Happy 88th Birthday, my darling!
As always, you were in my thoughts today, even more so because it’s your birthday today. A little busy today, first with a 15 mile ride on Flash, once again seeking new and old trails to be marked and/or recovered, though I have to speak with James at the SFWMD to figure out which will be which. It was a hot day again today, maybe not record temps, but pretty close. Flash and I did a lot of gaiting and cantering, especially toward the end, because I had made arrangements to have lunch with brother Glenn and Dena and we were pushing it on time. We managed to get back to camp just before 1:00, so I was only a couple of minutes late for our 1:15 lunch date at a Mexican restaurant in Indiantown. Brother Jeff joined us as well, so it was a good opportunity to spend time with the family, and to toast your birthday. Glenn’s been looking at investment real estate for a week now, finally found something he’s put an offer on, looks like he’ll get it if the inspection goes well. Afterward, I stopped at the Post office for my new grill and went shopping at the IGA and Dollar General. My old grill had some parts that were completely wearing out, and they quit making those Sidekicks and I couldn’t get parts, or they were so ridiculously expensive it didn’t make any sense to fix it. Fortunately, I found another one exactly the same, with a different name, Flame King, and Amazon had one in their warehouse that had apparently been returned so it was considered “used, like new” with supposedly only damaged packaging, for a nice discounted price, so I ordered that earlier this week and it came in today. Once I got back to camp and got my groceries put away, I put it all together and put it up, a perfect fit and it looks great! Well worth the price. I’ve been using the grill a lot, so it’s nice to start fresh with a new one, since the old one had so much wear on it. Settled down for the evening with some more binge TV, another hot night so I’ve been getting to bed pretty late just to let it cool down. I got the big fan out of the back of the trailer and put it in my bedroom, so hopefully that will help to cool it down in there before bedtime. Not liking this heat too much, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon. Time to start thinking about heading north! Except I have so much to do here, I’m not sure when that will be. Anyway, time for a cool shower and bed! Good night, my love, Happy Birthday!

Hey Sweetie!
Lost an hour of sleep due to daylight savings time going into effect last night, so didn’t get up till a bit later, not surprisingly. After chores and breakfast, I saddled up Flash and before long, we were headed out with Mike to pick up markers. Rosie joined us for a bit, then peeled off to meet up with her boyfriend. My neighbor Sonia took Apollo out for a ride as well, which she did yesterday during the Poker ride, I’m happy to see him getting his exercise! It took a little while, but Flash and Mike’s big Tennessee Walker managed to find an equal pace, so it was a pretty enjoyable ride, though I’m getting a bit tired of doing the same trail over and over. I hope to do something a bit different tomorrow! Jamie’s group went around in the opposite direction, so by the time we got to the water stop, we didn’t have many markers to pick up, though there were several strays. Got back to camp around 3:30, then Mike and I drove into Jupiter for ribs at Uncle Mick’s, which I’ve been dying to have for a long time, was glad we finally did it. Lots of leftovers for another meal as well. Then we took a little scenic drive over to the beach and up to the lighthouse, plus a quick stop at Public and the IGA before getting back to camp around 8:00, which was just getting dark now. Got the horses fed, then settled down for the evening. Tired from losing that sleep and a busy day, but I’m heading off to shower and bed now! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe.
