Archives for 2026

Hi Sweetie,
A decent night sleep, lots of drizzle on and off today. Finally got the energy to take a walk, didn't take my rain jacket so naturally it started to drizzle while I was walking. I went down the road a bit to the Gee Creek campground, was curious about it, but didn't see as much of it as I had hoped because of the rain. Will be more thorough on my next walk. Didn't do much else by read today, and a little TV. Hoping to get some things resolved this week, but it feels like I'm just playing a waiting game at the moment, boring. Not much else going on, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain from a tropical storm that came up from the Gulf. I put my earplugs in and managed to sleep late, happy that I had closed all the windows and partially closed up the awning before going to bed. It was supposed to be windy, but this site is so protected there wasn't anything noticeable. It rained through most of the morning, then came around again in the evening a little bit. Spent the day mostly reading, cleaned and sorted out a couple of cupboards and drawers in the bathroom, finally settling into a couple of movies, perfect for a rainy day. Took Apollo for a short walk, and found a big tree had come down in the day parking area, but the rest of the campground was unscathed. A mostly boring day, all things considered. Just playing the waiting game at the moment. Waiting for a new switch for the generator, waiting for a new part for the recliner, waiting to go to Biltmore. Not getting any real walking in, hard to get myself going without Lola, but I'm going to need to get back to it one of these days. Meanwhile, a quiet evening with some occasional showers still trailing in. Heading to shower and bed soon! Good night, my love!

Hey Sweetie,
Another late night, another beautiful day, another attempt at my chair repair. I had arranged for a video call with a La-Z-y Boy repairman, so I completely broke the chair down so we could easily see everything. It quickly because clear that the problem was with the part that they failed to send me, meaning I probably didn't have to break down the whole base of the chair, and it was a bit of a pain to get it back together again, but I finally managed. The part I needed, which are the actual teeth that have been ground down, (it's called a pawl rack), It should have been included with the package of other parts, but wasn't for some reason. Because I don't have an easy address to send to anymore, I tried to find out if any of the local dealers had a spare one, but none could be found. What I did learn is that the place where they actually manufacture these parts is in Dayton, TN, just over an hour from here! I left it with customer service to either arrange for it to be sent USPS to General Delivery at the nearest post office, or to arrange for me to run up there and pick it up. Considering the price of fuel, I'm hoping they can mail it, but I won't know until Monday what has been worked out. After I got everything put back together, I spent the rest of the day just hanging out, reading, watching TV, and didn't even take the time to walk the horses. Feeling very lazy today! I may regret that, as there's a tropical storm heading our way, so it's likely to be rainy the next couple of days. No worries, I feel like I'm still in recovery from all that has happened in the last two weeks. Anyway, mostly a mundane day. Gotta have a few of those, I suppose! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
A good night sleep, first up after chores and breakfast was to take apart the recliner again, hoping to see if there was something I could improve on, but nothing changed. Spoke to customer service and arranged a video call for tomorrow morning, hopefully we can figure out the problem. Did a load of laundry again (trying to get caught up), finally put my suitcase and evening gown away in the attic, mended the trim on the patio rug which was coming off, took Apollo for a little walk, had a couple of conversations along the way with other campers, had a great phone call from an old friend, but otherwise, a slow and quiet day of reading and TV. Rather enjoying this slower pace of life at the moment, though I'm having to work harder on giving myself reasons to take a walk without Lola to go with me. Oh, well. Anyway, bedtime soon! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
