Archives for June 2015

Thursday, June 18, 2015 – Travel Day to West Branch State Park, OH

A quick bowl of cereal, final payment of the bill, stowing of hay, and we were off before 8:30, hoping against hope that we could avoid rain today. It’s been so rainy almost everyday, and while it is thankfully much cooler up here than it was at Deam Lake, the rain has made everything damp, and lots of fields around here have standing water in them. Though it was misty and cloudy, we managed to stay dry most of the day. Rather than taking the expensive and crowded toll road east, we decided to take a southern route, a bit longer but much more pleasant, breaking at regular intervals to eat, get fuel and propane, walk the dogs and so on, until we arrived in the area of the state park around 3:00. My GPS took me to the wrong place, and there was terrible signage, so we had to park and call to find out directions, which we finally got. Then I missed a turn and had to go a couple of miles out of my way to find a place to turn around. We finally made it to the office, where a new girl had no clue how to register me without a reservation, so she had to get help. The older woman wasn’t a lot better, in the end having to call the park manager on instructions of what to do! Then we discovered that despite what their website says, there is no water, heavily ironed or otherwise at the horse camp, which was going to make things a bit more dicey. We went down to the dump station area and filled up with fresh water, including some in the horse tank so we would have enough for at least a day or two. Then we took the long, narrow road down to the horse camp, discovering that very few sites offered a good shot at a satellite signal, and those were on a slope that would require us to unhook if we had a hope of getting level, which was also necessary because the sites were so short we couldn’t stay hooked up anyway without blocking the road. There were a few sites that were level, but with all the rain, they were super-soggy, plus didn’t have a shot at a satellite signal, so we did the best we could. Unfortunately, we were so worried about being level front to back, we didn’t really take notice of side-to-side until we hooked up, then we realized we were at a definite list to the left. By this time, it was nearly 6:00, so we decided not to mess with it anymore tonight, as Hubby wanted to get the satellite dish up. While this usually doesn’t take much time, for some reason we could never get power from the receiver to the satellite dish, something that usually only takes hooking up the coaxial cable, but for some reason, the power wasn’t getting through. We messed around with THAT for more than an hour, until a thunderstorm came in and we gave up for the time being. I fixed dinner for us and the dogs (who had spent several hours exploring), and afterwards got the horses put away on the cable high lines they have here (they were on their anchors, happily munching nice green grass and clover), before we finally settled down for a movie on DVR. As it was raining pretty steadily, I put some buckets under several of the RV’s gutters, figuring that might solve the horse water problem, at least! Considering there’s rain in the forecast every day while we’re here, it may be all we need. Bed by ten!

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 – Repair Day

Had to get up at the crack of dawn today, in order to get to Open Range early enough for them to hopefully complete the work today. Arrived at 7:15, was met by Joe, who was a very cheerful guy, who walked us through all the work we had agreed upon. Once we disconnected the truck and parked it, Hubby and I hopped into the van and headed up the road a half block to a nice little Amish cafe for breakfast. Shipshewana is so Amish it’s a tourist attraction, we saw dozens of horse and carriages along the road throughout the day. We went to a feed store on the same road and found some weight builder for Clio, who seems to be holding steady on her weight, but too thin for our liking. She’s lost a lot of her top line, and her hips seem a bit caved in. The store expert agreed with me that it was more muscle loss than anything, so he hooked us up with some stuff that he said would address that, rather than just a high calorie, high fat supplement. Drove out to a Walmart in a nearby town, considered going to a movie to kill the afternoon but decided against it because they all were too long and wouldn’t get us back to the RV place in time, so we just drove back to Shipshewana. For some reason, the dogs’ leashes were left in my truck, so I rescued those and took the dogs for a quick walk outside the repair shop. Then we spoke to Bill, and he checked on the progress and said it would be done in about 45 minutes, so we just hung around talking with some other folks for a while. In the end, they fixed a lot of stuff that we hadn’t talked about, but did it as though it was under warranty, for which we were very grateful. In addition to fixing the panel that had been creamed when a tire blew, they put a new motor in the slide where the desk is, instead of putting a new switch in the power jack (which had just quit working a couple of days ago) they put in a whole new jack, and instead of just putting a new bracket on the paddle fan (which also just went a couple of days ago, and which we’ve replaced several times before), they put in a whole new paddle fan. Unfortunately, when they went to close up the slides, they didn’t stop to make sure the blades were clear (a flaw they’ve apparently fixed on later models), so they ended up breaking the fan bracket again, and had to replace it entirely again! I had also hoped they could fix my bathroom fan, the sensor had quit working and it wouldn’t go up except manually, so they replaced the fan and the switch entirely, though they didn’t put in a rain sensor type like I had, it was just a plain raise/lower, off/on setup. Too bad, I liked the rain sensor one, when it was working. They ran out of time for fixing the digital antenna that we broke off last year near Fort Robinson, NE, but they sold us one that I suppose we’ll be able to install easily enough. Anyway, a lot got done, and the unit looks great, and we didn’t pay for hardly anything beyond the initial repair estimate, so we were happy. Hooked up and got back to Circle J by about 5:30, deciding not to bother with electric tonight so we could leave the electrical cords stowed. Bill came around to collect on the bill, but we had a small dispute about how much it was supposed to be (I had written evidence, so in the end, he agreed with my numbers), plus I wanted to buy 5 bales of their hay, which was quite nice, and which Clio seemed at least halfway interested in. Finally settled down after a long and tiring day, setting the alarm for a bit later. Another long drive tomorrow, but with the days as long as they are now, no sense in getting up at the crack of dawn again!

