Archives for 2023

Hiya Darlin’,
The ladies next door invited me to breakfast after chores this morning, so another meal with no clean up, yay! Afterward, I saddled up Flash and went up the road at 10:50 to see if anyone in last night’s gaited group was ready to go, and found Janet and Greg, the folks from Kentucky who have apparently made a lot of the trails just about to leave, and they agreed to let me tag along. Both their horses were a bit anxious at having another horse behind them, but eventually they got used to us. Apparently they’re being fed alfalfa cubes the last couple of days, and they were both antsy, at least that was the conclusion they drew. They took me along the river to the high banks, which I’ve already done before, with a couple of added short sections where we took very steep hills down and up to get closer to the river. It seems almost everyone goes out to the river as their ride of choice, but I was looking forward to going on some new trails, which I haven’t really done yet. In the end, the ride wasn’t even eight miles, way too short for my thinking, but that’s the compromise you have to make when riding with others. I’ve decided to stay here another week, which should give me an opportunity to explore more on my own, in the hopes of finding some addition loop riding and some other points of interest. We got caught is a little bit of rain during the last few miles, but it was clearing up again by the time we got back to camp. Then they decided to take a fast gait on the road, which Flash was dying to do as well, so we went along. As we were gaiting down the road, suddenly Greg stopped right in front of me, and we went crashing into him, smashing my left knee on his horse’s flank, and wrenching my knee. I thought I felt something shift in my knee, but I sure hope not! I don’t need to have problems with THAT knee, after having my right knee take so long to heal after my surgery years ago. Anyway, as soon as I got back to the trailer I iced it down, tried to elevate it a bit, and eventually put my knee brace on it, trying to follow the RICE protocol for such injuries. Just as I was sitting down to dinner, Charlie and Karen came by, they ride a lot at Big Oaks and wanted to get more information on the map I made, so I made my way over to their camp after dinner and we ended up chatting until nearly 9:30. We had another storm late in the afternoon with some real rain, but it seems that’s the last of it for awhile, though the forecast is calling for much higher temps mid-week, relatively speaking. Anyway, I’m ready for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Another good night sleep, then the morning was all about laundry. Did three loads today, as my towels were overdue. Once they were on the line, I saddled up Flash and headed out to finish up the rest of the endurance ride map I had, just eleven miles. Again, a lot of road riding, so not my favorite, but at least now I have a good sense of direction for the place, so future rides should be a bit more adventurous. Lola didn’t come with us today, she just didn’t exhibit a lot of enthusiasm, though I’m not too surprised considering how little exercise she’s had in the past six weeks, and how fast the ride was the other day. It will take a little time for her to get back into shape. Lots more campers came into today, the place is absolutely packed, which kind of surprises me, I didn’t think this place was that attractive, but maybe I haven’t found the good trails yet! Looking forward to doing that soon. I’ve just about decided to stay here another week. It doesn’t make sense to drive 70 miles south only to drive 100 miles back north to a place I’m only 30 miles from right now. It will be nice to be in one place that long, in any event, and I have everything I need here, and I’m sure it will be quiet here again next week. I thought about visiting with some of the neighbors, but I’m starting to fall asleep in my chair, so I think it just shower and bed for me tonight! Supposed to get down below 50 degrees, so it should be really nice sleeping weather, especially on fresh sheets! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe!
A good night sleep, but first thing this morning, after breakfast, I ran down to Cadillac and did a bunch of shopping. Tractor Supply first for horse feed, fly spray and propane, then Walmart for fuel in the truck and a bunch of other essentials, and finally Meijers, for the things I couldn’t get at Walmart. A drive back to camp, put everything away, got my fridge going again with propane, then finally saddled up Flash for a ride. Apparently there was an endurance ride here last weekend, and after requesting a map on their Facebook group, one of the organizers posted their 25 mile route, so I used that to plan my trip today. Couldn’t find my GPS for a bit, then finally found it, and downloaded about the first 15 miles of the ride to follow. The route started out very nice, single track and forest, for about the first 100 yards, then it all became mostly sand roads, a lot of it through some clear cut areas, so it wasn’t very pretty. Eventually, on the last couple of miles, it got better, but it certainly wasn’t my typical type of riding. Flash was definitely on the go, go, go today, and Lola, who hasn’t been getting much exercise the last month, had a hard time keeping up, though that didn’t stop her from trying to goad me into throwing her a frisbee once we got into camp. It was a nice ride, about 15 miles, because any day on the back of my horse is a good day! It was fairly hot today, so I sponged him down, and since there was no one left in camp but us, I let him graze for a couple of hours before putting him back on the highline. Watch a Big Valley during dinner, then a movie which actually featured Pam Daly, who, you remember, we worked with back in Florida, and who came up to join us when we moved to Ohio. She’s doing a lot of training young actors now, and, evidently, getting some movie roles, too. She did a pretty nice job of playing a witchy Amish mother, glad to see her getting some higher profile acting work! Anyway, settled down for the evening, ready for early bed tonight. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Pix to come!