Got to bed late, and slept pretty well, so after chores I decided to do some bookkeeping. That took most of the morning. In the afternoon, I decided to try to repair my recliner. I had been sent some parts that were supposed to fix it, but to my mind, they only sent me about half what I needed once I got started on the job. I didn't quite following the Youtube instructions because it meant taking the whole base off, and I managed to replace what I thought was the culprit part without doing that, and it seemed to work when it was flat on the floor, but once I put it all back together and tried it out, it hadn't improved. To get the whole base off, I'm supposed to have some spacers for the springs, so tomorrow I'm going to have to see if I can find something that will do that job. I don't know if it will help, but I don't know what else to do at this point. There are a couple of minor parts I didn't replace (because they all looked fine!), but I need to try something, and this is the next thing to do. Did some housekeeping, and a load of laundry, but otherwise it was a mundane day. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had an excellent night sleep, breakfast, chores, did a load of laundry and hung it out, then, after trimming and booting his front feet, saddled up Flash for our first ride since getting back from Peru. I started by going up the road, as it was closed to traffic, and my plan was to go about five miles then come back, but I didn't get very far when I was informed that it wasn't just closed to vehicular traffic, but closed to ALL public use, including hikers, bikers and horses. Very disappointing! So instead, I had to take Flash up on the Gee Creek Wilderness trail, which frankly, is not my favorite. It's a long, gradual but constant incline upward on a very rocky two track trail, which eventually splits into a loop, but I wasn't in the mood to do the whole loop, so we just went up for a ways and came back down again. We did about a 1400' gain in about 2.5 miles, so, yeah, definitely a good climb. Of course, on the way back down, Flash went all speed demon on my because we were heading back to camp, but I had to keep him in check so he wouldn't stumble. Once we got back to camp, I grabbed Apollo and ponied him around the camp three times just to get him some exercise. The weather was perfect, and the ride was great, despite it not being in the perfect environment, it was still a beautiful ride in Tennessee. I missed my green!! Everything in Peru was brown, like the West out here, but I love my big green trees! And, of course, I was back on my own horse, which is a luxury unto itself! Settled down for the rest of the day, got my laundry in, and am off to shower and bed soon! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Took awhile to get to sleep last night, but woke up ready to do some more housekeeping, chores and miscellaneous odd jobs. Packed up a few more of Lola's things and put the big canvas bag in the back, though I haven't found the perfect place for it to live yet. Finally threw out that giant dog be we bought so many years ago from an airline catalogue, since it had gotten pretty torn up over the years. Always meant to fix it, but it was really beyond repair. Did some more housekeeping, I'm really liking this little wet/dry battery vacuum I bought awhile back, very convenient. I went to fix the rear light on my truck, I had noticed that I evidently got two of the bulbs backwards when I replaced it awhile back, only to discover that the cover had some cracks in it. Don't know how that got broken, but at least none of the glass has fallen out, so it will work for now. I also went to replace the little tailgate brake light that I bought in August, and it fit perfectly, except the electrical connector was totally incompatible, so I had to write to the company to see if they have any kind of adapter for it. Spent some time doing some planning for the upcoming months of ground travel, as well as started to look at the travel options to Sweden for my tentative trip in late March. Walked the horses around a bit, this time separately, just because they go at such dramatically different speeds it gets too complicated to take them together. Finally opened my package of mail, and was happy to see my absentee ballot had arrived, I'll be glad to get that in. Pretty much all of the rest of it was junk, though, so I had a burn. Finally settled down for a movie, then finished off the series I was bingeing, Leverage/Redemption. Not sure if they're making a new season of that, but I've watched all the episodes they've made. Started a new one, Touch, with Keifer Sutherland. Won't be long out of bed, but felt like it was a pretty productive day today, lots of little stuff added up. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a good night sleep, had a leisurely time getting up, then spent some time doing more housekeeping, mostly gathering and cleaning all of Lola's stuff. It's been really remarkable how much stuff of hers has taken up so much space in the camper. I unfortunately had just stocked up on a lot of stuff, so I have a lot of unopened packages I'm hoping to return, but all her toys and bowls and so much more stuff are going to be tough to store. I'm going to get rid of some of it, but I'm sure I'll have another dog someday, after I can't travel much anymore or finally move into assisted living or whatever my future holds, but in the meantime, I have one very large duffel bag I'm putting everything into for now, once everything dries after washing. It rained a good part of the day, so I couldn't do my usual laundry day, so I read and watched TV in addition to some housekeeping. I took the horses for a brief walk around the camp loop, but I really need to get Flash out for a run sometime soon. A pretty mundane day, though packing up Lola's stuff was heartbreaking, again. Headed to bed soon. Good night, sweetie. Love you.

