed this morning, took my walk around the pasture with Lola while I fed the horses, then spent most of the morning trying to upload videos to a new Facebook group I started, where I'm hoping to deposit all of the footage from the Africa trip, mine and Tracy's and Katya's, but I didn't get quite as far as I had hoped. Eventually, I needed to try to fix the drop down window on the trailer. When the tire blew the other day, it messed up the aluminum latch plate, so I had to do some gentle pounding to get it back in place. Not good enough to put rivets back in, but good enough to do the job, the window closes fine now, which was the point. Worked some more on uploading videos today until it was time to drive into Chattanooga. I had bought a ticket to see William Shatner Live on Stage, a tour that's combined with the showing of the Wrath of Khan Star Trek movie. Actually, I bought one originally for the Charlotte event yesterday, but then my plans changed. I wasn't able to resell the ticket (NOT a fan of Ticketmaster), so I'm out that money. But it was fun to watch that movie again on a big screen with an audience of Star Trek lovers, and after the intermission, the man himself came out. What an entertainer! I was quite happy to see that despite his advanced age of 95, he was active and sprightly, jumping in and out of his chair, walking the full length of the stage repeatedly as he told wonderful stories in response to questions from the audience after his initial presentation. I was afraid that he might be just doing these events because he has become an industry unto himself, but he truly seemed to enjoy himself, and the audience certainly loved him, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as well. Meanwhile, we had some much needed rain move in, so I ended driving home in the dark (which I'm not a fan of), in the rain (which I definitely hate!), but managed to make it back to the trailer in one piece, albeit well after 11:00. No worries, I've got a bourbon to help me sleep, I'll be heading to the shower shortly, and off the bed for what will definitely be a sleep-in Sunday! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Slept in late, though I did wake up once during the night and had a hard time getting back to sleep. The horses came down to the trailer following Richard in his UTV, so I gave them their feedbags while they were down here. Before I could take the bags off them, they had settled in to one of the barn's big stalls. I moved them back out into the great big green pasture for the day. After breakfast, I took Lola for a walk around the pasture, measuring it so I could get in my steps, learned that a perimeter of that field was a bit over half a mile, which was about all I was good for. My hip is still quite painful, but I need to alternate between resting and moving, I think, for the best recovery. I sat and chatted with Linda for awhile, getting caught up, then we tried one of her cords to see if it would work (it didn't), so I'm roughing it without AC during the close to 90 degree temps. Got most of my fans going, though, so it's not too bad. Spent some time trying to upload videos, but it's not going too well. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'll keep trying! Finally ordered a replacement tire through the local Discount Tire, should be able to get that in next week. Took another pasture walk after dinner, and was grateful my hip felt a little better. I had found and applied a Tiger Balm patch, and though I didn't actually feel any heat, it did feel better later, so maybe it helped. No painkillers today, though, I wanted to see where I was, and frankly, nothing I've been taking has seems to help, except one old oxycodone I found leftover from years ago, which I took the other night at Chelle's, which helped me sleep well. Started bingeing on a new series, Damages, with Glenn Close and Ted Danson, looks like a good one. Ready to get to bed early tonight, that's for sure! Good night, my darlin! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Woke up before my alarm, got up early because I was hoping to get an early start (wishful thinking!), but it took me longer to get ready to go, and it was 8:30 by the time I was leaving Chelle's. Turns out my power cord had fused to the extension cord, and by the time I was able to separate the two, my power cord became unusable. So, no power for me until I get a new male end for that! I ordered one once I got on the road, but it won't arrive at Linda's until Saturday, so I may just have to find one locally. No trouble getting out of the gate, though I did turn left instead of right because there was a mailbox that my have given me trouble, so I took the easy way. I was truly hoping for an uneventful trip, but alas, that was not to happen. The first part was fine, then, naturally and expectedly, I ran into a lot of traffic around Atlanta, both before and after. I probably did close to 80 miles and start and stop traffic, with only a few short sections where I was able to get up to speed. I was at least 20 or 30 miles north of Atlanta before the traffic started thinning out. I stayed on I-75 longer than usual because I had programmed in the next One9 Truck stop, normally I would have turned off before then, but it was probably for the best, as after that last stop (where I finally broke the $5 barrier and paid $4.99/gal), just south of Calhoun, I blew out the front left tire on the trailer. Hate it