Hiya Babe,
Had a good night sleep, not surprisingly, and was up early again to do the final marker retrieval ride today, the white trail, with sections of orange along the way. Woke up to some fog and a flock of wild turkeys wandering around in the campground. Hit the trail, but something was really off with Flash today, he was moving like a slug, so unlike him, but I figured he was tired, until about the last five miles, when I rearranged all the stuff I had hanging off the saddle horn. I realized that my aluminum grabber was at the bottom of the pile against his leg, and I think it was bumping his elbow or causing some other distress, because a few minutes after I moved it, he perked right up! I thought maybe it was because we were so close to camp, but usually he gets excited as soon as we turn for home, so I really think it was the grabber. He still slowed down occasionally, but nothing like the majority of the ride, when he was doing barely 3 mph! All of those delays meant that even though I left camp by 9:30 and we only had to do 15 miles, we didn't get back until about 2:30, much later than I had anticipated. Anyway, I got him rinsed off, packed up my trailer, hooked up my truck at a 90 degree angle to avoid the soft sand and holes I dug when I arrived, and managed to pull it straight out, thank goodness! I finished loading up the horses and all the last minute stuff, said my good-byes, and headed out just after 4:00, arriving at Black Prong just after 5:00. Then the real fun began. I don't know, sometimes I can back right up into this space with only a couple of course corrections, but today I because the entertainment for the campground. It took me better than half an hour to get it right! I just kept overcompensating, and it's tough because there are so many trees and so little space. I really screwed up when I ran into the water spigot and broke it, so I had to turn the water off (thank goodness there's a bypass for the back spigot and camp host site!) after I filled up the horses' water buckets and my fresh water tank. That will hold me over until I can fix the pipe. Grrr! This is what happens when I get this tired, I guess. Anyway, I finally settled down for the evening, heated up the leftovers from the Indian Restaurant the other night just because it was the easiest thing to do, and chilled out for awhile. I actually had to put the AC on to cool it off before bed, which is going to be ridiculous after tomorrow, when the temps drop down to below freezing tomorrow night! Crazy weather! That's it, I'm done, tea, shower and bed forthwith! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin'!
Had a great night sleep, once again getting my chores and breakfast done in a leisurely manner before saddling up Flash and heading out, this time to do the 20 mile Green trail that was used yesterday as the first loop of the 35. Got off to a bit of a rocky start when I thought the trail started up the driveway, but it turned out they were coming in that way, not going out that way, so when I finally figured out I was leaving from the same gate as yesterday, I had already clocked a mile going back and forth up the driveway! No worries, we finally got started on the right trail and this time, we headed more northeast, into sections of the Greenway I've never done. What beautiful trails! Some of the live oaks were absolutely huge, and stunning! Absolutely breathtaking. I only had one bit of confusion that was quickly cleared up by trailmeister Madelyn, but the rest was fine. This is truly my favorite endurance ride volunteer activity, taking down trail markers. I get to ride the trails without any stress of designing them or putting up markers. Even though I enjoy doing that, it can be taxing, but taking them down is utterly brainless and delightful! I even saw a pair of coyotes out and about, which surprised me in the middle of the day, but apparently they are so abundant here now, daytime sightings are becoming quite common. Flash wasn't quite as rambunctious today, but we still maintained a steady pace and got back into camp before 3:00, despite not getting off the property until 10:00. Lola got to spend the day with Art again, same as yesterday, so she's a happy camper, being able to get walks in throughout the day. After putting Flash away, I went over to our Cracker hostesses and chatted with them awhile, letting them know that there was a possibility I may need help getting out tomorrow. They went about making sure they had a key to the big tractor that sitting in the pavilion, just in case. It was a lovely chat. By then, dinner had arrived, so I went back to pavilion, and stayed through dinner and the ride meeting. Settled down for the evening, and once again, am up to teatime! Heading to bed shortly, of course. Tomorrow we will be doing the 15 mile white trail, so hopefully Flash will be good with that. Must be reminding him of the Shore to Shore Ride, when we were doing 20-25 miles a day, so tomorrow should be a breeze! Anyway, good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
So glad I had earplugs last night, as this place is practically right on I-75, so loud traffic was the rule! That's okay, though, because I always sleep sounder when I use them, so it's all good. Woke up to my alarm, fed the horses and did morning chores and breakfast, and was saddling up Flash by 8:45, and heading up to the pavilion just after 9:00, just a tad behind schedule. We headed out going west, following and removing all the markers for the yellow/lime trail all the way down to Ross Prairie, about 13 miles. We took a very short break there (I tried to rinse Flash off at the wash station, but he wasn't very interested in that!), then headed back out on the blue trail, removing markers for about 1/3 of the way back, stopping at the 484 underpass. Once Flash figured out we weren't stopping to pick up markers any more, he took off, quite happy to canter and gait at high speed, winging his way through the woods like a bat out of hell! We did that off and on for the remaining ten miles, arriving in camp almost an hour before I had calculated, which was fine by me! What a blast! I love this little horse, he is just SO MUCH FUN! I rode over to where Art was acting as timer at the gate, and he took a minute to check Flash's heart rate (I was curious), and couldn't believe it was already down to 40 bpm! Amazing! Once I got him rinsed and settled, I sorted out the various ribbons and signs, then drove them up to the pavilion and hung around up there until dinnertime. My friend Jo arrived in the afternoon, and we chatted for a bit, then we all had dinner and the ride meeting. I left before the awards, though, because I had received a form from the horse safari outfitter and had to fill that out and get it back to them asap. Settled down for the evening, tired by happy after our 24 mile speed ride, won't be long out of bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Darlin'!
