Hey Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, yay, but got off to a slow start this morning handling a bunch of computer work, mostly trying to plan for the next couple of months of travel, trying to figure out where to go and when. Got some preliminary decisions made, found a stable for when I have to fly out to Vegas (finally got the dates settled for that!), so I'm well on my way on my planning. I finally got Apollo saddled and we headed out with Lola, going in the opposite direction on the trail today. Once, on a hill, I even managed to get Apollo into a canter! I can't remember how long it's been since I've been able to get him to do that, the fat slug! Of course, as soon as we got to the top, I realized he'd lost one of his boots (typical, right?), and I spent 20 minutes trying to find it. Oddly, though he lost his right boot, so naturally I was looking all along the right side of the road, and finally found it, on the LEFT side of the road! Weird, but I remember that time when he lost a boot once when you were riding him in Pennsylvania, and it did the same thing, ended up on the opposite side of the trail, which is why I decided to look there, and viola! Found it! I had a group of three women pass me while I was looking, but they didn't see it either. Then I passed a woman, leading a mule, evidently her farrier had trimmed her mule's hoofs to short and the gravel was bothering him, he was limping a bit. She still had a long way to go back to the day parking area, but fortunately I had an extra bottle of water that I gave her, but there's wasn't much else I could do, so I carried on. Then I passed the three ladies again when they stopped at a picnic area, stopping for a brief chat, then Apollo lost his boot again, but his time I saw it before it even quit rolling. We finally got back to camp around 4:30, and I was debating whether I wanted to go for a kayak ride so late, but then the three ladies arrived in camp, and they came over to socialize for awhile, and one of them even bought a copy of my book! After they left, I started thinking about my schedule again, and also about whether I wanted to try to take a vacation this winter, when it suddenly occurred to me. One thing on our bucket list that we never did was to take the mule train down the Grand Canyon to the bottom. Yes, we rode our own horses down the Bright Angel trail a ways, but never to the bottom, so I decided, since I was going to be in Vegas in early October, I'd check to see if they had any openings. Well, it seemed according to the website, that they were booked solid until summer next year, but then I called and spoke to Adrian, who informed me that yes, indeed, I might be able to accomplish it! So we went back and forth on the phone for quite some time before figuring out how to do it. It means I will miss the Skymont ride this year, because that was the only thing that worked in the schedule, but I'll be riding down just one week before the 10th anniversary of when we rode down on our own two horses! We had gorgeous weather then, I hope for the same this year! So I'm still working out the logistics, and I'm trying to figure out a way to also do a whitewater rafting trip while I'm there, too, but that's complicating things as well, but you know me, I'll find a way! I knew there was a reason I kept putting off the last camping reservation I needed to make in Indiana, because now all those plans for that week will change! Anyway, when I finally got off the phone it was after 8:00, so I took my shower, made dinner, settled in for a mere hour of television, and now I'm off to bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had trouble getting to sleep last night, and ended up waking up fairly early as well, so I got up to start a busy day. After my usual chores and breakfast, I got out the kayak and inflated it because I want to use it later. I timed it, it only took me 10 minutes to get it completely set up! Then I ran into town to post some mail and to pick up fuel in the truck so I won't have to worry about getting any on the road to the next stop. Just about the time I got back, the guys next door were leaving, so now I have the place all to myself. I saddled up Flash and we headed out on the trail. We were about a half a mile out of camp, and just crossing a nice creek, when I suddenly heard the sound of a very familiar whinny... Apollo somehow escaped the fence and followed us! Evidently I forgot to turn the power back on after I got Flash out, and he usually respects the fence anyway so I wasn't worried, but somehow the tape came off one post and dropped enough for him to get out. I didn't want to risk having him follow me the whole 9 miles, so I headed back to camp with him following and put him back inside the fence, strengthening the wire and putting the electric on, when we headed out again. It was a nice ride, nothing spectacular or special, just a nice 2 ½ hours on the trail. There was more mud than I expected, and some patches of gravel the guys had warned me about, so I had put boots on Flash before we left. Some areas had a few hills and some nice outcroppings in the forest, the rest was just going along next to fields and more in the open. Like I said, a nice ride, but nothing special. I was relieved to find Apollo safe and sound back in camp, I was afraid that he might try to escape, but he was fine. While I was taking off Flash's bridle, he started to move away before I got his halter on, and I grabbed his head to steer him back to the trailer, but I accidentally touched his eye and he flung his head up, hitting me right next to MY eye, and a great bump came up almost immediately. I got an ice pack on it right away, which helped the bump go down, but it's turning blue, looks like I'm going to have a shiner out of it! After I got him pushed away, I changed into some swim gear and headed over to the boat launch, then paddled around the lake for awhile. It's a small lake, very quiet, there was only a couple of small flat boats, mostly fishing, no other kayaks or paddle boats out at all. Lots of Canadian Geese at the beach, but hardly any people, just two women chattering away (well, one was doing most of the chattering, the other hardly got a word in edgewise). She was going on and on about how God thinks this and God does that, quite the expert in proselytizing, but I had to laugh, because a seagull started picking at a pile of her stuff and she yelled a blue streak of sailor talk at it. I was thinking, I hope God puts all the folks that swear that bad in a different section in the afterlife, I'd hate for anyone to have to listen to that for eternity! Anyway, got back, fed the horses, had a shower, and settled down for the evening. I'm going to bed early tonight, feeling quite tired after all that activity! So good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
