Wednesday, March 27, 2024 – Rest Day and TOG Meeting

Hi Darlin',
I went to be achy last night, and woke up achy this morning. It took awhile to muster the energy to get up to feed the horses and have breakfast, then I promptly crawled back into bed where I spent almost the entire day reading and napping. I didn't want to take any pain killers, so this was the best way to recover. By the end of the day, I did feel a lot better. We had a Taste of Goethe recap meeting to figure out what we can do better next year, as well as what went better this year. It was a productive meeting. It rained all day, had a short break just about feeding time in the evening, and by the end of the meeting, had started up again, so I'm looking forward to more rain overnight. Nothing like a rainy day to make you feel lazy, which is exactly the kind of day I needed today! Even with all the rest today, I'm looking forward to a good night sleep, and by tomorrow, should be "right as rain," as they say. Love you, sweetheart! Good night!

Tuesday, March 26, 2024 – Travel Back to Goethe

Hey Sweetie,
Took my time packing up this morning, but still managed to get out of camp by 10:30, arriving at Goethe just before noon. It took me about an hour to get hooked up and get the horses back on their highline, and just a few minutes more before I got out the patio rug and chairs. I'm not going to bother with the screen room, I was way too tired for that! I kept on moving for awhile (a body in motion, staying in motion), because I knew the minute I sat down, I wouldn't have the energy to move much after that. I swept the floor and shook out the rugs, because it's going so bad I couldn't stand it (and that's saying something!), and even re-stapled the rug in front of the recliner, which had worked itself loose. Once I got settled, I spent some time going through all the ribbons and getting them all straightened out, which took awhile, but I managed to get that all done. As my adrenaline started to fade, my eyes were getting that gritty feeling, and my face started to feel numb from the exhaustion, so made a few essential phone calls, had dinner a bit early, watched a movie and a couple of Northern Exposures, got the horses fed, soaked Lola's foot, and am most definitely heading to bed early. It's a warm night, but there's rain moving in overnight, so I'm looking forward to day of doing absolutely nothing tomorrow! Good night, babe! Love you!

Monday, March 25, 2024 – Final Fifteen Mile Pink Trail Marker Retrieval Done!

Hi Babe!
Glad to finally report that all of the trail marker retrieval is complete! I'm exhausted, but content that the job is finally finished. I can feel my body crashing, and I'm glad there's rain forecast for Wednesday, because my plan is to do as little as possible except rest and recover. Flash and I made decent time, getting back to camp by 2:30 or so, with all the horse gear put away by 3:00. I headed into town to pick up fuel, a few things from Walmart and Tractor Supply (though not the Balance I need, darn it!), and finally decided to reward myself with a nice sit-down dinner at Beef O'Brady's, where I had surf N Turf (steak and shrimp, though, not lobster) a Guinness and high calorie onion rings, just because. As much as I've liked the pasta casserole, every day was getting a bit boring, and I haven't had any beef in a long time. Got back to camp around six, fed the horses, poured myself a bourbon, started another load of laundry (my third today) and settled down for the evening. I can feel my body going into crash mode! Good thing there's no rush getting out of here tomorrow, all I have to do is pack and get back to Goethe tomorrow, and it's only a 90 minute drive, so I don't plan on getting up early tomorrow! Settled down to a little TV and a search for Balance (Rural King, Crystal River), and won't be long out of bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Sunday, March 24, 2024 – Twenty Miles of Marker Retrieval

Hiya Darlin',
Woke up too early, read for a bit before I got moving, but was out on the trail by 10:15. First trail I did was red, and I carefully looked at every marker to see where some folks got confused, and honestly, every ribbon was exactly where it was supposed to be. Yes, a couple of the paper arrows came down, but to my mind, those are secondary confidence marker, it's the ribbons, that tell the story. Nearest I can figure, despite the intersections clearly not indicating turns (i.e. they should carry on straight across the power line), it seems some folks didn't stay straight, they just turned willy nilly. The markers were right, they just didn't follow them correctly. Oh, well, no accounting for that. Anyway, we did the 10 miles of red, stopped at camp for a minute, then went out and did another 10 miles of blue. Once again, the one person that got "lost" on blue was clearly just not paying attention, as there were two signs and five ribbons at the intersection she missed. Sigh... Anyway, we were back in camp by 4:00, made very reasonable time. It was nearly an hour before Linda K. came along, she had volunteered to help so I sent her out to do the white trail, which she had no problem following, and had a good day with her horse Sonny, who is still learning to behave on his own, and did very well today! Very grateful for her help! I spent some time sorting the ribbons, though I didn't get through it by any means, but the pace is thankfully slowing down a little, and I'm feeling a bit more relaxed. All I have left tomorrow is the 15 mile pink, which is a very pretty ride, so I should have plenty of time to run into town for a few errands and to fuel up my tank so I can head straight out Tuesday morning. Enjoyed another pasta dinner with a side salad, a Northern Exposure, and a British geriatric romance, though I'm tired of this genre always ending with someone dying. Why can't geriatrics live "happily ever after," too? May be a short "ever after, but at least it's not a depressing death at the end. Oh, well. Anyway, time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Saturday, March 23, 2024 – Ride Day

