Archives for May 2020

Hey Sweetie,
Another busy day here at Loretta Lynn's Wrangler Camp. More trailers came in throughout the day, but I managed to dissuade everyone coming in from parking in the spot next to me, because the handle on the water spigot was missing, and true to form, it didn't get fixed today, so hopefully, my front yard will continue to be an opening in the row, which many people are starting to use as a pathway from row to row. I slept a bit later because I couldn't get to sleep very well last night, but Callie and I were back on the trail before 11:00. I had planned a shorter route today, one that took us out to the Western Town, but we got turned around a couple of times, again, despite following my GPS, because the intersections are so poorly marked it's pitiful. On one wrong trail we met a couple of women who were also trying to find a way to town, so they ended up following us as we backtracked up a hill to get back to the right trail. We eventually came out behind the old town church, but instead of following the trail out on the loop I had planned, they wanted to go into town, so we followed the road into the town, only to be met with a "No horses beyond this point" sign. But friends of these two women were already in the town, they apparently didn't see the sign, but I found a way around the back and we met up with them just as they were leaving. I wanted to get back to the trail loop, but the women followed the part of the group that went back by road, while three of their riders, two men and a woman, decided to join us on the trail back. I managed to get us back with only one missed turn, but that just was a shortcut across a loop anyway, and by that time, we were already much longer than I had expected, so that was fine. We got back to camp and Callie helped me tremendously getting the horses put away. After her parents came to get her, I took Lola back down to the creek to play fetch for awhile, then as I was walking back, Bubba, the trail boss with the mules who let me put the paddock up for the horses behind his trailer, told me I should take a walk along the creek and join "the party" that was back there. Members of the Lynn family were gathered back there, along with some other friends, and there was a karioke setup and a number of folks were singing, and a lot of people had obviously been drinking and more most of the afternoon, so many were very merry. I met a woman who went gaga over Lola, she had a German short-hair named EmmyLou that she took out of her cage to introduce her. They seemed to get along okay. While we were chatting, we heard some live a cappella singing, and her eyes got big and she said, "That's him!" And I asked, "Who?", and she said "Kid Rock!" Evidently he's a friend of the family and came out for the day (maybe more, I don't know), and he ended up getting roped into singing several songs with some help from other friends and family. Quite the party! I probably stayed for close to an hour, though some of that was keeping an eye on some kids (and some adults, too) who were playing with Lola. After that I fed the horses and headed up to the riders meeting where I learned a bit more about what the plan is for the week (I literally couldn't find hardly any information on the internet!), then I headed up to where Callie and her family were camped up on the hill and they fed me an incredible steak dinner, a HUGE piece of meat I could only eat half of, but her mom Tracy gave me a bag to bring the rest home, very nice! We sat by the campfire and chatted, got to see the space station fly over (they had no idea you could do that, and they loved it!), and chatted some more before I finally had to come home. Breakfast is only from 6:30 to 8:00, so it's going to be an early morning! Took my shower as soon as I got home, now it's off the bed for me. Good night, my love!

Hi Baby,
Another good night sleep, though there's a lot more street lights here, but with the blackout drapes it doesn't matter! Had a leisurely morning before saddling up the horses and having Callie come down for our ride together. I created a map on Google Earth and downloaded it on to my GPS because I have memories of getting lost here last time. I put the boots on the horses, too, because I remember it was rocky in spots. Actually, it was mostly rocky on the trails we took, and despite my diligence with the GPS we STILL managed to get lost a couple of time. The trails aren't very well marked, especially the intersections, and there are so many renegade trails out there you can hardly tell which way you're going half the time. Lots of really steep hills, too, though Callie did great. She didn't mind the uphills so much, but the downhills made her understandably nervous, she was afraid of going over Apollo's head, but she managed very well. We went over 7 miles, which was longer than I had planned, almost three hours, but everyone did really well, and it was a gorgeous dry day for a change, so we were all happy campers by the time we got back! Callie's parents came down to get her, and we sat and chatted again for awhile before they left, they're taking her out to dinner for her birthday tonight. I inflated the river tube I had bought at Walmart yesterday, and took Lola down to the water where we played with the frisbee while I sat in shallow water in my ring. I actually had her towing me upstream occasionally to keep me from drifting too far away. The water was quite cool, since we haven't really had any terribly hot weather, at least not enough to warm up the creek, and the nights have been cool as well, but that's supposed to change later in the week, going up into the 90's. Trailers kept coming in all day and now it's getting really crowded. You would hate it! I'm just glad I came early so I could claim a good, big spot to fence in the horses, people coming in today are picketing them everywhere, every tree is taken. After I fed the horses I stopped at a couple of my neighbors to chat, met some folks who live in West Georgia, and some others that live near Coldwater in Milton, FL. I'm sure I'll meet even more in the coming days, it would be good to create a personal network of fellow horsecampers, in addition to the ones from my Facebook group. After dark and dinner, I took Lola for a walk, and ended up following the sound of music to a campfire a few trailers up, where some of my other neighbors had joined in, and I listened for a bit. You would have hated it, too. Apparently they're here to do a concert at some point, don't know when, with some other musicians that are supposed to be joining them. It was only vocal and guitar right now. In between songs that frankly got lamer and lamer as time wore on, half-finished, questionable lyrics, the two guys and some of their followers started telling stories that devolved into bathroom humor, humiliation of their friends in public places and sex jokes, so I didn't stay around very long. Sorry, I just don't find that kind of immature humor very funny. I was kind of hoping for the opportunity of a preview audience for my Snowy River bit, but most of that crowd wouldn't have appreciated it, and besides, it was more their "show," so I didn't want to intrude. I'd rather find a more receptive audience for that. Anyway, back in the trailer, finished off one DS9, now I'm off to shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetheart,
