Got a nice early start today, took an hour less to get ready since I didn't have to load the trailer, then move, then unload the trailer, then load the horses, the load the trailer again, like I had to do at Coldwater, so things went a lot faster. We were out by about 8:30, and since we had had a sewer hook-up, we didn't even have to make a dump stop. We dropped a Fedex box at the office, as I had made arrangements for a pickup here today, with labs that are essential for Hubby to get an in-center dialysis session next week on our business trip to Nebraska. Things were going great until I got a phone call from Fedex wanting to know where in the campground we were located because they couldn't go searching all over for us to pick up the package. I called them and learned they were trying to find us at Wolf Creek Campground in southern Illinois! Evidently, all of the information about being at McCulley Farms was completely ignored, they just went back to an address we had used ONCE about 10 MONTHS AGO!! How stupid can you get??? I argued with them for a long time, explaining that this was literally and truly a matter of life and death, and they said they would "try" to get the driver to go back and get the package. They wanted me to meet the driver at a Flying J 15 minutes from McCulley Farms (we were already 100 miles from there), and it only got worse from there. After we had gone through the Ag stop on I-75 south of Lake City, our ETA at our friend Cherryl's horse farm was 12:30, which was spectacular. I had planned on arriving early, doing some socializing to get caught up, and then dialyzing Hubby this afternoon. But you know how it is with the best-laid plans! We were only about an hour or so from our desitnation in Dade City when I suddenly felt something change in the feel of my truck. I suddenly had no power steering, no brakes, and my battery light came, which I realized meant my serpentine belt had given way, darn it! Fortunately there was an exit a half mile away, with a mechanic shop just on the other side of the overpass, so I parked along the exit ramp and walked over. They managed to drive it over, checked it out, ordered the part, tried to talk me into a bunch of other stuff, and charged me $250 to change the belt, including $35 for "shop supplies," $94 for a belt my mechanic says costs about $40, and charged me more than an hour of labor @ $130/hour, even though it only took about 10 minutes to do the job. What can I say, we were a captive audience with no place else to go, darn it. That episode set us back a couple of hours, but we managed to get on the road and still get to Cherryl's by around 2:30, with me still arguing with Fedex almost the entire way. What is it with them? Why can't they just say YES and be good at customer service, rather than NO, NO, NO and making enemies? Again, mostly captive audience, I guess. In the end, they promised to get the package picked up today, and eventually left me a voice mail saying they had, so I guess the labs are on the way. After getting set up and the horses settled in, plus a bit of catching up, it was too late to dialyze Hubby today (and I was a bit too irritated to focus after all the crap that happened). Our hosts fed us a spectacular meal, which went a long way to assuage my stress, and we finally settled in for the evening before heading to bed in this quiet, and (finally) dark place!
Archives for November 2018
Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018 – Travel Day to Richer Farms, with Belt Blowout
Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018 – Ride Day With Nancy
While feeding the horses this morning I got into a chat with the group that had been camping next to the covered stalls, and in particular, a woman named Nancy who also has a Paso Fino. She invited me to ride with her, but I told her I’d have to see how Hubby was feeling this morning, in case he felt up to riding. Generous Hubby said, by all means, take a ride with another Paso Fino person and see what happens, so that’s what I did. Flash was calm for about the first half mile, then after that he started getting really fussy, jumping and pulling, at times he literally was cantering in place! Not sure what got into him, except maybe he wanted to move out more, but Nancy was working on teaching her horse to just walk quietly, so I didn’t want to interfere with that. There were a couple of times I let him run, though, but evidently not enough, because he kept prancing almost all the rest of the time. What a workout! Flash worked up quite a sweat, too! We were out for nearly two hours, so it was a good workout for everyone. Nancy was pleased her horse stayed calm through Flash’s histrionics, even bumping into her a couple of times. Crazy horse, don’t know what got into him, he was perfect last week! Anyway, got him put away, then spent the rest of the afternoon dialyzing Hubby before settling in for the evening.
Friday, Nov. 16, 2018 – Cold Morning Followed By a Shopping Day
Last night, I put one too many electrical appliances on and set the circuit breaker off. Unfortunately, there aren’t individual breakers on the box that I was plugged into, which is the typical setup, and it was too dark to go looking for the breaker, so we just took it as a sign to go to bed. Since we didn’t have the electric fireplace to keep us warm, I turned on the gas furnace. Naturally, we ran out of propane halfway through the night, and, of course, it was the coldest night of our entire stay, close to freezing, so it was a chilly start to the day! Took the opportunity this morning to run up to Valdosta to do some shopping, though we forgot to take the propane tanks with us to refill, so grateful we have four LP tanks on this trailer! Did our running around, then got back to camp in time to dialyze, and that was it for the day, other than taking care of the horses, of course!
Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018 – More Rain
Another day of cold rain, cutting into our plan to leave today. Did little else except look after the horses and dialyze Hubby, though I did put a few things away in anticipation of our departure tomorrow. Temp supposed to get below freezing overnight, so hoses came in, along with whatever else I could pre-load. To bed early, for an early morning wake-up tomorrow!
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018 – Rain
Rain, rain and more rain today. Temps dropped overnight, so it ended up being a cold rain. Happy the horses were under shelter, but starting to get tired of the rain!
Monday, Nov. 12, 2018 – Veteran’s Day with Shopping
It started raining overnight, and kept raining all day today. Since we couldn’t ride, and we needed a few things, we decided to drive into Milton about 25 miles away for a meal and shopping. I had to take the hay out of the back of the truck and put it under the gooseneck. I only hope it doesn’t puddle under there too much, some of the hay’s gone a little moldy already from the rain we had the other day. Went into town to the Tractor Supply for a new manure rake (my old one kept breaking tines for some reason) and a few odds and ends, had lunch at a nice little Diner called Ace, and they let us hang around and do some computer work that I desperately needed to do. Finally a trip to Walmart for the rest of the items we needed, mostly things to help get our new “cabin” more organized, now that I’ve got everything in it. Miracle of miracles, Hubby decided to WALK around the store! That may not sound like much, but he hasn’t attempted to do that in over a year, always opting for a scooter cart to get him around, so it’s obvious that a horseback ride and a glass of wine (which he had for the first time in a long time last night) is the key to strengthening his legs! SO HAPPY! Got back to camp a bit later than we hoped, so his dialysis session started late and ended late, but we’re determined to be in bed early from now on, since it gets so dark so early these days! It will be better once we get into Eastern time, but at the moment, it’s pitch black by 5:30, even earlier with the rain! Well, it is well-lit here, so feeding in the dark isn’t too bad, just soggy lately. Off to bed around 10, later than we wanted, but as early as we could under the circumstances.