Hi Sweetie,
Another late morning, but loving it! After chores and breakfast, I decided to fix the window on the rear door of the truck. For the past month or two, when I opened that driver side rear window, it wouldn’t always go back up right, getting stuck about halfway. I figured a screw got loose or something with all the bad roads I’ve been on, so I took off the door panel to take a look. I didn’t find any loose screws at the bottom of the door, but I soon discovered the problem. The bottom part of the window slots into a track, and then a screw tightens to the two sides of the track, and that had, in fact, loosened up a lot, just not enough to fall out, but the glass wasn’t between the tracks. A little jiggling and loosening of the other side, and pretty soon I was able to slide it back in and tighten it back up. I had to be careful not to go too tight and break the glass, but I did managed to get it just right, I think. Anyway, that solved the problem and only took me about half an hour. After that, I saddled up Flash and fully outfitted him with boots and breast collar and we took a nice 9+ mile ride, going backward from Wednesday’s ride, and hitting a different section of the south loops than last time. These trails were in better shape, a lot wider in most places, and a bit steeper on a few of the grades, but a lot of long straightaways, too, so it was a nice variety. I read somewhere that these trails are supposed to be more difficult because they’re steeper, but I haven’t really seen anything extraordinary yet, at least not as far as I’m concerned. There were a few with some grade to it, but nothing like some other hills I’ve seen. Flash lost his boot a couple of times, from the foot that has the square front to it, which I think might be the reason. This was the foot that had a split in it, and then we put a horizontal dent in it to stop it from going higher, and then that dent chipped as it dropped down, and now it’s almost reached the ground, but it’s still a little flat on front chip. Hopefully it will resolve itself as the hoof keeps growing, and meanwhile, I’ll just have to keep an eye out for missing boots! Anyway, it was a lovely ride, Lola came along and enjoyed flopping into a couple of creeks along the way (or what’s left of them during this dry season), and a very enjoyable day! To make things even nicer, I was finally able to watch a couple of Jack Ryan episodes with no interruptions! Whoo-hoo! The only big problem today was that I was trying to fix my Equicamping website so I could start doing more with my Maps page, and I ended up screwing it up so bad the whole site crashed. So I’ve had to call in the experts, hopefully they can get it resolved. It’s so frustrating, since no matter how well I get everything working, then someone updates a plug-in and the whole things quits working. Oh well, a minor inconvenience for the moment, hopefully it will result in bigger and better things. Meanwhile, time for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
Another goodnight sleep, so happy to be on the end of a quiet, dead end road! Took our first ride today, not exactly the one I had planned, but the trails here aren’t very well marked, so it’s not too surprising. We ended up going about 7.5 miles, so it was fine. We started off without boots, but we kept running into small pea gravel, so I ended up putting them on just to keep Flash from getting ouchy. I should have put his breast collar on, and will from now on, because there were a few good hills, and I expect more on the other trails we didn’t get to today. Heavy deciduos forest here, with some trails not very well maintained, but quite beautiful. There’s only about 12 miles total here, but they wrap around in a couple of figure 8 loops, so I can get creative on future rides. Before we left, a forest service guy, Fred, showed up and tried to tell me all the nonsensical reasons they don’t have threads on the spigots here, but in the end, he rigged up a hose end and clamped it onto the pipe so now I can run my hose. He also told me I needed a trail pass, so I got on and bought a one-day pass for $5, but then after I did that, he told me that the trail pass was necessary for every day I was here, whether I rode on the trail or not! Their website and the national website are in total conflict with each other. The national site repeatedly says there’s no fee here, and nothing about a trail fee either. The Hoosier forest website says there’s no fee to camp here either, but it does say something about a trail fee, then refers you to another paragraph on the next page, which also says a trail fee, but then says if you have a horse at the horse camp, there’s a fee, too. It’s not very clear that the trail fee and the horse fee in camp are the same, but evidently they are. So there’s no fee at the horse camp, unless you bring a horse, then there’s a fee. It’s all very confusing, really poorly communicated. Anyway, I had to go back on and buy an annual pass for $35, which, if I had gotten in the first place, would have saved me the first five bucks. Oh, well, it’s still cheap to stay here, and now that I have easy access to water, I’m a happier camper. There’s beautiful weather forecast for the rest of the week, and I’m looking forward to exploring the rest of the trails here. After we got back from the ride, I let the horses graze again, Apollo on a long line and Flash wherever he wanted to go, which is never too far, though he started down the road again, just about ten yards, then wisely turned around and came back. There’s only one other non-horse camper here, but there were two trailers of day riders here, which rather surprised me, being the middle of the week. Did some bookkeeping work on the computer, linking my old brokerage account to my new one (TD Ameritrade was bought out by Schwab), so that took some time. Settled down for the evening, had a nice dinner, finally managed to be able to watch some less interrupted TV (off and on), and soon off to shower and bed! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hiya Darlin’!
