Hiya Babe!
What a perfect day! Great weather, a gorgeous trail, my fabulous speedy horse, just a perfect day! Today we cut through the Spirit of Suwannee Park to reach the river trail, and followed it down to the old “graffiti” bridge, and kept going all the way down to the Linnville Tract, which had some wonderful trails. Some were in better shape than others, but they were all passable. When Flash saw a long straightaway along the south fenceline, he just decided he had to run the whole way! Didn’t exactly go on my planned route, but it didn’t matter, we rode almost every trail in there anyway, just in a different order, and he just kept cantering and gaiting fast as much as he could! Full of vim and vigor today! On the way back, I decided to cross the graffiti bridge to get a look at the Suwannee Springs, and he didn’t like the feel of that hollow concrete, so I had to dismount and walk him across, then mounted back up and he was fine on the way back over. Took a video, will try to upload it, but my connections a little spotty. In all, we did over 12 miles in less than 2:45, and that includes walking over the bridge. Pretty speedy! Meanwhile, I got a confirmation from FedEx that my parts should get here tomorrow (yeah, right. You know how much I love FedEx… NOT!!) Played Farkle with just Sheila after dinner, I won one and she won two. Then a rainstorm came in, lots of thunder further south, just a bit of rain here, enough to settle the dust. Did more research on Mammoth Cave, think I found another campground that I’m going to switch over to. Of course, there is a cancellation fee for the reservation I made, which is another thing that hardly ever happens anywhere else! But the new place I’m looking at seems a lot friendlier, though only a little bit less expensive, feeling a lot better about it. Trying to get Trish and her gang to change, too, but in any event, the new place is a lot closer to where they’re staying, so it will be easier all around. Anyway, it’s been a long and lovely day, heading to shower and bed! Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
A good night sleep, spent the morning ordering the parts I needed, but still don’t have a tracking number yet, so I’m not sure yet when they’ll be getting here. Good thing I built some time into my schedule, though not too much extra, I’ll have to be careful to make sure I get where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there. Took a short ride on Apollo, just for exercise, mostly along the river, down to the Canoe Post and just beyond, just over an hour. The trails here are mostly beautiful, but there’s just not too many of them. It was cloudy and occasionally there would be a tiny spit of rain, but there’s more in the forecast, so I don’t know how much riding I’ll be doing this week, though I need to keep trying to get Flash in shape for the Shore-to-Shore rides in June. Moved my hay out of the truck into the trailer storage, spent most of the rest of the day reading and enjoying my clean trailer. Played Farkle, and for once, I didn’t win either game, which made it more even for the week. The usual, dinner and a movie, soon a shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Wasted most of the morning waiting for the mechanic again, thought they’d be here early, but it was after 11:30 by the time Daniel got here. Turns out the parts I picked up yesterday were the wrong parts (they packed the wrong ones), so we’re back to square one. I seem to remember the last time we tried to do the brakes on this thing we never could get our hands on the whole brake assembly. The guys who did it back in TN just cleaned up the old brakes, I think. So I spent some time in the afternoon trying to track down the brake assemblies, and I think I may have found some in SC, but they’re closed so I can’t be sure until Monday, though I did email them. So once Daniel left, and I sent Justin the link to the website where I found them, that was all that can be done for now. Obviously, I’ll be staying here at Sheila’s until this can be resolved, I’m most definitely not going to try to drive through mountains without fixed brakes! Then I spent some time on the phone with Verizon, the last few days my outgoing text messages have not been going through, turns out they did an update that had a glitch, took awhile to get it fixed but it seems to be working now. Then I decided that Flash had been idle long enough, there’s no way I’m going to get him conditioned unless I ride him, and Lola needed some exercise, so I saddled up and we took a short fast ride, covering 4.8 miles in less than an hour, doing a lot of gaiting and cantering. We even stopped for a couple of minutes at the end of the trail, went down to the river so Lola could have a drink and meet a bunch of other dogs that were down there with a group of young men that were there by boats. Had a good canter on the way home, so he did get a little workout, albeit short. Got back in time to make a quick chicken dinner and join the folks for a game of Farkle. I won the first one again by a good margin, but lost the second, Sheila got very far ahead early and none of us were even close to catching up when she went out. Fun, easy game! Came back and watched a movie, so now, of course, it’s time for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe!
