Hi Babe,
Well, this is definitely a case of “Glad I came, but won’t be back!” I had a hard night sleep, as I typically do when I eat late and drink hard liquor, woke up around 3:30 and took a long time getting back to sleep, daylight was coming by then. Rose up to say good-bye to my Florida panhandle folks who were planning on driving all the way back today, close to eight hours straight home. Hope they made it okay! Saddled up Flash after breakfast, put his boots on, tried to duct tape the one that fell apart, it got me about as far as the trailhead (100 feet), and I had to take it off. I stayed with one on for awhile, switched it over once just to keep it balance, but eventually took that one off, too, and he was barefoot most of the second half of the ride. I tried to stay on wider trails today, and for a couple of minutes, I even got on a section of the C trail where I started to relax! I hadn’t realized it, but I hadn’t had that feeling all week! But it was short-lived, because that soon turned to deep mud, with occasional side trails that went around it which were only marginally better in some cases. Still, there was more to like about the C trail than to dislike, so it wasn’t bad. I had planned to take 16 out towards Mountain Top, but it was in really bad shape, evidently it hasn’t been looked after in quite some time, and I eventually figured out that it actually goes below the bluff not on top of it, but I didn’t know that till much later. I opted to pick up 17, which was obviously a more traveled trail, and that took me all along the edge of the bluff for awhile. Not too bad, just a lot of knee-knockers, so I was constantly pushing against trees to prevent a disaster (so not relaxing, again!) I misread the map (again) and ended up back at the old saloon (which I had already passed once, then followed the signs to Bald Knob, another destination with a 360 degree panoramic vies and a flagpole on top, where I ran into three other riders who tagged along with me as I headed down the trail to the pipeline. They stopped at the picnic table and I kept going, mostly on the eastern pipeline (which is a bit nicer than the western one) until I arrived back at 3 sisters trail. Then I headed into the woods on trail 1, which was right near camp and actually one of the nicer trails I’ve seen except, of course, it had some knee-knockers, too. We did eight miles, though Flash wasn’t too happy because of the stones and gravel, but Lola really had a good time, as always. I got back around 3:00, put everyone away, and eventually decided to go down to the Rattlesnake Saloon, which is the main attraction here, a restaurant partially inside a cave, with live music and bar food. It requires a taxi ride (a pickup truck with benches in the back) to get there, and I tried to bring Lola along, but the security guy refused her, saying it was a health department violation. That’s interesting, since I’ve never been turned away from a restaurant, a hospital, a senior home or anywhere else for that matter, this is the first time ever. Well, that’s just another item on a long list of reasons not to come back here! I brought her back to the trailer and returned, where the line had gotten three times as long and there looked like there might be a wait. I did managed to get on the next trip, though, but the only table they had was a six-top in the outer section, which was crazy for just me. Worse, the table next to me had five people, all smokers, and the wind was such it was all coming straight at me. I asked the server if she had a fan she could put out to blow it in the other direction, but she didn’t. Fortunately, a four-top farther away from them opened up, and she was kind enough to let me move over there. The burger was decent and the fries small and seasoned, the hard cider okay, I wasn’t really interested in the live music though it sounded about like what you’d expect from a local, rural Alabama band I suppose. Got back before 7:00, got the horses fed and put up on the highline, then went over to visit my other neighbors from Indiana, who I haven’t had much time to spend with, and we had a nice chat. I had a chance to do my Snowy River for them, they seemed to appreciate it. Once mosquito hour hit, it was time to settle down, now it’s time for my shower and bed! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, I’m still in search of a trail worthy of recommending to anyone, sorry to say. Haven’t found one I’d even care to go back to, really. I did my usual morning routine, and since most of the group was driving ninety minutes somewhere to visit an Amish farmers market, I had decided to take Flash on a “short” trip today, but, as usual when the trails are poorly marked, that turned out to over nine miles, and a lot of them are really tough miles! We headed first to a destination called the Wave Rock, which was essentially a bluff, but it was unusually smooth for quite a distance, which is somewhat remarkable. Then, despite my GPS in one hand and the map in the other, I still ended up getting turned around because of poor trail markings and renegade trails that aren’t even on the map! Grrr! I ended up going a silly circle in rough terrain just to get out of it again! Finally I got back on track, at least for awhile, but I was plagued by the same annoyances for the entire ride. The boot that wasn’t in great shape got completely twisted, so I had to take it off, then at one point Flash slipped on one of these flat rocks in the middle of a road and went down. I managed to stay on during his first effort, but he slipped again and I came off on the second, slamming my hip onto the rock, so I’m sure I’ll have a nice bruise there by the time I get home. I passed a marker for the Indian shelter, which was still a mile away, and that was