Had a little trouble getting to sleep last night, but woke up early before my alarm was set to go off, then it didn’t for some reason, so I was glad I woke up! There’s something strange going on with the cell phone network around here, everybody’s phone seems to not be working properly, including mine. This morning my weather program was telling me the date was July 28 for some weird reason! Nevertheless, I got up early and started the day by going around checking in some of the equestrian campers. I’ve made a list of everyone that’s supposed to be coming in and I’m making sure to match up horses and owners and stalls and paddocks, and making sure everyone makes an extra effort to clean up all the manure, even in all the paddocks that started out dirty, and it seems everyone is cooperating. People seem grateful that things are getting more organized here, thank goodness. After that, then breakfast, Laura and Mike and I rode the Poker Run trail again, and I got more markers from Petra so I got it fixed up more the way I like it now. Flash behaved himself pretty well, though he was determined not to let Laura’s horse get too far in front, which required the occasional flat out gallop, which was fun! Got back by 11:30, and Laura started to pack up to leave today, while Mike decided to extend his permit until Tuesday. Mostly relaxed in the afternoon, other than walking around a few times to update my camper records. Got caught in a downpour, ended up slipping on the mud when I jumped a puddle and fell onto my right knee, which thankfully recovered pretty will after awhile. Guess last year’s surgery really did the trick! Finally settled down for the evening to some soup and a Reese Witherspoon movie, now it’s time for shower and bed. Early morning tomorrow again, though not too early, and a forecast of rain in the afternoon with much needed cooler temps as well. So I’m off! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Had a good night sleep, did my chores, then got on the trail just after 9:00 to mark the Poker Run trail for Saturday’s ride. It was supposed to be really hot and I wanted to get it done early enough to miss the worst of the heat. I went by Mike’s to see if he wanted to come with me, but he was busy shoeing his horse so he couldn’t come. Jiggs and Ted were packing up and getting ready to leave, they weren’t able to get their refrigerator fixed so they’re just using ice and coolers, no fun! It didn’t take me too long, maybe 2:15 hours get the 9.5 miles marked. I only had one back of markers so they were few and far between, but at least the intersections are marked. Several of the organizers are coming in tomorrow to mark the trails again anyway, so I’m sure they’ll add some to make it easier. Flash was raring to go, so we kept up a good pace. Once we got back, I did one more little repair on the trailer. I noticed that the panel on the front part of the trailer had slipped down below the roofline, which it’s done before, though I’ve sealed it a number of times to keep the water out. I managed to get it back into place using a putty knife, though I don’t know how long that will last. Driving through all those cow pastures during the Cracker Ride really jiggled a lot of stuff loose, I’ll probably be tightening stuff for weeks to come! Then I relaxed during the afternoon, Mike and Laura both came by and we mostly chatted until dinnertime. We started getting a lot of horse people in, and Steve gave me a list of the equestrian campers, so I went around and got everyone’s stall numbers so I can hopefully keep track of who’s not cleaning their stalls and take appropriate action. Finally I took an early shower, and Mike and Laura and I all went down to the country club grille for dinner, I had a very nice salmon fillet and we had a very enjoyable evening, though the mosquitoes got a bit thick for a little while there. Got back to camp around 8:30, watched a little TV, now I’m ready for bed, later than I hoped because I have to get up fairly early tomorrow morning to get the rest of the stall numbers from people, and the three of us will probably take a ride in the morning, though probably not on the Poker Run trail, I’ve seen enough of that trail already! Anyway, the day is done! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hey Sweetheart!
Still no Jeff today, naturally he’s finding more things to fix on his Bronco as the day went on. I started the day with a shower, because last night the batteries got so low the water pump wasn’t shutting off so I waited until this morning. Then went and mucked out the dirty stalls in the barns. I couldn’t believe that in the eight-stall barn, every single stall was dirty again! How can people be so thoughtless and inconsiderate! The find a stall clean, then leave it dirty, I just can’t understand some people. Twelve out of 36 stalls were dirty again, and it’s been less than a month! I’m going to speak to James about sending these people a warning next time it happens. Fortunately there were only two dirty stalls in each of the other barns, so it didn’t take that long, but it was a dirty, dusty job. I did a load of laundry so I would have clean sheets tonight, then eventually saddled up Flash and headed out on the start of my task of GPSing all of the trails out here, in the hopes of eventually changing the marking system. There are so many trails on the map that don’t exist, and so many trails on the ground that aren’t on the map! It’s going to be a challenge! It’s getting unseasonably hot and humid, calling for 90’s already this week, which is usually about the time I start heading north, and if I hadn’t said I would do this, I’d probably be making plans for that already. My job in Vegas was postponed, so my reason for staying here for that is gone, so I’ll have to make other arrangements for the critters when that happens. I tried a new bit on Flash today, one of those Argentine copper snaffles with shanks, and he didn’t seem bothered by it. It should be a bit easier on him than the curb bit I’ve always used, and I was glad to see his mouth had healed from all the dragging on the bit I had to do on him during the Cracker Ride. He was THRILLED to be able to do whatever speed he wanted, though I had to hold him back some anyway because Lola was having a hard time keeping up. There’s no water on the trail, everything is so dry, and I think her age might be starting to catch up to her. Her muzzle is starting to get a bit gray, poor gal. But she still leaps around like a puppy when we’re playing fetch! Of course, there was no rain in the forecast, but that didn’t stop it from sprinkling anyway, I had to rush to get my laundry in during a sun shower, yikes! I finally settled down for the evening, finishing off the seventh and final season of the Gilmore Girls, though there’s an additional limited series that takes place ten years later that I’ll likely watch next. Hopefully, Netflix and Prime will have added some new movies that will interest me after that. There’s rain in the forecast overnight, so I took down the extension ladder and put it over the open exterior panel and covered it with the tarp, so hopefully no water will get inside that panel until we can fix it, which I hope will be soon! So time for another quick shower, then bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hello, my love!