Hey Babe,
Well, the day finally arrived, and what a day it was. My first call of the day, before 8:00 am, was from Jo, who said there was a guy out there removing markers again. I called owner Christine, I don't know if she ever got out there, but Jo tried to explained to the guy that the markers would be down in the next day or two, so I guess he quit. Big "it's my property and I don't have to leave these here" crap, but I know for a fact that most of the markers were on WMD property, so that was no argument. Not long after, I got a call from someone who was lost on the white trail, which, to my mind, was the easiest trail to follow. Turns out she missed a marker, but I drove all the way out there to make sure the markers were still in place. With all the rain, there were a few of the signs down, but all the ribbons were still in place. I won't go into what her excuse was, but then I actually watched her pass a turn, and she wasn't even aware of it (despite that there were no markers where she was going), and only turned around when I beeped my horn at her. She continued to get lost throughout the day. I ended up on the phone and putting out fires all morning, mostly on the red trail, which was complicated, but so many people were rushing through it and not reading the markers, it got ridiculous after awhile. Suffice to say it was a very frustrating day for me. I had planned to go out and take down one of trails after they were done with it, but with so many fires to put out, I decided I couldn't afford to do that, which was just as well, because I spent time going out and picking up water troughs instead, as they became available. Fortunately, my friend Linda from Pete's Place is coming back out to help tomorrow, so she's going to pick up the markers from one of the 15's while I get the two 10's, then I'll only have one 15 on Monday to do. I'm booked here until Tuesday morning, so hopefully I'll be able to get packed up and back to Goethe before it gets too late. My trailer and my truck are a mess from all the rushing around, we had terrible rain yesterday which luckily was mostly gone today, so weather-wise it was a good day with just a few sprinkles. I managed to get the local vet from Dunnellon to look at Lola, and she was kind enough to call in a prescription of antibiotics for her and to let me schedule a follow-up session before I leave the area. This is the vet everyone recommends but wasn't taking new patients until June, so I was very fortunate to get her to look at Lola. Hopefully, I'll have more time to soak her foot and let the pills work and she'll get better. Probably a foreign object, remotely possible it's a fungus. We'll know soon, I hope. Anyway, once we got all the troughs in, I ran into town to get the prescription, and I grabbed a salad as well at Publix, and I couldn't help it, stopped at the liquor store for some bourbon, which I've had a craving for, and frankly, really appreciated after all the angst from the day. Fed the horses a treat of some peanut hay, and finally settled down for a slightly more normal evening of salad for dinner and a Northern Exposure. Won't be long out of bed, that's for sure! Tough day!

