Hiya Babe!
Started off the day in my usual manner, then after breakfast, a friend of Sheila’s stopped by and we chatted about the Shore-to-Shore ride, which she’s done several times. Then Alayna’s grandma walked up and I chatted with her for quite a while, first at my site, then at hers. Finally, I came back to check on Lola and to saddle up Flash, thinking Alayna would be back at 1:00, but it was closer to 2:00 when she got there. I kept Grandma Cooley company until then, but then headed out on the trail. I had about a 15 mile ride planned, and missed a couple of trail markers, so by the time we got back to camp it was 17.24 miles! We did a lot of gaiting today, so we did it in pretty good time, almost exactly four hours, which I thought was pretty good. Not endurance ride-winning, but great for a conditioning ride. Lola came with us today, and she had to work hard to keep up with us! Out like a light as soon as we got home, not surprisingly. After a conversation with Alayna, we decided Apollo should go with her when she leaves tomorrow, so that will be one less thing I have to plan around later in the week. It’s all about getting everything fixed for the big ride now. Going to tackle as many of the problems as I can tomorrow, though my tire isn’t due in until Tuesday, but I can try to work on my jacks and brakes tomorrow. Feeling pretty tired right now, didn’t get the best night sleep last night, and it’s been a long, exhausting day, so I’m off to bed early, hopefully! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep, got my chores and breakfast done, then headed out to a house in Big Rapids that had a recliner for sale on Marketplace. I did some research, and discovered it was exactly the model of LazyBoy that was a wall-hugger and a perfect fit for the small space, plus it’s not electric, which is what I wanted. Because that battery adapter has never worked properly on the old recliner, I’d have to put on the inverter every time I wanted to recline in my chair, and of course, a bunch of other little stuff would pull juice too, so the batteries would end up draining faster than necessary, so a manual one is actually a better solution for me. It’s not nearly as comfortable as the old European one, as it’s got a bit too much padding in the lumbar region for me, and my legs hang off the front when reclined, but it’ll do, especially in reclining position where it takes up a lot less space. It’s a rocker, too, but doesn’t swivel, which is also fine, I don’t need that. It was part of an estate the family was starting to disburse. From there I want to another Facebook listing two miles away for a recliner cover, a heavy quilt-like thing that, although it was a bit too large, covers it nicely and will hopefully keep Lola from digging up the material. She managed to put quite a few scratches in the old leather one, this one is more of a microfiber material, but the cover is really heavy, so hopefully it will keep it in good condition for as long as I have Lola. Got back to camp, took out the old chair (easier than when I took the last one out, since I learned from that experience), cleaned up the whole living room slide area, and had the new one in in no time! Fits perfectly! I don’t even have to put it over the slide ledge to recline all the way, so the wall-hugger part is really impressive. It even has a lot more space behind it to store the few things I leave back there, so it’s a win/win. Once that was done, I saddled up Apollo, as I had arranged to go riding with Alayna on her old, sluggish mare, and we did a nice 4.7 mile loop. Her mare wasn’t as sluggish as Apollo, so we had to jog regularly to keep up, which was good exercise for him. Beautiful day, it warmed up nicely, hardly a cloud in the sky, getting into that perfect weather I’m always searching for! Whoo-hoo! Got back to camp, gave the boys some hay, found Lola on the new chair (surprise, surprise!) and once I heard her trying to fluff it up, and failing, thank goodness! Now she’s luxuriating in the old chair, which is out under the awning until we haul it away, another thing Alayna has offered to help with. Spent some time getting knots out of some ropes, fed the horses and settled in for the evening. Been watching the old Big Valley series on Prime these days, very much enjoying that! Alayna and husband Jeremy came by and took away the old chair (Lola will miss that when she goes looking tomorrow!), now I’m ready for shower and bed. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’!
