Hiya Sweetie!
After getting another good rainstorm overnight, I got up with the alarm, did chores and breakfast, and spent the day at the vet check area helping to scribe and to train some new scribers. I have to give this ride it's due, it is investing a lot of time and energy into bringing in new recruits to the sport, something it desperately needs. They held an all-day clinic yesterday for new people, some young, some not so young, and it was great to see! Although I spent the day at the vetting area, it wasn't a terribly taxing day. Barely a moment of sprinkles, but the day was cloudy so although it was humid, it didn't get too terribly hot, which was a relief, considering I had to spend the day outdoors. Ate too much at the potluck dinner, of course, but am finally relaxing back in my air-conditioned camper, trying to watch an episode of House (the signal here is quite intermittent, no doubt slowing down because of the number of folks in camp), and will soon be showered and off to bed. Sunny day called for tomorrow, so likely to be hotter. Just have to deal with it! Good night, darlin'! Love you!
Friday, July 10, 2026 – Volunteering Begins!
Hey Darlin’,
Slept well, then headed up to the check-in area after chores and breakfast, and helped put up some pop-up tents, stuff goody bags and make signs for the pulse area. Many hands make light work, so we were all finished just after 11:00, so I went back to the camper, walked Lola, then settled in to read for the rest of the afternoon. It started raining around 3:15, but was mostly through by 4:00, when we started vetting in. I performed the duty of scribe, which earned me dinner and a t-shirt. I’ll be scribing tomorrow as well, as well. Attended the rider meeting at 7:00, and it was over by 7:30, the shortest ride meeting I can ever remember attending! Walked Lola again, then had a long phone call with my friend Steve before settling down for what little remained of the evening. Early morning, so off to bed soon! Good night, babe! Love you!
Thursday, July 9, 2026 – Quiet Day, Bookkeeping, and Meet and Greet
Hi Babe,
Another good night sleep, no alarm this morning since I didn't have anything particular to do today. After chores, breakfast and walking Lola, I decided to fix my closed up pierced ear, and went at that with a straight pin until I could put a real earring in, something I've been trying to do for months now but haven't managed it. Finally had success! Then I spent some time doing bookkeeping, my new effort to try to do it monthly rather than occasionally so that it piles up too much. Filled up the tanks, including the truck tank, so that I wouldn't have to keep running the hose just to fill up the horses' buckets. Met up with ride manager Noelle a little after 2:00, but she didn't have anything for me to do yet, so I headed back to the trailer to do some computer work. Went back over at 7:00 when they were having a meet and greet for some newbies that are here for a beginners clinic that they've put together, a great idea for growing the sport, I thought. Came back to feed the horses and walk Lola, then was asked by a trio of young newbies to help them put up a highline. I had mentioned during the M&G that I thought hitching rails were a death trap and spoke of the virtues of the highline, so it's not surprising they came to me for help. My pleasure! We ran it from one of the rail posts to the hay loft bracket, and it worked just fine. They had three horses, and they were all a bit crowded on the hitch rail. Finished our walk and settled down for the evening. Work starts at 9:00 tomorrow, so I'll be in bed shortly! Good night, my sweet! Love you!
