Archives for September 2020

Hey darlin’!
A decent night sleep, this time I thought I’d try it without earplugs, and I woke up a time or two until the workers came in and started using their heavy equipment to haul more gravel out to the trail repairs. Made a final plan for the rest of the few trails I haven’t done out here yet, and saddled up Apollo after breakfast. He’s such an old slug these days, a four-mile trip took nearly two full hours, the slowpoke! But it wasn’t a bad ride, and Lola got some exercise. We were back just after noon, so after a bit of a rest, I loaded the kayak, which I had inflated this morning while the horses were eating, into the back of the truck and headed down to the boat ramp. They have quite an extensive marina here, with scores of docks full of pontoon boats and sail boats, some of which were very nice, and rather surprising considering how small this lake is! If every sailboat in the marina was out on the water, there would be enough wind to go around! I headed upwind to the dam that makes the lake, thinking I would be able to drift back, but it turned out the wind was more of a crosswind, so I had to paddle both ways, over two miles each way! Four miles of paddling should do my arms wonder, get me in good shape for the rafting trip I’m hoping to take in the Grand Canyon in a few weeks. Didn’t get back to camp until after 6:00, over four hours on the water. I removed the kayak from the truck and loosened all the valves, because I’m not going out again tomorrow, so by morning I can fold it up and put it away, along with everything else, since I’m leaving Thurday and heading out to Shirley Creek Trailhead in the Hoosier National Forest south of Indianapolis. I really worked up an appetite, so after taking care of the horses, I grilled myself a nice Angus burger, made some rice and sweet corn, and even had a shrimp cocktail for starters. Of course I had to top that off with some of that wonderful brown sugar bourbon ice cream, so I’m finally sated for the day! Finished off the ST Voyager series, a nice way to end it, so now I’m going to do movies for a while before I find another series to delve into. A nice day, very summer-vacation-y, but now I’m bushed! Time for my shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Another great night sleep (this is starting to become a habit!), did my usual morning chores plus a few extra jobs that have popped up. Somehow the screen in my bedroom window had started to escape the rubber track bushing so I got my special screen tool and rolled that back in to place. Then I did some overdue housework, dusting and mopping the floor, then I finally settled down to the real business of the day, taking Flash for a ride on some of the few remaining trails I have yet to record via GPS. I was actually waiting until it seemed most of the camper had come back from their morning ride and were packing up because I didn’t want to be on the trails with Lola with so many young people and kids on the trail, should they not be used to dogs. But by 2:00 it seemed most folks were pretty much getting ready to leave, so I saddled up Flash and we headed out, with Lola in her new and improved orange safety vest. I had the same problem, though, one of the trails was closed so I had to find an alternate route, but then I decided to go my planned route backward just because it seemed to work out better that way. Still managed to get lost a few times, the trails are really poorly marked here, especially the intersections, so I kept my Garmin GPS on the whole time to make sure I didn’t miss any turns (for long). It was a beautiful day, a very nice ride, Flash was on good behavior but needed a rinse off when we got back, naturally. I actually gaive them both a bath yesterday, which I forgot to mention, so Flash was nice and clean when I left, not so much when I got back. While he was tied up by the spigot, I decided to go ahead and move my highline between the posts of different campsites, something the manager said I could do once the crowd left. Someone was supposed to be in the spot next to me but never came in, so I could have done it last Friday when I took the fence down, but who knew? Now they’re both on a true highline, and one of the first things Apollo did was roll! Point made! Filled there water buckets, had a nice chat with a woman who had been working on the trails and stopped me from going down one that had huge chunks of a base layer down, but I managed to find a way around, and she later stopped by to apologize for yelling, which of course was no problem, I just had to find an alternate route. The camp was pretty empty when I got back except for a big group (whom I had passed on the trail), and of course, Lola wandered over to say hello to the kids over there, so I had to go retrieve her. With the forecast saying that rain is likely this evening (I’ll believe it when I see it!), and with my neighbors gone, I moved the truck and transfered the eight heavy bales into the stud stall. The first six aren’t bad, but those last two take some real strength and cunning to get them up top, but I managed it. These bales are nice and heavy, especially compared to the last ones, which I swear couldn’t have been more than 25 lbs. She had no right to be asking $5 for them, not very fair. Lesson learned, I won’t accept bales that light again! Meanwhile, the horses are loving this new hay, and they’re loving being on a highline instead of a hitching post. Everything’s put away in advance of the supposed rain, but it looks like it’s all going north of us. The campground is empty now except for one camper all the way on the other side, love it when it’s this quiet! Anyway, I’ve had my shower, my fill of TV and now I’m headed to bed. Love you darlin’! Good night!