Another great night sleep, loathe to get out of bed when it’s in the 30’s, though, so I laid in to read a bit, though not as long as yesterday. Got up and did chores and breakfast, as usual, threw together a route to take today, and headed out with plans for a fantastic fourteen mile ride. I do love this place, every trail is so spectacular! I only had to get off to saw off one limb that had fallen, and it was already dead so it didn’t take long. I have to get myself one of those little mini-chainsaws though, for sure! I let Flash do whatever speed he wanted, and he mostly walked, which was fine for the most part, though he did start getting a bit faster as the day went on. When we finally came to the turn for home, I missed a trail, but Flash decided he knew the way, and suddenly got in a hurry to get there, so he jumped into his seven mph gait and took off down another trail. I wasn’t sure which way was the best way back, but he was convinced, so I let him go, and he kept that up almost all the way back to camp, several miles, which he found unerringly. He’s got a great memory, considering it’s been two years since we’ve been here! Lola kept up the whole way, now she’s out like a light! I won’t be far behind her, I want to be in bed nice and early tonight. I did walk down and help my friend Alayna with some lifting, she got married last year and now she’s ten weeks pregnant, so I’ll help her out however I can. They’ve also offered to let me use their horse trailer to transport Apollo, and if that’s the case, I’ll just let him got over to their house rather than the place I was going to board him. I had only decided on that place because it was close enough to pony Apollo over, but if I have a trailer, I can go the extra few miles. Anyway, time for tea, shower and bed! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a wonderful night sleep, to bed early and laid in late reading, so feeling much more refreshed today. For the first time, while my foot was still in pain, it wasn’t debilitating, which is a relief, and a sign that it truly is just bruising and not broken. Spent the morning working on all kinds of projects, and was finally able to get a welder out here to look at my wheel well. While he started the job, he wasn’t able to finish it because his welder is in for warranty repairs, but promises to finish it next week when he returns from his holiday weekend up in the UP (that’s the Upper Peninsula, for those of you not familiar with the Michigan vernacular). He cut out all the bad stuff and made forms to replace that, so I’m sure he’ll be back to finish. Meanwhile, I got a bunch of other stuff accomplished, all while waiting for the day to warm up enough to ride. It was VERY chilly this morning, close to the freezing point, and it’s supposed to be the same tomorrow morning, but warming steadily through the week. By 2:00 it finally reached acceptable temps for riding, so I made a quick GPS sketch for about a seven+ mile ride, saddled up Flash, and we all soon headed out. Lola was in desperate need of exercise, too, and was happy to come along. Flash was a bit hesitant when we were on the gravel road to the trailhead, but he soon opened up when we hit the perfect, hard sandy footing of the trails. We did a couple of miles at a moderate gait once he got warmed up, and he really enjoyed himself. Ran into a few other riders and a buggy, but no problem, and Lola was brilliant, as usual, taking a wide berth out into the woods whenever other riders came by. Such a good girl! Every time I come here to Hungerford, I marvel at how perfect it is for riding and camping. Every trail we went on today was wonderful, and a lot drier than I remember, I seem to remember there was a lot of mud last time, but not this year! Truly a wonderful ride! And Flash had no trouble remember his way around, he really stretched out on the last straight-away home, and made the turn into the trail leading to camp like he’d been doing it every day since the last time we were here two years ago! A fabulous ride, so glad it finally warmed up enough to do it! Temps are supposed to be getting to the freezing mark again tonight, so the horses are blanketed and fed, I showered early so my hair would dry before the temps got too low, and I’m all settled down for the evening. Still have a lot of issues to resolve, but I feel like I’m making some good headway. Headed for bed soon, despite the fact that it’s only just barely got dark here, past 9:30! I really hate daylight savings time these days! Anyway, good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep with my earplugs again, got up around 9:00 after reading for an hour plus, did my chores, had breakfast, then chatted for a bit with Mike before we finally started to get ready to ride. There’s a land trust area across the river from the state forest called Kokiwanee, and we had heard that some of the riders from camp had gone over there yesterday, so I downloaded a map and we headed out in that direction. We took the yellow trail to the end, then found a trail on the other side by a waterfall (Kissing Falls, apparently), and followed the trail up. That led to a series of steps which didn’t really look like it was fit for horses, but there didn’t seem to be an alternative, so I went ahead and