Archives for September 2021

Hi Darlin’,
Well, evidently, one day isn’t enough of a recovery, or maybe it’s just because Joyce is so generous, but I’ve decided to stay an extra day. I slept until 10:00 again this morning, ridiculous! But I do feel a lot better. It’s funny, with my earplugs in I can’t hear a thing, not the nearby railroad train, not the traffic, nothing, EXCEPT when one of the donkeys start braying, and that just cuts through those decibels like nobody’s business! Not loudly, but just enough of that sound to pierce my consciousness and wake me up. It was time, though! Got up and did my few chores, then got busy on the computer trying to set my schedule. It took me a lot longer than I thought, though everyone I called did get back to me. It seems most of the places that require reservations are, in fact, too booked for me to get into, so I had to resort to places that are first come, first served, knowing that I can get there early in the week and find a good spot. After I got most of my schedule set through December, I finally called the vet in Morrison about my health certificate appointment, only to learn they won’t have a vet available at all that week, so I’m going to have to cut Clark Forest short and get to TN in time for that. I had to shift everything up a week, and decided another stop at Mingo Trails was warranted, also because it’s FCFS and not reserved, and I don’t really want to travel nearly 400 miles in a day, so I’m breaking it in half.. I think I’ve got it worked out now, though, fingers crossed! If anybody’s interested, I’ll be updating my schedule page shortly with what I’ve worked out, subject to change, of course! I had some book orders come in while I was in Vegas, so I got those out in the mail, then had one of my propane tanks become empty, so I decided to fill up my two empty ones at Tractor Supply and get in a quick Walmart stop tonight, since they are both literally only three minutes down the road. Might be possible to not unhook at the next stop, but we’ll see. Getting to bed as early as I can tonight, there’s rain coming in during the early afternoon, so I’m hoping to be done setting up by then. So, on that note, good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
It took me until well past 11:00 to wind down last night, then I slept through until 10:00 this morning, though I stayed in be another hour and read just because my body felt like it was aching. It wasn’t long before I decided to stay an extra day, just because I still felt so tired. I emptied the bags, did laundry all day, read some, watched a little TV, went out to dinner with Trish, then crashed again in the evening. I’m hoping I have enough energy to do some housework and packing tomorrow (not that there’s much to pack here), and there’s a weather front coming in overnight so it’s going to rain and then cool down, which will be nice since it was over 90 degrees today again. Rain is one of the reasons I want to stay another day, although it’s supposed to rain on Tuesday, too, so I may be driving in the rain. My travel plans have completely changed again, the Skymont endurance ride has been canceled, and as I started to look for what camps I want to go to and to make up a schedule, it seems a lot of camps I want to go to are too booked for me, so I have some scrambling to do! So the morning will be phone calls as well, while I try to figure out what to do. Too tired to worry about it tonight, though! Still feeling tired, so I’m heading for my shower and bed early. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
What a terrible night! I don’t know if it was because the iced tea I drank with dinner was caffeinated or because I late later than usual, but I just couldn’t seem to get to sleep. I know I got some, but it was very intermittent, never for long, and never very deep. I ended up getting up an hour before my alarm was set to go off, just out of frustration. I left the packing until this morning, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time. Took my shower and got everything packed up, took everything down to the truck by 6:30, grab a bagel for later, then headed out to the car rental dropoff. Things went so smoothly there I was at the airport by 7:15, though my plane wasn’t boarding until nearly 9:00. Everything went smoothly, flight left on time, and this time I was able to actually get a protein meal (meat on a croissant, some fruit, and something that tasted like rice pudding, but it looked more like couscous than rice). Satisfying, though, and that’s all that mattered. Arrived in Chicago almost on time. I was thinking, I’ve flown in or out of practically every major airport in the country, but have never been in Chicago O’Hare. Mostly because I’ve always intentionally avoided it because of unpredictable weather, but now that I’ve been here, I have a whole bunch more reasons. For starters, it’s HUGE! There’s no people movers between one wing to the American terminal and the next, so it was a VERY long walk from gate to gate, even though my departure date was at the beginning of a hall, which was a tiny reprieve. The gate had changed from the time I landed to the time I got to the L wing, but I managed to get there and get somewhat comfortable. Within 15 minutes, I got another text saying the flight was delayed by over 90 minutes. Not a cloud in the sky, so not weather related, turns out they had an absent pilot, and had to wait for them to fly in another one from Indianapolis to take over the flight! How