Well, it never rained last night, at least not noticeably, and the partiers didn't bother me again because I had my earplugs in, so I got a good night sleep. Once again, the forecasters were all over the map, from 20 to 60+ percent chance of rain. I decided after breakfast I was going out anyway, though Carol decided not to go, so I saddled up Flash, put the orange vest on Lola, a precaution I've been doing lately so I can see here when she dodges off into the woods, and headed back up Bucksnort. My plan today was to try to knock off as many of the main trails as possible, just so I would have a complete GPS map, so I headed on to Oak trail, but only got about 2/3 of a mile before I hit a marsh. If we were having a drought, I might have tried to go around it, but with all the rain, I didn't want to take any chances, so I turned around and went back to Bucksnort. I followed that clear up to I-40 before turning around, then took Clem, going in the opposite direction from where we took it the other way, just to see how far I could get. At one point, I made a wrong turn and ended up at a house with a sign that said "Trails End" which had a watering trough, but it wasn't on the map. I figured out from my mapping program where I went wrong and headed back south again, and was able to find an easy passage over a couple of small streams to the rest of Clem, so I was able to make a complete circuit. Not quite sure why we turned back on it last time, it looked pretty easy coming from this way, I think maybe we just tried to cross in the wrong place. Anyway, from there I went on a couple of sections of trail I had been on before, and just before I was deciding whether to take the slow route or the fast route back to camp, a great crash of thunder boomed overhead, so we opted for the fast route, back to Bucksnort, where we cantered and largoed most of the way back to camp. I managed to get Flash unsaddled and even washed with the citronella shampoo as the skies darkend and the thunder kept booming, but in the end, it never did rain here, though Carol said it rained at her house, which was right by the freeway, apparently I almost rode to it today. Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading, playing a few computer games, and nodding of in a nap every once in a while. I fed the horses early trying to beat another rainstorm that seemed to be building up on radar, but that never came in either! Very strange weather, but I'm glad I've avoided getting rained on the last few days! There's a higher chance tomorrow, but supposedly not until late in the afternoon, but we'll see. I don't believe any of it anymore! I took my shower early and settled down early, too, planning on going to bed early as well. Trying to move my body clock a little, been staying up too late. So I'm posting this early in the hopes that I will, in fact, get to bed earlier! So good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Well, you can tell it's a holiday weekend, there were a few campsites that partied well into the night! Thank goodness I've gotten into the habit of wearing earplugs to bed, which I usually do to drown out the sound of the rain and early morning birds, but last night it was the partiers, I guess. I didn't hear them much, but when I went around to visit the woman who stopped by yesterday, she said they were still going strong and loud at 3:30 in the morning when she got up to look after her horses. One of the highline poles apparently broke during the night, so she was out taking care of that. Anyway, I never heard a thing so I had a great night sleep! I'm really getting peeved at the weather forecasters, though. I had one forecast say there's a 20% chance of rain today, and another say there's an 80% chance of rain! Well, both said it would be after noon, so I decided to get out on the trail early, mostly just to avoid the inevitable crowd that was going to be out there. I managed to get out with Apollo just after 9:00, heading out on a route I had planned, but which, of course, I didn't follow. My GPS had trouble acquiring satellites for a while, and by the time it finally found me, I was already off course. Trouble is, some of the renegade trails don't look much different than the trails on the map, none of them are maintained properly. There are so many trees down, and obviously many have been down for months if not years, and no one clears it out, so the main trails look just as difficult to pass as the renegade trails. Anyway, I've got a better handle on how the park is laid out now, so I wasn't worried, I knew about where I'd end up no matter what happened. I brought Lola along, though I put her on a leash until we got out of the campground, it's so crowded with people and kids and dogs, but we managed okay. The trails were slippery after all the rain yesterday and overnight, but Apollo was his usual sure-footed self, and did just fine. We only ran into two riders on the way back, and I think I've seen one of them before at the Skymont Endurance race, but frankly, I only say that because it's rare to see a black guy riding a gaited horse out on the trails, and I know I've seen that once or twice before, but I can't guarantee it's the same guy, I seldom look at faces anyway, I'm usually looking at the horses. It was a nice ride, and it went from cloudy to full sunshine by the time I got back to camp. It never did rain! Grrrr! That's okay, if it's nice tomorrow, I'll take a long ride with Carol on Flash. Meanwhile, when I got back to the trailer and went into the kitchen to make breakfast, I discovered water on the floor. Yet another flood, dang it! I'm getting tired of finding floods on the floor! Fortunately, it was only small one, and I found about where it's coming from, but not exactly. I'll have to take a couple of panels and some components off to find it, from the looks of it. But it was related to the ice-maker again, so I just turned off the valve for that, and it stopped pretty quick. Sigh... Another job! I was hoping after I got my taxes done I'd have a few days without anything pressing to do, but no, there always has to be something to add to the list as soon as one thing is checked off! Not complaining, though, I'm still living my dream life, and these little challenges are just there to keep my on my toes! Otherwise I might get bored, now that I don't have you around keeping me occupied! I was back so early, though, I had the whole day to myself, waiting for the non-existent rain to come in, so I sat in the screen room and finished the book I was reading, played a few games on my computer, nodded off in my chair despite all the noise around me, and generally just relaxed, just like you're supposed to on a holiday weekend. Lola sat in the other chair watching all the activity, people and cars and horses and dogs going by. She was fine except she felt compelled to bark everytime a dog went by, nothing else bothered her after a few hours, which is a good thing! Anyway, that's been my day. Heading off to shower and bed! Good night, baby. Love you!