Hey Sweetie,
After spending the morning doing some research and trying to solve my internet problem, I think I've come up with a solution. When my cell phone signal is on the weak side, I'm having a terrible time doing livestreaming once it reaches the choke point and slows down. I've been considering Starlink, but that's a pretty expensive solution. I finally contacted Verizon and learned they could up my plan for $35 more a month and give me nearly three times the gigs, more than I typically use, without reaching a choke point, so I opted to do that to see if it worked. More on that in a minute. Once I did that and some other research, I saddled up Flash and headed out to Matt's Place, a restaurant about five miles south of here, and reachable by trail. I had trouble keeping his boots on, even though I taped the old one, but it nearly lasted until we got there. I was disappointed in the restaurant. I had looked up their menu online and they had some cool stuff, like a Monte Cristo sandwich, taco salad and club sandwich. When I got there, however, and saw their current menu, it was nothing but pizza, burgers and wings. Not really what I was in the mood for, but oh, well. I ended up getting a Philly cheesesteak, and while the bun was nice, and the homemade chips were wonderful, it was all way too salty. Had a Guinness, which was a high point of the meal. Anyway, it was an okay destination, but I don't think I'll be doing that again. Headed back up the Mohawk trail, and again, the boots didn't last half a mile, so I ended up just taking them off, which was a tough choice. The problem here is that there are a lot of rocks and stones, and a lot of mud, the worst combination. Flash wasn't thrilled about the rocks or the mud, but at least I didn't lost any more boots along the way! Got back to camp around 5:30, did my usual chores and settled down for the evening. I finally cranked up the TV to see if my new service plan had improved my live streaming, and I was immediately able to get my Prime going, something I haven't been able to do since I've been here! Yay! Watched an episode of Night Sky, and was so happy to not have any buffering at all! So hopefully this will make my viewing experience better in the future. Another good thing, we've had so much sunshine so far this week, and I've used so little power (since I haven't been able to watch TV, I suppose!) I've only had to run the generator ONCE so far! Though tomorrow is laundry day, so I'll be running it for an hour or so tomorrow. So, despite the less than stellar ride and meal, it was another good day all around. Finishing my usual evening shortly! Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had a great night sleep though I woke up early, read for awhile before getting up for chores. After breakfast I went over to fill up my truck tank to make sure I had enough for laundry on Sunday, only to find the garage where the hose it was still locked, but fortunately a ranger was there and he opened it for me. Got that job done, then got the horses saddled up. I had offered to let my young neighbor Brandon ride Apollo, so both horses (and Lola!) would get some exercise. It's always nice when both horses can go out together. My planned 3.5 mile route ended up being just over five miles, and there was some good climbing, but everyone did fantastic! I think we're all getting back into shape now that we're on the road again. This is the second time in as many weeks that Apollo has been ridden with Flash, and I think they both enjoy going out together. I was especially delighted that Lola stayed with us, and was even leading most of the way! I think the cooler temps make a big difference with her, she even tried to get us to play fetch with a ball when we got back to camp! She hasn't done that in awhile! And Apollo didn't seem at all worse for the wear, despite the climbing. So happy! Once we got back to camp and got them put away, we sat under the awning and had a lot conversation, mostly about spirituality and religion, comparing notes on our differing beliefs, very entertaining. Finally quit long enough to have dinner, then finished a book just at sunset, so I climbed up the 92 steps of the firetower and saw the remnants of a gorgeous sunset, and stayed to watch the numerous fireworks that dot the landscape around this incredible 360 view. I didn't expect to be back here this year, but it has been nice being back in NY with the cooler temps, though it is supposed to get hot over the weekend, briefly.Anyway, a gorgeous day, a beautiful ride, a fantastic fireworks display, and now, tea, shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