when it's on the driver's side, but I pulled off as far as I could and got busy changing it out. Thank goodness I bought that impact wrench! Was disappointed that once again, not one person stopped to help. I was sure in Georgia the Mama's were still raising their boys right, but I guess I'm wrong. Not surprised too munch in Maryland the last time it happened, but Georgia? Disappointing. Anyway, I managed to get it change and was back on the road in 15-20 minutes, finally arriving at Linda's around 7:15. Plenty of time to get the horses safely in the front pasture (and no worse for the wear, thank goodness!) and I just parked and managed to get water hooked up. I don't have a working power cord because an end got fried at Chelle's, and I also discovered that the blown tire had knocked out the screen and bent part of the latch on the front horse window, so that's another chore for me to do. I didn't even unhook the truck, I was so intent of getting in a shower and heading to bed. Glad I made it in a relatively safe trip, but as always, more jobs on the list of things to do! Hopefully I'll be feeling well enough to get some of it done this next week. I felt quite comfortable in my truck, but once I started moving, my hip started bothering me again, but not quite as bad, so I think I'm on the mend! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Spent the day packing up, doing lots of laundry, using Chelle's washer for some larger items like my quilt and bedspread, took down the hot tub, removed most of the fence for the horses so I won't have far to catch them in the morning, checked all the air and fluids in the truck and trailer, got the truck lined up for hook-up tomorrow, sold all the leftover hay, though I managed to put four more bales in the back of the truck since there's no rain in the forecast. I also managed to load up some more videos, including a nice montage that Kayja had done on FB, so that's getting a good response. Chelle's was kind enough to do a trim on both my horses, so their feet should be in good shape for awhile. Finally settled down to dinner and the last episode of Continuum (a nice finish, I must say!), and am heading to bed soon. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
I spent pretty much the entire day working on my taxes, which should have been a pretty simple job, but Turbotax online is nothing like the Turbotax I'm used to! They decided not to provide a Windows 10 verion for my PC, so I had to use their online version, and it is so unbelievable user unfriendly. I wasn't allowed to look at forms, and if I wanted to go back a single page to check on something, it would take me all the way back to the beginning of the section, and then still wouldn't show me what I wanted to see. Grrrr! By mid-afternoon, I was so frustrated, that when it appeared I wouldn't owe anything, I just sent in an extension, to be continued. I feel like I have to start over, so another day will be wasted at some future point. Anyway, I packed a few things away, since I'm leaving on Thursday, and I have a lot to do. I also spent some time on the computer updating my website and uploading media, then in the evening, I went over to Chelle's and we had a little slide show and video travelogue. Took a hot tub, and went to bed with the heating pad. My hip is really getting more painful, and I got behind the curve on painkillers and now I'm having a problem staying in front of it. Never would have imagined a bruise would hurt this much, but it's so deep, it still hasn't come to the surface yet. Maybe it never will! Off to bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Slept most of the night, except for a couple of hours in the middle, but woke up only feeling a bit tired and achy, a vast improvement from previous days! Had a busy, productive day, though. Managed to tackle my usual morning chores, started a load of laundry, got the horses loaded up and was on my way by 9:15, in plenty of time for our 10:00 appointment for Coggins and health certificates, since they are required to leave the state. They finished up quickly, so I drove to Williston, stopped for a few minor groceries at the new Winn-Dixe/old Hitchcock grocery store, topped off my fuel tank ($5.79/gallon, cost me $159 to fill, and I had more than a quarter of a tank to start with! NEVER have paid that much! And from the looks of things, it may only get worse as I travel! Yuck!), then went to my chiropractic appointment. I wanted an x-ray of my back, and my regular doctor was going to send me to Timber Ridge because they are part of my network, but frankly, it's a long drive, and with the cost of fuel, it was more convenient and barely less expensive to just go to my chiropractor and pay for it. Happy to report that I do NOT have a cracked rib, just some tight muscles that are angry, so Dr. Andrea did a great job of loosening up. She suggested using my red light on it, so I'm charging that up to use before I go to bed tonight. Got back home, put the horses away, rinsed out the back of the little trailer, then drove over to Helen's to put that away for the summer. I had to move the Buick out of the way first, and was astonished that it cranked right up on the first try! The front left tire was flat again, though, so I had to pump that up to move it. Then I stayed and chatted with her for awhile, so it was a couple of hours before I got back home. I still haven't seen Chelle since I've been home, our paths keep crossing! She's out horse hunting, so I fed her horse Stella, her other horse Levi is off being trained and possibly sold, which explains the horse hunting. Settled down for a nice steak dinner and, at last, my usual evening routine. I'm hoping I'm fully back on schedule now and tomorrow I will be fully back to normal. My digestive system hasn't been functioning normally, but it's close to recovering. It's tough, this international travel! Anyway, time for shower and bed! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
