Hey Darlin’,
Well it was pretty hot last night, and I slept better, but still not as well as I would like. I may have put a little too much air in the bed, but I let it go another night and see how it goes. It was cloudy when I got up, and rain came in around 9:30, which put me in a lazy mood. I started writing an article for the MTRA, read some, then binge-watched some Jack Ryan episodes in the afternoon. Had a couple of different blasts of rain, heavy downpours, and one storm had rumbling thunder for more than 20 minutes before it hit me. It was so strange to listen to, it wasn’t just an occasional round of thunder, it was a constant, never quiting, just rolling along. Lola is either losing her hearing or she’s finally getting used to thunderstorms, because the last few that we’ve been through, she’s hardly reacted to, not trying to crawl under the back of my chair like she used to. She still seems to hear me okay, so I’m hoping it’s the latter. Anyway, a very uneventful day, and I was glad the horses were under cover during the storms. Found some hay about 20 minutes away, so I’m going to pick up ten bales tomorrow, then ride in the afternoon. It seems there are more trails open to horses than I thought out here, so I’m going to have to get busy riding the next few days in order to cover them all! Temps are a bit cooler tonight, so I’m hoping for a good night sleep. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!
Tuesday, September 5, 2023 – Travel Day to Fort Custer, New Bed!
Hi Sweetie,
Didn’t bother to set the alarm, but was still awake by 7:00, up and move about 45 minutes later. Didn’t feel hungry so I skipped breakfast and started packing up. Even though I hadn’t packed much ahead of time, I was still out of the horse camp before 9:00. The drive to Fort Custer was along a lot of country roads and lake sides, but it was only about 30 miles by road, and I took my time. Arrived before 10:00, then spent about an hour at the dump rinsing out my black water tank and filling up all my fresh water tanks. Once again, this is a camp with 1st century AD technology, just a hand pump, unfortunately, but it’s not too far to the people camp where I can fill up again later in the week when I need. to. Arrived at the horse camp before noon, and discovered they had some pens with ShelterLogic roofs on them, so at least there was a little shade. The rest of the campground is wide open, so naturally I got out my solar panel as soon as I could. Got set up pretty quickly, then stopped to cool off for awhile. Really hot today, in the 90’s, and worst because there’s no shade for me and Lola, so I just sat and read for awhile, too hot to do anything else. Then I checked on my packages and found that my bed had arrived at the post office, which was only about a mile from the entrance to the camp, so I ran in and picked it up. Got back to camp and started putting the adapters in that I needed. The mattress is the perfect fit! Then I discovered that the adapter for hooking it to the pump wasn’t going to work, that I would need some kind of tube to connect the two things together, so I ran back into town to the only store there, which wasn’t the general store that was advertised on the outside, but rather a discount palette store. Just as I arrived, though, an Amazon truck showed up at the post office with my second package, which was a remote for the TV. Two nights ago it wouldn’t work, so I ordered a new one (it had inadvertenly gone through the wash, but seemed okay afterward, at first), then last night it worked just fine! Go figure! I think the stupid smart TV was updating and that’s why it wasn’t responding, so now I have a spare remote. The palette store didn’t have what I needed, but I did buy a pair of sunglasses for five bucks, my other ones have been getting pretty scratched. So I drove east to a hardware store a few miles away, but they didn’t have what I needed either, and they sent me a few more miles down the road to a full fledged Do-It-Best store that had exactly the tubing I needed. Stopped for fuel (diesel has gone up a bunch in the last few weeks for some reason), got back to camp a started putting the rest of the adapters together. Had a little problem and had to call Airbeds Unlimited, (Michael has been fantastic with support!), and we got it worked out, and before long, I had a full air mattress! Yay! This one has a 25 year warranty, so hopefully this will be the last bed I’ll ever need. Can’t wait to try it out! Of course, by the time I got finished putting it all back together, I was sweating like a pig, and the night isn’t going to cool down much, so I may not sleep as well as I would like. Anyway, time for a cold shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!
