Archives for 2013

Despite all good intentions to ride today, we decided we needed a few things, so I ran into town to shop, while Hubby and the horses rested all day. Had a relaxing evening, though I still feel I have a long way to go before I’m truly relaxed. Wish I hadn’t had to spend time running around, but that’s the way it goes sometimes! Looking forward to a nice ride tomorrow.

After a reasonably pleasant evening last night, we managed to get quite a good night’s sleep, thank goodness, so we had better spirits this morning. Those, of course, immediately improved when we decided it was time to go for a ride. I had given Hubby some Alka-Seltzer fizzy cold tablets before he went back to bed yesterday, and that improved him tremendously, enough to be ready to ride today. We decided to take a fairly short ride today, just to get the horses sorted out, and we headed out about 1:00. We didn’t follow the trail exactly, some parts of it we took a main dirt road, but most of it was really lovely. Footing was mostly dirt with a few areas of stone, but not enough for us to be worried about putting boots on the horses, though we brought them along just in case. In about 75 minutes, we arrived across the road from the Visitor Center for the Kings Mountain Military Park, where we tied the horses to a hitching rail and walked across the road to the museum. We spent nearly an hour in the museum, looking with great interest at the various exhibits, which explained the occurrences on a particularly fateful day in 1789 when the local mountain men demolished a good portion of the British forces in the area, and making it one of the final nails in the Brits coffin in terms of American Independence. It was a particularly telling lesson, particularly after our run-in with our overbearing government yesterday. We didn’t have time to walk the battlefield, we’ll have to save that for another day! Anyway, the horses were brilliant, very well behaved, with Apollo especially good since I put some extra padding under his saddle. He never jumps anymore when going into a canter, confirming the problem has probably been his saddle all along! I can’t wait to try out my new bareback saddle, which I would have been using today if horse.com had sent it to the right shipping address, instead of my billing address, which was very disappointing when I discovered it a few weeks ago. Anyway, it will be waiting for me when we get home to Tennessee in a few weeks, I can’t wait to see how it works! Meanwhile, it was a very good ride, long enough to give everyone a good workout, short enough not to tire anyone out too much, about three hours of riding, so we got back around 5:00, just in time to feed everyone! A relaxing evening, and still, no sign of rain!