I was asleep by just after 7:00 last night, so not surprisingly, I woke up around 1:00 a.m., which would have been about right if I was still in Tanzania! I read for quite awhile, managed to nod off occasionally, but still felt exhausted. I got up around 7:00 a.m. to have a bowl of cereal and do my ablutions, then went back to bed until after 1:00 p.m., when I finally went from bone weary to just sheer exhaustion. I went out and said hello to my horses, giving Apollo a bit of a brushing as his winter coat is coming out in shaggy clumps, found the spare flooring in the back of the trailer so at least I know I have the material to do some patching of the floor from the damage that Lola inflicted. Later, I moved all the tack and equipment out of the small trailer and put it away in the big trailer, and hooked up to the truck to the small trailer, since I have to take the horses in for their Coggins and health certificates in the morning. Other than a short walk out to the corner of the pasture to retrieve Flash's fly mask, I had no energy for anything else. Watched a couple of movies just to sit in my recliner for awhile, had dinner, and now, at 9:00, I'm ready for a shower and bed, right after my tea. Hoping I move the bar from exhaustion to nearly normal by tomorrow morning! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Well, I hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon! The KLM flight arrived on time, and headed out on time, arriving in Dar El Salaam about an hour later, then an hour layover, then another nine hours or so in the air before landing in Amsterdam. By the time I got out of the plane (I was way at the back), and went through security, again, and looked at the board, my next flight was already boarding! Got to the gate and it was only a few minutes before I was boarding the next flight, another nine plus hours. My hip and shoulder were killing me, though the flight attendants were kind enough to make me an ice pack on a latex glove, which helped somewhat. I managed to get a few catnaps in, mostly by resting my head on my arms on the tray table, but it was incredibly exhausting and my back and hip were killing me. Finally arrived in Atlanta, and was extremely surprised at how quickly I got through customs and immigration. They didn't even look at my passport! What's up with that? They did take one photo which I assume is for facial recognition, but other than that, there was no stopping. Totally different from the nightmare at DFW that time we came back from Hong Kong and it took us three hours to get through! Anyway, I arrived at the gate with a two hour layover, and spent the entire time laying flat on the floor, just trying to straighten out the sitting position I'd been in for so long. Finally got loaded on the flight to Gainesville, which blessedly was only a little over an hour long, arriving early, but Art was ready and waiting for me. After a wrong turn, we ended up getting back home after about an hour. I can't express how tired I was by this point. I felt like death warmed over. Everything hurt, and the depth of exhaustion was incalculable. I barely got my suitcases inside, took a shower and am heading straight to bed, even though it's only about 7:00. Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Woke up around 6:00 this morning after a deep sleep, went to breakfast, then came back to the room. It was mostly cloudy this morning, so I elected not to go to the pool, and read until about 3:00, had a late lunch so I didn't have to eat on the plane, took a shower, finished packing, and read until 6:30, when I checked out and caught the car to the airport. I had to go through two security checks, and the second one decided my manicure scissors were a hazard and confiscated them. I decided to use the restroom, only to discover it was down a circular staircase with no elevator, and since I'm not checking baggage, I had to drag it all down and back up again. As I'm sitting here, the KLM plane is arriving, so that's it for the day. Next stop, Amsterdam, then Atlanta, the Gainesville tomorrow around 6:00 pm. Long trip ahead! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Was asleep pretty early, but woke up around 2:30, and I don't think that I ever really got back to sleep. Finally got up a little before 5:00, and finished doing my packing and was ready to go before our wake up call at 5:30. I went over to the mess tent, and was shortly joined by the other two ladies, where we shared our last breakfast together. We had a royal send-off, with the whole crew standing at attention, and gratefully accepted our envelope of gratuities. I had slipped a separate tip for each of the main leaders: Luke, Morissa, JB, and Henry. After the ceremonial speeches and numerous thank yous, in Swahili, that's Asante Sana, and we piled into the Open Jeep and headed out. It was quite a cool morning, the sun hadn't really come up much yet, and it was a very cloudy and damp day, which only got progressively worse as we headed up into the Highlands, where we were met with extreme winds and clouds and cold weather. We stopped once at what was supposed to be a beautiful lookout, but it was completely fogged in, so we didn't stay. I had learned that there was a ceasefire in the Iran war, so I spent some time online trying to see if I could re-book the Qatar flight, and for a while there it looked like I would be able to. They had some seats open but then their website sent me around in loops and circles trying to reconfirm who I was, changing my password etc etc, until eventually I finally was able to get through, only to discover that the flight I wanted was full and I wasn't able to book it anyway. The next flight was $600 more and extended the trip to over 33 hours, so I decided to just forget about it and go with my original plan B. By then we were all so cold, Luke was bundled up from head to toe with only his eyes peering out from behind a scarf, and everyone else was pretty chilled. I was happy that I had put on several layers and my rain suit, which did a pretty good job of keeping me fairly warm, but we were all quite cold by the time we came off the Highlands. We stopped at a little tourist gift shop area for about 45 minutes or so, I just took one local around and used the restroom, which I was very happy to see were extremely well kept in clean, and then got back into the Jeep while the others went shopping and wandered around. You know me, I'm not much of a shopping or souvenir kind of gal. We were only about 5 minutes from the airstrip, where we climbed into a single engine prop plane. Apparently usually they charter a plane, but because there was only three of us they decided to just take the regular commercial flight, but there was literally no one else on the flight at all anyway, so it felt like a charter. At least this flight had two pilots, whereas our first flight only had one, so I felt a little better about that. It was only about 35 or 40 minutes before we landed in Kilimanjaro, just glimpsing the mountain top a couple of times between the clouds, as it was still a cloudy rainy day. It was much warmer in Kilimanjaro, however, when we got off the plane, it was feeling much more tropical, but still wet. We all said our good-byes, and headed our separate ways, though it wasn't long before we started texting each other and sharing our pictures and videos through WhatsApp. I was meant by Angel and we waited for the ride back to the hotel. I had considered going to the desk at the airport and trying to see if I could get the original flight that I wanted today, but by then I was so cold and achy and only really wanted to just lay down after taking a nice hot bath, so once I got back to the hotel, driven by the same lovely Samil that I had on my first night of arrival, I upgraded to a deluxe room so that I could have a hot bath, and also added a day room, so that I would have some place comfortable to hang out until I have to be at the airport at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. I did have a lovely hot bath, but when I pulled the drain plug, it backed up out of the shower drain and ended up flooding in the bathroom. Whatever. I lay down for the rest of the afternoon, happy to be warm and comfortable, though the air conditioning in this room was nowhere near as efficient as my last room and it was pretty hot for quite a while. No matter, I just rested and read until it was time for dinner. Once again, excellent service and delicious food, I had a lamb stir fry, which was plentiful and filling. Back in the room I watched one episode of the series I'm binge watching, but I kept nodding off so I'll probably have to watch it again. Same goes for the previous episode, I don't remember much of that either. Lights out by about 9:30! Glad to say the beds here are quite comfortable, so I'm looking forward to a good night sleep. Even though it didn't go exactly as planned, it was an absolutely incredible adventure, and I will have priceless memories that I'll never forget. I will say that it has prompted me to add another item to my bucket list. I realize that even though now I've been on six of the seven continents, I haven't ridden on all of those continents yet. Have decided I need to go back to somewhere in South America, and to Europe, so that I can then accomplish that goal. I may have to wait until Lola has passed, though, because apparently she's been a basket case since I was gone. I got a text from Michelle that she has ripped up the flooring in the bathroom and by the back door, and has been digging at the hole where her underground propane tank lives, and has otherwise been quite unhappy, particularly whenever there was any wind and storms. I had just replaced that floor when I put in the new toilet two summers ago, so that's another chore I'm going to have to do, though I doubt I can get it done before I'm scheduled to leave Michelle's, unless I decide to delay my departure, which means canceling the tickets I have for an event in Chattanooga. We'll see. I called and canceled my chiropractic appointment for Monday, and instead had my doctor order up an x-ray for my back, to see if I have in fact cracked a rib. I still have an appointment for the horses on Monday, so I'm going to have to work that out. Well, I've carried on long enough, so I'm going to get in my zzzzz's! Good night, my love!