A decent night sleep, though once again I woke up to a generator being turned on right at 7:00. Did chores and breakfast, then saddled up Flash for my intended ride over to the Templar Falls. A Facebook memory came up of you recently standing at the top of those falls, and I thought it might be nice to revisit them, but we never made it. The trail was so overgrown and untended that it became impossible. At one point, we went through a shrub so thick I just put my head down and let him lead the way, but then a thick branch caught me anyway and almost swept me out of the saddle. Thank goodness Flash is just as good at Whoa as he is at Go, and he gave me a chance to untangle myself before moving on. We finally reach a spot where the trail was so washed out that it would have required a very steep crossing down and up again, and I decided it just wasn't worth it. Nothing to prove here, and as much as Iike a challenge, when it gets to the point of just being stupid, I'll pass. We turned around until we found another trail that my past GPS history had indicated we had taken, but didn't get 50 yards before it became impassable. So we went back the way we came until we hit the road, then I rode him north to where there was a trail that looped east, and was part of the more maintained horse trails.That brought us to Tower Hill Road, which we took back to camp. We ended up doing just over seven and a half miles, so not a long ride, but enough to get us out of camp for awhile. Put Flash away, then made some calls about hay, and headed out to a haymaker about 15 miles south. It was their first time using FB marketplace, and they had just posted it the other day, so I was lucky to find it. They managed to get about 90 bales of hay so far this year, which is amazing since it seems almost no one else has been able to do that with all the wet weather. Since I decided to stay another week, I bought 16 bales at just $4 a bale, though the bales were fairly small. I like that, though, it makes them much easier to handle. Got back to camp and Brandon offered to help me unload, so we got that job done in no time. Then we sat around and chatted for a long while, eventually being joined by our other neighbor John, and had a lovely afternoon. Eventually it was time for feeding everyone, and I resumed my normal evening schedule, though no TV tonight, it was too late. Heading to shower and bed shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Woke up pretty early again, got up and started some laundry, then went over to the pavilion to get some more water, since I knew I didn't have enough for all the laundry I had. Met up with Nancy Y again, she decided to not only buy a copy of my horse camping book yesterday, but our public speaking book today! We chatted for awhile again, and I invited her to take a short ride with me, since it's been such a long time since Flash and Apollo have been able to go out together. After breakfast, she came by and we saddled them up. I had previously found a two-mile loop that I thought would be good, not as much grade as in some areas, but when we got to it, they had apparently closed it off to horses (which didn't stop us :-). There were a couple of trees we had to maneuver around, but nothing serious. Apollo was doing so well, even with some climbing, which he trotted up, so we went just a little farther to get him some exercise. Of course, Lola came along, so it was all a very nice little ride! Once we got back, I suggested Nancy try riding Flash around the yard just to get a feel for a Paso, which she had apparently never ridden before, and she gaited him around a bit. He does look mighty fine gaiting around! I took him and cantered him a bit just so she could see what that looked like, too. After seeing the crash yesterday, she was rethinking a Paso, but seriously, it's like any other horse, you just have to put in the time to train them right. We ended up sitting outside under the awning and chatting for quite awhile, and the horses came over and visited with us as well. We're re-bonding now that we're on the road again. Meanwhile, the decision has been made to go to Sugar Hill again for the 4th of July weekend, so that's where we're heading out tomorrow. Haven't quite figured out the rest of the schedule, just making it up as we so along! Once Nancy left, I started to slowly pack up the rest of the stuff throughout the day, which was mercifully very dry, so hopefully I'll be able to get out tomorrow. I've put my tarp over the ground where my tires will go when I hook up tomorrow in an effort to keep the dew off, and I just checked the forecast and they've now advanced their call for rain to much earlier, so I'm going to have to get moving early tomorrow to hopefully avoid any of that! Fingers crossed! Anyway, the sun has set, I'm going to look out for the fireflies, Nancy said they're amazing when they come out of the ground. I'd only noticed them a bit later when they were lighting up the forest like a hundred Christmas trees with twinkling lights, which was incredible enough! I still really hate Daylight Savings time, the dang days stay way too light, way too late! Hard to get to bed early like this! Anyway, good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had a good night sleep after the rain last night cooled it down a bit, woke up refreshed and ready to go! Just as I was saddling up Flash, the infamous Luke, the main ranger here, came by, finally got to put a face to the name. We chatted briefly, then he headed out and I finished saddling Flash and we headed out. Other than being a little more rocky than I like, the