Monday, September 4, 2023 – Quiet Day in Camp
Hey Babe,
Slept late this morning and missed saying goodbye to the Gypsy Girls, they got out really early. By mid-day most of the campers were gone anyway, so I ended up putting Apollo on his long line and let Flash wander, they enjoyed grazing. I did a load of laundry and did my housekeeping, then spent the afternoon either reading or on the computer, mostly downloading pix that Leah had taken (the signal is still so slow here, I was hoping when folks left the bandwidth would open up, and finally did around 7:00, so I got to watch a little TV at last) and finishing my bookkeeping exercise from the other day. Put a few things away, but not much, as this next trip has to truly be the shortest one ever, just 25 miles, about 45 minutes supposedly. The next spot has no shade and apparently no grass, so tomorrow is going to be a hot one for everybody! Back in the low 90’s here! But there’s a cold front coming in Wednesday night, so the rest of the week looks nice. Like I said, a quiet day! Not much else tell! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!
Sunday, September 3, 2023 – Nice Ride at Barry Springs
Hiya Darlin’,
A little better night sleep last night, but I can’t wait to get my new air mattress, my old one has big lumps where the baffles have let go, and it’s not very comfortable anymore! Had a leisurely morning, then finally saddled up Flash in the early afternoon and headed out on the Billy The Kid Trail that led over to the main road, then across the road to the Barry Springs tract, which isn’t technically part of Yankee Springs, but they do have a nice loop over there, it was about 8.5 miles from camp and around. Like so many trails I’ve been on, it was nice, but needed some TLC. Quite a few downed trees that have been that way for so long there’s a well entrenched bypass around them, some areas with prickly plants that stretch across the trail and snag you. I got a couple of scratches along the way. Other than a few technical challenges, it was a very nice ride. Flash was quiet and fairly slow most of the way, until we started heading back toward camp, then he picked up the pace a bit. Once we got back to camp, I took him through the obstacle course again, this time spending time on getting him to climb up on the big tires. He’s always been reluctant to do that, but the setup here was so perfect, I couldn’t pass it up. There are a couple of individual tires, and we practiced on one of those until I could get him to cross over it okay, then I took him to the other obstacle, which was 5 tires of different sizes set up to be like a progression of steps up and down. It took awhile, but he finally managed to do it in a controlled manner. Several times he’s be doing just fine going up and down, but on the second to last tire he’s just decide to jump off. Gypsy girl Leah came by and took some fantastic photos, Flash really is photogenic! Afterward the girls came and visited for awhile, then I got the rest of my chores done, had dinner, and got frustrated again not being able to watch my usual hour of TVwith dinner. I just can’t understand why, with 3-4 bars of cell service, I have terrible internet service here! It should be fantastic, it’s so much better than most of the other places I’ve been this summer, and yet it’s just about the worse service I’ve had! Doesn’t make any sense, and couldn’t figure it out. Anyway, it’s getting past my bedtime, I still have my Spanish lesson to do, and my shower, which tonight I need to cool off, quite a hot, humid day today! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Saturday, September 2, 2023 – Quiet Day For Me, Busy in Camp
Hey Sweetie,
Woke up before 4:00 this morning for some reason, only got a little bit of sleep after that, so I was feeling a bit tired today. That was fine, since I wasn’t going to ride today, and didn’t have much else planned, except to fill up the truck water tank, which I did in the afternoon. Then I nodded off my chair before dinner! The Gypsy Girls asked me over for dinner, and I made some Spanish rice to go along with their stackable dinner, which was layers of Fritos, beans, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. and had a very enjoyable meal with them and their friend Alaina, who’s in the process of gentling a BLM mustang she adopted less than two years ago. Had a nice chat, then headed back to the trailer to settle in for the evening. A nice quiet day, though camp was very full, and busy, but no drama in the least! Looking forward to a nice ride tomorrow. Good night, babe! Love you!
Friday, September 1, 2023 – Bookkeeping and Ride Day
Hi Babe,
I’m happy to say that my air mattress doesn’t seem to be going down the way that it was, but the baffling is definitely getting worse, so I’m glad I ordered a new one, should be at the next place next week. I spent a good part of the day straightening out one of my accounts, seems I haven’t reconciled it in a long time, so I had to go digging around to get it solved. Finally managed to finish it off after 2:30, so I had time to saddle up Flash and go for a ride. This time, I headed out on a trailhead a few campsites over from me, with a sign for Billy the Kid Trail, which isn’t on the map, so I was curious where it went. We took it for about a quarter mile when it came up to the church and cemetery at the end of the road where you turn into to get to camp. It seems it crosses the main road and keeps going into a tract called Barry Springs. Since I had no idea how long it was, I opted to turn back and do some research about it. I got back to camp and went out toward the west, to do the two big loops in reverse. We took another side trail just to explore it, and it led us to a parking area trailhead. We headed back and got onto our original plan, and finished the two long loops in just over two hours. Turned out to be about 8.5 miles in all. That’s every trail in here, except the connector between the two loops. So I’m thinking next time I ride, it will be over to Barry Springs. I did some research and found a map of the horse trail, it’s just one big loop about nine miles long, so it should be a good ride. Settled down for the evening, watch the final Big Valley over dinner, then went looking for another series. I discovered that the Jack Ryan series has come to an end after four seasons. Remember, we watched the first season together, and by the time the second season came out, I’d forgotten most of what happened, so I abandoned it, vowing to only watch series that are complete rather than wait season to season. So that’s my next project. This place has been filling up all day, not surprisingly, and the Gypsy girls from the Shore to Shore ride arrived just before 8:00. I knew they were coming, so I said hello, then left them alone to get set up. We can talk in the morning. That’s all the news! Good night, darlin’! Love you!
