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Hey Sweetie,
Slept so late this morning, I couldn’t believe it! Didn’t crawl out of bed until nearly 10:00, surprised the horses didn’t wake me up, considering they’re right outside my window! Anyway, got up and did my chores, had breakfast, then saddled up Apollo and got on the trail about 1:00. Today’s goal was the “inner loop,” and it had a lot more gravel than the outer loop, but still all small stuff so it wasn’t much of a bother. This was a very easy trail, not even rising to moderate, in my opinion. It’s interesting, there are nice hills here, making for a varied terrain, but the trails are cut in such a way that the riding is really easy. The steepest hill has such a gentle series of switchbacks you hardly know you’re climbing. Really perfect of Apollo, we did over 6 miles and he did just fine, though when I put him back in the paddock, he didn’t move for quite a while, I don’t know if he just went to sleep in situ or what, but he was stiff as a board for a bit. I spent the rest of the day mostly reading, grilled myself a nice pork chop on the grill, then settled down to watch a movie on the Dish PVR. The night’s are starting to get a bit cooler, which I’m looking forward to, it’s been kind of hot here, but no where near as we had a few weeks ago. Been keeping my generator use down to about 30 minutes twice a day, so far that seems to be enough. We finally got a little sun today, been cloudy since I got here, but more sun is forecast, so that should help me conserve propane, since the solar panel is out and I’m in a clearing. We’ll see! I’ve had other days in the past when I only had to run the generator for 30 minutes once a day, hopefully that will be the case for the rest of the week. Anyway, I took my shower early, so I’m off to bed now. Love you, babe! Good night!

Hey darlin’!
A decent night sleep, this time I thought I’d try it without earplugs, and I woke up a time or two until the workers came in and started using their heavy equipment to haul more gravel out to the trail repairs. Made a final plan for the rest of the few trails I haven’t done out here yet, and saddled up Apollo after breakfast. He’s such an old slug these days, a four-mile trip took nearly two full hours, the slowpoke! But it wasn’t a bad ride, and Lola got some exercise. We were back just after noon, so after a bit of a rest, I loaded the kayak, which I had inflated this morning while the horses were eating, into the back of the truck and headed down to the boat ramp. They have quite an extensive marina here, with scores of docks full of pontoon boats and sail boats, some of which were very nice, and rather surprising considering how small this lake is! If every sailboat in the marina was out on the water, there would be enough wind to go around! I headed upwind to the dam that makes the lake, thinking I would be able to drift back, but it turned out the wind was more of a crosswind, so I had to paddle both ways, over two miles each way! Four miles of paddling should do my arms wonder, get me in good shape for the rafting trip I’m hoping to take in the Grand Canyon in a few weeks. Didn’t get back to camp until after 6:00, over four hours on the water. I removed the kayak from the truck and loosened all the valves, because I’m not going out again tomorrow, so by morning I can fold it up and put it away, along with everything else, since I’m leaving Thurday and heading out to Shirley Creek Trailhead in the Hoosier National Forest south of Indianapolis. I really worked up an appetite, so after taking care of the horses, I grilled myself a nice Angus burger, made some rice and sweet corn, and even had a shrimp cocktail for starters. Of course I had to top that off with some of that wonderful brown sugar bourbon ice cream, so I’m finally sated for the day! Finished off the ST Voyager series, a nice way to end it, so now I’m going to do movies for a while before I find another series to delve into. A nice day, very summer-vacation-y, but now I’m bushed! Time for my shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Another great night sleep (this is starting to become a habit!), did my usual morning chores plus a few extra jobs that have popped up. Somehow the screen in my bedroom window had started to escape the rubber track bushing so I got my special screen tool and rolled that back in to place. Then I did some overdue housework, dusting and mopping the floor, then I finally settled down to the real business of the day, taking Flash for a ride on some of the few remaining trails I have yet to record via GPS. I was actually waiting until it seemed most of the camper had come back from their morning ride and were packing up because I didn’t want to be on the trails with Lola with so many young people and kids on the trail, should they not be used to dogs. But by 2:00 it seemed most folks were pretty much getting ready to leave, so I saddled up Flash and we headed out, with Lola in her new and improved orange safety vest. I