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up at a reasonable hour, but then read for a bit until it started raining. I finally got up and put on my rain jacket to feed and clean up the horses. Because of the rain, and the fact that the nearest faucet to me has a broken diverter, I put up my portable rain barrel to collect the rain, which will stretch my water out a bit. Didn't take long to get it half full, as well as one of the muck buckets full as well. After breakfast I did some housekeeping, mostly washing up and collecting the dog stuff I won't need. I have a lot of unopened stuff I may try to return, or donate when the time comes. Once again, I had to adjust much of my day for Life After Lola. I don't need to put my garbage can up anymore, or my cargo net to keep her off the dining room bench seats. I don't have her to clean the plates before I wash them. So many little things I start to do out of habit and realize I don't have to do that anymore. I don't have to take the keys out of the truck for fear she might hit the lock button, which happened a few times. This adjustment is not going to be easy! I made a few inquiries into hay yesterday, since I'm still trying to save the eight bales I have in the front stall for as long as I can, and found someone that would let me pick up the bales I needed and leave money behind, since he wouldn't be there, so once the rain tapered off and the radar looked promising, I headed up to Etowah, about 18 minutes away, and managed to load myself up with 12 bales of hay. Quite a workout! But I got it done. Carefully covered it with a tarp in case we got caught in the rain again, got back to camp and unloaded, and put up my gooseneck skirting to keep it dry. This should be enough to get me through to Biltmore with a bale or two to spare. I settled down for the evening, though I had to go fill up my truck tank since I was low on water in the camper, which took a long time. Pressure is not too good here. Anyway, it was a step toward normalcy, but it's pretty hard when everything I do seems to be missing a step, the one that satisfies the needs of Lola, which I no longer have to do. Feeling a bit empty, but on the positive side, my grocery bill was a lot smaller yesterday, and I have less to worry about the next time I travel. Horses are easy, throw them in a pasture and they're good for the duration, dogs, not so much. Trying to make the best of a bad situation. Anyway, relaxed for the evening after having a pretty full day, trying to spread the housekeeping over a few days rather than all at once. Weird day, again! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
I tried to get back to a more normal today, but it was tough. Everything I did reminded me of Lola. She wasn't around when I was feeding and cleaning around the horses, the typical time when she would keep me company. I went shopping, and there was no treat for her at Tractor Supply, no smiles from shoppers at Walmart as we walked through all the departments, no going to the pet section, and no saving bags afterward for poo duty. I took apart the raised cot that I just bought and packed it up and returned it at the UPS store. I had just stocked up on a lot of stuff and have some unopened packages which I think I'll try to return, including a brand new unopened bottle of Carprofen. I didn't have to make room for her around my groceries in the truck, or worry about the heat bothering her, or any of the multitude of things I typically think about during the course of any day. I stopped by Linda's mailbox to pick up a hose splitter and her harness, which I didn't remember to get when I left. I'm missing my brand new 100' Zero G hose, but I think that must have fallen out of the back of the truck somewhere along the way. And of course, no walking. This is tough. She kept me strong after you passed, my love, she kept me busy, and without her, I'm feeling a bit unhinged, with no anchor. It's going to take time to get used to this new "normal." I got back from shopping around 4:00, and once I put everything away, including horse feed and propane tanks, I just didn't have the energy to do anything else. Vegged out on brainless TV and bourbon for the rest of the evening. I miss you more than ever, I guess I'm feeling more along than I have been for awhile, but tomorrow I'm determined to give the horses a bath. They're covered with some sort of sap on their faces, dirt on their legs, and bot eggs. Then I'll start to tackle cleaning the trailer from top to bottom. Gotta try and keep busy for awhile. Heading to shower and bed soon. Love and miss you, my darlin'! Good night!