Tuesday, June 16, 2015 – Rest Day

IMG_20150616_165308Indeed, we did get a day of rest today, though for some reason, I didn’t sleep very well, waking up several times through the night. Nevertheless, we relaxed most of the day, and I even walked down to the river with my fishing equipment and the dogs, and spent awhile down there, catching just one fish, not enough for dinner, so I let it go. A quiet evening as well.

Monday, June 15, 2015 – Travel Day to Circle J at White Pigeon, MI

As we have an appointment Wednesday at the Open Range manufacturer to have them do some body work on the RV (we had a tire tread come off and tear up a long section of skirting), I found a place fairly close by that could accommodate us and the horses. We left Deam Lake by 8:00, and other than stopping once for fuel, we had another uneventful drive to Circle J, which is literally just a block into Michigan, and about 20 minutes from the RV place. We ran through some rain, but not enough to ruin the few bales of hay and alfalfa I still had in the bed of the pickup, and arrived at the same moment our hosts did, right at 2:00. They welcome us warmly and we were set up quickly. We had our choice of paddocks, so we put them in one that had a pretty good stand of clover, hoping that Clio would eat enough of that to help stop her downhill weight spiral. We’ve added a lot more commercial feed to her diet in an effort slow her weight loss down, and that seems to be helping, but sometime in the next couple of days we need to find some weight builder supplements to get her back on the weight gaining side of the scales. Definitely not doing to bother setting up the satellite dish here, too short term to worry about. Hubby did have to rewire his plug because we got a fault from the inverter that the polarity was reversed on the 30 amp plug we had available to us, but one that was done, we settled down for the afternoon. Hoping for another good night sleep, and a restful day tomorrow, before things get hectic again later in the week.

Sunday, June 14, 2015 – Another Rest and Prep Day

I finally got a good night sleep, the first since we’ve been here, since previous nights I was too tired to get a deep sleep, oddly. Felt really great today, though not enough to go riding (at least, Hubby wasn’t ready), so it looks like we’ll have to come back here again to try out the trails. Relaxed most of the day, it was a tiny bit cooler but still too hot to ride, to our minds. Besides, we had to do a little prep work for our departure tomorrow. The new dog Lola has been having a blast going swimming in the lake, I’ve enjoyed fishing (though I never managed to catch anything) and even little Billy seemed to enjoy exploring. He and Lola are getting along better all the time (though he still growls occasionally when she gets too much into his “space”) but they’re playing more and more everyday, and Billy does his best to accomplish the impossible task of keeping up with her. He seems to have more energy and is certainly not gaining weight any more, as he’s racing around trying to keep up with those long legs of Lola’s. Got everything put away before dark, and set the alarm for another early morning.

Saturday, June 13, 2015 – Runaround Day

After determining we were both too tired and it was too hot to take a ride, and noticing now that the horses were in separate stalls that Hubby’s mare wasn’t eating her alfalfa hardly at all, I brought the horses down by the campsite so they could eat some fresh grass, then took a road trip to do some shopping, picking up several different types of hay, hoping to find one Clio would like. A hay grower sold me Timothy and gave me a quarter bale of orchard grass, and I bought another bale of “local” alfalfa, at least according to the store I bought it from, but it didn’t look like any alfalfa I’ve ever seen, looked more like orchard grass, but the hay guy did indicate local alfalfa looks different from western alfalfa (though the stuff we bought in Texas was from Michigan!) so I took it anyway. The more I look at it though, the more convinced I am it’s not alfalfa. Anyway, when I got back I put a flake of all four types down on the ground and let Clio sniff and pick, and she started chowing down on the “local” alfalfa. That was a relief, at least it wasn’t her appetite that was the problem, now we just have to settle on some kind of forage for her, though I’m still confused as to which it is that she likes! She ignored the Timothy completely, picked a little at the original alfalfa, but seemed to tuck in okay on the other two. Hopefully we can find some more of whatever it is! Got gas and some groceries while I was out, so we’re good to go on the next leg of our journey.

Friday, June 12, 2015 – Rest Day

Other than getting the satellite dish set up, and me going fishing down at the lake with the dogs for a while, we had a very relaxing day, though still too tired to really appreciate it. Another really hot and humid day, too hot to go riding, even if we had the energy, which we didn’t!

Thursday, June 11, 2015 – Finally Back on the Road Again!!

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After a month of cleaning, first the house, then the RV, visiting doctors and veterinarians, and generally doing the mundane activities of which life is made, and spending our 26th wedding anniversary yesterday doing nothing by desperately trying to get ready to leave today, we finally were able to hit the road this morning, albeit exhausted. Because the van was in the body shop for two weeks, we were only able to get it back late Tuesday night, so we only had Wednesday to empty it out, clean it, sort through everything and reduce it down to the minimum of stuff we wanted to carry (which we've been doing with all our vehicles, and figure we've lightened the load by at least several hundred pounds). We went non-stop all day yesterday, but finally quit about 7:00, to tired to lift another finger! Setting the alarm for about 5:30, we woke up tired, and stayed tired during our all day drive from home to Deam Lake State Recreation Area in Indiana, just north of Louisville, KY. What a nice horse camp! Manicured like a state park, it had numerous full barns, little cabins, sites right on the water, 50 amp electricity and water spigots scattered through the campground. Thankfully, the drive was relatively uneventful, except the brake controller in the van seemed to stop working, but Hubby just turned it down and let the van brakes do the work, though we took a longer route in order to avoid going through Manchester, which had just opened the doors to a very large music festival called Bonnaroo that was tying up traffic big time. We got the horses settled in, then us, and we quickly crashed, not even bothering to set up the satellite dish we were so tired. Got to bed, though not as early as we should have, glad to be back on the road again, at last! Hot, hot, hot today, glad we had electric, had to run both AC units to keep the RV cool!