Hi Baby,
I had another great night sleep last night, despite the number of trailers that came in yesterday. It’s amazing what room darkening drapes and earplugs can block out! I had a leisurely morning, putting some hooks on Lola’s safety vest to she can’t roll it off, and I still haven’t heard back for Equity about my questions, though the guy claims he sent me a response yesterday, I still haven’t got it, even when I asked him twice. Sigh. Well, everything seems better after a ride, so I saddled up Apollo and headed out on a circuit I had GPSed. Nevertheless, I still got turned around a cut off a corner I had planned on. The trails here aren’t very well marked, and as I mentioned before, there are no markers on the map at all, just dashes for all the bridle trails, so that’s not any help. It wasn’t a bad ride, but there’s still a lot of mud out there, though not so much on the trails I took today. It was a short ride, less than five miles, but it was enough. As soon as I got back to camp, after I rinsed off Apollo and Lola (who loves nothing more than to lay down in every mud puddle she could find), and just about the time I was finished, a DNR guy came along to tell me I had to remove my fence. We had a very civil conversation about the dangers of a hitching post, and he ended up calling his supervisor, who came out and furthered the discussion. They weren’t willing to let me highline on any trees, but there were a few sites that weren’t being used and they said I could put my highline between a couple of posts out there. It was a ways from my campsite and I had just finished filling up three water tubs (there is a site that’s reserved between me and the spigot, so I figured I should stock up this morning, topping off my house tank and filling all three big tubs), so in the end, in order to cause less trouble, I decided just to put my highline up on the posts at my site. Not ideal, but it was a lot easier than moving everything over, then having to carry everything all the time. Anyway, got that done, then settled down to read for awhile. I sent a text to my childhood friend Mary wishing her a happy birthday, and she called and we chatted for awhile. Lots more trailers came in, this place is just about fully booked, what with it being Labor Day weekend. Got the horses fed, and now I’m all set to settle down for the evening. Looking forward to more of that delicious ice cream! So I’ll sign off a bit early, since you know what the rest of my evening will be like! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
I had a fantastic night sleep! In bed by 9:30, asleep shortly after, slept straight through till 7:30, stayed in bed to read until 9:00, felt so rested, yay! I really needed it. Well, after breakfast and some work on the computer, I saddled up Flash and we headed out on the trails. I’m glad I GPSed a trail to follow, because while the trails are actually marked with letters (A, B, C, D), none of those letters are on the map! In fact, there’s no guidance on the map whatsoever as to what trail you’re on, so I just kept following my GPS map as best I could. Unfortunately, the first trail I came to that I wanted to go down was closed off, so all my plans changed anyway. It’s not that big of a park, so there’s no getting lost here, I just kept going until I found trails that were open and went in the same general direction. It quickly became clear why they’re improving the trails with gravel, though, some of the trails are complete mud bogs! The sections that they repaired recently are really well done, Flash had no problem with them at all, though he did have his boots on. I was actually surprised how long they stayed on considering how much deep mud we went through, until he finally lost one climbing a hill in a bog, which I retrieved, then took the other one off. The rest of the trail was mostly dirt and mud, we only ran into the tiniest bit of small gravel after than, and it didn’t seem to bother Flash at all. It was exactly 8 miles, just the right amount for a first day of exploration. We essentially did the entire perimeter of the park, except one section I somehow got off track on, and the only thing really left here are a few internal trails that go between the perimeter trails. Like I said, it’s a small park. It has a nice lake, though, so weather permitting, I’ll inflate my kayak and have a day or two on the lake while I’m here. Meanwhile, we got covered with mud, so I had to do some horse and equipment cleaning when I got back, then settled down for the evening. I’m going to try to get to bed early again tonight, just so I don’t get run down again. There’s rain in the forecast tomorrow, so I might just go get my weekly shopping done while I have the chance. Anyway, I’m headed off for a shower and to bed, and to keep reading an interesting Dean Koontz novel about a very smart dog. Good night, darlin’! Love you!