Wednesday, July 8, 2026 – More Trail Checking and Shopping Trip
Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, woke up before my alarm, got breakfast and chores done before heading out to check out some more trails. I had intended to do all of the remaining loops, about 10 miles, but Flash was showing signs of some gimpiness, so I cut it back to the two southern loops and two shortcut trails, about five miles in all. The trails are not difficult per se, but they are not pleasant inasmuch as there are long stretches of mud, some of it quite deep, and more long stretches of gravel. The combination is my least favorite, because I'd like to use boots for the gravel, but with deep mud, I'll be so concerned about losing a boot it won't be very enjoyable. I'm sure Flash will be happy to have the rest of the week off! When I got back, I ponied Apollo around the campground loop a couple of times just to get him some exercise. After putting them both away, I headed out to nearby Huntington to do some shopping. I was disappointed to learn that the Tractor Supply there doesn't do propane fillups (even though it says they do on the website), so I wasn't able to fill up my two empty tanks. No worries, though, I won't need any more for a couple of weeks, since I have electric here and at the next stop. Went to Ace Hardware to try to find a cap for the hub on my utility cart, I lost it back at Tippecanoe and my wheel has been falling off. They didn't have exactly the right thing, but in the end, with a little German ingenuity and a sledge hammer, I managed to make it work. Was very happy to see diesel prices coming down, found a Phillips that had diesel at $4.59, so I topped off. Guess the Iran war is getting more settled and the Hormuz strait is more open. I don't know, I never watch the news anymore, too depressing. Finished off at Walmart, as usual, and stocked up on all the usual stuff, plus a few extras just to solve a few issues and repairs. Settled down for the usual evening routine, off to shower and bed soon! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
Tuesday, July 7, 2026 – Sixteen Miles of Trail Checking
Hey Darlin',
A good night sleep, woke up to my alarm so that I could get an early start, got chores and breakfast done, saddled up Flash and was out on trail by 10:30, with perfect weather. Trails were pretty wet and muddy, plus there are lots of areas with heavy gravel, so it was a classic case of "to boot or not to boot." I took them with me but didn't put them on. I came across a couple of sections that were all but impassable with downed trees, and a couple of places that were just inconvenient to get around, sent the info all off to ride manager Noelle, as I'm sure she had someone with chainsaw skills available to help out. It was a lovely ride, reaching all the way up to the farthest north loops, though I didn't go around the big fields, figured that was surplus to requirement. Flash was his usual brilliant self, naturally. Got back right around 3:00, gave him a nice rinse, Lola for a walk, and settled down for the rest of the day. Perfect weather, a wonderful ride, couldn't ask for much else! Good day! Good night, baby! Love you!
Monday, July 6, 2026 – Travel Day to Salamonie Lake State Park
Hiya Babe,
Didn't sleep quite so late today, but there wasn't a big hurry since I was only moving about 100 minutes away. Got packed up, headed to the RV dump, and was on my way out of the park just after 10:00, arriving at Salamonie Horsemen's Camp just before noon. By 2:00, I had the horses in a fence paddock, had everything set up, all the water tanks filled, and had even started a load of laundry! Then I got a little ambitious and did some housekeeping before settling down for the afternoon, planning my first ride and other activities for the week. Binged on a few more House episodes, won't be long out of bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
Sunday, July 5, 2026 – Cooler Packing Day
Hey Sweetie,
Stayed up way too late watching the DC fireworks show, along with a speech by the President, all of which was delayed because a thunderstorm hit the area just before the original start time. As a result, it was nearly 1:00 by the time I got into bed, and even later by the time I got to sleep. No matter, the rest of the day was just doing some packing in anticipation of our departure tomorrow. We had more rain here earlier as well, so it was quite a bit cooler than it has been, though I still ran the AC for a couple of hours just to cool it down, mostly for Lola's sake. For the fifth time since I've been here, I've had to listen to the sound of a lawnmower all day long. Not sure why they chose the weekend to do it (unless it's because I'm the only one here,) but it would have been nice to get a bit more peace and quiet while I was out here. I think they need a bigger lawnmower if it takes three days to finish the mowing! Anyway, a pretty dull day, though I broke the rules again and let my horses graze all day. No one else has said anything to me, so I just kept my fingers crossed that the one ranger who objected wasn't working today, and that seemed to be the case. Did some more research on the Peru trip, discovered the actual dates of the Spring Paso Festival in Trujillo, and discovered they are in direct conflict with my ride, so that's no longer a possibility. Still want to work in a flyover and possible exploration of the Nazca Lines, and time to do a bit more exploring than just the ride, but that will take more research. Read and watched more House episodes in between packing up, so a pretty mundane day. Looking forward to a new location, though I've been to Salamonie before, and the trails aren't all the great, but at least I'll have something to do once the ride folks start to come in. Not much else going on! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
Saturday, July 4, 2026 – Happy 250th Birthday, America
Hiya Darlin'!