Had a good night sleep, think I’ve finally got the air pressure just right in the bed, slept very well. Woke up to a misty morning again, though you could tell it was going to be a nice day once the sun dried the mist off. Called the post office first thing, since they’re only open for two hours today and I wanted to make sure I got my package from Florida, but it hadn’t arrived yet. Apparently it goes to Battle Creek first and then a carrier brings it out, so the postmaster offered to call me when it came in. I love small town post offices! By 10:30, I decided to head into town, and I hadn’t quite left the park when he called to say it had arrived, in the nick of time! Picked it up, then headed back to camp, stopping to fill up the truck tank along the way, since I’ll be doing a couple of loads of laundry tomorrow. Wasn’t long before I was saddling up Flash to take the long western loop here. What a lovely ride! Such a nice variety! Some deep, dark, creepy woods (my favorite!), a nice pine stand, some wide open fields where we got in some good canters around the edges, then one place where it was five foot high grass mowed where the trail was, almost felt like going through a tunnel! It weaved all around the western side of the park, and it was very nice. Thoroughly enjoyed it! I didn’t take Lola along because there were quite a few other riders out there, and I don’t like to do that on the weekends when it’s busy, so she was pouting a bit when I got back. Ended up chatting with some ladies that I had met on the trail in the pavilion for awhile, the finally settled down for the evening. Still have a very slow internet connection, so watching TV is painful! Won’t be long out of bed tonight, I have a busy day tomorrow. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up to a wet, misty day, very glad I put the extra canvas tarp over the three bales in the back of the truck last night! Decided to do some other stuff waiting for it to dry out. My plan was to take Flash and do the long ride, but the mist held on for so long, and you know me, I’m a fair weather rider, so didn’t much feel like going out in a misty cold rain. Did some planning for the next few weeks and a few other computer chores, until it finally dried up and lightened up a bit in the afternoon. Decided it was too late to take the long ride, so I saddled up Apollo, who needs some exercise, he’s getting fatter and fatter sitting around here, and took the Blue Trail, making a figure eight so we could do the whole thing. Another lovely trail! This one is multi-use, so I ran into hikers and bikers along the way, but everyone was cordial and cooperative, just like it’s supposed to be! It was still less than five miles, but it was a beautiful ride, weaving around a couple of lakes and wetlands, through some pretty dense and scenic forest with lovely footing despite the dampness, so a very nice ride. Apollo kept trying to brush himself (or me!) into the bushes along the side of the trail, not sure what that’s about. There were a few short sections with some small rocks, and even though they were smooth, he behaved like he was ouchy on those, again, not sure what his problem is. Got back to camp around three, and spoke to some new neighbors a couple of sites down from me, a woman named Amber. Got Apollo put away and settled down for the afternoon and evening. Made some dirty rice (over tortilla chips), that should last me the next few days. Watched a few more Jack Ryan’s, though I’m still plagued by buffering and interuptions, and heading for bed soon! Just heard Taps from the government facility nearby, so I guess it’s time! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a busy day today, and got lots of stuff done! I arranged to pick up hay this morning at a place about 20 minutes away, turned out to be a huge commercial outfit, with hay barns and a feed lot and lots of mechanics shops. Bought some grass hay for $7 a bale, a bit high, but not surprising with the cost of diesel over $4 a gallon again. Looks like nice hay, we’ll see how the bobos like it. Then I ran into Battle Creek to do my shopping at the Walmart, they had a rechargeable fan there I wanted to get for future hot nights, thought it would be good in the bedroom so I wouldn’t have to keep the inverter on. I’m sure I’ll be having more hot nights when I’ll need it as I head south! Got back to camp around 2:30, put all the groceries away, and immediately went out and saddled Flash. We took a short ride around the “Historic Trail”, which was just over four miles, but it was a nice trail. Firm footing, and with the rain last night, so dust, and also no mud, surprisingly. A few places with some gravel, mostly on hills, but all round stones, so not bad. The crossing at one creek was actually filled with nice Chattahoochee stones, so a very easy crossing. Lola came along, and she enjoyed it, and wasn’t even limping when we got back. I’ve been trying not to play fetch with her the last few days to let her leg heal, still not sure what’s causing it, but I figured rest would help, and it seems to have done so. Stored the hay in the trailer, except for three bales, two of the new and one of the old, which I’ll use to transition them over. No more alfalfa after this! Have to get back to just grass hay. Had dinner, watched some TV, ready for shower and bed here shortly. A busy day, which made up for the lazy day yesterday! Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hiya Darlin’,