the last marker that I saw for it, even though I went on 4 or 5 different trails to get there. There was one quarter mile section of trail 33 to the lower waterfall that I like, but it didn’t last long and got worse afterwards. Flash’s second boot slipped off, so finally I took that off as well so he was barefoot most of the way. I got tired of narrow, knee-knocking trails so I stayed on more of the wider trails, but of course they had more gravel so it bothered him more. I must have backtracked more than half a dozen times trying to follow my planned route, and even then, I ended up on trails that didn’t match the map very well. So even though I was on the back of my horse, my usually mellow happy place, I was so frustrated and annoyed that it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as I had hoped it would be. At least we were able to go faster and not have to worry about the big group, but still, it wasn’t as much fun as I hoped it would be. Lola came along this time, though, which was mostly the point of going out alone today, and she enjoyed herself for sure, though she got ahead of us a few times and had to come a long way back to catch up with us when we backtracked. Anyway, I finally got back to camp, spent some time working on my weekly reports in advance, was hoping to set up the accounting as necessary but the signal is so bad here it’s almost impossible to get on the internet, whether it’s my Verizon hotspot or the ranch wifi. Didn’t need that added stress here either! Like always, though, I’m glad I came, just don’t expect me to do it again! I learn from every experience, and Flash was really good today, despite the fact I’m sure he was tired and sore from yesterday. Anyway, a long hot shower and bed is in my immediate future! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
After a casual morning, I started saddling up Flash and one of the group, Chris, came up and got Apollo to ride today, using her saddle. It wasn’t long before we were off. It had been suggested that we ask about the local trail guide Tim, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found today, so we decided to go with the trail I had already planned on, about ten miles mostly around the outer perimeter, or so I thought. Just out of camp we were on the Three Sisters trail, where there are some stunning carvings right in the rock wall, quite remarkable. We hadn’t gone too much farther when, according to my map, we were near a waterfall, and when we saw a sign for the waterfall trail we followed it. Oddly, that trail didn’t take us to the waterfall we were near, it cut us way off our route to ANOTHER waterfall that we would had reached had we stayed on our original course in about a mile! Weird! The trails are reasonably well marked, better than some I’ve seen, but there were still numerous intersections with little or no signage, and some were on the ground in pieces, so not very helpful. Glad I had my GPS map tracking us! Well, it was a nice waterfall, though they had dressed it up with a washing line full of laundry, which I guess some would consider cute, but I just thought it was a bit tacky, and took away from the natural beauty of the spot, but that’s just me. Anyway, I managed to get back on track right after that, and we made our way up to the old saloon, which was a nice picnic area. I wish it had been marked on the map that it was a picnic area, as we had stopped shortly before that on the top of a hill in the woods and had our lunch, which was nice, but not very convenient for those who had trouble climbing up on their horses without a table or mounting block to help them. Still, we made it okay. It was decided that we would skip the final far loop in favor of getting back to camp so we didn’t wear ourselves or our horses out too quickly, so we headed back down the gas pipeline in a beeline for camp. Unfortunately, that route, though open and straight, was quite steep, with several ups and downs that were quite challenging. With the gravel, we put the boots on Flash and Apollo, which helped a lot, but one of Flash’s boots was a lot worse for wear by the time we got back. It was a mostly pretty ride today, but slow going, because of the hills, one place in particular had a very steep slippery rock the horses had to literally slide down. And with so many of us, eight of us, we had to keep stopping or slowing down to wait for things, well, suffice to say that 8.5 miles over better than 3.5 hours was the slowest ride I’ve been on in a LONG time. Everybody did well though, and there were some pretty sections, but we’ll definitely avoid the pipeline in future! Too many nicer side trails. We didn’t run into too much mud, fortunately, but I’m worried that boots will be needed to be used on the gravel, and that when we do run into mud we’ll have to be very careful about not losing them. Anyway, we got back, then the rest of them rode down to the Rattlesnake Saloon, which is in a nearby cave, and evidently they were shooting a music video down there, even though the place was technically closed. I didn’t go because I had already taken off Flash’s bridle by the time someone mentioned it, no worries, I’ll check it out tomorrow. Got everything put away, had dinner with the group again, fed the horses, then finally got back to settle down for the evening. I ordered a new pair of boots for Flash, but can’t get them until next week, so I’m having them sent to Loretta’s, and I got the final contracts from the union, so I’m officially working again! Yeah! Now I can get my health insurance back, and make contributions to my pension plan, which I haven’t been able to do for a year and a half, thanks to this crazy covid thing. Anyway, a busy day, so I’m heading to bed shortly, as soon as all the pix load up, which is taking a long time because there is almost no cellphone signal here, and I’m barely in range of the local wifi, so that’s another challenge here. So I’m off to shower and bed once again! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Well, another good night sleep, got the chores done, then saddled up Flash and went off on what turned out to be a decent ride for the most part. I also put boots on him since the dirt and stones, no matter how few they seem to me, have been bothering him, which really shouldn’t surprise me considering they’ve been on nothing but sand for the last six months! I reviewed my notes from last time we were here and recalled that the black trail across the road was the nicer one, so today I headed off in that direction. Of course, the first mile was on the same old trails out of camp, but we finally crossed the road and got onto the nice part of the black trail. It seemed it didn’t follow my GPS exactly (which means their map is wrong!), but I quickly backtracked and managed to follow my entire planned route, which was really nice. The trails are wider, which means no knee-knockers (thank goodness!), it still went along the edge of the lake in a few places, and had a few challenging grades which made it interesting. The footing was better in most places as well, so at least we had one nice ride here for a change. I won’t regret not coming back here, though, I’ve been here enough. We were back by 1:30, and I spent the rest of the day reading and just hanging out, nodding off once or twice in my chair, despite the fact that the campground was rather noisy today. Finally settled in for the evening, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
NOTE TO SELF: Don’t ever come back to Wind Creek again! After another great night sleep and breakfast I saddled up Apollo for a short ride today. Since so many of the trails I’ve tried to take here have been impassable, I decided to not plan anything, just to go wherever I felt like. I know the place well enough now that I figured I couldn’t get lost. Unfortunately, even on the trails that you would think would be the most traveled, there were still dozens of trees down that had to be circumvented, some on hills that made getting around them very problematic. Many trails here are so narrow that you’re constantly having to push yourself away from trees (if you’re quick enough) to keep from knocking your knees. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough and banged up my newly repaired knee pretty good, both yesterday and today. You would think that a state park would have the resources to keep their trails clear, but these are as bad as the most neglected national forest I’ve ever been in. The only alternative are washed out gravel roads, which they also neglect, they could use some grading. Apollo was sluggish and not happy about the stones on the trails or the roads, I probably should have put boots on him, but they didn’t seem that bad to me, but he was really fighting the trail most of the way, making the whole experience unpleasant. We only went about 5.5 miles, but that was more than enough for us! Even Lola seemed bored, kept trying to wander off. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll take one more ride on Flash to the trails across the road, my notes from last time I was here indicate those are a little wider and hopefully a lot more pleasant. We’ll see. Grilled myself a nice piece of chicken, had rice and fruit salad, then settled down for the evening. Good news! I finally managed to persuade Equity into giving me a contract, so I should be back up and running on my health insurance and pension forthwith! Yay! Time for shower and bed, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Had a very good night sleep, without earplugs! I haven’t had to use them since I got here, it’s nice and quiet, and now that I’m in Central Time, it seems it’s more in sync with mother nature and my circadian rhythm. Except a strange thing did happen. After I fed everyone including myself, I decided to wait a bit before heading out on my ride so that it would warm up. It was a very chilly morning, was glad I put my turtle neck on, but when I came back inside and sat in my chair and started reading, I nodded off and woke up almost two hours later! Yet I had had a good night sleep! I guess I must just still be releasing the pent up tension or something. Anyway, it was nearly noon by the time I went out and started saddling Flash, but soon we were off with Lola coming along as well. We started on a section of the yellow trail, which was very nice, as a lot of it follows the shoreline of the lake. Then I had planned on doing the blue trail, which looked like it also followed the shoreline, and there was a long section I hadn’t done before. Well, I didn’t get very far, there were so many trees down it became impassable. I had to double back and find another trail, and I finally found one that looked like it would also meet up with the blue trail later on, which it did, but it was also impassable! Honestly, if they’re not going to maintain their trails they should just close them so you don’t get a mile into them before being forced to turn back! I wandered around cross-country for awhile until I finally found another trail that was better, but it was not a pleasant experience for any of us for awhile! Saw some deer and birds, of course, and the weather warmed up beautifully, but it was spoiled a bit by the frustration of blocked trailes. We finally made it back to camp, and there were quite a number of new trailers that had and were still arriving, so I guess it’s going to be a busy weekend. I decided to fix the electric fence to a bunch of trees in the hope that Apollo couldn’t escape, and let them wander around in it a bit until it was