Hiya Sweetie!
Last night after I got in bed at 9:00, one of the board members of the MTRA, Jimmy C., showed up on my doorstep! Apparently he is part of a group of about six trailers that showed up yesterday, and he parked right next to me! We chatted for a few minutes, and he invited me over to their campfire, but since I was already in bed, I declined, and promised to come the next night if they had one. After he left, I got to sleep pretty early, got up a little later since my arrangement with Heide was to meet at 10:00, which we did. We did another great 16+ mile ride, even going on another trail that’s been marked but we hadn’t GPSed it yet, though she says it’s the last one like that, hopefully. Flash did great, though he did seem a bit more sluggish today, not surprising since this is his fourth ride this week. It was funny, though, every time we came to an intersection, his nose was pointed toward the direction of camp, just like clockwork! And every time we actually turned in the direction toward camp, he’s speed up! We were laughing about it. Got back a little after 2:00, got him settled in and relaxed with computer games until dinnertime. She had given me a container of homemade broccoli cheese soup which I had for dinner, lovely! Watched a movie, and then took a quick walk to see if they were having a campfire, but only moments later a thunderstorm came in, followed some other, shorter spits of rain, until finally it was over. I wasn’t sure if they would bother, but sure enough, when I walked over after 9:00, they were all around a blazing fire. I sat with them until well past 10:30, still have my shower and bed to do! A late night for sure! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Pix to come!

Hey Darlin’!
Woke up with the 7:00 alarm, since we decided to leave early, and met Sue at her campsite, then met Heide at the day parking area, and off we went! Not surprisingly, the forecast was wrong, and it was raining by 10:00, but only for a little bit. Heide took us to some interesting spots today, a memorial for a CCC camp, Camp Lunden, and also out to a little trout lake that was really nice, had to pass through some wetlands to get there. Very nice! Then, around 1:00, there was some storms threatening, and since no one really wanted to be out in the thunder and lightning, we decided to make a run for camp. Sue’s horse is a foxtrotter, but she generally rides with stock horses, so the whole day was quite an experience for her and her horse Sky, and the last five miles or so, at high speed, was a bit different from what she’s used to! We had to take a breather once or twice for the benefit of her horse, who, of course, is nowhere near in the condition of Flash or Heart (Heide’s horse), but they held up pretty well. Sue said that when she took the same route with her other friends it took 1 1/2 hours, but we did it in about 20 minutes, so she really had a chance to appreciate her gaited horse! Actually, they were doing a lot of cantering just to keep up! Anyway, it started to rain harder just as we got to camp, so we quickly exchanged contact information and went our separate ways. I put Flash under the awning (well, almost) to take off his tack, and got him put away. It wasn’t long afterward that the rain stopped, but I was glad to get back, since we’d done about 17.5 miles anyway. Relaxed during the afternoon, decided not to run out to check my email (it can wait until Monday!), had a nice dinner and a movie, heading to shower and bed! Good night, baby! Love you!