A little better night sleep last night, but I can’t wait to get my new air mattress, my old one has big lumps where the baffles have let go, and it’s not very comfortable anymore! Had a leisurely morning, then finally saddled up Flash in the early afternoon and headed out on the Billy The Kid Trail that led over to the main road, then across the road to the Barry Springs tract, which isn’t technically part of Yankee Springs, but they do have a nice loop over there, it was about 8.5 miles from camp and around. Like so many trails I’ve been on, it was nice, but needed some TLC. Quite a few downed trees that have been that way for so long there’s a well entrenched bypass around them, some areas with prickly plants that stretch across the trail and snag you. I got a couple of scratches along the way. Other than a few technical challenges, it was a very nice ride. Flash was quiet and fairly slow most of the way, until we started heading back toward camp, then he picked up the pace a bit. Once we got back to camp, I took him through the obstacle course again, this time spending time on getting him to climb up on the big tires. He’s always been reluctant to do that, but the setup here was so perfect, I couldn’t pass it up. There are a couple of individual tires, and we practiced on one of those until I could get him to cross over it okay, then I took him to the other obstacle, which was 5 tires of different sizes set up to be like a progression of steps up and down. It took awhile, but he finally managed to do it in a controlled manner. Several times he’s be doing just fine going up and down, but on the second to last tire he’s just decide to jump off. Gypsy girl Leah came by and took some fantastic photos, Flash really is photogenic! Afterward the girls came and visited for awhile, then I got the rest of my chores done, had dinner, and got frustrated again not being able to watch my usual hour of TVwith dinner. I just can’t understand why, with 3-4 bars of cell service, I have terrible internet service here! It should be fantastic, it’s so much better than most of the other places I’ve been this summer, and yet it’s just about the worse service I’ve had! Doesn’t make any sense, and couldn’t figure it out. Anyway, it’s getting past my bedtime, I still have my Spanish lesson to do, and my shower, which tonight I need to cool off, quite a hot, humid day today! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe,
I’m happy to say that my air mattress doesn’t seem to be going down the way that it was, but the baffling is definitely getting worse, so I’m glad I ordered a new one, should be at the next place next week. I spent a good part of the day straightening out one of my accounts, seems I haven’t reconciled it in a long time, so I had to go digging around to get it solved. Finally managed to finish it off after 2:30, so I had time to saddle up Flash and go for a ride. This time, I headed out on a trailhead a few campsites over from me, with a sign for Billy the Kid Trail, which isn’t on the map, so I was curious where it went. We took it for about a quarter mile when it came up to the church and cemetery at the end of the road where you turn into to get to camp. It seems it crosses the main road and keeps going into a tract called Barry Springs. Since I had no idea how long it was, I opted to turn back and do some research about it. I got back to camp and went out toward the west, to do the two big loops in reverse. We took another side trail just to explore it, and it led us to a parking area trailhead. We headed back and got onto our original plan, and finished the two long loops in just over two hours. Turned out to be about 8.5 miles in all. That’s every trail in here, except the connector between the two loops. So I’m thinking next time I ride, it will be over to Barry Springs. I did some research and found a map of the horse trail, it’s just one big loop about nine miles long, so it should be a good ride. Settled down for the evening, watch the final Big Valley over dinner, then went looking for another series. I discovered that the Jack Ryan series has come to an end after four seasons. Remember, we watched the first season together, and by the time the second season came out, I’d forgotten most of what happened, so I abandoned it, vowing to only watch series that are complete rather than wait season to season. So that’s my next project. This place has been filling up all day, not surprisingly, and the Gypsy girls from the Shore to Shore ride arrived just before 8:00. I knew they were coming, so I said hello, then left them alone to get set up. We can talk in the morning. That’s all the news! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’,
Woke up before the alarm and got busy, busy. Did chores, did a load of laundry, roasted some coffee beans so I would have a to go cup while running around today, finally headed out before 9:30, arriving at my alignment appointment just in time. Wasn’t long before they were telling me they didn’t think they could align it without $1500 worth of ball joint repairs, although in the end when I said I couldn’t afford that right now, I was only expecting to pay $100 to get my steering wheel straightened out with an alignment, per the quote I got from them online, the managed to do it anyway, so I guess the ball joints weren’t really that bad. Then they presented me with a bill for $165! I complained, and they reduced it by $15, still 50 percent higher than my expected budget. Not happy! Then I ran a couple of errands, picking up the connectors I’ll need for my new air mattress at Home Depot, stopping at Meijer’s for some nectar, milk and juice, then Tractor Supply for propane and pine shavings. Something about this soil here, the corrals the horses are in are getting too muddy and smelly, so I decided to splurge on some shavings for them. Stopped to fill up the water tank at the dump station (sorry, “sanitation” station, as they call it now!), got back to camp, started filling up the RV tank, and while I was waiting, I wrote my thoughts about the lack of honesty of the alignment folks and put them up online. Once I got done filling the tank, I finally saddled up Apollo and Lola and I went for a short ride. He’s such a slug these days, and he was tripping and stumbling all over the place, not sure what that’s about. I took the shorter of the two loops, hitting