Woke up to a gorgeous morning, with sun breaking through the clouds, and me looking forward to getting in a nice ride today, since the weather had finally turned in our favor. Unfortunately Hubby wasn’t feeling very well, he thought he might have caught some kind of bug from the dampness of the past few days, so I assigned him sleep duty and sent him back to bed. Around about 11:00, a couple of guys were out mowing the grass and doing other landscaping chores, and they let us know that it was possible with all the rain that the road coming into the campground might run across the road, but we said it was no problem, as we weren’t planning on going anywhere until Friday, and the rain was mostly passed, except for one more possible bunch this afternoon or evening, plenty of time for high water to recede. Then after 2:00 in the afternoon, a ranger came by and informed us they were closing the campground, and that we HAD to LEAVE! I tried to point out that we weren’t leaving until Friday, and we were self-contained and didn’t need to go out, but no matter what argument I used, he was determined to force us to leave. I explained my husband wasn’t feeling well. No go. I showed him our high clearance vehicles that could easily traverse almost any water crossing. No go. I explained we didn’t have anyplace else to go, especially this late in the day, since it would take us a good two hours to pack up. No go. No matter what I said, he just became more belligerent. When I asked him what he would do if I simply refused, he claimed he would call for a tow truck and animal control and forcibly remove us!! Look, I get they want to keep us “safe,” but it created extremely difficult problems for us, and all because it MIGHT rain some more, and it MIGHT overflow the creek over the road, and it MIGHT make it temporarily impassible, and at that inopportune moment we MIGHT have an emergency that would require a first responder, blah, blah, blah! As much as I appreciate them notifying us of the possible danger, that should have been the end of it. It should ultimately be up to us, the citizen, to decide whether or not we’re willing to take the risk, not up to the jack-booted rangers to force us to do something that created immeasurably more difficulties for us. I even called the main ranger station and got the same nonsense from them, claiming the decisions had been made at the main office (who have no knowledge of the circumstances on the ground) and were equally intractable. So after much argument and bad feelings, Hubby had to crawl out of bed, get dressed, and start packing up everything. I told the ranger he could go away and come back in two hours, which is about how long we figured it would take us to pack up and leave, but he insisted on hovering over us (without helping, of course), treating us like a couple of prisoners and he was the warden. Very annoying. I finally had to ask the woman at the main ranger station to radio this guy and get him to back off, my attitude was not being helped by his overbearing presence, and he finally left. True to our timing, it was just after 4:00 before we were ready to go, and we passed him in sullen silence as we went through the campground gate, ignoring him completely. As we passed the bridge in question, we were stunned that the water was still several feet below the road, and unless they had tremendous amounts of rain (which only a little rain was forecast), it posed no threat whatsoever, so our entire episode was unnecessary. As soon as I could, I called ahead to Kings Mountain, which was the only horse camp between us and Charlotte, and we didn’t want to go further away considering we had to come back in a few days anyway, so we let them know we were coming, but that we couldn’t make it by 5:00. They said they’d keep an eye out for us, and true to their word, a nice young ranger was waiting for us when we arrived. We spent a few minutes dumping our black water while I checked in, then we headed down to the campground. At least there’s a cell phone signal here, though satellite is impossible, as it’s too wooded with no openings to point through. What a waste of a beautiful day! We ran into nothing but sun and partly cloudy skies, no sign of rain whatsoever, which did little to soothe my irritation, and, of course, the extent of my exhaustion from such a busy few months was such that I was a long way from full rest and recovery, so I was much more irritable than I ever like to be. Of course, it’s compounded by my ever-growing realization of just how close we are to a police state in this country, when we are forced to rescind our right to take care of ourselves and take risks and responsibilities on our own, and hand over that task to a government that continues to prove time and time again that they are not capable of looking after themselves, much less the citizenry. The day of revolt is coming, I fear, unless people wake up and realize just how bad it’s getting and change the political system back to a responsible republic, not the nanny-mothering (or should I say “smothering”) state that it’s rapidly becoming. Enough of my rant, I’ll be better once I get back on my horse!!

Rained all night and all day today, so other than looking after the horses, we spent the day reading and watching TV. Very valuable day for us to put more deposits in our sleep bank!

After another long and excellent night of sleeping, we decided the best thing to do today was as little as possible, so we broke out the Kindles and settled into our recliners for most of the day. Some rain came in during the afternoon, and the temps dropped a bit, so it’s just the kind of weather where you want to stay inside anyway! Enjoyed watching the Kentucky Derby (though I wish I had the ingredients for a mint julep, but I forgot about it last time we were in the liquor store), and listening to all the fuss about the rain and how it would affect the race. I’ll give NBC their due, it was the best coverage of the race we’ve seen in a long time! Usually they don’t pay hardly any attention to the horses, they make it all about the owners and trainers, but it seems they finally figured out it’s the HORSES people tune in to see. I guess that’s one good thing about social media, you get instant feedback on what you’re doing wrong! At least they apparently listened, because it certainly was better this time around, usually we skip through most of it, but this year they actually got our attention. Anyway, more rain here as well as in Lexington, so another quiet evening for us.

It was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy today, but my mail had arrived at the Chester Post Office (after a brief interlude when it got lost because I switched a single zip code digit), so I ran into town to pick it up, as well as do a few more errands that had come up. It was raining by the time I got back around 5:00, and the forecast seems to indicate we’re going to be socked in for a few days. We would really like to ride here, but it’s more important for us the recharge our bodily batteries after such a long stretch with few real breaks, and frankly, a few rainy days will be just the thing. We went ahead a put a rain sheet on the Clio, as she had been shivering a tiny bit this morning from the damp cold, and later put one on Apollo as well, in anticipation of the forecast. I slept better last night than I have in a LONG time, and a few more nights like that are just what I need! Relaxed the rest of the evening, looking forward to another good night sleep.