headed up there. There were some nails that were sticking up, but we managed to avoid them all. We plowed on to a number of other trails that really looked like they were only hiking trails, and we didn’t see any indication that horses had been on the trails, so I could never figure out where those other horses were going. Several times we would start down a trail and turn around when it became to narrow, so my plan went out the window. Eventually, we headed back to see if we could find another way down to the river, and there was one other trail, but I was worried about it being right on the edge of a drop off, so I dismounted and walked down a ways, and sure enough, there was a corned with a little piece of fence someone had put in, and the only way around it was too sharp a turn and too close to the edge for a horse to get through safely. I wasn’t about to take that risk! So we went back up and tried to find another way, but that trail had a little bridge that didn’t seem safe even for horses, and another climb of steps even steeper than the first one! Eventually we decided to head back down the main trail (the only one really fit for horses, and way too short and boring to be worth riding more than once), to a parking lot and a road, and we ended up taking the road back around to where we crossed the river, finally getting back on track and into the state forest again. Came across some other riders who were trying to figure out how to get around a downed tree, and I lent him my camp saw so he could cut off a limb and make it more easily passable (we had found a way around it previously), and before long, we were back in camp. Not exactly how I planned it, but it was still an adventure! By now most of the camp was empty, and within an hour or so, everyone else had gone as well. I let the horses out to graze and started putting stuff away, then made us some dinner, which I preferred to do rather than go out again, then finished putting pretty much everything else away, so I’ll be ready to get an early start in the morning. Less than 300 miles, but I either have to go cross country, or go a bit out of the way to stay on highways, so it will take longer than usual. At least I know where I’m going this time, hopefully the spot I like will be open. It’s been a lot of fun here, but it was a lot busier that I expected over the weekend, particularly with the cooler weather. Anyway, time to move on! Getting a little ahead of the weather, but at least I’m not sweating like a pig! I can always add layers! We’ll worry about that tomorrow. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Had another good night sleep, a quiet morning, then my friend Mike, who was going to meet me for a ride today, said he wouldn’t be here until after lunch, so I saddled up Flash to go on a ride on my own. I didn’t take Lola because I thought there might be too many riders that might not like meeting up with a dog on the trail, but as it was, I only met one other rider and he had his dog with him, so I supposed I could have taken her. She pouted the rest of the day after I got back. I took a shorter route, but one that captured a lot of the trails I missed the other day, then ended up getting turned around at one point and still missed some. We had another mishap, we took a trail that went along the river but quickly sent from what I thought was a horse trail down to MAYBE a hiking trail, but ultimately a very dangerous game trail, but by the time I figured that out, we were stuck with no place to turn around. Then Flash’s foot went deep into soft dirt, so deep he ended up on the ground, so I climbed off so he could get up. Unfortunately, he had no place to maneuver, and the only thing that kept him from falling thirty or forty feet down to the river was a couple of trees that were on the edge of the trail. He didn’t panic, thank goodness, and I let him rest for a few minutes and get calm, and finally he managed to get himself righted, but there was hardly any room for him to turn around. He finally managed it, but he had to take about a four foot step straight up to accomplish it. Once he got himself settled down, I climbed back on and we carefully made out way back to the main trail, though my foot started hurting a bit again, I must have banged it again. The rest of the ride was good, though, except I couldn’t find a trail that my GPS said was there, so we ended up going out of our way from the original plan, but no matter, we arrived back in camp safe and sound by 1:30 or so. I read for much of the afternoon, then my friend Mike finally showed up around 4:00. I thought he was only coming to day ride, but I was mistaken, he was coming to camp for the weekend, which was a good thing, since it was too late in the day to take another ride, and rain arrived shortly thereafter! We sat and chatted for awhile, then drove down to CoCoJo’s campground and restaurant and had dinner there, then chatted under my awning till dark, which is now nearly 10:00 (stupid Daylight Savings!) I put a blanket on Flash because it’s supposed to get cold tonight, but not so cold that Apollo needed one. Anyway, it’s late, I’m having my tea, doing my Spanish lesson, and soon will be taking my shower and going to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Babe!