Thursday, August 31, 2023 – Another Disappointing Repair Day, Short Ride on Apollo
Hiya Darlin’,
Woke up before the alarm and got busy, busy. Did chores, did a load of laundry, roasted some coffee beans so I would have a to go cup while running around today, finally headed out before 9:30, arriving at my alignment appointment just in time. Wasn’t long before they were telling me they didn’t think they could align it without $1500 worth of ball joint repairs, although in the end when I said I couldn’t afford that right now, I was only expecting to pay $100 to get my steering wheel straightened out with an alignment, per the quote I got from them online, the managed to do it anyway, so I guess the ball joints weren’t really that bad. Then they presented me with a bill for $165! I complained, and they reduced it by $15, still 50 percent higher than my expected budget. Not happy! Then I ran a couple of errands, picking up the connectors I’ll need for my new air mattress at Home Depot, stopping at Meijer’s for some nectar, milk and juice, then Tractor Supply for propane and pine shavings. Something about this soil here, the corrals the horses are in are getting too muddy and smelly, so I decided to splurge on some shavings for them. Stopped to fill up the water tank at the dump station (sorry, “sanitation” station, as they call it now!), got back to camp, started filling up the RV tank, and while I was waiting, I wrote my thoughts about the lack of honesty of the alignment folks and put them up online. Once I got done filling the tank, I finally saddled up Apollo and Lola and I went for a short ride. He’s such a slug these days, and he was tripping and stumbling all over the place, not sure what that’s about. I took the shorter of the two loops, hitting the cross trail between the two, which was the only thing I missed the other day. Again, it’s a beautiful ride, but less than five miles, although on Apollo it took over 90 minutes to do. Surprise, surprise, I got a voicemail from the alignment store with an apology and a refund for the difference over $100. Amazing how reducing someone’s star value online suddenly gets them to sit up and take notice. Too bad they didn’t do that when I was actually in the store trying to get them to straighten it out then, would have saved a lot of trouble. Anyway, I let the horses graze for a bit while I cleaned out their paddocks and laid down some shavings, it started smelling better immediately! Finally settled down for dinner and a movie, and, of course, now it’s time for shower and bed. Can’t wait to get my new mattress! I called the next park about accepting the delivery, and would you believe, they refused! First time I’ve ever had a state park refuse to allow me to receive a package! What is it with Michigan postal service? Well, I ended up calling the local post office, and they were more than happy to accept the package for me, so hopefully I’ll be sleeping on a new bed by next week. Long overdue! Anyway, enough said. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!
Wednesday, August 30, 2023 – Not The Day I Planned
Hi Sweetie,
While I had all good intentions to take Apollo for a ride today, in the end, that didn’t happen. Instead I did a few repairs, including JBWelding the knob on the generator door and doing some refrigerator cleanup, but most of the day I spent trying to order a new air mattress for my bed. I once again woke up with a flat mattress, and couldn’t find the leak, though frankly, I’m tired of looking, and since the baffling is starting to pop on my side, it’s time to just replace the two chamber system with a single one. Since they don’t make this size very much anymore, at least in vinyl, I spent the day trying to work out how to make the one mattress I could find that fit work with the pump I already have. It required a lot of conversation with several different people, and in the end, it seems like I’ve found the solution, but we didn’t quite get far enough to actually order it today. Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll be able to do that. The problem, of course, is the delivery time and where to ship it, which is always the challenge, though the advantage is that I’ll be at a state park for the next ten plus days, and since they have a manned entrance (as opposed to most places that don’t), I should be able to arrange for them to accept the package for me, providing they can get it to me in time. That’s where we ended up leaving it by the end of day. I did let Apollo and Flash graze for awhile, so at least they got out of their pens. I also pulled out that old drill pump that we bought so many years ago (back in 2010, so my diary says!), because the front end of the trailer is so much higher than the truck tank that gravity isn’t working very well to transfer water, I thought that might be an option. The battery drill didn’t work, but I got out the power drill and that did work, with the trick being the drill had to be below the waterline, and it would shove that up to the tank inlet. I didn’t fill it completely, but I did enough so I can take showers and do a load of laundry tomorrow. I have to take the truck in for an alignment tomorrow, so I’ll fill it with water again on my way back in, and I should be set for the rest of the week, hopefully. Anyway, it wasn’t the day I planned, but hopefully it will all work out. Settled down for the evening to dinner and a Hallmark movie, headed to shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!