Had a good night sleep, did my morning chores, then eventually saddled up Apollo to check out the trail they plan on using for the Poker Run next weekend. Most of it is fine, though it goes on so many trails I’m not sure how anyone would find it if it doesn’t get mark, which I plan to do. There is a section where the mower missed the trail completely, so we need to address whether we want to reclaim the old trail or just follow the mowed trail. I’m going to check that out tomorrow and see if that would be easier. Once I got back from that ride, I decided to run into Okeechobee and get hay. My job in Vegas has been postponed for a few weeks, so since I’m going to be here, I figured I would stock up, so I got 20 bales. I also stopped at Verizon, by phone charger cord has been progressively getting worse and worse, until it finally gave up the ghost this afternoon, so I bought a new one. Back to camp, I then unloaded all twenty bales under the gooseneck and put the skirting up around it, though it’s not a completely tight fit, so I may have to move a few, just wasn’t in the mood by then. Settled down for the evening, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Well, despite plans to have an easy day today, it didn’t quite thappen that way. I did get up early enough to say good-bye to Lynda and Wendy, which was just before 7:00, so of course it was too late to go back to bed, so I started packing up and ended up getting out around 8:00, which meant I arrived at Dupuis just after 9:00, stopping at the dump to clear out my tanks. Fortunately, the same spot was open so I slipped right in there, then the problems started. I couldn’t get my jacks to come down, so I worked on that for a bit, finally discovering it was a loose ground, so I tightened that up and everything was fine. Then when I started to disconnect, I saw that the big rubber bushing in my gooseneck hitch had literally blown out, and it was preventing the lock release handle from getting high enough to open the lock off the hitch, so with campground host Steve’s help, I cut away some excess rubber and finally managed to hammer the handle past the rubber so I could raise the trailer and unhook from the truck, at last. I’ve noticed that the bulging panel that I’ve had on the trailer has gotten worse, so I wanted to take out the panel screws and see if it would work itself back into place so I could screw it down in a way that the panel wouldn’t bulge, a problem that the manufacturer had tried to fix a few years ago, but didn’t quite get it right. Fortunately I was able to loosen all but one manually, and the one I managed to finally chip off with a hammer and screwdriver. I took the ladder with a towel on top and laid it against the panel along with the weight of the screen room on it, hoping it might encourage it to return to it’s former flat position rather than bulging, If I can do that, then I can screw it back in it’s correct position, at least that’s my hope. I got out my solar panel and then had to go up into the attic for my pressure washer that brother Jeff wanted to borrow, but because I had knocked off my ladder on the ride I had to do a little careful repair there to be able to get to the roof, which I finally did. I finally headed ot to Jeff”s to pick up Apollo, but Jeff had a service call so he wasn’t there when I got there. So I went ahead and started pressure washing some boards he had used to surround his hot tub. This hot tub has been sitting around for YEARS, I couldn’t believe he finally got it up and running, though it wasn’t hot enough to use yet, sorry to say, would have felt good on my sore muscles, I’m sure! I did as much as I could, then luxuriated by the pool for awhile, swimming occasionally and thrown the frisbee for Lola, who was just so happy to finally be able to roam around instead of being chained up like she had been all week. She was exhausted by the time we left for home! Jeff finally arrived and we finished pressure washing the rest of the boards, then I finally loaded up Apollo and headed back to Dupuis camp. I had just enough energy to get out the grill and make dinner before I all but collapsed in front of the TV for a couple of hours. Now I’m starting to come down, and I’m feeling so incredibly exhausted, I truly hope I don’t have to do anything tomorrow! Down to my last tank of propane, though, so I’m a bit worried about that, but I think I can hold out until Tuesday, because I’d really like to take at least ONE DAY off and do nothing. It seems like I haven’t had a day off in weeks, or may just one