Hi Sweetie,
Another late morning, but loving it! After chores and breakfast, I decided to fix the window on the rear door of the truck. For the past month or two, when I opened that driver side rear window, it wouldn’t always go back up right, getting stuck about halfway. I figured a screw got loose or something with all the bad roads I’ve been on, so I took off the door panel to take a look. I didn’t find any loose screws at the bottom of the door, but I soon discovered the problem. The bottom part of the window slots into a track, and then a screw tightens to the two sides of the track, and that had, in fact, loosened up a lot, just not enough to fall out, but the glass wasn’t between the tracks. A little jiggling and loosening of the other side, and pretty soon I was able to slide it back in and tighten it back up. I had to be careful not to go too tight and break the glass, but I did managed to get it just right, I think. Anyway, that solved the problem and only took me about half an hour. After that, I saddled up Flash and fully outfitted him with boots and breast collar and we took a nice 9+ mile ride, going backward from Wednesday’s ride, and hitting a different section of the south loops than last time. These trails were in better shape, a lot wider in most places, and a bit steeper on a few of the grades, but a lot of long straightaways, too, so it was a nice variety. I read somewhere that these trails are supposed to be more difficult because they’re steeper, but I haven’t really seen anything extraordinary yet, at least not as far as I’m concerned. There were a few with some grade to it, but nothing like some other hills I’ve seen. Flash lost his boot a couple of times, from the foot that has the square front to it, which I think might be the reason. This was the foot that had a split in it, and then we put a horizontal dent in it to stop it from going higher, and then that dent chipped as it dropped down, and now it’s almost reached the ground, but it’s still a little flat on front chip. Hopefully it will resolve itself as the hoof keeps growing, and meanwhile, I’ll just have to keep an eye out for missing boots! Anyway, it was a lovely ride, Lola came along and enjoyed flopping into a couple of creeks along the way (or what’s left of them during this dry season), and a very enjoyable day! To make things even nicer, I was finally able to watch a couple of Jack Ryan episodes with no interruptions! Whoo-hoo! The only big problem today was that I was trying to fix my Equicamping website so I could start doing more with my Maps page, and I ended up screwing it up so bad the whole site crashed. So I’ve had to call in the experts, hopefully they can get it resolved. It’s so frustrating, since no matter how well I get everything working, then someone updates a plug-in and the whole things quits working. Oh well, a minor inconvenience for the moment, hopefully it will result in bigger and better things. Meanwhile, time for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
Another goodnight sleep, so happy to be on the end of a quiet, dead end road! Took our first ride today, not exactly the one I had planned, but the trails here aren’t very well marked, so it’s not too surprising. We ended up going about 7.5 miles, so it was fine. We started off without boots, but we kept running into small pea gravel, so I ended up putting them on just to keep Flash from getting ouchy. I should have put his breast collar on, and will from now on, because there were a few good hills, and I expect more on the other trails we didn’t get to today. Heavy deciduos forest here, with some trails not very well maintained, but quite beautiful. There’s only about 12 miles total here, but they wrap around in a couple of figure 8 loops, so I can get creative on future rides. Before we left, a forest service guy, Fred, showed up and tried to tell me all the nonsensical reasons they don’t have threads on the spigots here, but in the end, he rigged up a hose end and clamped it onto the pipe so now I can run my hose. He also told me I needed a trail pass, so I got on and bought a one-day pass for $5, but then after I did that, he told me that the trail pass was necessary for every day I was here, whether I rode on the trail or not! Their website and the national website are in total conflict with each other. The national site repeatedly says there’s no fee here, and nothing about a trail fee either. The Hoosier forest website says there’s no fee to camp here either, but it does say something about a trail fee, then refers you to another paragraph on the next page, which also says a trail fee, but then says if you have a horse at the horse camp, there’s a fee, too. It’s not very clear that the trail fee and the horse fee in camp are the same, but evidently they are. So there’s no fee at the horse camp, unless you bring a horse, then there’s a fee. It’s all very confusing, really poorly communicated. Anyway, I had to go back on and buy an annual pass for $35, which, if I had gotten in the first place, would have saved me the first five bucks. Oh, well, it’s still cheap to stay here, and now that I have easy access to water, I’m a happier camper. There’s beautiful weather forecast for the rest of the week, and I’m looking forward to exploring the rest of the trails here. After we got back from the ride, I let the horses graze again, Apollo on a long line and Flash wherever he wanted to go, which is never too far, though he started down the road again, just about ten yards, then wisely turned around and came back. There’s only one other non-horse camper here, but there were two trailers of day riders here, which rather surprised me, being the middle of the week. Did some bookkeeping work on the computer, linking my old brokerage account to my new one (TD Ameritrade was bought out by Schwab), so that took some time. Settled down for the evening, had a nice dinner, finally managed to be able to watch some less interrupted TV (off and on), and soon off to shower and bed! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hiya Darlin’!
