Archives for April 2023

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep, then after breakfast I took Apollo on a short ride just for the exercise. When I got back I mostly finished packing. I wanted to move that trailer on to hard ground, and Deb had asked neighbor Fred to be on hand in case I got stuck. Well, we almost made it! We put the landing pads in all the right places, and moved right off the spot, but then we got our communications off a bit, and I got directed too far off to one side and my trailer tires went into a soft spot (it rained hard again early this morning), and that created a bunch of problems. Eventually, I had to disconnect the trailer and come in at it from a right angle with the truck, plus a little assist with Fred’s 4×4, and managed to get straightened out. Not taking any chances, we went all the way out to the road, then backed up onto the hardest driveway surface just far enough to get off the road. It will be a close call on the turn, but I’m sure I can make it in one or maybe two tries. It took about 90 minutes to accomplish all that, so I’m really glad we did it today so I don’t get stuck tomorrow! I filled the truck water tank about half full so I’ll have some for the horses in case there’s a problem when I get to Lost Corral, and everything is fully charged up. I checked all the fluids in the truck, I did the tires last week, so I think I’m done! I made a discovery with the inverter, too, I actually left the charger on so long that it fully charged the battery and then turned off. I don’t think I’d ever heard it do that before! All the way do to 2 amps! I used to shut if off around 15, but these new batteries are terrific. Fred and his sister Roseanne, who was very entertained by the whole thing, invited me to dinner, which was great! I didn’t have to cook or clean or use up any of the water in the trailer (I put about half a tank in there, too, so I’d be able to pack up the hoses and still take a shower), and it was a delicious meal of smoked pulled pork, beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, and peanut butter cookies for desert. Hmm, mmm, good! Got back, settled down to a fun movie with Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, and will finish off as usual! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’!
Had a better night sleep last night than I’ve had in awhile, had my earplugs in, that always helps. I did vaguely hear Sheila leave this morning, but had a few more hours sleep after that. I knew my mechanic was coming over today, but he’s never gotten here early, and I’m tired of missing days of riding, and it’s supposed to rain this afternoon, so I took a chance and saddled up Flash after breakfast and took him for a short ride down to the end of the trail along the river again. Not quite so speedy as the other day, likely because it’s been a lot more hot and humid, but we still did five miles in just 1:10, so not too bad. Just as I was coming down the road on the last stretch to the house, Daniel’s truck was coming in from the other direction, and we arrived at just about the same time, so it was perfect timing! Right at noon. He’d already replaced the missing adjuster screw on the one brake they’d taken off, so he put that on, rewired it because apparently there had been a loose wire before, which likely accounted for some of the problems, and put it all back together. Then he took off all the rest of the brakes, greased the bearings, readjusted everything, and it seems like there isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with them other than what he fixed, so I’m hoping this well work for the time being. I thought he charged me a reasonable price considering all the extra trips they had to make out here, and he did a great job of filling in the holes he had to dig out to jack it up, so it seems almost level now, which will hopefully make it easier to pull out of here. I’ve decided to move tomorrow, just to get into a part of the driveway where I have more confidence I won’t get stuck again, better to have any trouble tomorrow instead of Monday, since the drive on Monday will be very long. I don’t need to start the day off getting stuck! He was finished by about 4:00, just as the rain was coming in (again, perfect timing!), so I settled down for the evening to dinner and a movie, though not one I particularly liked. Too violent, so many twists and turns it became almost impossible to follow, and they were pushing the envelope on every adult theme you can think of. Anyway, now it’s teatime, Spanish lesson time, shower time and bed time! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Babe!
