Per their promise to take us riding, Jeff and I ran down to his neighbor's in his Toro so that we could go for a ride on the camel, as this was the last day the trainer would be here. Turns out they have quite the sanctuary back there, with two camels, some zebras and donkeys, a variety of other exotics, as well as some ordinary chickens and swans. Anyway, there was a woman with three little kids there getting a ride, so we had to wait a bit for them to finish, the brother Jeff took his ride, followed by me. I'd never done a camel before, so it was interesting, though not something I'd want to do regularly! Glad we did it, though, I'm usually up for new experiences, no doubt! Glad we did it, sorry Hubby didn't feel up to coming along, but we had a good time. Nice day!
Archives for December 2018
Monday, Dec. 3, 2018 – Travel Day to Brother Jeff’s
Got up bright and early for our departure today, getting everything all packed up and ready to go before winding our way through the fences to pick up the horses and head on out of town! It was a VERY hot day, with temps increasing to over 90 degrees. I had checked the air in our tires on the trailer and found all but one in the 90 psi range, though technically with the weight of our trailer, we really needed to be at the max of 123 or so. These are 16-ply, load range H tires, all in very good condition, but one was down to about 85 pounds. I had tried to fill it up with air with our little compressor, but it quit before it got to that tire, so that one was still down when we left, unfortunately. Naturally, that tire exploded just north of Okeechobee, about an hour from brother Jeff’s house, along the narrow, two-lane section of 441. Fortunately, there was some construction that was holding traffic down to one lane, so there were long time periods of no traffic coming our way, which simplified the job. Unfortunately, the 4-prong tire wrench I had didn’t have the right size wrench, and while I was looking for the torque wrench and a socket that would fit, a nice man from the ranch across the road stopped to help. He had the right wheel wrench size, and he had the tires changed in just a few minutes. Of course, I offered to pay him, but he refused, only saying he hoped if his wife was in trouble, someone would help her. PASS IT FORWARD! Love country folks, honored to call myself one! Anyway, once everything was put away and thanks were exchanged, we headed back down the road, hoping the rest of the tires hold up till we got to Jeff’s, and fortunately they did. We arrived later than we hoped, of course, so we parked in front of the house until we could finish work on the area he had cleared for us back by the barn over the next few days. He made us some dinner, which I really appreciated because we were so tired, and went to bed, looking forward to a cold front that was supposed to be arrived the next day, it was just too dang hot here for this time of year!
Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 – Housekeeping, Dialyze and Dinner with Hosts
Slept LATE!!! Yay!! Best night sleep in the trailer since we left home! Can’t understand why I hadn’t figured this out sooner, I guess I’ve just had too much going on to stop and think it through. Anyway, I slept past 9:30, which felt wonderful, then got up and grained the horses (Rich had already given them their hay for the day) and spent the day cleaning the trailer, reorganizing a few things, putting up some more hooks for hanging stuff, storing the suitcases back in the “attic,” changing out Lola’s dog bed (this one is just too big, so it’s going in the back seat of the truck.) I’ll get her another one with sides that’s the right size, so as not to take up the entire laundry room in the trailer. Dialyzed Hubby, then had a lovely dinner up at the big house with our hosts, chatted until well after nine before heading back to the trailer. Hubby was a bit more tired tonight, his blood pressure was quite low for much of his session, so we were in bed right afterward. Hoping for another good night sleep tonight! Could use a few more like last night!