dinnertime, then I put them on the highline, and put their blankets back on, since it’s going to be another chilly night. Thank goodness I have the electric fireplace for nights like this! Grilled myself an Angus burger for dinner, gave Lola some extra food since she went on the ride today, and settled down for the evening. Just saw a beautiful space station flyover, nice and bright and long, and now it’s about time to take my shower and get ready for bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Another cool, lovely morning today, and I did have to close the windows in the bedroom last night, it did get quite chilly in the wee hours! Had a relaxing morning, then finally got around to saddling up Flash for our last ride here today. I’ve slowly been getting all of their feet trimmed, and today was the last two, the rear ones on Flash. I’ve had that horse for what, three years now? And this is probably the first serious trim I’ve done on him, his back feet just don’t seem to grow hardly at all! But they had finally got some length to them, so I trimmed them today before heading out. Of course, I had the best of intentions to try to find some of the trails I missed last time we were out, and maybe I found a few, maybe not. It’s hard to tell sometimes because the maps is just so darn bad, at least as far as being GPS accurate. The trails aren’t that well marked either, so it was a challenge, but we managed nonetheless. Flash was in a gogo mood again after he warmed up, and we got some fabulous cordos and largos in, and a couple of long stretches of canter as well. There are quite a few areas here that have been logged so they are wide open, and they did a lot more trail tilling on this side this week. I don’t remember having that problem on Tuesday, but there sure were a lot of trails torn up today! I guess they’re refurbishing their fire breaks of something. Saw a black cat on the trail, that’s the second cat I’ve seen out here. Seems strange, as they were a long way from any houses, so maybe they’re just feral. Anyway, it was a lovely ride, with a great finish along the river, and a quick stop at the obstacle course, where I was finally able to get Flash up this one obstacle he’s been reluctant about, but managed to do today, yay! Then we had a nice long canter on the final field for home, and ended on a very positive note. Rinsed Flash off and put him back in the stall, which my neighbors Jerry and Bonnie had kindly fixed yesterday. The pipe panel on one side was a rusted piece of junk, an accident waiting to happen, and he put a new panel that he found laying around in yesterday, so it was much better now! Very grateful for that! Chatted with them for a bit (I actually ran into them three times on the trail as well!) before grilling a steak and settling down for the evening. Now I’m off to shower and bed, with another beautiful cool night coming up. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Woke up to a cooler morning than I’ve experienced in quite a while, a gorgeous start to the day! Got the animals and me fed, then headed out to Live Oak to pick up a couple of bales of coastal and the local feed store, MUCH BETTER than that dusty crap I bought in Fellsmere! Just three bales though, since I still have four of the other stuff left, though I’m thinking about using it more for bedding than eating, it’s that bad. Then went to Walmart, took Lola with me, she made lots of people smile, as always. The governor of Florida lifted the facemask restrictions yesterday, and I forgot my mask in the truck and didn’t want to go back for it, and I saw a lot of other people without masks today, so I decided to go in without one. After all, I’ve been vaccinated, right? It’s time for things to start getting back to normal! It was the first time in nearly a year that I’ve been shopping without a mask, and there was a definite feeling of freedom and progress in that. Did all my shopping, topped off the fuel tank in the truck since our next trip on Monday will be almost a tankful, then got back to camp around noon. I eventually saddled up Apollo and planned a route to another section of the Twin Rivers Forest across the road from McCulley Farms, and it wasn’t long before I got lost, because the map is hand drawn (and therefore not even close to my GPS track) and the trails weren’t particularly well marked (well, there were plenty of marks on the trees, they just didn’t seem to correspond very well with what was on my map), and in the end, I just let Apollo figure it out and take us back to camp. It was a pretty boring ride, and the one section that I thought looked like it might be really nice had evidently recently been burned (assuming it was a prescribed burn), so one side of the trail was really ugly after all. A lot of the trail had been recently tilled up as well, so we were walking in deep sand and furrows, so not much fun. In fact, the nicest trail was the one Apollo turned onto, which wasn’t marked but headed in the right direction. I had planned on about a seven mile ride, it ended up being ten, so my legs were tired trying to hang onto that big fat boy! I didn’t take Lola because there’s too much of a crowd in camp now, and it required crossing the road a couple of times, didn’t want the hassle. Got back and put Apollo in the little pasture with Flash for a few hours, grilled a sausage for dinner, then got the boys back into their stall before calling it a night. A beautiful evening, and it’s supposed to get down into the upper 40’s tonight, great sleeping weather! I may even have to close the windows so it won’t get too cold! Nice change! Anyway, ready to shower and bed. Good night, Sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had a good night sleep, though it took awhile for the room to cool down, quite a