What a perfect day! Great weather, a gorgeous trail, my fabulous speedy horse, just a perfect day! Today we cut through the Spirit of Suwannee Park to reach the river trail, and followed it down to the old “graffiti” bridge, and kept going all the way down to the Linnville Tract, which had some wonderful trails. Some were in better shape than others, but they were all passable. When Flash saw a long straightaway along the south fenceline, he just decided he had to run the whole way! Didn’t exactly go on my planned route, but it didn’t matter, we rode almost every trail in there anyway, just in a different order, and he just kept cantering and gaiting fast as much as he could! Full of vim and vigor today! On the way back, I decided to cross the graffiti bridge to get a look at the Suwannee Springs, and he didn’t like the feel of that hollow concrete, so I had to dismount and walk him across, then mounted back up and he was fine on the way back over. Took a video, will try to upload it, but my connections a little spotty. In all, we did over 12 miles in less than 2:45, and that includes walking over the bridge. Pretty speedy! Meanwhile, I got a confirmation from FedEx that my parts should get here tomorrow (yeah, right. You know how much I love FedEx… NOT!!) Played Farkle with just Sheila after dinner, I won one and she won two. Then a rainstorm came in, lots of thunder further south, just a bit of rain here, enough to settle the dust. Did more research on Mammoth Cave, think I found another campground that I’m going to switch over to. Of course, there is a cancellation fee for the reservation I made, which is another thing that hardly ever happens anywhere else! But the new place I’m looking at seems a lot friendlier, though only a little bit less expensive, feeling a lot better about it. Trying to get Trish and her gang to change, too, but in any event, the new place is a lot closer to where they’re staying, so it will be easier all around. Anyway, it’s been a long and lovely day, heading to shower and bed! Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
A good night sleep, spent the morning ordering the parts I needed, but still don’t have a tracking number yet, so I’m not sure yet when they’ll be getting here. Good thing I built some time into my schedule, though not too much extra, I’ll have to be careful to make sure I get where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there. Took a short ride on Apollo, just for exercise, mostly along the river, down to the Canoe Post and just beyond, just over an hour. The trails here are mostly beautiful, but there’s just not too many of them. It was cloudy and occasionally there would be a tiny spit of rain, but there’s more in the forecast, so I don’t know how much riding I’ll be doing this week, though I need to keep trying to get Flash in shape for the Shore-to-Shore rides in June. Moved my hay out of the truck into the trailer storage, spent most of the rest of the day reading and enjoying my clean trailer. Played Farkle, and for once, I didn’t win either game, which made it more even for the week. The usual, dinner and a movie, soon a shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Wasted most of the morning waiting for the mechanic again, thought they’d be here early, but it was after 11:30 by the time Daniel got here. Turns out the parts I picked up yesterday were the wrong parts (they packed the wrong ones), so we’re back to square one. I seem to remember the last time we tried to do the brakes on this thing we never could get our hands on the whole brake assembly. The guys who did it back in TN just cleaned up the old brakes, I think. So I spent some time in the afternoon trying to track down the brake assemblies, and I think I may have found some in SC, but they’re closed so I can’t be sure until Monday, though I did email them. So once Daniel left, and I sent Justin the link to the website where I found them, that was all that can be done for now. Obviously, I’ll be staying here at Sheila’s until this can be resolved, I’m most definitely not going to try to drive through mountains without fixed brakes! Then I spent some time on the phone with Verizon, the last few days my outgoing text messages have not been going through, turns out they did an update that had a glitch, took awhile to get it fixed but it seems to be working now. Then I decided that Flash had been idle long enough, there’s no way I’m going to get him conditioned unless I ride him, and Lola needed some exercise, so I saddled up and we took a short fast ride, covering 4.8 miles in less than an hour, doing a lot of gaiting and cantering. We even stopped for a couple of minutes at the end of the trail, went down to the river so Lola could have a drink and meet a bunch of other dogs that were down there with a group of young men that were there by boats. Had a good canter on the way home, so he did get a little workout, albeit short. Got back in time to make a quick chicken dinner and join the folks for a game of Farkle. I won the first one again by a good margin, but lost the second, Sheila got very far ahead early and none of us were even close to catching up when she went out. Fun, easy game! Came back and watched a movie, so now, of course, it’s time for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!