in about six weeks, I don’t know, I’m too tired to think about it. Anyway, I’m off for my shower and bed early, so good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Even though it was a later alarm this morning, I still woke up early, though I didn’t get up for awhile. I started packing up when I saw Lynda and Wendy leaving already at 7:30, which was way earlier than I thought we would have to leave, but I was worried about parking, so I quick finished packing and headed out as close behind them as I could. Wendy saved me a spot but it was on the grass, and we had been worned that the grassy areas were soft so I passed by, also because there were trailers come in after me and I didn’t want to block the entrance backing into that spot. As it turned out, I moved over there afterward anyway, which turned out to be the perfect thing to do. I got Flash ready, and ironed my red, white and blue parade shirt, and eventually was ready to go, even though no time had still been announced, or set, as far as I could tell. Crazy! Eventually the wagons started moving out around 10:00, and I ended up hooking up with Augie again, his mare Apolonia and Flash have a very similar look and make a good-looking team, even though she does the fino footwork better than Flash (probably because I don’t make him, he could certainly do it if I tried), and we stayed together for the entire parade route. Flash behaved remarkably well, he had gotten very used to all the whip-cracking that’s been going on, but then suddenly the mounted shooters starting firing their guns, and he was a little startled by that. It would have been nice if they had done a little of that to desensitize the horses in camp, it came as a complete surprise to me that they were doing that during the parade, but Flash recovered well and soon learned to almost ignore it. After parading around twice, we went back to the parking area, then some of us had planned to go to lunch by the pier, and we got lots of attention there. Wendy had actually tied up her horse and gone up to what looked like a really nice restaurant right on the water to reserve a table, because we thought that’s where we were having lunch, but the men talked Lynda into going to some tiki dive bar that had previously put out water and hitching posts for the horses, so we headed down there. What a mistake that was! The tiki bar they went to hadn’t done anything like that, and didn’t even serve food, just drinks, and since the three of us were hungry, we ended up walking to another tiki bar that did serve food, but because there was some kind of event (not us), the menu had very limited choices. I ordered a hamburger, which I quickly discovered had a long black hair in it, and had to sent it back, so I ended up hurrying through lunch because mine came so much later. We made out way back to the trailers and loaded up, then Flash did something weird and knocked me over and ended up stepping on my calf, so I’m going to have a huge bruise there. I managed to get through the whole week relatively unscathed only to end up with a sore leg after it’s all over! Once we got going, we drove over to Causeway Cove, and spacious campground right on the intracoastal, got set up, then I changed into my bathing suit and the three of us rode down to the boat ramp, along the beach, and out into the deeper water and went swimming. It only took a short time to get Flash into the water, and he actually got deep enough to swim a bit, then we just stood in the water to let the benefits of the salt water kick in. The water was nice and warm and everybody was pretty well behaved, though Flash wasn’t as still as I would have liked. We got back to the trailers, I did some mending, then took a shower, and then was expecting to go to dinner with the other two, but missed them because my phone was in the truck when Wendy texted me, so I ended up doing ramen shrimp for dinner instead. Settled down for the evening, now I’m heading to bed fairly early to read a bit. Kind of tired of “camping” next to busy roads and wearing earplugs like I have been for the past month, looking forward to getting away from all this noise once I get back on the road again! Anyway, that’s all the news that’s fit to print, the point being, CRACKER RIDE DONE and checked off the bucket list! I’m off to bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Well, today was the last full day of riding on the Cracker Trail. It was hot and humid, like it’s been all week, but for the first time I dressed in my normal riding clothes rather than something