A great night sleep last night, finally. The air did not seem to go down at all on the other side of the bed, so maybe I've solved that problem. But I must have done something to twist my back getting the mattress in and out, because when I started moving around I was in agony. Breakfast and three ibuprofen later I was starting to feel better. I finished sending links to the videos from yesterday, and was determined to get a ride on Apollo in today, so just after noon I saddled him up and started a circuitous route trying to hit almost every trail we missed on Tuesday. What a beautiful ride! Trail 7 goes through some lovely pine forests, Trail 6 goes along a cattail-strewn marsh, and most of the rest go through truly beautiful woods. Apollo had more get up and go in him than he's had in a LONG time! Whether it's the sandy footing, the alfalfa, or that whatever problem's he's been having has remedied itself, I don't know, but he was walking fast and trotting out fast, with no hesitation and hardly any urging on my part! I might have even been able to get him into a canter if I tried hard enough, but I decided not to push my luck. About 2/3 of the way around I temporarily lost my GPS, the back came off and the rest of it dropped, but I managed to find it after a few minutes. I tied Apollo up to walk on foot, and he whinnied like a mad horse after me. Does he really think that after almost twenty years together I'm just going to abandon him in the woods? Crazy horse! When we got back to camp, he and Flash whinnied at each other the whole way across the campground! After I got him put away, another family of campers showed up at a site two down from me, and they had three horses in a LQ livestock-type trailer, and the one in back was absolutely refusing to come out. I watched for well over half an hour while they tried to coax this horse out. I eventually took pity on them and asked if they needed help, and they wholeheartedly agreed. Apparently this horse is a well-trained barrel horse, but he is usually at the front of the trailer, and just did NOT want to make the tiny turn to get his butt out the door from the last stall. I took my little crop over there and we had a firm discussion, but he was really reticent. Eventually I had one of the ladies pull his lead rope around his back legs to turn him while I grabbed his tail, and we pulled and pulled until he had no choice but to come out. Once he was out, he was fine, you'd never know he was making a fuss, but the young girl who owned him was very distraught, she thought she had done something wrong because the horse wouldn't listen to her. They were all very grateful, which I appreciated, and the rest of the horses came out with no trouble. I went back to my camp and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous afternoon and evening, had a nice dinner, watched TV, you know, the usual, and now it's time for shower and bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
Finally woke up feeling refreshed after a great night sleep! I could have slept longer but I had set my alarm because a bunch of folks I met down at Loretta Lynn's back in June decided to come ride with me, so I had to be ready by 9:30, which I was. I decided to leave Lola home when I knew there was such a large group, she doesn't always stick around when there's that many horses, but one of the gals had brought her dog along so we still had canine company. We did a couple of long loops in the morning, really nice trails! Mostly sand, so even with the rain over the weekend there really wasn't any mud, just a few soft spots. The trails are mostly fairly wide and well-groomed, albeit mostly flat, so it's very easy riding. I started out further back, but after awhile Flash was getting antsy because I was having to try to slow him down, and eventually we got out front where he immediately calmed down. A couple of times I had to take him for a long canter and back again, just to keep him happy, but everyone seemed fine with that. We came back and grabbed some lunch to take with us down to a new, short trail they had recently put in that led right down to the river, and by then, I had decided to bring Lola along for the rest of the day. I found her up in the bedroom again, so I expect to see dog hair and probably footprints when I go to bed tonight. Despite the fact that the entire park is centered on Tippecanoe River, there was no access for horses until last week. Evidently there's a small patch of land that's privately owned, but they reached an agreement to let the park manage it, and they turned it into a nice picnic area with about 100 feet of shoreline. There was only one hitching post, though, so some of us had to tie horses on to a small fence and a couple of trees. We all had a nice lunch, and Lola had a nice time fetching, including a few swims in the river before we mounted up and headed back out on the trail, doing another few loops. The morning ride was nearly 10 miles, the afternoon ride about half that. My phone died so I didn't get a GPS map of the whole thing, unfortunately. Anyway, it was a wonderful ride, a fabulous day, with lots of good company. I think it actually did Lola a lot of good, because even when she fell behind me she stayed with the pack until she caught up again, and she may have learned a bit from watching the other dog, too. Oh, I forgot to tell you that when we were in Michigan, my hosts had a Newfoundland named Angus (with a Mohawk haircut-really!) that Lola liked so much she actually tried to get him to play with her! It was so much fun to watch her jump around trying to coax him into play! So uncharacteristic for her. She didn't try that with Ellie, the dog that was with us today, but they did seem to get along all right. Got back to camp after 4:00, sat under the awning for a while (haven't bother to put the screen room up this time) before finally coming inside and settling down for the evening. A fabulous day, perfect weather, actually a bit cool, and it's supposed to get down to 49 degrees tonight! I had to close all the windows, and I suspect I'll be pulling my extra throw over me at bedtime. Speaking of, it's about that time anyway, so I'll say good night! Love you, babe!