Had a lovely day today! The weather finally warmed up enough for it to be comfortable riding, so after spending some time in the morning trying to figure out how to transfer money for my vacation (STILL not worked out yet!), I saddled up Apollo, put on Lola's orange vest, and away we went! By noon, the campground was empty, so I wasn't worried about Lola on the trail. We went exactly two miles, at an average of 2.1 mph. Lola got way ahead as usual, but did keep coming back to keep us company. We did some lovely trails, though the last bit was along the road. Once we got back, I did a little more work on the computer, then started saddling up Flash for a ride as well. Another camper came in by the time we left, so I left Lola tied up at the trailer. She'd never be able to keep up anyway. Even though we only did about 7.25 miles, we only took an hour and a few minutes, so you can tell, he was really booking! We got lots of cantering practice in today! The only practicing I got on Apollo was my patience! But Flash and I made up for it, speed demon that he is! All cantering and gaiting after the first mile. Gorgeous! Gave him a nice bath afterward, since he had worked up quite a sweat. The trails were all nice today, none were tilled up, and only a few area showed pig sign, so it was a gorgeous ride. Put most everything away before days end, settled down for the night. Quite a few more campers came in during my second ride, evidently ready for the hunt starting tomorrow, but no rangers came around to kick me out, so i guess all is good. Going to try to get to bed early, though I'm under orders to not arrive at the Florida 100 before noon, and it's more than 90 minutes away, so I guess I won't worry about rushing out of here in the morning! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, woke up refreshed and ready to go! Got Flash saddled up and headed out for our first ride here at the Hampton Tract. It started on the road, which was typical Florida limerock, but it had a good swale beside it, so it was no problem. After less than a mile it turned onto a much nicer grass trail, as we followed the perimeter trails in a counterclockwise direction. We soon came across some sections that had been seriously dug up by pigs, so I'm guessing they have a big pig problem here! That slowed us down some. Once we got past though, it was fabulous for quite a few miles, and Flash was raring to go! We eventually went past a couple of lakes on either side of the road, and went through some really enjoyable sections, and then we reached another road, where Flash really wanted to move. Not surprising since it was headed in the general direction of camp! When we turned off that, though, we ran into a couple of long stretches of trail that had obviously been recently tilled, presumable as a firebreak, with no remedial action taken to smooth it out, so it was truly horrible for awhile. Eventually we got past that, and headed back to camp at a lovely pace. Since I've booked my Serengeti trip, and since apparently they do a lot of cantering (the antithesis of my Yellowstone trip!), I decided I better get as much practice in as I could, so we did a LOT of cantering today. Flash was certainly up for it! We did 15 miles in about 2.5 hours, so we were keeping a pretty good pace! Very happy with the ride today. Gave him a nice shower when we got back, and he even resisted the urge to roll, so all is right with the world! Except I had a problem with my little video camera, I could get the lens cover to close. The last time this happened on my old camera, it was because a few hairs had gotten inside the cap, so in the evening, I set about trying to clean it out. OMG, I had no idea! I started tapping it lightly and blowing on it, and the amount of hair and other particles that came out was incredible! I tapped for nearly an hour, and got hundreds of bits of hairs and stuff out of it! I have no idea how it got that bad in such a short time. I've only had that camera since August! Anyway, I did as much as I could, then found a nice little cloth envelope to put it in, hopefully that will keep the dirt out better. What a chore! Anyway, finally got that done, then I had to reheat my tea because it had gone cold while that job dragged on, but I won't be long out of bed now! Good night, baby! Love you!