trails here are truly gorgeous! I didn't put Flash's boots on at first, and for the most part, it wasn't too bad. Most of the rocks here have been rounded out by the glaciers from the last ice age, so nothing too sharp, and we did the first 12 miles without boots. Once we got to the regular campground loop, though, it got a lot worse (likely from trail "repairs"), so I stopped and put them on him. I got really turned around at one point, because what's on the map and what's out there are two completely different things! I even had an Avenza geo-tagged map, but it was wrong, and I kept going back thinking I must be missing something, but never did manage it. I compared it later to a more recent paper map and could see a few changes, but that map is too big to scan, and, of course, it's not geo-tagged. Anyway, we finally made it back to camp. We were only about a mile out when we heard some thunder and felt a little overspray, but fortunately we got back to camp and untacked before it started any significant rain, which was welcome! Cooled it off a little, but then the sun came out and it was steaming for a bit. When I left this morning, there were several reservation tags on other horse sites, but when I came back, they were all gone, so I guess whatever company I was going to have decided not to take chances on the weather, which is for more rain tomorrow. Fine by me, I'm going shopping and picking up fuel tomorrow. Sorry to say that diesel prices are over $4.00 a gallon here, a lot higher than what I've been paying, but I expected that once I moved northward and into the blue states. The data stream signal still hasn't improved, though I've still got full bars on my phone, crazy. Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Nice and quiet here last night, no one else in camp, and there used to be an observatory here, so nice and dark, the way I like it! Seems like the length of the day just goes on forever! Wide open here, so it gets really hot in the afternoon, thank goodness for my AC! Decided it was way past time to take Apollo out for a ride, so I saddled him up, put on Lola's orange vest, and away we went! We didn't get very far on the main trail before we ran into a blockage and had to turn around. If I had been on Flash, I would have gone around it, but it was steep up and steep down, and I didn't want to risk it on the old guy, he was dragging his feet as it was! We went back and turned down another trail until it, too, started a pretty steep descent, and knowing that what goes up must come down, I decided not to push it. So we headed back toward camp on a wide easement, then Apollo made the choice to turn up a trail to the left, which, of course, was the most direct way back to camp, sneaky guy! He's always had a great sense of direction. Anywayw, the whole ride was less than an hour and less than two miles, but it was still pretty hot out, and Lola was panting, so I figured it was enough for a start. I'd like to build them both up to be able to go a bit farther, but that might be a bridge too far for these old critters. Got back to camp, let them graze in the big field most of the afternoon while I once again tried to solve my lack of data problem. Crazy that I have full bars of cell service and barely any data service! I reported it to Verizon, which, of course, meant being on the phone for nearly an hour going through all their hoops, but I guess it's been reported to the right tech people now, maybe they'll find a simple switch to fix it or something. So I spent the day mostly reading. Then I discovered water dripping out of one of my light fixtures, a sure sign that I have a leak up there somewhere. I climbed up on the roof and put a couple of towels around the base of the AC to stop the flow, and tried to find where the problem was. I didn't see anything obvious, but I'm thinking it might be the one section of sealant I didn't replace, around the refrigerator. It's on my list of repairs, but I have to get more lap sealant to do it, as well as a couple of days of dry weather. Meanwhile, I'll just keep stemming the tide with towels, since I have a way to spin and dry them! Once the sun was almost down and I had put the horses away, I noticed a screw sticking out of the exterior panel, so I got out my square driver and screwed it back in, and decided it was good maintenance to check them all, which I have to do periodically, so I did that today. Not much else going on today, again, too hot to do much outside! Shower and bed soon! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Darlin'!
Woke up in the middle of the night with sounds of hooves in camp, evidently somebody had a loose horse for a bit. I ignored it, since I know my are safe, since whoever was left would have been whinnying up a storm if the other one was missing! Didn't sleep too well after that, but eventually nodded off. Still got up earlier than usual since the temps are supposed to be in the mid-90's today, and I wanted to get on the trail before it got too bad. Said my good-byes to my new friends before heading on the trail, including some nice sweaty hugs (only in a horse camp!).