Western looking, since we didn’t have any particular activities today. Flash behaved brilliantly today, I even managed to get him on a loose rein most of the time. I had nice chats with a lot of people, and it was at least an enjoyable day. All road riding today, again. We were supposed to end the ride with a meeting when they were going to announce the new board members, information about tomorrow’s parade in Ft. Pierce (which was the only thing I was interested in), awards, and then a dance. Unfortunately, once again, there was no set schedule for any of this, and no communication about any of it, and the dinner was beyond delayed. They were still serving at 8:30 and the meeting didn’t even get started until 8:45, and it was all a lot of self-indulgent, self-congratulatory stuff, and I got tired of waiting around to get one simple piece of information (what time the parade started) so I came back to the trailer to write this letter, take a shower and go to bed. The only time I heard was 10:00, don’t know if that’s when we’re supposed to be meeting for the parade or what time the parade starts, so I’m going to assume the latter and be there by 9:00, which means leaving here around 8:30, even more reason I need to get to bed early! So that’s where I’m off to, my love! Good night!

Hi Darlin’,
Off to another early start this morning, but was ready in plenty of time. Then on my way to get on the bus I was confronted by three of the organizers here and told if I did one more thing that upset anyone, they’d throw me off the ride. Seriously? I wasn’t doing anything other people weren’t doing, just that I was doing it more often because I had more work to do with Flash! And if all these other horses are all so well behaved, why would a couple of spins and back-ups and canters bother them so much? So now there’s nothing I can do except put Flash on an extremely tight rein for the duration, which feels like I’m bench-pressing 100 lbs for hours on end. This morning was a particularly long ride, over 16 miles before lunch, though we had one water stop. I managed to keep Flash bottled up, though he was still full of energy (I don’t know how he’s not more tired!), but it was hard work. A lot of the other participants helped me, though, by riding beside me and chatting with me, offering me some moral support, which I really appreciated. I did my best to just stay out of the way of everyone else, just in case, and it seemed to work today. For the short hop from lunch to camp (under four miles), I mostly stayed with Augie and Wayne again, but Flash did a much better job today, even though I had to hold him in. I did my Snowy River for a few of the folks that were really helpful to me at lunch today, it’s rewarding to know I have some people on my side, even if the organizers are so dang uptight. Wendy took a great picture of me in all my western regalia, I may use it as my profile pic for awhile. We reached camp before 4:00, and there was a good sized pond deep enough to go horse swimming, so I stripped down Flash, got on my water sandals, and headed down there. It only took a minute to get Flash in the water, and he did some actual swimming! It was a great way to end the day. Well, almost end it. I decided to take Lola down to the pond, albeit on her leash, and threw her Kong Wubba a few times, before I was informed there was an alligator on that side of the pond. I found it hard to imagine that an alligator would still be around with a couple dozen horses stomping and swimming and people in the water, it’s not like the pond was THAT big, but I had gone over on the other side away from everyone to stay out of their way, which was apparently the last place it was sighted, so I had to get Lola out of the water, so not much fun for her again today. I can’t wait to get back to a normal routine, instead of walking around on eggshells all the time, worried about someone getting upset with something I do all the time. Anyway, the day is over, just one more day, then the parade in Fort Pierce on Saturday, and possibly beach riding after that, with a night at the beach park there. Then back to Dupuis, where I fully intend to CRASH FOR DAYS! I’m glad I’ve been getting good nights of sleep, getting to bed really early, though I’m a tiny bit later tonight and I still have to take my shower and wash my hair, but I’m still getting enough to keep from getting overly tired. But that could be the adrenaline, we’ll see how much of a crash I experience once I stop! Anyway, time for that shower and bed, so good night, babe! Love you!