Stayed in bed a bit late today, reading and keeping warm. It was a bit chilly overnight, and I was finishing off a book, and my only activity today was to get a ride in, so I indulged myself a bit! Finally did get up, fed the horses and Lola and me, finished my final two chapters, then saddled up Flash. I debated whether or not to put boots on, I didn’t really want to aggravate the abrasion he got from his boots the other day, so I decided to just carry them instead. As it turned out, I didn’t really need them anyway, thank goodness! While there were a few spot with quite a bit of gravel (mostly in places where it was obviously supposed to be a trail “repair”), and a couple of stretches where it was nothing but stone, most of the trail was dirt and some mud, so once we got started, Flash relaxed a bit. What lovely trails they are otherwise! True forest, lots of hills and dales, and a lot of the trail I was on today, the blue perimeter trail, followed along the edge of the river, so it was truly beautiful. There seemed to be a lot of new trails being cut, so I digressed off the main trail a few times to see where they went, but it was mostly just different ways to get back to the river or the main trail. There were a lot of picnic tables strategically placed in scenic spots, and I only ran into two hikers and then two horsepeople just as I was getting back to camp. Did nearly nine miles in about 2.5 hours. Wonderful! Put them out to graze for awhile, finally sent in my pension application since I got it notarized in town yesterday (thanks, Terry at First Merchant Bank!), then discovered I had lost a lot of my Google Earth work from the last two weeks, so I spent some time recreating that. Settled down for the evening to a nice salmon dinner, watched a little TV (my batteries went from 12.0 to nearly 13 just on the solar panel today!), ready for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
What a beautiful day this turned out to be! It started out cloudy and with a hint of rain, but it gradually cleared up throughout the day until it was just perfect! I met the gals at the intersection between the Lincoln Trailhead and Double J (the place I hate, but where they were staying), and we headed out on the second “reachable” loop down Mill Branch and around to Raymer Hollow before climbing back up to Collie Ridge. Evidently they had a couple of bad storms in March, and so many trees came down that we seemed to be passing by recently cleared trees every hundred yards or so! There were even a couple of trees that hadn’t been cleared yet, or more likely have fallen since the last time they came out and checked, that required us to get very creative in order to go around them. One was so tall that it hung over the next ridge, and I had to use my camp saw to cut a branch that was preventing us from crossing over a big tree that was down, and that was a good 50 yards away from the trail, and it required a good climb to get back up to the trail. Sure was wishing I had one of those little 6 inch chainsaws right about then! Another one, right after we stopped for lunch by a creek, where we had to climb almost straight up the first couple of steps in order to get around the root ball. Some very challenging riding today! Otherwise, it was just a beautiful ride through hills and hollers and creeks. Lola came along today and thoroughly enjoyed herself, although at the end, just as we were splitting back up at the intersection, she followed the wrong horses toward Double J and I had to rush up and get her back when I realized she wasn’t with me anymore. Some of the trails had really excellent footing today, small pebble-like base that made it so much easier on the horses today. Shawn’s horse Rebel was VERY subdued today, whereas yesterday he kept wanting to stay out front and be speedy, but today he was as a slug like Apollo. Figured he wasn’t really in great condition for these types of hilly trails, but he managed to get back to camp okay, albeit slowly. After I left them and was heading out the last stretch to Lincoln Trailhead, there was a ranger driving down the trail/forest road, and I was worried he’s say something about Lola (technically dogs are supposed to be on a leash, which we horse people know is absurd and dangerous), but he passed right by me and didn’t even roll down his tinted window, so no worries there! Got back to camp, washed down Flash and put him and Apollo back out into the pasture Kristen was kind enough to let me use, then headed back over to Double J to pick up Joyce, Shawn and young Katie, and we went over to the Blue Holler Cafe for dinner (which features some German cuisine and a few other things that were quite original), very affordable, big servings, great service, very nice little family operation, and we all had a nice time. Drove them over to my camp to show them around (they loved it!), and then took them back to their camp where we chatted some more, before I came back to camp before dark. A beautiful, perfect day spent with fabulous friends. Life is so good! Won’t be long out of bed tonight (Lola’s zonked out, naturally!), looking forward to a quiet remainder of my evening. Good night, baby! Love you!