hot one today with not a lot of breeze in the evening. I was still reading when I suddenly felt a cold, clammy presence on my leg, which I instinctively flicked away, then I turned the light on to see what it was. Didn’t see anything for a minute, then suddenly it landed on me again, and then jumped off and went to the wall, where I saw it was a tree frog! Eeewww! I put a sock on my hand and managed to catch it, got up and threw it outside. Obviously I’m going to have to be more careful about Lola leaving the door open! After I got up and did chores and had breakfast, I decided I had time to run to the feed store for some hay (which was kind of dusty, but I didn’t have much choice), another stop at Tractor Supply for propane and Nutrena, and a quick stop at the gas station to fuel up the truck, and I still made it back before 10:30. Maggie and I had agreed to meet between 10 and 10:30, and she had arrived only a few minutes before me, so it all worked out. I put the hay and propane away, then we got busy saddling the horses. I had trimmed Apollo’s front feet yesterday, and decided to trim Flash’s today, so that took a little bit of time (though not much, he was quite still for me, thank goodness!), and we left shortly after that. There’s a small civil airport nearby, and we had a lot of planes going over us in the Preserve, and then we saw a whole bunch of skydivers appear out of seemingly nowhere! Very colorful chutes! Later we saw the biggest flock of buzzards I’ve ever seen, and though I could smell some carrion, never did see what it was, but it was in a cow pasture, so that’s what we figured it was. We took the long loop in the opposite direction, with a couple of variations, and Maggie did a brilliant job of getting Apollo to resume his nice little jog that I love so much, which is just the right pace to keep up with Flash. He’s been ridden by so many newbies lately that he hasn’t done it in awhile, but she got him right up to snuff. Flash also managed to do a nice little fino, just a half gear up from his walk, which is very smooth, so we made decent time, but it still took more that 2.5 hours to make the trip, and it was quite hot (over 90 again today), so we were both worn out by the time we got back to camp. Maggie went straight over to the trough hose and ran cold water over herself, but she soon recovered. I untacked the horses and ran the hose over them before putting them on their anchors, where the spent the rest of the afternoon. Maggie and I crashed into the loungers and stayed THERE the rest of the afternoon as well! We had more lively discussions today, until she had to leave to have dinner with her roommate Nancy, who has been gone for a couple of weeks and just got back last night. I had dinner on my own (sausage on the grill!), and settled down for the evening. SLIGHTLY cooler tonight, and I’ve been running the fan in my bedroom for a few hours, so hopefully it will be easier to get to sleep tonight. Going to bed early, though, definitely need to make up for my tiredness! Still kind of coming down from all the stress of the past few months, but starting to get back in the swing of things! Shower soon, then bed, so good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart!
Starting to feel like things are getting back to my normal! Slept well with earplugs in, then just after breakfast I took Apollo out for a short loop, just over 5 miles. He was a bit skittish today, lots of smells and a whole new landscape, so I kept my hands near the horn just in case he did something silly. After all, I’m under doctor’s orders not to fall off my horse onto my new knee (if that’s even possible!), so I was being extra careful. We mostly walked, but I did manage to jog for a bit, which I suspect is all good for my knee-strengthening. We got back to camp a bit after noon, another hot one today, so I rinsed him down and put them out on their anchors. Not long afterwards, my friend Maggie arrived, and we chatted away until the vet arrived at around 2:45. When the other vet in Jupiter did all the vaccinations, he wasn’t able to float their teeth because he had recently had back surgery, so I found another vet locally (recommended by Maggie) who was able to come out today to do that for me. She did a great job, using electric tools, and was done in good time for a reasonable price. Afterward, I cooked some burgers on the grill and Maggie and I had a great dinner, chatted some more, made plans for tomorrow, then she and her crazy dog Sedona headed out. By the way, I put a mousetrap out in the back of the trailer last night, and sure enough, there was a mouse trapped in it this morning! Wonderful! Lola’s been hearing them in the middle of the night, sometimes trying to scare them off with a fury of barking (which is hard to sleep through!), so I’m hoping I can stop an infestation and get rid of some more, if there are any. Settled down for the evening, washed my hair using the hose by the water trough in order to save water in the trailer (I do not want to go through the hassle of trying to fill up the tank again, so I’m being VERY stingy), but will take a quick shower before heading to bed, just to get off the sweat of the day. I might have done that at the horse trough hose, too, but two women, three horses and a mini showed up to do a photo shoot around sunset, so I decided not to. Anyway, time to go now, another hot one tonight, stayed in Florida a week or two too long! Oh, by the way, got my lab results back and my cholesterol took a significant plunge since my last test. Don’t know if it’s my change in eating habits or the chaney root tea, but the doctor seems happy with my progress, so hopefully I won’t have to start taking any pills. I’ll just keep doing both and see how it goes! Good night, darlin’! Love you!