It just doesn't seem possible that it's been 50 years since we celebrated the Bicentennial during the year I graduated from high school! It really drives home the point that life is short! That being said, it's been an amazing 50 years, so much has happened, so much of our life together just flew by, and yet, we filled it with so much. I could not have asked for a more fulfilling life, and to have a better life partner than you, my soulmater, my best friend, my greatest love. These times are amazing! But back to my small life, I slept obscenely late this morning before getting up, because the forecast said it would rain this morning and I didn't want to set the alarm only to wake up to rain, so when I finally did wake up, it wasn't long before I was saddling up Flash for our Independence Day ride. We did the north loop and the west loop, trying to get in as many miles as we could, since this will be our last ride here, and that's a challenge since there isn't a lot of miles of trail here. We did have a storm front come through last night, and it dropped more trees and limbs on the trail, so there were several challenges along the way, but nothing too serious. Flash was, of course, his usual brilliant self. I swear, he knew exactly where the halfway point was, because he immediately started speeding up once we hit it, even though it was an east/west part of the loop and camp was to the south. He's so funny! During the last stretch on the trail on the southwest side of camp, there were some more limbs down, and at that time, I didn't think much of it. We got back to camp and I picked up Apollo and ponied him, just to get him some exercise, going along the #10 loop and back again, which he seems quite happy about. Once we got back to camp, I let them graze in the clover and grass for a bit before putting them away. The storm front dropped the temps a bit, so it was nowhere near as hot as it has been, thank goodness! When I eventually took Lola for a walk, I was astonished to see the amount of damage the storm had caused in the campground! It was mostly localized to the southern section, where there is a wide open field to the south, so I'm thinking some straight line winds must have come up, since I don't think it was a tornado, that would have caused a lot more damage. Good news is, it didn't cause any damage, except one limb down, on the north side of the campground where we are located. Very glad about that! Anyway, settled down for the rest of the day, more rain came in and the temps dropped again, so I didn't have to run the generator and AC as long as I have been. Watched some episodes of House, then a number of the July 4th celebrations, now I'm headed to shower and bed. I'm listening to a lot of booming in the background right now, and I had to sedate Lola awhile ago to keep her calm, but celebrating this great event is worth it! Good night, babe! Love you!
Friday, July 3, 2026 – Propane Day
Hey Babe,
Slept WAY too late this morning, so it was too hot to go riding by the time I got up, so I ended up going to Tractor Supply to fill up my propane tanks, and that was about it. I did make one discovery, though. I was able to reconfigure my understanding of how long one tank of propane lasts, about 6.5 hours. I started with a fresh tank this afternoon, and that's how long it lasted. Was happy to finally figure that out! I spent the afternoon working on my travel plans for the next couple of months, booking my flight to Rochester for the reunion and researching more hotels in Peru. Several of the recommended hotels are already sold out, so I'm having to scramble a bit, but I also want to research the Spring Festival in Trujillo, it seems it has a lot of Paso centric activities, so I'm a bit interested in that, but that may keep me away too long. More research tomorrow! Not much else to say! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!
Thursday, July 2, 2026 – Nothing Day
Hi Sweetie,
Had a very good night sleep last night, thank goodness for the excellent insulation in this camper! Only woke up once during the night, and only because Lola got too close to the carbon monoxide detector and set it off, but otherwise, she hardly did any panting, and all the fans worked just fine through most of the night. Another hot day today, too hot to do much of anything, so I spent the day reading and bingeing on TV. Was pleasantly surprised that my generator has been running all day with no overheating (I'm thinking now that when it stalls out it has more to do with the pressure of the propane tanks), and have been running since 1:00 this afternoon on less than 1 1/2 tanks! Guess I'm getting better "mileage" than I thought! I had it figured out once that one 20 lb. tank lasts about four hours, but evidently, I need to refigure that. Anyway, very happy at that result, though I am going to have to run to Tractor Supply and stock up again tomorrow just to get me through the rest of the weekend. Did some research for horse camps to keep me in the area, but I'm stuck with either staying at the same few horse camps that have electric, or going significantly farther north to escape the heat. Guess it will depend on the weather what I will do! Absolutely nothing else going on today, so I'll be heading to bed soon. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!