Friday, March 22, 2024 – Another Busy, Non-Trail Day, Sort Of

Hiya Darlin',
Let myself sleep in a bit this morning, having had to put in earplugs because of the hard rain that came down all night long, woke up a bit before 8:30 and was luxuriating for a couple of minutes until Ride Manager Mya knocked on the door. I got up to show her around, then got my day started. I'm sure Flash was relieved I didn't come looking for him after breakfast! I had filled my water tank on the truck yesterday, so I went over to Mya's trailer and picked up enough troughs to cover the first water stop down on the White trail and headed out, even before Jo got here. I've wisely made all the water stops so that I can reach them in about 10-12 minutes from camp, so it didn't take me long to get the first troughs done. Back to camp, grabbed a few more troughs, filled my tank again and headed up the stop on the Red trail, then back to camp, finally picked up Jo's extra 40 gallon tank, filled them both up, grabbed some more troughs and buckets, and managed to do the last two stops in one run, as they're only about a quarter mile apart on the same road. All told, it took until about 3:00 to get all that done, just about when registration began. Unfortunately, I had noticed that a bunch of my signs had been torn down, especially the ones getting the riders into the trailhead at Mattair that is hard to find without markings, and not for the first time. In fact, on one tree, I had put a sign up one day, then two signs (to replace the first sign) the next day, then put three signs to replace the first two and to add the last sign, only to see that they had all been deliberately torn down, as well as all my carefully placed in and out signs on the posts leading into Mattair. No clue why anyone would do that, or why they didn't get the hint after the signs kept getting replaced, but there's no fixing stupid, I guess. Jo had made some signs saying "Horse Event, don't remove temporary markers," which I didn't think I would need, but evidently, I did, so I put those up as well. Christine, the owner of the facility, arranged for one of her Canadian renters to take me out in a UTV to fix a couple of signs on the Blue trail, and we fixed the entry signs as well, so hopefully they'll be there in the morning. It rained off and on all day, so I'm hoping most of the signs on the trails will still be relatively intact. Got back from that around 5:00, finally relaxed for a few minutes, tried to fix my staple gun, which has been nearly worthless this whole week. I need to replace it, for sure. I was given a hammer type stapler, but I can't for the life of me find it, so I'll just have to get a new one, seeing as this is becoming an essential tool for my lifestyle at the moment. Finally made it to dinner, which was a fabulous smoked brisket that melted in your mouth, and smoked chicken, with green beans and potato salad and dessert (I picked chocolate chip cookies), and was grateful for such a fabulous meal that I didn't have to cook or clean up after. 🙂 Then we held the ride meeting, where I got to describe all the trails, and saw an awful lot of familiar faces. I'm certainly getting to be known in this community! After that, I went out in my truck again, to do a last minute check on the markers on the way to the trailhead, replaced the ribbons that had gone missing, figuring they should last until morning, hopefully, then got back to camp and finally met owner Christine, who I had only spoken to on the phone. She was very gracious and was telling me all about her new 1600 acre property in Vermont which she said she would love for me to visit, even spend the summer there! My plan for summer so far has been NY, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend it in all the same places I've been before, so this could be just the alternative I was looking for. She says there are miles of old logging roads from the 60's, so I imagine it would be quite a fascinating place to explore. Looks like my summer plans are shaping up! Finally headed home around 9:00, settling down to wine, then tea, then Spanish, then shower, then bed! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Thursday, March 21, 2024 – Blue Trail Done, Red Trail Re-Done

Hey Sweetie,
Another exhausting day, doing the Blue trail, which I had to reroute several times because of trail complications, and the Red trail, which I had to also reroute to get it back to where I had originally planned it, which worked out perfectly. All told, Flash and I did 26.5 miles today! Poor thing is exhausted! I have a couple of signs I need to put up on the Blue trail in the morning, for which I think I'll take Apollo, since it's not very far out of camp and he needs the exercise (not to mention Flash needs a day off!), and to get the water out. I've determined I need four water stops, hope we have enough tubs for that. I was in the saddle for about 10.5 hours today, didn't get back to camp until 7:30, it took every ounce of energy I had left to feed the horses and get my self dinner. Thanks goodness for Taste of Goethe leftover pasta casserole! Finalized the routes and the water stops, it's already after 10:00, still have to take my shower, so I'm off. Good night, babe! Love you!

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 – Pink Trail Done

Hiya, Babe!
Another chilly morning, another exhausting day, but Flash and I managed to get the convoluted Pink trail done. Had to make several changes, once again because of trails on the map that were impassable, and not just because of last year's hurricane, These look like they haven't been touched in a decade or more! Too bad, too, because they were lovely trails. So that made some of the intersections even more convoluted, so I did my best to mark them clearly, but no doubt someone will get confused and lost, even with ample warning. Some beautiful trails, though, I tried to use as much of the Suwannee River trail as I could. Tomorrow's going to be even tougher in some ways, as I not only have to put in the 10 mile Blue Trail, which may or may not have some impassable trails that will have to be rerouted, plus I have to go back and fix the red trail, which means picking up the markers further north which will add even more mileage. Clearly more than 20 miles on tap for tomorrow, unless I wait until Friday, but it's supposed to rain, plus I have to put out water troughs, so that's going to be very busy as well. And since I only have Saturday and Sunday, and maybe Monday morning to pick up markers, it's going to be non-stop until Tuesday, unless I decide to stay another day here, which I may very well do. Whew! I can't write anymore, I have to get to bed. Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 – White Trail Done