nuts is that? They don’t have pilots in Chicago, really? Of course, with Chicago traffic, who knows, it might be faster that way anyway. So now my ride in Indy, which has already been changed from Joyce to Trish, is going to have to pick my up after 8:00 instead of the more convenient 6:50 as I had originally planned. Grrr! I’m too tired for this today! I can’t wait to get home, I need some sleep! So the plane finally landed after 8:10, I made to long walk to the baggage claim area. As soon as the belt started moving, I texted Trish that the bags were coming out and I’d only be a few minutes, because usually priority bags come out first. Of course, nothing has been usual about this flight, so even though one bag came out right away, the other one turned out to be almost the last bag to come out. Too exhausted for words! Finally loaded up in Trish’s truck, got back to the stables, and crashed in the trailer. Ate the bagel I took this morning from the hotel and went to bed. That’s it! I’m done today! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Another long workshop day. It’s a big class, sixteen folks, so it’s taking a bit longer. Only had enough time for one full coaching session per person, then had a little technical problem with the camera, not sure how that’s going to affet the final product. Pretty happy with how it all came out. Then had dinner at nearby Winchells with Ronn, who has recently purchased property on Hutchison Island! Guess we’ll be neighbors when he eventually retires to Florida, though I suspect we’ll see each other this winter at some point. Looking forward to meeting his wife one of these days. Meanwhile, I’m so disgusted with this hotel I’m in, I hope I never have to come back here. Every day I’ve been making the same complaints, every day I get back to the room and there’s no progress There’s a crusty stain on the only armchair in the room, I won’t even sit on it with a towel on it, it’s so grungy looking! I’ve asked for decaf coffee for the Keurig machine, nothing. The drain plug won’t stay up on the bathtub, I have to shove a washcloth under it to keep it from collecting standing water. Then tonight, dead beat, I walked all the way to room, down two long hallways, only to have the key not work! Had to go all the way back to the lobby, stand in line with three people in front of me (at 9:00 at night!), just to get the key fixed, then when I opened the room, it was clear housekeeping hadn’t done anything except change towels. The bed wasn’t made, none of the requests I’ve made were accomplished, it’s ridiculous! Hoping I don’t ever have to come here again! It’s the LaQuinta airport South on Surrey, never again! Anyway, finally got in the room, poured myself some wine and headed to bed early! Long travel day tomorrow!

Hi Babe,
Not much to say except I had a long first day of the workshop. Lunch was pizza and wings, so I didn’t need anything for dinner, though I did grab a few bags of munchies from the meeting room to tide me over. Too tired to even go down to the hot tub, just relaxed in my room, going to bed early. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, it wasn’t a bad night sleep, just a little weird going to bed so early local time, even though my body clock was three hours ahead. Woke up early, which is probably a good thing, since I’ll have to do that for the next three mornings anyway. Went down for the free breakfast, seriously it was the most pitiful free breakfast I’ve almost ever seen. Essentially it was cereal, toast or bagels, with a banana if you wanted. Juice and coffee, of course, but no waffles, not hot food whatsoever. Guess I’m not going to up on any weight on THIS trip! Had a toasted bagel with cream cheese, then came back to the room and called your sister to wish her a happy early birthday, which is tomorrow. She’s been in hospital for over a month with knee surgery and various complications, but finally got home last week, wanted to see how she was doing. Naturally, she’s glad to be home! After that, I headed out to a massage appointment I had made a couple of weeks ago. It was wonderful! The guy, Larry, did a really great job, and had such a life story, it was fascinating! A former NY Wall street banking guy, he eventually quit and became a massage therapist. And he was really good, too! Enjoyed getting to know him, and he did a great job on me. After leaving there I stopped at the store for a few things, and decided I simply HAD to have steak for my big meal of the day. I’ve been feeling meat deprived lately! I went to one place but walked in and walked out again, it was like a little whole in the wall fast food place with the ambiance of a Chinese take out counter. NOT IN THE MOOD! So then I found an Outback, and had a nice filet mignon, potato and salad, just what I needed! Unfortunately, my phone died (I had forgotten to take my phone charger out of the bag and put it into the car here), so I had no GPS to get back to the hotel, and had to wing it. Managed to do it in a pretty straight line, too, much to my surprise! Especially since I’ve never been to this hotel before. Guess I’ve been here enough now to know my way around a little bit. Anyway, got back to the hotel, plugged my phone it, changed into my bathing suit and hit the pool and hot tub. Figured that would be a good way to get the most out of my massage. You’d think that with 100+ degree days and not a cloud in the sky that the pool would be warm, but I guess the cool desert nights help, because the water was actually pretty cool and refreshing, and the hot tub was nice, too. Stayed out there for awhile before coming back up to my room, which the maid had finally finished. I had bought some trail mix because I didn’t want another big meal today, so I settled down with a glass of wine, my snack, and did some studying for tomorrow. A big class tomorrow, should be good! Getting to bed early so I can get up early and shower then. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Sorry to say it wasn’t the best night sleep, as per usual whenever I set my alarm to get up early! Lola was restless, and that didn’t help, but I guess I got enough, because I got up right away and got busy. It wasn’t long before Joyce came by and I showed her all the feeding and toy stuff she needed to know about Lola, and we fed the horses breakfast, though I’m not sure with all the grazing they’re doing that they really need it. Finished packing and before long, Joyce was driving me to the airport, a nice perk that saves me the whole hassle of parking and walking back and forth to the terminal! My flight was on time, and the first leg to DFW wasn’t, I had a drink and took a couple of bags of snacks to keep the edge off. Had less than an hour layover at DFW, which worked out just fine, but the flight to Vegas wasn’t very pleasant. I was in the back row, and evidently on this flight (though I’ve seen it the opposite way on other flights), the flight attendance started serving from the front. Well, first, she didn’t even offer drinks, just started serving food. She’d walk over with two trays, ask the passengers which they wanted, then just dropped them off. When she got to my row and asked the guy sitting next to me (whatever happened to ladies first?), what he wanted, he took the turkey sandwich. I started to way that’s what I wanted too, but she just pushed the other tray at me, clearly indicating I had no choice. It turned out to be a really horrible vegan things, with a big bunch of some kind of little beans (maybe lentils?), mixed with a little bit of apple pie filling. The rest was mostly bitter fruit, and bag of tasteless whole grain puffed chips with a little plain hummus, and some kind of “healthy” brownie dessert. I tried to call her back to see if I could get the turkey sandwich, but she completely ignored the call button light, and went on to start taking drink orders. Seriously, she stopped at every single passenger before reaching me and my lit call button. When I asked her about getting something else, she brusquely informed me that because I was in the last row, that was all I could get. Really? THEN she reached over to start taking the vegan tray away! Mind you, I hadn’t eaten anything except a small bowl of cereal and a couple of small bags of chips all day, and now she was treating me like a child, making me ask for my tray back! And this was in First Class, mind you! I was very unhappy, and couldn’t eat half of that stuff, and was naturally still hungry by the time we landed. Frankly, I think it was because I’m a blonde and she and the man next to me was also black, which is why he got asked first and not me. I’m not a racist, and I’m tired of having to prove to the world I’m not, but I’ve noticed I get a lot of animosity from black people simply because of my race, and have done for years. Too bad there’s no Blonde Lives Matter movement, right? Anyway, we got to the airport, and the baggage claim area that the flight attendant told us we were on was wrong, so most of the passengers sat around for an extra 15 minutes waiting for the conveyor to start, only to finally notice our flight was ten baggage claim areas away. So much for priority luggage! There was a mad dash as everyone moved over, and all the remaining bags had obviously been circling for awhile. I grabbed mine and headed for the car rental shuttle bus, made it to the rental terminal, and managed to pick up my pick up with no trouble. Yeah, that’s right, I rented a pick up! Not that I asked for one, but when I checked for a car rental and learned the prices had doubled and tripled since Covid started, that pickup was the cheapest one on sale, even though it was double what I would normally pay. I prefer a truck anyway, so it all worked out. Got to the hotel, got checked in with no problem, didn’t know what to do about food, I didn’t want to get a big meal so late, so I ended up just getting a tub of ramen noodles the hotel sold in the lobby just to tide me over. Settled down for the evening, had a hot bath, watched a little Netflix on my computer (no smart TV here), and now I’m ready for bed! After two not very good nights sleep and a long tiring day that was three hours longer than usual, I’m ready! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Got up with the alarm, finished packing, got the horses loaded up (well, Apollo loaded himself as soon as I took him off the tree) and headed out. I was a bit concerned about getting out of the site, lots of trees and posts around, and it did take me a few tries to get on the road, but I managed it without knocking anything down, yay! Got to the dump by 8:30 and was on the road by 8:45. Fortunately it was almost all highway driving so it was very straight-forward. Unfortunately, I had to stop once for some fuel, was just shy of being confident of making it, and the last thing I wanted to do was run out of diesel, that’s just too much of a pain to get going again! Arrived at Joyce’s just before 2:00, and was delighted that the place she had designated for me was MUCH easier to get into than I had imagined from looking at Google Earth, so I was parked in no time. The horses have a nice pasture to graze in, still debating whether they need to be given feed as well, we’ll see tomorrow. Immediately hooked up electric and started a load of laundry, then quickly headed out to the nearest pharmacy to get some corrective measures for the bad hair color I inflicted on myself the other day. They didn’t have my usual brand so I tried something else and it was WAY too dark for me, so I got a color remover and it worked really well, though it took nearly an hour to follow all of the instructions. I may not even have to re-color it, it did such a nice job. Anyway, then Trish stopped by, and we ended up going out to a little Asian restaurant, not much ambiance but the food was decent, then came back and sat around on the patio for a bit with Joyce and Sean. Of course, I was doing laundry the whole time. I had gotten my suitcase down from the attic, and I started packing once the patio group broke up and Trish left. Spent the evening packing and doing French lessons, no time for TV tonight. Heading in for a quick shower, then to bed on fresh sheets out of the dryer, then bed. Later than I wanted, but that’s the way things go! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Maybe it’s all the trees here, but people in this campground tend to get a late start! It was after 9:00 before people starting moving around, so it was nearly 9:30 before I got up and moving. Got the horses and Lola and myself fed, then started putting things away in preparation for my departure tomorrow. At one point a guy stopped by to ask about the solar panel, and in the end bought a book. Later, the folks who were camped across from me over the weekend, but who left early this morning, came by on their Gator and chatted for a bit (they bought a book from me yesterday), and earlier, I took back the palette to the store, but they were closed for the day, so I left a note thanking them. Before I knew it, the day was gone, I’m almost fully packed and ready to go. I can’t drop the trailer on to the truck yet, just because it’s so not level here I’d be rolling down the floor like a drunken sailor if I dropped it all the way, but I’m lined up, even chained up, just not dropped down yet. The tricky part will be getting out of the spot, because I can’t just turn straight onto the road because of a great tree next to me, so that will take a bit of doing, but I have several options, which I’m sure will work out. I want to get an early start because I have a long day of driving, and I want to get there early enough to do a couple of loads of laundry and to pack, though my flight isn’t until just before noon, so I’ll have a little time in the morning on Tuesday. So it’s been a fairly quiet day, though occasionally busy, and I’m going to bed early so I can get up early and dump before getting on the road. That’s the plan, anyway. Not much else to report today! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Had my usual morning, then saddled up and went on about an 8.5 mile ride on Flash. Rather than have a set plan, though, I decided to uncharacteristically wing it today. I’ve seen so many trails that aren’t on the map, trails that are on one version of the map and not another, all kinds of confusing stuff, but since I’m bored with the marked trails, we got a bit adventurous. We headed out on the trail to someplace called Murder Mountain. Not sure why, not sure I want to know way, but it was pretty short anyway, and essentially just went out to the end of a ridge where you have a good view of the gravel pit that sits pretty much in the middle of all of this property. After that we headed in the general direction of the creek, until I decided to try to find the “blue connector” that Chad has spoken about last night, because I wanted to see this new staging area they’ve put together. The advantage of that is that it’s more in the middle of the property rather than all the way on one side like the campground, and frankly, it’s level so it would make a better campground, but I gather that’s not in the cards right now. Anyway, I managed to find it, but whether it was the right trail the entire way, I have no idea, since there’s a lot of unmarked trails out here. Anyway, from there we had to come back down Camp Road (too much road riding here!), but then we went on the new Ridge Trail, because I suspected when I went on it the other day with that other group, a chunk had been cut out when the leader went around a downed tree, turns out I was right. There’s a whole stretch with another overlook (also mostly of the gravel pit) that was missed the first time. We started out with boots on Flash, but then I got the impression he wasn’t happy about it, so I took them off, and sure enough, there was chafing on one of his bulbs again. He was happier after that. I hope with ten plus days off after this he’ll finally grow a callous, or I’m going to have to do something drastic to stretch these boots out. The only alternative is to try another boot, I’m thinking Scoot boots next time, they apparently don’t enclose the bulbs at all. Anyway, we got back to camp just fine, then I read most of the rest of the day. Trying to store up some energy, it’s going to be a busy day breaking down tomorrow, a long drive on Monday, then the rest of the week is going to be busy with me traveling out to Vegas for a job. So that’s it for today, my love! Good night!