had the same problem, though, one of the trails was closed so I had to find an alternate route, but then I decided to go my planned route backward just because it seemed to work out better that way. Still managed to get lost a few times, the trails are really poorly marked here, especially the intersections, so I kept my Garmin GPS on the whole time to make sure I didn’t miss any turns (for long). It was a beautiful day, a very nice ride, Flash was on good behavior but needed a rinse off when we got back, naturally. I actually gaive them both a bath yesterday, which I forgot to mention, so Flash was nice and clean when I left, not so much when I got back. While he was tied up by the spigot, I decided to go ahead and move my highline between the posts of different campsites, something the manager said I could do once the crowd left. Someone was supposed to be in the spot next to me but never came in, so I could have done it last Friday when I took the fence down, but who knew? Now they’re both on a true highline, and one of the first things Apollo did was roll! Point made! Filled there water buckets, had a nice chat with a woman who had been working on the trails and stopped me from going down one that had huge chunks of a base layer down, but I managed to find a way around, and she later stopped by to apologize for yelling, which of course was no problem, I just had to find an alternate route. The camp was pretty empty when I got back except for a big group (whom I had passed on the trail), and of course, Lola wandered over to say hello to the kids over there, so I had to go retrieve her. With the forecast saying that rain is likely this evening (I’ll believe it when I see it!), and with my neighbors gone, I moved the truck and transfered the eight heavy bales into the stud stall. The first six aren’t bad, but those last two take some real strength and cunning to get them up top, but I managed it. These bales are nice and heavy, especially compared to the last ones, which I swear couldn’t have been more than 25 lbs. She had no right to be asking $5 for them, not very fair. Lesson learned, I won’t accept bales that light again! Meanwhile, the horses are loving this new hay, and they’re loving being on a highline instead of a hitching post. Everything’s put away in advance of the supposed rain, but it looks like it’s all going north of us. The campground is empty now except for one camper all the way on the other side, love it when it’s this quiet! Anyway, I’ve had my shower, my fill of TV and now I’m headed to bed. Love you darlin’! Good night!

Hi Baby,
I had another great night sleep last night, despite the number of trailers that came in yesterday. It’s amazing what room darkening drapes and earplugs can block out! I had a leisurely morning, putting some hooks on Lola’s safety vest to she can’t roll it off, and I still haven’t heard back for Equity about my questions, though the guy claims he sent me a response yesterday, I still haven’t got it, even when I asked him twice. Sigh. Well, everything seems better after a ride, so I saddled up Apollo and headed out on a circuit I had GPSed. Nevertheless, I still got turned around a cut off a corner I had planned on. The trails here aren’t very well marked, and as I mentioned before, there are no markers on the map at all, just dashes for all the bridle trails, so that’s not any help. It wasn’t a bad ride, but there’s still a lot of mud out there, though not so much on the trails I took today. It was a short ride, less than five miles, but it was enough. As soon as I got back to camp, after I rinsed off Apollo and Lola (who loves nothing more than to lay down in every mud puddle she could find), and just about the time I was finished, a DNR guy came along to tell me I had to remove my fence. We had a very civil conversation about the dangers of a hitching post, and he ended up calling his supervisor, who came out and furthered the discussion. They weren’t willing to let me highline on any trees, but there were a few sites that weren’t being used and they said I could put my highline between a couple of posts out there. It was a ways from my campsite and I had just finished filling up three water tubs (there is a site that’s reserved between me and the spigot, so I figured I should stock up this morning, topping off my house tank and filling all three big tubs), so in the end, in order to cause less trouble, I decided just to put my highline up on the posts at my site. Not ideal, but it was a lot easier than moving everything over, then having to carry everything all the time. Anyway, got that done, then settled down to read for awhile. I sent a text to my childhood friend Mary wishing her a happy birthday, and she called and we chatted for awhile. Lots more trailers came in, this place is just about fully booked, what with it being Labor Day weekend. Got the horses fed, and now I’m all set to settle down for the evening. Looking forward to more of that delicious ice cream! So I’ll sign off a bit early, since you know what the rest of my evening will be like! Love you, sweetie! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