Hey Darlin'!
Had a good night sleep, but was very glad I put the fireplace on last night, as it got down into the 30's! Was barely 40 when I got up, and the wind made it feel even colder, but the trailer was toasty, thank goodness! Did my chores nevertheless, and kept procrastinating my departure because of the cold, but put on enough layers to make myself comfortable and carried on! Got delayed a bit because I had neighbors that wanted to chat, but finally got out around 11:30 or so. This white trail was supposed to be the most straight-forward, and, I hoped, the easiest, but then again, I'm trying to mark trails I've never been on, so it still turned into a challenge. I got sidetracked several times, and had to go back and straighten it out, so the 15 miles trail turned into a 20.5 mile ride to get it right. I have to admit, it was a bit easier being on my own, but even Flash was getting a bit antsy by our sixth hour on the trail (it was over seven by the time we finished!), so I had to deal with his unruliness, which just made it all the more challenging. I got a better feel for the area, though, which was helpful. I only had to clear a couple of spots, but there's one trail that is completely blocked, and as much as I tried to clear it, it just wasn't totally possible, though it is passable to some degree. I contacted the Water Management District, and I'm hoping they'll be able to come out and clear it, but regardless, the trail is going through there, one way or another! The guy did get back to me quickly, though I won't know if it will be resolved until I speak with him in the morning. But at least the trail is marked and as ready as it could be under the circumstances. Arrived back home exhausted, just managed to feed the horses and myself, and now I'm ready to crash, nice and early, because tomorrow is bound to be even more difficult, as I'm using a lot of smaller side trails that may not be in very good shape, and that's problematic! So I'm off to bed early. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Monday, March 18, 2024 – Happy 90th Birthday, Babe!

Happy Birthday, my love!
Hard to believe you would have been 90 today, if you had only made it this far! Still celebrating our life together, you made me whole, and I miss you! But we never lived in the past, always the future, so today was another day of pressing forward for me! Woke up to a rainy day, and had to finish packing in the rain, unfortunately, but at least it quit about 20 minutes before I got to the Rest and Ride here in Suwannee. It's literally only a couple minutes away from Sheila's place, so in many way, it felt like a sort of homecoming. I guess whenever I spend any extended period of time anywhere it will feel like that! Arrived around 11:20 after an uneventful drive, but that didn't leave me much time to get ready, so I didn't even unhook the truck before I put Apollo in a paddock and saddled up Flash. Penny arrived on time, but after Linda, who I hadn't realized was the same Linda that stayed at Sheila's place with me, and even rode Apollo one day when her horse was not up to par! Small world! She's since sold her house and bought a new trailer, and has committed to being full-time on the road like me! Nice to see her again. So we headed off just after noon, and while it was productive, it was also a bit frustrating for many reasons. Penny isn't literate in GPS or Google Earth or any of the tools I sent her to use, so we were basically winging it most of the day. Trails I had opted to use (and were perfectly workable) she had never seen before, so they needed extra clearing, which kind of defeated the purpose of having her scout the trails for me. I also let her take me to the Suwannes Springs loop she kept insisting I use, but I really disliked it, as it went by and through a very junky area, not to mention under a bridge where apparently homeless people live, though they weren't there when we went through. Nevertheless, Linda's horse freaked out at the traffic barreling past her overhead on the bridge, and even Flash had trouble passing the dilapidated trailers past the junkyard, so I'm really adverse to using that last loop. I'm still trying to work out exactly the trail, and was a bit disheartened that we ran out of time to check out the last two trails I wanted. I also got turned around once and had to correct that mistake, so everything took longer than I expected. It was well after 5:30 when we got back, and then Penny wanted to show me where the best places to put out water troughs would be, so we spent another hour driving around the various trailheads that she thought might work. Of course, I can't decide that until I decide which trails we're going to take, and that's still entirely up in the air. This is really hard, to try to plan a ride when I have no idea what the trails are like, and no one to scout them out for me ahead of time. And it was all made worse by the fact that Flash was misbehaving, probably because of the other horses, but he was very jumpy all day, and I was getting rope burns from trying to hold him in all day. Just another reminder of why I prefer to ride along, especially when I'm marking trails. Anyway, it was after 7:00 by the time we got back, and by the time I fed and blanketed the horses (it was going to go into the 30's tonight!), it was quite late. I managed to soak Lola's foot a couple of times before I finally called it a night. Feel pretty tired, and a little frustrated, but, that's life! At least I'm still above ground, my love! Good night, babe!