Although Flash didn't fight me saddling up, he was a slug on the trail once we got going. Can't say I blame him, this last week was probably a shock to his system, so many tough miles of hills and slippery mud. Today's ride was the Blue Trail, which was the shortest and only rated moderate, so I thought it would be a good finish, but I think Flash would have been happy if we had finished yesterday! About halfway through I stopped at a picnic table for about twenty minutes to let him rest, which helped, but he was still sluggish until the last two miles or so, when his excellent sense of time and space clued him in that we were heading back to camp, and he picked up a little speed. Glad to get it done, and he'll get a couple of days off after this. Once we got back to camp, I ponyed Apollo around the yard a bit, just so he could stretch his legs, then I put him on the anchor for the rest of the afternoon. A lot of people left, except my non-horse neighbors and the Mennonite Clan that's been camping in the pavilion all weekend. I got most of my stuff packed, though I left a few things for tomorrow. It's not a long drive, so I'm not too worried about it. I ran the AC for about an hour, it was just ridiculously hot in the trailer, but I managed to get it down to the mid-80's at least, and a bit cooler in the bedroom, but the low tonight is only about 73, so it's not going to be very comfortable no matter what. I'm happy with the decision to go someplace with electric tomorrow! Had a shrimp salad for dinner, watched a bunch of Earth episodes trying to knock off the third season, will be taking a cool shower soon before going to bed, hopefully early. This has been a great place to ride, and if it wasn't for the heat I would stay, but early spring or fall will be a great time to come back. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Woke up to the sound of my non-horse camper's truck next door starting up and leaving around 5:00 this morning. Grrr... Some other folks were up pretty early, too, and someone started a generator well before the 7:00 quiet hours limit. Oh, well! I still laid in bed and read for awhile, but still got up earlier than usual. Did some busy work in the morning, then saddled up Flash to tackle the White trail today. This is the toughest trail out here. Two loops, we did both, which ended up being about 14 miles, lots of ups and downs, without the benefit of that many switchbacks, so a lot were STRAIGHT up and down, and much of it was still wet, so it was doubly tough by being so slippery. Flash came through it all with much aplomb, though, but I could tell he was still feeling it a bit from yesterday's ride. Not many opportunities to go fast, the terrain just wouldn't allow it, but I'm not sure he was ready to go much faster anyway. Still, it was a beautiful ride, once again weaving around the lake, where there was every kind of watercraft you can imagine, except under sail. Very busy, not surprising being such a warm day. Camp was busy, too, though most folks got out earlier than I did, so I was probably about the last back in camp. We were out more than four hours. Gave Flash a bath and put him away, then grabbed my chair and went and sat with Barb and Bill until dinner, which was a potluck they invited me to. Since I didn't have a dish to bring, I provided a little entertainment, doing my rendition of Snowy River, which was well received by this Midwestern and more professional crowd. Made some friends, and may even have finally found a way to get my horse's feet wet in the last of the five Great Lakes, Lake Erie! I've already done the other four, Erie's the only one left. Maybe next year! There are still some places in Ohio I'd like to visit, and I would do it this year if the temps weren't going to be so high from getting such a late start this year. After dinner, we chatted as a group for a bit, then I came back and fed the horses and walked Lola, then chatted with two separate groups for awhile, ending up with Barb and Bill until well after 9:30. Won't be long out of bed tonight! Still have my shower, and can't wait to get into bed. It was tough on my knee today, thank goodness for ibuprofen! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Woke up to an actually chilly morning, had to pull my heavy quilt over me during the night! Warmed up quickly, though, and even though there was a little rain in the forecast, it never materialized. Saddled up Flash and headed out on the Purple trail today, though it was a bit confusing because blue trails signs kept popping up, even though the blue trail was nowhere near us, which concerned me, but my GPS showed me on the right trail, and it all worked out. Flash was once again his brilliant self, climbing and slipping and sliding but always sure-footed. What a good trail horse he's turned out to be! For a horse who used to go in a straight line even when the trail turned, these days, he follows the trail and finds his own footing on a completely loose rein. Good boy! The trails were a bit more challenging, which I expected because it was rated a higher difficulty, but it really wasn't that much different than the moderate trail we did the other day. We didn't make quite as good a time because there weren't as many good areas to canter, but we still did when we could. Just under 12 miles which we did in about 3:15. A beautiful day and a lovely ride! Couldn't have asked for more! Chatted with my neighbors for a bit again, but there were a few more dogs in the mix and one went after Lola, which upset her and made her a bit more aggressive, so I didn't stay long. Had a non-horse camper decide to park next to me, and they sprawled across one of the few level areas, which was big enough to park to horse trailers, but they had a tent and a pavilion and a boat trailer and a truck and they just spread themselves out without any consideration. They asked to take my fire pit, which I wasn't going to use anyway, so I let them. It just bothers me that this horse camp, which is packed in tight, has to give up spaces for campers who can go anywhere else. Grrr! Anyway, I'm trying not to let it bother me. Had a bowl of cereal for dinner (I've lost a few pounds this week and am trying to keep that trend going!) and settled down to a couple of Earth: Final Conflicts. It just had a popup telling me that Season 3 will be leaving Prime in 11 days, and if the same is true with the next two seasons, I'm going to be hard-pressed to watch it all before it's removed. Of course, if it's 95 degrees outside in PA next week, I may just bingewatch and stay in the AC for a couple of days anyway! Had a little ice cream, ready for shower and bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!