the cross trail between the two, which was the only thing I missed the other day. Again, it’s a beautiful ride, but less than five miles, although on Apollo it took over 90 minutes to do. Surprise, surprise, I got a voicemail from the alignment store with an apology and a refund for the difference over $100. Amazing how reducing someone’s star value online suddenly gets them to sit up and take notice. Too bad they didn’t do that when I was actually in the store trying to get them to straighten it out then, would have saved a lot of trouble. Anyway, I let the horses graze for a bit while I cleaned out their paddocks and laid down some shavings, it started smelling better immediately! Finally settled down for dinner and a movie, and, of course, now it’s time for shower and bed. Can’t wait to get my new mattress! I called the next park about accepting the delivery, and would you believe, they refused! First time I’ve ever had a state park refuse to allow me to receive a package! What is it with Michigan postal service? Well, I ended up calling the local post office, and they were more than happy to accept the package for me, so hopefully I’ll be sleeping on a new bed by next week. Long overdue! Anyway, enough said. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Nice and quiet last night, had a great night sleep, though I think my mattress is leaking again, darn it! After chores I saddled up Flash and we ventured out, riding through some really beautiful, dense forest, mostly mixed deciduous trees, mostly sand and dirt trails, with gentle slopes. One section is on a plateau-like ridge with some nice views, then it gently drops down to the return trail along the bottom of the plateau, then through some more nice forest. We saw an incredible huge orange fungus that looked like a cauliflower, and Lola, on her own volition, went a stood by it when I was taking a picture, which really put it’s size in perspective. It was amazing! A beautiful ride, just a lot shorter than I figured. When I arrived in camp, my GPS was saying 7. 21 miles, so I figured I must have missed something, but when I downloaded it onto Google Earth, I was spot on with the trail map! The only thing I didn’t take was the shortcut between the two loops, which is barely 2/10’s of a mile, so that doesn’t make up the difference. On the website they claim ten miles, so that’s obviously an exaggeration! Oh well, it’s pretty, and I still have other things to do here, so I’ll just enjoy that short mileage over and over again! Flash did a great job, he moved along very nicely, we were back in camp in less than 1:45. I put Apollo on an anchor and let them graze for the afternoon, there’s no one else here at the moment. I managed to find a drill screw that I was able to use to help anchor the awning, though none of the bolts I picked up the other day worked. One’s going to have to be enough, unless I do some major reconstruction. I did a little mending on my sheepskin saddle cover, then did a bunch of overdue bookkeeping until suppertime. Enjoyed a movie, now it’s off to shower and bed, as usual! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Got woken up around 4:00 in the morning by Apollo nickering, which told me Flash had escaped the highline. My fault, I knew when I tied him on I forgot to put the tail through the slip knot, but when I threw on my shoes and checked, he was standing right by the door, so I quickly tied him right and went back to bed. Hadn’t quite got back to sleep when someone came onto my site leading another horse that had evidently escaped, thought my highline was missing a horse until she got close and realized that no, both horses were there. She was talking the whole time, right under my window, and would have woken me up if I hadn’t already been awake. Anyway, she finally went away, I don’t know if she ever found the owner that night, or just waited until morning (which would have been a more sensible thing to do, in my opinion, rather than walking around waking up people. Anyway, I finally got back to sleep, then overslept, not leaving a lot of time before Alayna arrived. I was still eating breakfast, but she brought hers, too, so we ate together, then got the horses ready for a short ride. We ended up going about 3.5 miles, and it seemed like Flash was going extra slow for Apollo’s benefit, which was nice! After we got back, we chatted for awhile, then after she left I contacted Cindy, who had already left on a ride with her friend that arrived this morning. I ended up catching up to them, they were on the hunt for a throat latch that had fallen off her ponied horse’s bridle yesterday. I was looking too, then when I passed a huge group, I asked them if they had seen it, and they had! One of them gave it to me, so I called Cindy to let her know the hunt was over and she could relax. Then she decided she wanted to thank them, and we figured (correctly) that they were in the Group Camp, so we made out way over there. Flash started to get unmanageable again, so I had to run him out several times just to create less fuss. Toward the end of the ride, I actually got off the horse trail and ran him for another couple of miles, just to blow off some of the steam that seemed to be building up in him. I think I’m going to have to do another all out run with him like I did at Goethe the first year I had him, just let him run as fast and as long as he wants, hopefully it will be less than eight miles like last time, but he’s so fit now, it could be longer! I’m becoming convinced I’m better off not trying to ride with other people, that’s the only time he misbehaves, the rest of the time he’s brilliant! Tired of fighting him. Anyway, we got back to camp around 4:00, got him put up, made dinner and relaxed a bit, then went up to visit for a short while with Cindy and her friend. Now I’m back home, ready for shower and bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!