What a perfectly beautiful day! Mid 70’s, gorgeous! Did some computer work in the morning, spend a long time on the phone trying to line up someone to work on my brakes. The guy that was supposed to come, his wife was in a car accident so he’s been totally out of it, so I proceeded to try to find someone else, must have made a dozen calls, finally found a tire place that has road service, is used to working on big vehicles (including semis) and a five star rating that could come tomorrow. So relieved about that! Once I got that settled, I saddled up Flash and we went off and running, literally. After the first mile, he just wanted to move out, so, naturally, I let him! We went west out to Allard, a nice section with some beautiful, though unkempt, trails. A hidden gem that could certainly use some TLC!! A lot of the trails are hard to follow, but it’s not a huge area, so it’s not too hard to find your way around. I actually ended up following one trail all the way up to the Suwannee River, didn’t realize I could even do that! Flash was a dream today, and Lola certainly enjoyed herself, too. It was a great conditioning ride, too, he was cantering and gaiting through the woods for miles, and didn’t seem to mind at all. Gave him a nice rinse off when we got back, then I helped Linda air up her tires, she’s leaving tomorrow after having been here for six months! Of course, Flash promptly rolled, no surprise there, but it will fall off. Since it’s only going down to the mid-50’s tonight, I didn’t put blankets on, hope they’ll be okay, especially Apollo since his summer coat has barely come in. Settled down for the evening, my usual routine of a movie, Sleepytime tea, shower and bed! Fingers crossed my brake problem is resolved tomorrow! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, though I think it was a peacock that woke me up, but it was about 7:00 anyway, so that was fine. Woke up to a chilly morning in the mid 40’s, got my chores done, spent most of the morning finishing off the paperwork and computer business related to my recent job in Odessa, then ran the package down to the post office in town. Got back, and after a little bit, I saddled up Flash and Sheila did the same with her mule Pete, and we had a nice 5-mile plus ride along the river. Flash was ready to go, go, go, so it was a pretty quick ride, and beautiful as always, and we were back in no time. Had dinner, then gathered for another game of Farkle, though it was just the three of us. I came in second for the first game, and then, on my first turn, I managed to miraculously ring up 4550 points! That’s even more than I got in my last roll last night, which I never thought I’d be able to repeat! A typical turn gets you about 350-500 points, so you can see how rare it is. Naturally, with that big of a head start, no one could catch me, so I ended up winning that game. What a night! I left about 9:00, put the blankets on the horses again, settled down to ice cream, Sleepytime tea and a Remington Steele, now I’m heading to shower and bed. A nice day! Hoping the mechanic is coming tomorrow, but we’ll see! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Babe!