I had a fantastic night sleep! In bed by 9:30, asleep shortly after, slept straight through till 7:30, stayed in bed to read until 9:00, felt so rested, yay! I really needed it. Well, after breakfast and some work on the computer, I saddled up Flash and we headed out on the trails. I’m glad I GPSed a trail to follow, because while the trails are actually marked with letters (A, B, C, D), none of those letters are on the map! In fact, there’s no guidance on the map whatsoever as to what trail you’re on, so I just kept following my GPS map as best I could. Unfortunately, the first trail I came to that I wanted to go down was closed off, so all my plans changed anyway. It’s not that big of a park, so there’s no getting lost here, I just kept going until I found trails that were open and went in the same general direction. It quickly became clear why they’re improving the trails with gravel, though, some of the trails are complete mud bogs! The sections that they repaired recently are really well done, Flash had no problem with them at all, though he did have his boots on. I was actually surprised how long they stayed on considering how much deep mud we went through, until he finally lost one climbing a hill in a bog, which I retrieved, then took the other one off. The rest of the trail was mostly dirt and mud, we only ran into the tiniest bit of small gravel after than, and it didn’t seem to bother Flash at all. It was exactly 8 miles, just the right amount for a first day of exploration. We essentially did the entire perimeter of the park, except one section I somehow got off track on, and the only thing really left here are a few internal trails that go between the perimeter trails. Like I said, it’s a small park. It has a nice lake, though, so weather permitting, I’ll inflate my kayak and have a day or two on the lake while I’m here. Meanwhile, we got covered with mud, so I had to do some horse and equipment cleaning when I got back, then settled down for the evening. I’m going to try to get to bed early again tonight, just so I don’t get run down again. There’s rain in the forecast tomorrow, so I might just go get my weekly shopping done while I have the chance. Anyway, I’m headed off for a shower and to bed, and to keep reading an interesting Dean Koontz novel about a very smart dog. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi babe!
All went according to plan today! I had a good night sleep, and after breakfast I saddled up Apollo and headed for Buckskin Canyon. The guys up the hill decided to take the pink trail that I recommended, they were looking for something challenging, and that one certainly has it’s moments! Other than losing a boot a couple of times (there are some thick bogs after all the rain the other day), but only for a few minutes, thank goodness. We finally made it to where the red trail turned off, and I took what looked like a forest road downhill a bit, but that quickly turned into quite a challenging downhill grade, quite scary at a couple of points, but we made it down just fine. Thank a nice but short stretch along the creek before another almost straight climb out. What I didn’t understand was the third arrow on the intersection. The trail I took one way I thought was going to bring me back to that point, but it never did! So I have no idea where that arrow was pointing, but I’m not worried about it. According to the map, when I overlaid the recorded GPS trail, it was a perfect match to the map, so I’m happy. So I’ve ridden and mapped every single trail in Hocking State Forest now. I wanted to get it done, because I knew I would regret leaving it, since I don’t plan on coming back here for many years (if at all), simply because there are too many other places yet to visit! No regrets! It did make for a long day, though. The ride was just about 3 hours, then I had to start putting everything away for my departure tomorrow, and that took the usual few hours, plus I did three loads of laundry, checked all the essentials on the truck and trailer, etc., so it was a busy day! Didn’t do as much housekeeping as I usually do, but then I did some earlier this week, so it’s not looking too bad. I think Lola will be happy to go someplace new, she’s exhausted from all these long rides we’ve been taking. Like me, she seems to be stiff first thing in the morning, but that could just be from all the exercise. We’re both going to need a day or two off to recover! I like this place a lot, but I’m ready to move on to the next few places, none of which I’ll have time to stay two weeks in, so it will be a busy month of moving. I’ve had dinner and fed a big dinner to Lola (I made her another batch of satin balls, with all this exercise she’s been looking thin again), so she’s content now, too. It’ll be an early night for me, need to get a good start in the morning. That’s all for now! Good night, my love!

Hey Darlin’!