Had a good night sleep, think I’ve finally got the air pressure just right in the bed, slept very well. Woke up to a misty morning again, though you could tell it was going to be a nice day once the sun dried the mist off. Called the post office first thing, since they’re only open for two hours today and I wanted to make sure I got my package from Florida, but it hadn’t arrived yet. Apparently it goes to Battle Creek first and then a carrier brings it out, so the postmaster offered to call me when it came in. I love small town post offices! By 10:30, I decided to head into town, and I hadn’t quite left the park when he called to say it had arrived, in the nick of time! Picked it up, then headed back to camp, stopping to fill up the truck tank along the way, since I’ll be doing a couple of loads of laundry tomorrow. Wasn’t long before I was saddling up Flash to take the long western loop here. What a lovely ride! Such a nice variety! Some deep, dark, creepy woods (my favorite!), a nice pine stand, some wide open fields where we got in some good canters around the edges, then one place where it was five foot high grass mowed where the trail was, almost felt like going through a tunnel! It weaved all around the western side of the park, and it was very nice. Thoroughly enjoyed it! I didn’t take Lola along because there were quite a few other riders out there, and I don’t like to do that on the weekends when it’s busy, so she was pouting a bit when I got back. Ended up chatting with some ladies that I had met on the trail in the pavilion for awhile, the finally settled down for the evening. Still have a very slow internet connection, so watching TV is painful! Won’t be long out of bed tonight, I have a busy day tomorrow. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up to a wet, misty day, very glad I put the extra canvas tarp over the three bales in the back of the truck last night! Decided to do some other stuff waiting for it to dry out. My plan was to take Flash and do the long ride, but the mist held on for so long, and you know me, I’m a fair weather rider, so didn’t much feel like going out in a misty cold rain. Did some planning for the next few weeks and a few other computer chores, until it finally dried up and lightened up a bit in the afternoon. Decided it was too late to take the long ride, so I saddled up Apollo, who needs some exercise, he’s getting fatter and fatter sitting around here, and took the Blue Trail, making a figure eight so we could do the whole thing. Another lovely trail! This one is multi-use, so I ran into hikers and bikers along the way, but everyone was cordial and cooperative, just like it’s supposed to be! It was still less than five miles, but it was a beautiful ride, weaving around a couple of lakes and wetlands, through some pretty dense and scenic forest with lovely footing despite the dampness, so a very nice ride. Apollo kept trying to brush himself (or me!) into the bushes along the side of the trail, not sure what that’s about. There were a few short sections with some small rocks, and even though they were smooth, he behaved like he was ouchy on those, again, not sure what his problem is. Got back to camp around three, and spoke to some new neighbors a couple of sites down from me, a woman named Amber. Got Apollo put away and settled down for the afternoon and evening. Made some dirty rice (over tortilla chips), that should last me the next few days. Watched a few more Jack Ryan’s, though I’m still plagued by buffering and interuptions, and heading for bed soon! Just heard Taps from the government facility nearby, so I guess it’s time! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a busy day today, and got lots of stuff done! I arranged to pick up hay this morning at a place about 20 minutes away, turned out to be a huge commercial outfit, with hay barns and a feed lot and lots of mechanics shops. Bought some grass hay for $7 a bale, a bit high, but not surprising with the cost of diesel over $4 a gallon again. Looks like nice hay, we’ll see how the bobos like it. Then I ran into Battle Creek to do my shopping at the Walmart, they had a rechargeable fan there I wanted to get for future hot nights, thought it would be good in the bedroom so I wouldn’t have to keep the inverter on. I’m sure I’ll be having more hot nights when I’ll need it as I head south! Got back to camp around 2:30, put all the groceries away, and immediately went out and saddled Flash. We took a short ride around the “Historic Trail”, which was just over four miles, but it was a nice trail. Firm footing, and with the rain last night, so dust, and also no mud, surprisingly. A few places with some gravel, mostly on hills, but all round stones, so not bad. The crossing at one creek was actually filled with nice Chattahoochee stones, so a very easy crossing. Lola came along, and she enjoyed it, and wasn’t even limping when we got back. I’ve been trying not to play fetch with her the last few days to let her leg heal, still not sure what’s causing it, but I figured rest would help, and it seems to have done so. Stored the hay in the trailer, except for three bales, two of the new and one of the old, which I’ll use to transition them over. No more alfalfa after this! Have to get back to just grass hay. Had dinner, watched some TV, ready for shower and bed here shortly. A busy day, which made up for the lazy day yesterday! Love you, darlin’! Good night!