Had a big scary storm move in around midnight last night, Lola kept trying to get into the bedroom (she hates storms!) but eventually settled down. I had to put my earplugs in, though, so I could sleep through the rain. Turned into a beautiful morning, though. Really getting back into the swing of things! After chores, saddled up Apollo for a short ride, tried to stay mostly in the shade as it really was hot and humid again today. West out the loop to the west, then cut over to Tree Frog Camp, then cut through some open range until we met back up with the trail again. He was a lot more sluggish today, back to his old ways I guess, but he did all right. When I got back there were a couple of trailers full of day riders, they came and went, then later in the afternoon a whole group of kids showed up to ride, though I got the impression they weren’t really riders, it was just some kind of kid’s outing. Meanwhile, I started packing some things up, put the awning up, which is getting harder and harder. The motor seems to be working but it’s not retracting the way it should, so I’m going to have the RV guy I’m expecting to work on my brakes next week to also have a quick look at that. From the youtube videos I’ve been watching, it seems to be a fairly common problem, hopefully he’ll have a quick fix for it. Everyone cleared out, and not much later another strong storm came through. I just managed to get just about everything put away when the real deluge started, literally the moment I closed the door. Some lightning strikes were a bit close for comfort! I also thought I heard a big popping sound, like maybe a transformer snapping, but not sure about that. It rained so hard I thought there was hail, but there wasn’t. I did end up putting the generator on for about 45 minutes today, since there wasn’t a lot of sun today, but that was enough to really bump up the voltage in the batteries. But I think four and a half days is doing really well on one small solar panel! I only have a few more small things to pack, and I’ll be heading out in the morning. Looking forward to moving on, though I did find a few more possible unofficial trails to explore next time I come here. Watched a fun movie with George Clooney and Julia Roberts set in beautiful Bali (one of those shore stops we were supposed to visit but got canceled on that cruise we ended up not taking!), and a few other things along with some reading. Love getting back to riding more often, feels great! Looking forward to our next stop! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
Loving getting back to my routine! All the usual morning chores, then I saddled up Flash and we took a great 10+ mile conditioning ride. With the Shore to Shore Ride just six weeks away, it was past time to get serious about getting us both in condition for 20+ mile a day, so we walked a mile, ran a mile, walked a mile, ran a mile the whole way. He did great! He wasn’t at all bothered by the smell of pigs, but he did need a little encouragement to go over a long wooden bridge, it’s been so long since we’ve done bridges. He stalled a couple of times going over, but didn’t hesitate at all coming back. No gimpiness at all today, thank goodness, though I did have to put some more glue on the hoof that has a little crack on it. Nothing serious, I just don’t want it to crack any further. I’ve been filing it down to take the pressure off, treating it with alcohol or Vetericyn and hoof shine, and that all seems to be helping. It was a great ride, but once again, it was very hot today. Can’t wait to get further north to cooler weather!! Can’t be this far south this late in the Spring again. Said the same thing last year, and did, in fact, move a couple of weeks sooner, but still not early enough. Got back around noon, let the horses graze again, read, did a little computer work, then settled down for the evening once again. So good to be back to my usual routine, feels like I’m on vacation with this schedule! Life is good! On Day Three without running the generator, had a good day of sun on the solar panel, very happy with these new batteries! Could never have done this with the old Crowns. Trojans are the best, for sure! Worth the price! Been doing a good job of conserving water as well, still have 3/4 of a tank. Really getting back into the swing of things, it feels WONDERFUL!! Just tired of sweating, looking forward to traveling north on Monday. Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hiya Darlin’!
Another good night sleep, another beautiful morning! Today I decided to ride Apollo, it’s been so long since we’ve been on a ride alone together, and it really showed! First, he was walking faster than he’s walked in a long time, at least somewhat faster than the slug pace he’s been doing for so long. He seems to be just as glad to be on new trails (well, not new, but only been here once before), and back on the road as I am! But then he got all skittish when he smelled pigs (lots of pig sign around) and it took me awhile to get him past that area, he was convinced they were all horse-eating pigs! Eventually moved on though, and the rest of the 5.5 miles was great. Not much to look at here, pretty boring riding, but happy to be anywhere else these days! Saw some parachuters dropping from the sky and remembered that the same thing happened last time I was here, there’s a small airport nearby where they come out from. Fun to watch them search for thermals, some of those folks really stayed up a long time! Once we got back I let the horses graze all around the campground, they were happy to be on fresh grass, and the rain we’ve had the last couple of days has helped green it up nicely. Spent the rest of the day doing some computer work, submitting my taxes, reading and watching TV, a movie about a detainee at Guatanamo Bay, the usual evening. Been pretty hot, but a few more rain showers has thankfully cooled it down a bit. Just in time for shower and bed! And by the way, I’m on the second full day of running strictly on solar power, getting enough sun before the afternoon showers to plump up the batteries somewhat. Trying to figure out just how many days these new batteries will go be I have to top them off with the generator. Good test! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe!
