Hey Babe!
Didn't have the best night sleep, but got busy quickly in the morning. After chores, I took Flash for a ride around Horseshoe Bend Park, just to look for any missed markers and ribbons, and I did find a few. A lovely 6.75 mile ride on a gorgeous day. Just after I got back, Amazon arrived with the part I had ordered for the truck, perfect timing! I got Flash put away and got to work on my truck. It didn't take too long to get the part in, but was surprised when my batteries turned up dead, I had to jump it to get it going again. Weird, but that seems to happen whenever I disconnect my brake controller, not sure why. Anyway, it all got done, and my tow/haul is now working just fine! Had one weird moment when I couldn't get my key out of the ignition, almost like it was expecting a lock to be released, fought me for several minutes, then suddenly let go. Hope that's just a passing thing! It was later than I thought by that point, too late to run the errands I was hoping to do, so I took a look at my hostess Meg's truck, which I put batteries in the other day but it still was showing a code error. I did a little diagnosis, but everything seems fine, and the check engine light is off, so I just suggested that she needed to drive it for awhile and see how that goes. Should work fine. Then I asked Meg if there was anything else I could do to help (just trying to earn my keep!), and she set me up dragging a rake behind the Kubota side-by-side around the arena to try to drag up some weeds, and it worked like a charm! Spend awhile doing that, until it was much better, she threw the old weeds to her horses to eat. It was about 7:00 when we finally quit. Dang these long days! Fed the horses and finally settled down for the night. Pretty sure I'll sleep tonight! Good night, my darling! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Started out the day trying to solve my stopover problem, still trying to find accommodations in Western Maryland to spend the night on my way to Ohio. Who knew there would be such a dearth of places to stop? Made a little headway, but it still wasn't resolved by the end of the day, grrrr! After that, I did some research to find out why the tow/haul on my Sierra has been intermittent, and discovered it's a common problem in the shift lever, just as I suspected. Of course, a new shift lever through an auto parts store was in the neighborhood of $80, and on Amazon, it was more like $30, but they couldn't deliver it through Prime until Tuesday, which is the day I'm supposed to be leaving. I decided to see if I could jury rig, and actually got it working for a minute, but the wires are so tiny and short, it didn't take. I decided to order the part and pay extra for overnight shipping, figuring it would still be cheaper than the brick and mortar parts store, but when I put in Meg's address, the arrival changed to tomorrow anyway! Cool! So I'll be able to fix it tomorrow, assuming the part is the only thing wrong, and I'm pretty sure it is. Can't climb the mountains between here and Ohio without my tow/haul feature! Once that was settled, I decided to take a ride on Flash to check out the parts of the orange trail that John and I unmarked backward, and Flash was ready to go after sitting around since Saturday. We did nearly seven miles in about 90 minutes, and only found a few leftover signs, all down by the creek at the north end of the Horseshoe Bend Park, and no missed ribbons. Got back to the farm, and other than the usual chores, settled down in my usual routine, soon off to shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep, woke up a half hour before the alarm, so got my chores done early. I decided that since today's job was to pick up the last of the markers, and that it was only about four miles worth, that I would take Apollo and Lola. John set out on the UTV to take the signs down, but I did the rest of the ribbons on horseback. It was a lovely ride! The forecast, once again, was completely wrong. They had rain almost all day, starting at 1:00, and the only rain we got was a very short shower several hours later, and another a few more hours after that! Barely enough to get the ground wet! Was very glad we didn't get wet on the ride, though. Apollo may be slow, but he certainly is good at stopping at the ribbons and letting me pull them down and put them away. At one point, he actually galloped up a hill! Lots of energy for an old guy! Good to see! There was one part of the trail that had some Halloween ornaments hanging from the trees, apparently leftover from some previous event, kind of cute to see. We were only out about 90 minutes, which was great for him and Lola both. She enjoyed jumping into whatever creek we came across, so it was a nice family jaunt. Got back and put him away, enjoyed a pizza lunch that John and Helen brought back from town, helped put the ribbons on cardboard and put in bags the way I like them, rather than on baling twine and hangers, both of which I detest. Worked on Meg's truck for a bit, she's having problems getting it started. I had put my charger on and had gotten the green light on both batteries, but there's something else going on we haven't figured out yet. Will work on that later. Because I had borrowed an electrical cord from John, and they're leaving in the morning, I switched out a couple of long heavy duty cords with a long slightly lighter cord, and I'm hoping that the change will help keep the GFI from breaking as much. It's been doing that constantly since I've been here, so it's been a challenge, but I wasn't sure my long cord could handle it, but so far, so good! Finally settled down for the evening, hoping if my electrical problem is resolved I might be able to do laundry tomorrow. Spent some time researching places to go between here and Ohio, still haven't settled on anything yet. Every time I sat in my recliner, I kept dozing off, so I'm pretty sure I'll get a good night sleep! I'm heading to shower and bed soon! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Ride Day at last. Seemed like a short week, but we managed to get everything done! I didn't have any specific jobs today, but got a lot done nevertheless! After chores (just feeding the horses here!) and breakfast, I finished cutting Meg's metal signs, put her truck's battery on charge, sewed up the bag I use for collecting ribbons, and fixed a stall grate that's had some screws loose. Then I drove over to the start at the park and helped there for awhile. Once the 50's were all done with their first loop, I saddled up Flash and headed up the road to clear the ribbons from the true blue section. Unfortunately, after I left Lola behind without tying her up (I didn't think she'd follow me!), I was a good ways up the road when I heard her behind me. Meg and another gal that's been helping with water met me later and brought her home. I'd love to take her, but we had a long ride and she just wouldn't have been able to keep up. I finished doing the north section, the first part around fields and the second into a beautiful preserve, then went back to the start. Once we knew that most of the pink trail riders were done, I set out to pull the ribbons out there. Got back to camp again, and was set to help with the orange trail, but there were still too many riders out, so we had to wait. I finally decided to bring Flash home after having ridden nineteen miles, a good workout for him! Then I drove back, and shortly thereafter I went out with John to do the orange trail in reverse, expecting to meet up with Richard and Jack along the way, but they quit a bit early. We finally hit a spot they had cleared, but then we spoke to Richard, and they did all but what is referred to as the Church section, but by now it was so late we had to quit, as we wouldn't have time to finish before dark, and we were all exhaused. Tried to get as much done today as possible, as the forecast if very rainy for tomorrow, though it's hard to believe in the weatherfolks anymore, they seem to get it wrong so much of the time these days. Anyway, drove back to the farm and settled in for the evening, giving Flash an extra bunch of feed considering how much work he did today. What a good boy! As far as I know, the ride went well, but I was so busy I could hardly pay attention! Settled down to a nice dinner and an hour of Farscape, ready for shower and bed again! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Babe,
As promised, today was a busy day! Started out going over to Horseshoe Bend Park with Richard, and spent about an hour working on the Trail Crew to clean up a few areas that needed some TLC. Got back around 10:00, tacked up Flash and was soon out on the trail, marking with ribbons, and doing the occasional trimming. Covered most of the 18 mile blue trail, though I only did about 13.5 miles. John and Meg covered the north loops, so no need for me to go over that. It was a lovely day, the weather was great, the trails were good, and Flash was raring to go! He was ready to gallop when we hit some open fields, even after already going ten miles. Hard work, but very productive. Got back around 4:00, worked on the computer cleaning up the GPS data files, had some dinner, finished watching a movie I started the other day, and am ready for shower and bed and another fulfilling day tomorrow! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!