Tuesday, August 29, 2023 – Ride Day on Flash, Plus Repairs
Hey Babe,
Nice and quiet last night, had a great night sleep, though I think my mattress is leaking again, darn it! After chores I saddled up Flash and we ventured out, riding through some really beautiful, dense forest, mostly mixed deciduous trees, mostly sand and dirt trails, with gentle slopes. One section is on a plateau-like ridge with some nice views, then it gently drops down to the return trail along the bottom of the plateau, then through some more nice forest. We saw an incredible huge orange fungus that looked like a cauliflower, and Lola, on her own volition, went a stood by it when I was taking a picture, which really put it’s size in perspective. It was amazing! A beautiful ride, just a lot shorter than I figured. When I arrived in camp, my GPS was saying 7. 21 miles, so I figured I must have missed something, but when I downloaded it onto Google Earth, I was spot on with the trail map! The only thing I didn’t take was the shortcut between the two loops, which is barely 2/10’s of a mile, so that doesn’t make up the difference. On the website they claim ten miles, so that’s obviously an exaggeration! Oh well, it’s pretty, and I still have other things to do here, so I’ll just enjoy that short mileage over and over again! Flash did a great job, he moved along very nicely, we were back in camp in less than 1:45. I put Apollo on an anchor and let them graze for the afternoon, there’s no one else here at the moment. I managed to find a drill screw that I was able to use to help anchor the awning, though none of the bolts I picked up the other day worked. One’s going to have to be enough, unless I do some major reconstruction. I did a little mending on my sheepskin saddle cover, then did a bunch of overdue bookkeeping until suppertime. Enjoyed a movie, now it’s off to shower and bed, as usual! Good night, darlin’! Love you!
Monday, August 28, 2023 – Travel Day to Yankee Springs
Hi Darlin’,
I let myself sleep in a little, but it didn’t take too long to get packed up and moving by just after 10:00. I made a stop at Tractor Supply just south of Grand Rapids for Flash’s horse feed, (they apparently don’t carry Perform at the Big Rapids TC anymore!), and picked up some longer bolts for the awning, though I’m not sure they’ll fit. Arrived at camp before noon, though I missed the turn to the dump, so that will have to wait until the next camp. I was a bit concerned about having enough room in here, because on their reservation website they limit the trailer size to 40′ (I’m 47′), but when I got it there were cleary plenty of places long enough for me, and fortunately, the spot I chose was one of them. It also has a corral, so I’m sure the horses will be glad to not have to wear halters for awhile. Didn’t take me too long to set up, then I went over to my nearest neighbors, Amanda and Cameron, and they filled me in on some of the details. The only have a hand pump here in camp, but they have fresh water over at the people camp’s dump station, and they were just on their way over there anyway, so they led me there. I also checked in on the way back, so I’m all taken care of! They ended up buying a book, which was nice, and said they might come back in the next few days to ride and chat again. Then I got online to make an appointment for an alignment, it’s been pushed back to Thursday, which was fine, except I was about out of dry dog food, plus I had a book order online, so I packed that up and ran to the nearest post office, which is only about 10 minutes away, and took care of that. Family Dollar had the dog food as well as some LA’s Awesome Cleaner, which I’ve been wanting to get to clean my now working awning. Got back just as they were leaving, then I settled down to dinner and a Big Valley. It’s a beautiful evening, perfect temps, mid 70’s to mid 50’s at night, low humidity, no rain, absolutely stunning! I’ve been so fortunate to have such good weather this whole summer, it’s been fabulous. Anyway, movie, shower, bed, loving life! Love you, sweetheart! Good night!