That’s the word that was screaming in my head this morning when I woke up! Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!! I feel like I’m finally getting back to my life! I had a great night sleep, woke up naturally and fully refreshed at 7:00, got back to doing my “normal” chores, i.e. feeding the horses, cleaning out their stalls, tying them up outside of the stalls so they’d be ready when the vet arrived, grooming them to get some more of their winter coat off, especially Apollo who’s finally starting to lose his shaggy look, feeding Lola and having breakfast, all part of an ordinary day, with no tension or expectations from anyone, no one to worry about whether I’m doing something wrong, just back to doing MY thing, MY way! It feels wonderful! The vet arrived right on time, and was done in less than half an hour, and charged me about HALF of what the vet in Jupiter charged me for the same services last year, plus she added a tube of Banamine and some bute tablets, just in case. I’ve never had those handy before, but I know a lot of people always carry some around with them, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt. So both horses and Lola are done for another year, and I’ll have the paperwork to be able to leave the state. After she left, I took Flash for a short ride, less than three miles, because I didn’t want to stress him after all those shots, plus he seems a tiny bit gimpy, couldn’t find anything specific, so I brought him back early to rest. Spent the rest of the afternoon reading, occasionally dozing, hoping the rain would come in to relieve the heat (nearly 90 today!), finally did around 4:00, and a couple more short spurts through the evening. Had a nice dinner, watched a couple of Remington Steeles (I just started Season 4), and a good movie about a blind opera singer,now I’m about ready to retire for the evening. Loving life again! Good night, Sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Had a much better day today, after a not very good night sleep. Set the alarm and had the horses, Lola and me fed by 8:00, and shortly after hooked up the small horse trailer and loaded the horses and Sandy onto the truck and headed over to Riverbend. She hadn’t ridden since she took a spill off her own horse (which she has since sold), and it was important to her to get back into the saddle again, and she’s ridden Apollo before and felt he was nice and safe for her. Other than one little spin he did when we came upon a piece of heavy equipment near the trail (and she did a great job of sticking in the saddle, because as old as he is, he can still spin quick!) the rest was gratefully uneventful. She wasn’t sure how far she wanted to go, so when we go to the three-mile point, I told her we could either take essentially the same trail back to the trailer for three miles, or take the OTL and Cypress Creek Trails home, which would be about six more miles. She was feeling pretty good and opted to take the long trail, since she wasn’t sure she when she would get another chance to ride (well, at least until I come to Michigan in May!), and it was a great ride! We stopped a couple of times to rest her foot, which got really badly damaged when she took her spill, but otherwise, she said she felt great! Once we got back home and got the horses rinsed off and set free, we decided to go have lunch. Her husband and my brother had gone to lunch in PBGardens, but we decided to go for Mexican, something she loves and her husband doesn’t. We stopped at one place and was mortified to learn they only had beer and wine, NO MARGARITAS! Well, that was just unacceptable to us, so we headed a bit further up the road to a place I’ve been several times, Rancho Chico in Tequesta, which is really good. Heavy pour on the liquor, HUGE portions on the food (seriously, we walked out with leftovers that will give us at least two more meals!), and just a very nice atmosphere. Tried out a little of my newly-acquired Spanish skills, but not enough to prove anything. Afterward, we decided to check out a couple of kayak launching spots where we’re thinking of going tomorrow that were suggested by my concert friend Lori, so we took a nice drive, with me in the driver seat because Sandy is a real lightweight when it comes to tequila. Then I realized I left my fishing shirt at the restaurant and headed back there and got it. Next was Walmart for just a couple of things, then I drove to Riverbend to get the truck, took a quick stop at Publix to get another thing or two, finally getting home at dusk. Managed to get the saddles put away, the trailer unhooked, and Lola out to the pool for a few swims, since she hasn’t had any exercise in a few days. We stayed at the pool until the mosquitoes got too bad, then said our good nights. What a great day! So nice to be able to share good times with someone! Anyway, I think I have tomorrow planned out now, so now I’m just going to finish my drink, watch a Remington Steele, take a quick shower and head to bed, where I’m sure I’ll have the best night sleep that I’ve had in awhile. Good night, Sweetie! Love you!