I went to bed last night convinced it would be too rainy today to ride today, and by the time I woke up, the whole forecast had changed to almost NO rain, cloudy in the morning and clearing in the afternoon! Evidently the front moved through faster than they expected (are they EVER right these days?), so after chores and breakfast I saddled up Flash and we headed out just before noon. Since there were still a couple of trails way out on the eastern side of the forest I hadn’t done yet, I decided to take the opportunity to do so. We weren’t out 15 minutes before the sun started coming out, and it turned into a glorious day! Of course, some of the trails were quite muddy, as I expected, but we managed to keep his boots on until we hit one very mucky spot way out on the orange trail, and I knew that most of the rest of the trail was just dirt, so I took them off for awhile. We rode all the way into the valley to Twin Falls, and I thought the map showed that the trail kept going, so Flash and I started up a very steep hill before I realized there was no trail there, so we had to come down, very slowly, switch-backing every two steps to keep from sliding down the hill. Then we went back and rode into Chapel Cave, which was pretty cool, both literally and figuratively, then came all the way up the orange trail until we got to Airplane Rock, where I stopped to rest him for a bit. There were two girls and a guy there when I stopped, and we got to talking, and would you believe it? The guy used to be a counselor at Skymont Boy Scout Reservation under old Harvey Raper!! I told him how Harvey was the first person we became friends with when we moved there, and we got to chatting about that for awhile. What a small world! Well, they moved on, and we rested for a bit before heading back. I put his boots on again as we started getting to the gravel parts, and we managed to keep them on almost all the way home, losing one on the very last really deep muddy spot on the last hill home. Before we got that far, though, I met a couple of guys, Dane and Jeff, who were camping up here. Both recently retired and tempted to do what I’m doing, but I don’t think they have the partners for it. Anyway, we chatted for quite a while before I finally started back to camp. The whole ride was over 14 miles, but it was over 5 hours in the saddle with all the stops, but a thoroughly enjoyable day! I rinsed Flash down and put him away, and started getting dinner ready, since I had completely missed lunch! Had a nice fat pork chop on the grill, one of the ones I was given at Tippecanoe by a camp neighbor, it was practically an inch thick! Delicious! Then I filled up with water since I have laundry to do tomorrow, and I was down on the final red light, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t run out tonight while taking my shower. After dinner, I walked up to the guys’ camp, we had been talking about Brown County, and I had a trail map from there so I took it up to them. We got to chatting again, really nice guys from my era, I did my Snowy River for them and they seemed to be duly impressed. We might ride together tomorrow. I usually don’t ride on the day I pack up, but I really would like to take Apollo for one last ride (he was literally pouting with his back to me after we got back to camp and I was letting Flash eat clover!), and I still would like to try to do that one final loop down at Buckskin Canyon, now that I’ve seen the map more closely I think I can make it okay. That would mean I would then have mapped every single trail out here! And it’s supposed to be a gorgeous day tomorrow, with lots of sunshine and cooler temps, down in the 50’s tonight, yay! I figure it only takes me about two hours to break down, I should have plenty of time to do that, and I can still spread it out through the afternoon and evening. I do have to move my hay from the truck into the trailer, but these bales are so light I won’t have a problem, and I’m down to my last bale in the trailer anyway. Well, enough pontificating, time for shower and bed! Good night, my sweet! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
I had a GREAT night sleep last night, woke up refreshed and raring to go! After chores and breakfast, I saddled up Flash and headed down to Buckskin Canyon, one of the few trails left I haven’t done. I put his boots on before leaving this time, since there are a lot less muddy patches on that side of the forest, but still a bit of gravel, and I knew that part of this trail was actually along a road, some of which had gravel. We got through the first part okay, but I missed the turn into the southern unit of the park (I forgot that my neighbor Opal had told me to look for a chain link fence. I got distracted because a nasty little dog was making a fuss the whole length of the yard!), but I had put it into my GPS so it didn’t take me long to find it. There were a bunch of cars blocking the entrance but I managed to get around them, and I met all the drivers hiking up the trail, they were apparently associated with the park somehow. We chatted a few minutes before we went our opposite ways. There is a red loop and a white loop, so I took the white loop as the first part of a figure eight I planned to do. It was obvious no one’s been on the trail for quite a while, lots of undergrowth and not much sign of horse traffic. When I got back to the red trail to do, I ended up at an intersection with arrows in three directions, but the map wasn’t very clear on where they went, especially since it was right on the fold I had made, but it looked like one went down the mountain and stopped and the other one looped around. I