Feeling renewed after a good night’s sleep, we packed up, got the horses in the trailer, and were headed out before 11:00. It’s only a 90 minute or so drive, so we weren’t in too much of a hurry, though we had a couple of stops to make. Fortunately, while I thought I would have to circle the town of York to get everything we needed, it turns out we had everything right along the main highway, so we were able to get everything in short order. We arrived at Woods Ferry just after 2:00, with Hubby a little confused. He had had a completely different image of the place in his mind, and I had to spend some time jogging his memory of our last time here, which was three years ago! Thank goodness I’m keeping a diary or I would never remember any of this stuff! It had been a horrendous trip down last time, suffering two flat tires on the same day, and several other things occurred that finally helped him remember. Anyway, although my diary says we got a satellite signal at the place we parked last time, Hubby wasn’t sure he could do it again (maybe there are more leaves on the trees this time or something), but in any event, we found a better spot higher up the loop anyway. I’m pretty sure these spots were all full last time we came here, because it was Easter weekend and we didn’t arrive until Friday. That was back when we first were horsecamping, and hadn’t yet learned to arrive on Thursdays to get the best spots : -). Anyway, we got the horses settled into their two open corrals, and got everything else set up in no time. Home again, home again, with a new backyard! LOVE being surrounded by the woods again, how I need this!

Although we had planned on leaving to go to Woods Ferry today, I was so exhausted I just couldn’t muster the energy. Much as I want to get out into the woods and relax, my attitude was just too crabby and I felt like I had the possible beginnings of a cold, so we decided it would be better if I just stayed in bed and got as much sleep as I could, so that’s what we did. It’s hard to sleep parked in someone’s back yard, though, especially a busy working farm like this one, where there’s always some activity going on, even if it’s just the roosters!

Didn’t have too great a night sleep, again. I had asked housekeeping to try to do something with the lumps in my bed, and they didn’t do anything, so when I crawled into bed and discovered all the lumps again, I got back up, stripped the bed, and found the offending lumps, and learned the reason was because the corners on the bed liner (which was covering an uncomfortable, non-breathing plastic mattress cover) had completely melted on one side, which accounted for the lumps. I had to call down and have housekeeping bring another one, which turned out to be even worse! Very disappointed in this hotel! In any event, fortunately, my flight was scheduled for late in the day, so I once again didn’t get much sleep overnight, but finally got into a deep sleep around dawn, so at least got a few hours before having to get up and pack. Had an uneventful but comfortable flight home, a tiring drive back to the farm, happy reunions with Hubby and animals, and brief evening before crashing to bed.

What a terrible night! This turned out to be the worst night I’ve had in a long time, if that’s possible. There were creases in the layers below the sheets that formed welts on my body, the sheets were flat and wouldn’t stay in place, so they were constantly bunching up and creating lumps, which woke me up practically every hour. I kept trying to smooth them out, but it was impossible, and the sheets were really rough, too. Then the alarm clock went off at 3:30, and I punched every button I could feel in the dark, hoping I had shut it off permanently, but worrying that it would come on again. Just managed to drift off to sleep when all of a sudden, the TV came on at 4:12 am! I had to scramble to find the remote, and because I hadn’t even turned it on the night before, I didn’t know which was the power button, so I had to struggle with that for a minute. I was still worried about the alarm clock, so I decided to turn the light on and straighten that out, then went back to bed, waiting a long time to get back to sleep, but finally did, and fell into a very deep sleep until 9:00. Good thing my event wasn’t until the afternoon!!! If I had had to get up to do a training session at my usual time, I would have been a real mess! I took my time getting out of bed and getting ready, but before noon I headed downstairs to join my group for lunch. I sat through a couple of presentations before they split into plenary sessions, so I went up to my room again for a little while. Finally, it was time. Came downstairs, made a few lighting changes on the stage, and performed my 90 minute keynote speech/training to a quiet crowd of 150 engineers, but they received me well and seemed to enjoy themselves. Afterward, several came up to me to speak with me, then we headed out to a cocktail party with heavy hors d’oeuvres that substituted for dinner (which was fine with me!), before we headed to the company’s entertainment section (called the Mike & Mike Show), which was a series of team exercises that were very entertaining, and in some cases, quite a workout! Very fun, and a great break fro the stress I’ve been dealing with for many weeks now. Headed up to the room, looking forward to a better night sleep.