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!

Hi Babe,
Got woken up around 4:00 in the morning by Apollo nickering, which told me Flash had escaped the highline. My fault, I knew when I tied him on I forgot to put the tail through the slip knot, but when I threw on my shoes and checked, he was standing right by the door, so I quickly tied him right and went back to bed. Hadn’t quite got back to sleep when someone came onto my site leading another horse that had evidently escaped, thought my highline was missing a horse until she got close and realized that no, both horses were there. She was talking the whole time, right under my window, and would have woken me up if I hadn’t already been awake. Anyway, she finally went away, I don’t know if she ever found the owner that night, or just waited until morning (which would have been a more sensible thing to do, in my opinion, rather than walking around waking up people. Anyway, I finally got back to sleep, then overslept, not leaving a lot of time before Alayna arrived. I was still eating breakfast, but she brought hers, too, so we ate together, then got the horses ready for a short ride. We ended up going about 3.5 miles, and it seemed like Flash was going extra slow for Apollo’s benefit, which was nice! After we got back, we chatted for awhile, then after she left I contacted Cindy, who had already left on a ride with her friend that arrived this morning. I ended up catching up to them, they were on the hunt for a throat latch that had fallen off her ponied horse’s bridle yesterday. I was looking too, then when I passed a huge group, I asked them if they had seen it, and they had! One of them gave it to me, so I called Cindy to let her know the hunt was over and she could relax. Then she decided she wanted to thank them, and we figured (correctly) that they were in the Group Camp, so we made out way over there. Flash started to get unmanageable again, so I had to run him out several times just to create less fuss. Toward the end of the ride, I actually got off the horse trail and ran him for another couple of miles, just to blow off some of the steam that seemed to be building up in him. I think I’m going to have to do another all out run with him like I did at Goethe the first year I had him, just let him run as fast and as long as he wants, hopefully it will be less than eight miles like last time, but he’s so fit now, it could be longer! I’m becoming convinced I’m better off not trying to ride with other people, that’s the only time he misbehaves, the rest of the time he’s brilliant! Tired of fighting him. Anyway, we got back to camp around 4:00, got him put up, made dinner and relaxed a bit, then went up to visit for a short while with Cindy and her friend. Now I’m back home, ready for shower and bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a lovely and somewhat productive day today. Did a load of laundry, ran into town to do some errands, including propane and feed at Tractor Supply, fuel and a little shopping at Walmart, dropped off a book order that I got back in July, but have only now been able to send in (hope this crazy post office won’t deny it because it has Florida as the return address!), then got back just minutes before Sam’s friend Cindy arrived. We made arrangements to ride at 2:00, which gave me time to put away all the groceries, the propane and the feed, and try to to put the screws I bought on the awning, but they were still too small, so I’ll have to run into town again. I don’t dare drive it with no screws in the top of the awning frame! Then got together with Cindy, who was riding a Missouri Foxtrotter and ponying her Paso Fino, and off we went! It turned into a lovely ride, especially after the clouds finally started to dissipate. We did about 9.5 miles, and some of that was going at quite a good pace, at last! So many people I’ve been riding with lately only want to walk, so it was wonderful to be able to really move out several times. And it still wasn’t enough for Flash, he wanted to go farther and faster than ever! At one point I had to just let him run at top speed for quite a ways, then had to wait for Cindy to catch up. She didn’t mind, it’s all good, and it was a very nice ride. Once we got back to camp we went our separate ways to take care of our horses, then her husband showed up with pizza and I rejoined them for supper. She had put up a cornhole game (very popular in horse camps) and we ended up inviting Jody to join us, who was parked nearby and to whom I spoke with for awhile when she arrived. We ended up playing cornhole (she had never played before, but did pretty well!) until well after dark, which was ridiculous, of course, but we had a great time. Finally got back home well after 9:00, ready for shower and bed! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’,
Had a decent night sleep, though I’m now positive I have another leak in my air mattress again, so that’s on my list of things to do now. Started a load of laundry nice and early, got my chores and breakfast done, got my laundry on the line, then saddled up Flash just in time to meet my friend from the Shore to Shore, Sam. I call her Eagle Eyes because every time I rode with her, she was able to point out critters I would never have otherwise seen, including the tiniest little fawn you can imagine! She lives up in Cadillac, and drove down to ride with me, and we took a fabulous 19-mile ride, mostly around the perimeter of the Hungerford forest. What a beautiful day, and beautiful trails! I truly love this place, one of my absolute favorites anywhere in the country! Her horse Amy was a stock horse, so we had to do some adjusting, but we had it pretty well worked out by the end. We both had to do a little schooling, and we helped each other out on that. Such a fun day! Got back, chatted for a bit, then after she left I made dinner, did my evening chores, settled down, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
This was one of those days when I woke up feeling tired for some reason. I guess it was the accumulation of all the stuff I did this week, but I just felt too exhausted to do any of my usual Sunday chores, like laundry and housekeeping. I had promised Alayna I’d pick up the Poker Run chip bags that were out on the trail, but I didn’t get the energy until nearly 1:00. I wanted to go later, after most people had gone, because I was hoping to take Lola with me, but she was limping too much, so I left her at home. When we arrived at the place where the first bag was supposed to be, it wasn’t there! I texted Alayna, and kept moving to the second spot, and the bag wasn’t there either! Turns out, another girl had picked up two bags, and a third girl had picked up the first bag, so it was an entirely wasted trip for me. The bags did finally make it all back to me, though, so at least I’ll have them to give back to Alayna. People just trying to be helpful, I suppose, but had I known, it would have saved me the trip! It was very hot today, nearly 90, a far cry from the 47 degree morning we had the other day. I ended up doing nothing else today but put all my tools away, since I won’t need most of them, and only a couple once I get the new motor on Wednesday. Relaxed watching TV the rest of the day, that’s all I had the energy for. Hoping to get a good night sleep, as I’ve arranged to take a ride with Sam tomorrow, she’s coming back with a friend for a ride and I said I’d join them. Need to get a load of laundry done first, so I’ll be up early in the morning! With that said, off to shower and bed, though it’s still very warm, so I’m not sure how quick I’ll be falling asleep. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!