tried to take the loop but there were a lot of trees down, and it quickly began to look like it was going to be cross-country through the woods for a ways, and I wasn’t willing to do that, so I abandoned it and turned around and came back a slightly different way. We were about a mile out when we heard a thunderstorm coming our way, so we picked up the pace, coming up that long stretch on the white trail where it’s not too steep, but a long incline, and gaited most of the way up there until we had to dip back into the woods. We managed to get back in time, though, I was able to get him unsaddled and everything put away before the rain hit. I didn’t have time, nor did I feel I needed to bother rinsing him down, since the rain did a fine job of that. It didn’t last long, and soon the sun was back out, but it only made it steamier. It’s been getting hotter the last few days, but there’s rain coming in the next few days, and it will be cooler after that. Once it passed through, I headed out to get some hay from a woman I had messaged earlier, she had some grass hay for $5 a bale. The bales were a lot lighter than I’ve been used to, so they won’t last as long as the ones I have now, but they’ll get me halfway through my next camp, which will be plenty good enough. Fortunately, the rain had passed through there before I got the hay, so everything will stay dry. Headed out to Tractor Supply to pick up a little horse feed, then Walmart for some shopping, then back to camp, where I had dinner, a nice Angus burger on the grill. While I’ve had neighborly interaction with Opal and her friends, I hadn’t really chatted with them at length, so I went over and spent some time with them. They all wanted to see the inside of the trailer so I brought them up for the grand tour, then we went back to her trailer and I asked them if they would be one of my preview audiences for my Snowy River production, and they agreed, so I performed that for them, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. We chatted till well past dark, until the mosquitoes got to be too much, then said good night. They’re riding in the morning, but they all want to buy a book, so I’ll see them again in the morning. Settled down late, of course, but got in one Voyager and a shower, now I’m ready for bed. So good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
What a lovely, long ride today! After a so-so night sleep, I got up, did my chores, had breakfast, then saddled up Flash for our group ride today. I left, with Lola in her newly-refashioned safety vest, about 10:15 for our meetup at 11:00 at Orange and J. Just as I crossed the road on to the orange trail, a rather large and noisy group turned in just behind me, so I picked up my pace to get out ahead of them, all downhill of course, so I ended up reaching J by about 10:45. They ended up being a few minutes late, but I had a nice chat with four fellas who are camping up on top of the hill in the state horse camp. Eventually my group came along and we headed out. Instead of Table Rock, though, we headed out to Indian Head, which I don’t remember ever going to before, then around and down to the Artesian well for lunch, then back out on the challenging pink trail, where one of our group decided to head back to camp before the turn (and who ended up getting lost anyway, then found again by our group when they finished the pink trail), and another girl’s horse got so tired she stumbled a few times and almost went down the hill, and could scarcely carry her even on the flat. My phone died part way through so I didn’t get a GPS of the whole ride, but when I went back and reconstructed it, it looked like about 13 miles, but it seemed a lot longer. And it may have been, with steep climbs and descents, the GPS is very often misleading. Once we completed the pink trail, I peeled off to climb back up to camp, while they headed east, then north, back to 3 Reasons farm. It was close for me, and Flash, after all that exercise, still decided to gait up that long hill most of the way! Lola was so tuckered she practically dropped onto her cushion in the screen room while I unsaddled Flash and gave him a wash and rubbed him down with some liniment. One of the older guys that I met this morning came by and chatted for a bit, then I got everyone put away, changed my clothes, then took the truck out to 3 Reasons for steak dinner with the gang. There was a thunderstorm in the vicinity and I didn’t want to leave Lola alone, you know how she panics when there’s a storm, so I helped her into the truck (she was so tired she couldn’t climb in on her own), and traveled the 10 minutes to the farm. A nice group, a great dinner, and, of course, I sang for my supper by doing Snowy River for them, with only one little bobble, but it was the largest group I’ve done so far, ten people, so I thought it went pretty well. As it started to get dark, I drove back to camp and settled down for the night. No TV, I barely have enough energy to type this blog! And tomorrow is likely going to be even longer for me, since Table Rock is on the other side of the park, plus they want to go down into the state park, with is another few miles south, so it’s going to be another long day for me, but I don’t mind, it was a beautiful and fun day! I just hope Flash is up for it, because this group is all gaited and Apollo would never keep up, plus it would be too long for him. But if Flash is gimpy, I may have no choice! I think he’ll be all right, though, he certainly seemed fine gaiting up the hill at the end of the day! Well, I’ve had my shower, and tonight, I’m going to be early, long day tomorrow! Good night, my love!